Ultimate Fantasy Premier League – Squad Selection

After rolling out our guide to the Ultimate Fantasy Premier League (UFPL) game earlier this month, we delve a little deeper in our follow-up piece. This evening, we cast an eye over some of the subtle scoring differences between UFPL and Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game, assessing a number of players and, to an extent, positions that may force us to reassess some of our initial targets.

Ultimate Fantasy Premier League (UFPL) is a squad game and with 25 players to select within your £160 million budget, every Fantasy manager will be assessing how best to stretch their funds to target the key heavy-hitters.

A core of expensive assets, particularly in attacking areas, is essential to success in UFPL. Targets such as Wayne Rooney and Aaron Ramsey will find their way into the majority of squads and, as a result, it’s the assessment of the budget and mid-price candidates that can be vital to success.

An understanding of the scoring methods in UFPL is crucial to assisting you to find effective targets across the price brackets. In this article, I’ll examine the various statistics that contribute to UFPL scoring and asses their impact on the top players, whilst also listing a series of budget and mid-price targets that were revealed as major benefactors during last season’s Beta test.

UFPL vs Fantasy Premier League

While the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game we know and love presents a clean and straightforward method of scoring players (appearances, goals, assists and clean sheets), UFPL awards players additional points for a myriad of additional actions – all based on data gathered by Opta.

The most effective method of assessing the effect of these variables is to take an example.

Wayne Rooney’s FPL total from last season was 190 points, whereas, in UFPL, he totaled 233 points. On the face of it, a difference of 43 points looks fairly minor but, when you consider that UFPL has no bonus points awarded and that Rooney benefited from 38 bonus points in FPL, the gap between those two totals widens to a chasm.

Rooney gained a total of 81 UFPL points from actions such as Big Chances Created, Key Passes, Crosses and Successful Passes: a significant tally which equates to three points a game. In a nutshell then, if Rooney performs at the same level under Louis van Gaal, you can count three additional points on top of the “traditional” tally for goals and assists.

It’s fair to say that Rooney is a standout UFPL performer. He’s one of those players who can not only deliver goals and assists but also possesses an all-action style that contributes all over the pitch. As our members area stats reveal, Rooney completed more passes than any other forward, ranked second for Key Passes (Chances Created minus Assists) and supplied 189 crossed balls – far more than any rival up front.

These are the type of players that UFPL managers have to target: players who rack up big tallies for similar actions to Rooney – Key Passes, Crosses and Successful Passes. In addition, there are some players who have an all-round game that helps them to pick up points from Clearances, Blocks and Interceptions (CBI).

Below I’ve listed those players who benefited most, in terms of points per game, from the actions discussed above.

Top 10 UFPL players for ‘extras’ per game

• Wayne Rooney 3.0 ppg
• Sergio Aguero 3.0 ppg
• Steven Gerrard 3.0 ppg
• Jesus Navas 2.8 ppg
• Aaron Ramsey 2.6 ppg
• Juan Mata 2.5 ppg
• Adam Johnson 2.5 ppg
• Christian Eriksen 2.5 ppg
• Aleksandar Kolarov 2.5 ppg
• Daniel Sturridge 2.4 ppg

Few of these will be a surprise to many – the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Juan Mata and Steven Gerrard have games that are ideal for UFPL scoring and all three have to be serious considerations for our squads for the coming season.

However, as mentioned earlier, the key to success if UFPL may not be the selection of these heavy-hitters but instead our appreciation of those lesser known targets who can nonetheless contribute regular points through UFPL statistical “extras”.

Here’s my selection of three notable “unfashionable” targets who excelled last season:

Mark Noble, 5.5
Noble’s UFPL tally last year was a whopping 197 points – a staggering return for a deep-lying midfielder in an erratic West Ham side. One of the key factors is that he played almost every minute of the season, making him a reliable bench fallback option in our squads. Noble’s PPG is 5.3, and, of these, 2.3 points are down to UFPL ‘extras’. From this we can see that Noble’s point scoring is not reliant on goals and assists, he’ll likely be good for 4-5 points a game just by being on the pitch and influencing the Hammers’ play from the centre of the park.

Tom Huddlestone 5.5
A popular target in the UFPL Beta – again, Huddlestone is a player who delivered regular starts and was heavily involved in a Hull midfield from a deep-lying role. With strong dead-ball delivery and the propensity to shoot from range, Huddlestone has the ability to deliver goals and assists but also gained 2.3 points per game from statistical “extras” in UFPL. With 183 crossed balls and 55 Key Passes, Huddlestone was at the hub of Hull’s play and provided a steady stream of points for his UFPL owners. Aside from the distraction of European football this term, there’s nothing to suggest that he can’t repeat that output again.

Mile Jedinak 5.5
Another player seldom given a second glance in FPL but one that emerged as a key budget option in Ultimate. The Palace stopper garnered 2.3 points per game from statistical extras so, while his goals and assists tally were modest, he was still able to contribute to our UFPL squads. Jedinak completed 1160 passes as the heartbeat of the Palace midfield, contributed 33 key passes and, crucially, was the top midfielder in the Premier League for CBI.

From this analysis and the sample of players I’ve offered, we can see that, when considering UFPL targets, we do have to re-align our sights somewhat. The pursuit of heavy-hitters remains at the forefront of our thinking but these targets should be players who are heavily involved for their clubs and who can also contribute points earned from the actions we’ve discussed.

Equally, when selecting budget and mid-price targets, we need to forget what we know from our FPL recruitment. UFPL is a game that brings new players into the fold – players that may well be defensively minded but are so involved at the core of their teams, they are able register worthy returns through their sheer level of involvement via passing and defensive actions.

The Fantasy Football Scout UFPL League

For those who are looking to get involved or have already began to tinker with their first drafts, you can join the official Fantasy Football Scout league: the code is 524-87.