It is said that the real halfway point in a marathon is 20 miles; the same can be said of a Fantasy football season. Until the winter Wildcard, and the closure of the January transfer window, it’s all about building team value and gradually moving through the ranks of casual players. But after January the focus changes. The casuals, who pay scant attention to transfers and planning, are dealt with, while the vital winter Wildcard sets your sails for the remainder of the season. From now on it’s all about points and punts, with the focus on team value far less important as the cold nights of January gradually turn to the warm evenings of May and the season’s conclusion.
Beating the herd
With the casuals in the rear-view mirror, the people you now have to beat are those who know what they are doing, the ones who read the forums, look at the articles and generally pick the same team as everyone else. However, they can be beaten, as most of them have a weakness, they follow rather than lead. In order to pull ahead it takes foresight rather than hindsight, and a few moves have to be made that others (the herd) will disapprove of.
Most of them buy last week’s points and will generally not buy a player until after he has come good. In order to rise above them you need to have the ability to pick a player despite others saying he’s no good, and be brave enough to spot and remove a faltering player before the others. So if you see a player you really like the look of, don’t let others put you off.
The forums can be good fun but they act like a giant filtering system which leads everyone to make the same choices, put up a Rate My Team with a few differentials and see what happens – they will recommend you replace all your differentials with the same players they all have.
Never give up
There will likely be people currently sitting outside the top 50,000 who will end up finishing well inside the top 1,000, it does not take much. It’s amazing how quickly ranks can change, for the better or worse.
Plan that wildcard well
Take your overall position into account when planning your Wildcard. For example, if I was currently outside the top 10k I would seriously consider building a team WITHOUT Sergio Aguero. It’s one advantage of a poor rank, you can afford to be different, there is less to lose. The people at the top want you to pick the same team as them, then you can’t catch them up.
If you are currently doing well then the opposite applies, just pick the generic Wildcard and let others take the risks, but be prepared to deviate quickly should the template start to disintegrate.
Top 1k….. Pick generic team and let others take the risk
1-5k ,……..Pick one or two differentials, and look for safe weeks to take a captaincy punt
5-10k………as above with a few more captaincy punts thrown in
10-30k…….Look to leave out one of the highly owned stars that may falter, i.e. Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez or Eden Hazard
30k plus ….Leave out Aguero and structure your team to take advantage of the extra funds; if he falters you will rapidly rise the ranks.
9 years, 3 months agoVery good summary of how to shoot up the rankings wherever you are overall. Like you I'm in the 1K-5K camp and looking to get into the 1K elite. Also like you I'll be following that strategy of sticking to the core top 10K template with one or two punts.
Think I'll do this morning's hot topic on this. Cheers for posting.