A Simple Guide To Fantasy Football Success

Great article. So often Fantasy managers over complicate matters. In reality keeping it simple, narrowing down the odds and reducing the risk of bad decisions is what is really needed.

Tip 5 is very contentious

Love an early wildcard myself

This is a fantastic read.
Going to try to plan no to use my wildcard early 😉
Cheers

Tip 1: rubbish
Tip 5: gold

Imo.

Nice one. Agree to some extent but I love making decision in front 8, whether that works or not is another story 😀
Re 5th point, played WC early and it was the reason I recovered from that horrible rank and didn't face any issue for double gameweeks, takes 2-3 transfers to set the team. Probably it varies from situation to situation...

Simplicity is key in achieving consistently high ranks.

But complex analysis could give birth to new simple tactics for FPL managers to follow, and push you up to the golden #1 spot.

If you only care about #1, and not getting high ranks every season, I'd say a riskier strategy is more fun and rewarding 🙂

I'm advocating Tip 5 this season, purely because the FA Cup QF will decimate a GW, and subsequently create a bumper DGW. But it's worth pointing out that the late WC only worked last season because it was the smaller clubs that raked in the WC points. If it's the bigger clubs that perform well in the DGW weeks, then the later WC is somewhat negated because most people, WC or not, will have the top players from the bigger clubs for the DGW.

I tend to WC early due to the fact that i never pick the right players at the start of the season.

Nice but may disagree on point 5. An early wild card has enabled me to best 2 finishes, top 1.2k and 3k.

It also means getting on any bandwagons/ in form players/ players who suddenly get starts and you do one of the most important thing- build team value.

By Xmas you can have an extra 4M to spend over some rivals which is invaluable.

Of courese i would love to be able to select the perfect 15 from GW1 but i have never been worried about an eraly WC

I agree that playing wildcards early is a mistake. Played mine in wk3 last year, shipping out Eriksen and Austin in the process. Over the course of the season, this was a pretty stupid decision.

Personally, I like the decision making, even when you get them wrong. the 'fun' of the game comes from diving into the numbers, assessing the permutations and calculating the risk. Following that, the trepidation of waiting to see how your decision played out during the matches is what keeps us entertained.

They say 'beauty is in the struggle' and high comes from the hope that you will win against the odds, and this make the realisation that you'll probably never get there in spite of your best efforts kind of addictive. Believe me, I'm a Northampton fan 😉

I've played my wildcard early in every season. It's worked greatly every time. This is mainly because one of my strengths is planning in advance and being able to maximise DGWers with minimal/no hits, meaning a late season WC isn't as useful to me as it is earlier in the season.

I have consistently held my wildcard until DGWs later in the season; it's worked for me. Perhaps it's because I'm absolutely not averse to hits, especially early in the season - mainly because they almost always pay off.

That would be my tip #6: Hits before March are not your enemy.

So, the only bone of contention is the use of the wildcard. I take that means that we all agree of the first four? Personally I back all 5. This is a good lesson in fpl management.

I know I posted the link earlier, but FPL Discovery have posted their analyses of the last season, including one on wildcard timing. It looks at the deployment timing from last season and previous seasons. well worth a read.

OOP is king? I think you'll find pens are king

Tip 1 also means one less chance to make a correct decision.

Tip 1 - completely disagree. Correct and timely decision making is what separates the wheat from the chaff.
Tip 2 - extend to 5th midfielder as well - must be cheap and always play but be a benchwarmer.
Tip 3 - extend this tip to include jump onto these players asap. Even Kane falls into this category including the small club bit 😉
Tip 4 - agreed. Especially wing backs eg Bertrand, Clyne, Mings etc
Tip 5 - completely disagree. All depends on your start. If you have a bad start and stick to this rule you will fail. You need to jump on new OOP players, template, form and jump off non-starters, off form etc. If you dont do this out of stubbornness then you will struggle on a points and team value basis.

Any ideas on when the game is released?

Many people are disagreeing with Tip 1. & I don't quite understand why?

Rotating keepers can be a difficult proposition & having one non-rotating keeper is certainly a viable strat in this game. (Especially at the beginning when it can save us .5mil to 1mil)

Also, I'd agree that having a core of nailed on players is better than having too much money (& potential points) left on our benches each week.

For example, I don't know anyone who advocates rotating 2 x 6.5mil mids over a playing an 8.5mil & 4.5mil mid, do you?

Overall, I agree with the essence of what Tiggsy is driving at here... K.I.S.S.

We should play our WC's when it's best for *our* team.
Never before & certainly not after.

That said, I firmly believe anyone who makes a concrete plan to use their WC before GW4 has been shortsighted in their original roster construction IMO

Three weeks is just too short a sample to need to re-work our teams entirely.
And, we don't advocate jumping on a three-week bandwagon mid-season so, why we feel it's a great idea at the start is beyond me?

Personally, I'd rather take an early 8pt hit to fix-up my team, as we've seen that a properly deployed DGW WC can be worth triple that hit.

On the whole, we should *Bruce Lee* our approach to WC's & 'be like water'.
Sometimes we need it in GW3 & others we're lucky enough to play it in GW33 but, we should always be flexible in when we choose to utilize it.

Good read. However like many have said, Tip 5 is very subjective to your team. I'm always in the play-your-WC-late camp, though.

I agree with the notion that WC should be played when it's the best for our respective team. However, determining the best timing is crucial. Do you simply use the WC when you had a horrendous GW1? I believe many practiced this before. Or can you actually use a FT or two to rectify the team ? People tend to forget how valuable the WC is and taking a hit or two, as long as you can justify it long term, would not really hurt your team.

For the record, I had a disastrous GW1 last season (OR 1.6 million - Young & Caulker 😆 ), but managed to crawl back to OR 160k in GW2 after taking only a hit. I managed to keep my WC until DGW34, and after thorough thinking and assessment, I am pleased to score triple digit scores with both WCs.

Like I said, WCs are too valuable to just waste without deep thoughts. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" they said, so you fix it when you think it's damn broken - but sometimes you don't need to use your most precious tool to fix it 😉

Tip 5 is not really correct. I find people suffer from the same fallacy as points hits are bad - it really depends basically. If you are doing well then saving a WC will work out well. However, if you are not doing well then saving it is largely pointless as you will already be too far behind come dgw time - if your entire team is wrong then you will not catch up by changing 1 or 2 at a time.

The aim of fantasy football is to score the most points, obviously. Ergo having the team that scores the most points is basically the goal. If you can do this by minimising your losses (ie points hits) then you will do well. However, its still better to have the best possible team than not, even if it requires surgery.

How about avoiding 4 points hits (unless they are absolutely necessary)