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Preparing For Draft Day

The time has come. With kickoff for the first round of Premier League fixtures coming in little more than one week, Fantasy managers scour pr-season lineups, team news, Twitter feeds, and any other scraps of information they can find to prepare for the season to come. If you’re not sold on the draft format please check out my previous article highlighting some of the major differences between Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and this unique and exciting format. For today, I’ll focus on three strategies for ensuring a successful draft day (as a note, I’ll be writing this article using stats from FPL).

Top Three Tips

1. Draft Strikers Early

One of the defining aspects of any Fantasy draft is positional scarcity. While everyone loves a good attacking midfielder, consider this: last season, there were 134 midfielders and 114 defenders who played more than 900 minutes, compared to 51 strikers.  Of those, 52 midfielders scored above the average points per game (2.9), but only 22 strikers accomplished the same feat (3.3 PPG). If you’re in a 10-team league, that means that every player in your league can get five midfielders that score above the average, but only two strikers. When you consider that strikers average more points per game than any other position, it really drives home the point that you want those spots filled with the best possible players. No one wants to be choosing between Victor Anichebe and Marouane Chamakh for their third striker spot!

2. Have a Plan, but Stay Flexible

At the moment, my personal plan is to draft two strikers and one midfielder over the course of the first three rounds and have my third striker by round 6. I also won’t even start looking at defenders until the fourth round. As good as John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic are, I doubt I’ll end up with either of them. Instead, I’ll be looking at Ashley Williams and Craig Dawson later in the draft. But, if you’re telling me that, with Eden Hazard and Graziano Pelle already on my roster, I get the choice of Aaron Ramsey or Mame Diouf in the third round, I’ll take Ramsey every time. I would bank on Ramsey making up the difference conceded by whatever downgrade I receive at the striker spot—and who knows, I could end up with this season’s Harry Kane! That brings up another point: be aware of the balance between seasoned veteran (Kevin Nolan) and potential star (Wilfred Zaha). If you have too many of the former, you create a glass ceiling for your squad, but too many of the latter can leave you stranded if they lose their starting spots.

3. Know the Players and Make a List

Forget every RMT post you’ve seen. That pool of about 30 players that end up in every FPL team won’t help you. If you’re drafting on Dugout FC, each team gets 18 players, which means you need to be prepared to go 180 players deep to get your final pick. You’ll also be looking at the likes of Roberto Firmino and Ander Herrera to be your differentials—the players priced unfavorably in FPL or whose teammates offer a better value. I highly recommend making a list of potential targets at each position, ranked according to both their expected performance and where you think you can get them in the draft. This way, you can cross-reference your lists with your plan (to decide which position you should fill next) to make the best selection possible. I found the Rate My Team feature in the Members Area invaluable for this—simply sort players by position and it effectively ranks them for you!

If you have never drafted before, you’re in for a treat; it’s exciting and stressful in equal measure. The preparation required for this format differs greatly from other fantasy games, so hopefully this will help you begin thinking about ways to use that to your advantage. Finally, if draft day does not go your way, fear not! The season is long, and it only takes a few shrewd free-agent pickups and the odd sneaky trade to turn your season around. Good luck!

Top Ten Players To Consider

1.     Sergio Aguero

2.     Eden Hazard

3.     Wayne Rooney

4.     Diego Costa

5.     Alexis Sanchez

6.     Harry Kane

7.     David Silva

8.     Christian Beneteke

9.     Olivier Giroud (Theo Walcott for Dugout FC, simply by virtue of being classified a forward)

10.   Romelu Lukaku

59 Comments Post a Comment
  1. J0E
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Great advice. We've a mods and contribs draft with Dugout FC and I've never taken part in one before. Will be referring back to this when draft day comes.

    1. GreenWindmill
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Mildly disappointed it won't be a draft in person, I'll have to save my heckling for the chatroom function on the Dugout website. "Lol at Granville picking Poyet instead of Payet", "Hey Mark, Moses is still available ;)" That kind of thing.

      1. J0E
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 14 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        I'm going to have to wing it I think and follow The Cisco Kid's advice.

        1. GreenWindmill
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 12 Years
          8 years, 7 months ago

          I reckon if you end up with 18 regular starters you've had a great draft. I could be utterly wrong of course, but with 180 players drafted there will be a lot of rotation risks involved.

          1. The Cisco Kid
            • 12 Years
            8 years, 7 months ago

            With 180 players, you can take a few risks. I'll be trying to snatch up Rolando Aarons and Odion Ighalo, for instance. Sure, they could flop, but we'll also find other players from the free agents that perform unexpectedly. I'd say that you want 15 players that play and 3 high-upside punts--don't fool around with Gareth Barry and Cheik Tiote. They start almost every game, but their points production is limited.

            1. GreenWindmill
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 12 Years
              8 years, 7 months ago

              Nice insight, thanks 🙂

    2. The Cisco Kid
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Is there a forum in which I could take draft-related questions apart from the glut of FPL posts? I'd love to do a weekly article and answer questions as a part of that once the season kicks off.

      1. Gunners n' Roses
        • 10 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        This. Please. I'm one of those crazy people who's only doing the draft style this time.

        1. The Cisco Kid
          • 12 Years
          8 years, 7 months ago

          Well, in lieu of a better solution, you can always send me a tweet with your questions @lepetitprof96

          1. Gunners n' Roses
            • 10 Years
            8 years, 7 months ago

            If the FFS forum doesn't work out, I'll keep that in mind.

    3. Gunners n' Roses
      • 10 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Any FFS articles that will be coming out on the draft leagues?

  2. GreenWindmill
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Lovely stuff, been fretting over my first ever draft for a while now - I've prepped my list (although it needs fine tuning based on new signings, team news, etc.) but the bits in here about tactics are very interesting. Thanks 🙂

  3. Granville
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    I'm a bit of a drafting veteran now but I still make the same mistakes. It's difficult when the season gets underway as there is very much a rolling ball effect and you could easily find yourself cast adrift early.

  4. pompeyfan
    • 14 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Anyone else not going to be at their draft and relying on the shortlist automatically picking for you?

    1. GreenWindmill
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Did you find out if you can ensure you fill a certain quota in each position?

    2. invertebrate
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Yeah, I won't be able to make the 6pm draft. Absolutely no clue how to structure my shortlist so I end up with a balanced squad of players I actually want. I know for definite it won't look anything like the one I would've drafted live.

  5. RubeRx
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    I've been wondering what the best structure strategy would be for an 18 player draft league?

    As in, how many players should I draft at each position?

    You only need 1 GK, but should you draft two?

    You only 3 DEF but you may want at least 5 to work with right?

    This is what I came up with

    2 GK
    5 DEF
    6 MID
    5 FWD

    Thoughts?

    1. GreenWindmill
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      I think you're ambitious to think you'll get 5 viable forwards - I think 2, 6, 6, 4 is as top heavy as you can hope for. I've never done a draft before though so could be way off!

    2. The Cisco Kid
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      GreenWindmill got it about right, I think. That said, I'm not opposed to picking up a seventh midfielder instead of a defender. The defenders you find through waivers will be of a higher quality, on average, than other positions. Last season, picking up Joleon Lescott, Wes Morgan, and Kasper Schmeichel were probably some of my best moves.

      Also, I'm not convinced you need a second 'keeper, especially if you get one of the top ones. The replacement level is still decent enough, or you could try to snap up the understudy, although that would leave you susceptible to the odd catastrophic injury--like what happened to Fraser Forster last season.

  6. beepingmeeping
    • 12 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    It's all about draftfantasyfootball.co.uk for the draft game.

    Squads of 15 just like FPL. Same formations allowed. Same scoring except for bonus points and captains.

    Best game out there for sure.

    1. matte8000
      • 8 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Have you actually tried dugoutfc.com ?

  7. Ziegler1988
    • 10 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Also, not relevant if you're playing with a bunch of people from here, but my mates don't know about the likes of Cedric, Fuchs, etc. so I'll be saving them for the very end of the draft. I completely ballsed up my draft last season (Studge, Adebayor, Nasri) and still came 2nd due to good free agent pick ups throughout the season. The key is to be flexible and snap players up once they look promising.

  8. Kelton
    • 9 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Good article, thanks! As a veteran of many NFL and MLB snake drafts in the past, and as pointed out in the piece, you definitely want to rank players in terms of tiers. The basic example is picking a Forward ahead of a Mid even if the latter will score more points (for the reasons cited above regarding position scarcity).

    As with any fantasy, knowing the scoring is key. The caveat about FPL stats is not insignificant. I looked at last year FPL vs last year Dugout and found a strong correlation (r squared of 77%), but it looks like some players are way better in Dugout (see: Matic).

    1. Kelton
      • 9 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Inevitably the league will be won by the players people pick up after the draft. From what I read Dugout has no waiver process or time restrictions (i.e. first come first serve!), so be prepared to make transfers during the games 😉

      1. Gunners n' Roses
        • 10 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        Do you think transfers are going to play a big part? I really can't see people parting with many players they've picked.

        1. The Cisco Kid
          • 12 Years
          8 years, 7 months ago

          Trading is an art and will be a huge part of this game. I trade pretty aggressively--working hard to move players in/out of my squad. I know others who are much more reluctant to trade. Generally, you'll see players trade to balance their squad--moving a MID for a FWD. If you end up with Aguero, Mane, Sigurdsson, Eriksen, and Cazorla (which one could, based upon my personal ranks), you might start looking at players that need to strengthen their midfields and can trade you someone like Gomis or Berahino.

          1. Gunners n' Roses
            • 10 Years
            8 years, 7 months ago

            Would you really want to get someone like Gomis or a Berahino for someone like Mane? I think you'll be able to pick a decent budget forward from the discards and keep Mane too.

        2. The Cisco Kid
          • 12 Years
          8 years, 7 months ago

          To add to that, however, I think an aggressive trader like myself will make about half a dozen trades during the season. It shouldn't be something you look to do every week or every other week.

          1. Kelton
            • 9 Years
            8 years, 7 months ago

            I was talking about picking up and dropping undrafted players. This happens all the time in other fantasy leagues, not sure about Dugout/PL.

            Regarding trades between teams, I'm usually reluctant because I'd hate to get ripped off by a rival, and I hate that guy that constantly sends crap trade offers so I just start ignoring 😉

    2. The Cisco Kid
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Your point about scoring is an excellent one. Not only does the Dugout FC scoring system favor DM's like Matic and Coquelin, but it propelled Koscielny to the top of the defender ranks in PPG.

      Another note that I couldn't mention in my article directly is that a number of attacking MIDs have been classified as FWDs: Sanchez, Walcott, Depay, and Sterling, to name a few. Don't let that trip you up!

      1. Kelton
        • 9 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        both good points

  9. Jackpot777
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Ive been doing auctions through fantasyleague.com for years now. It's our auction day tomorrow (there will be many #OOWL tweets tomorrow from midday!!) and it is simply one of the best days of the year. We even have a free year this year because we came up with the auction day photo of the year last year (my friend bought soldado, we all got up and mocked him). I have by list of 160 players all ranked in order, by position and we will see how it goes. Aguero may well go for 45m of our 100m budgets. That kind of thing means you have to balance cost against points totally on the fly (which gets harder after more beers). But I would very much recommend it.

    Good luck to everyone who tries the draft/auction format, it really is so much more fun than FPL (although I manage my FPL work league, so Ill be playing that anyway!) 😀

    1. Kelton
      • 9 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      auction leagues are next level 🙂

    2. Gunners n' Roses
      • 10 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      The amount of effort this will take is astonishing, I am struggling to put together a decent shortlist of around 40-50 players. Will try it next year, maybe!

  10. Gunners n' Roses
    • 10 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Hey, TheCiscoKid, do you mind if I run my shortlist through you? It's not done yet but I hope to get my defenders and goalie targets finalized by today. Can I post that today/tomorrow and the midfielders/forwards later in the week, possibly on Tuesday.

    1. The Cisco Kid
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Sure. Happy to help.

  11. Nopirlonoparty
    • 8 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Need 1 midtfielder. Moses, Willian, og Nasri. Last pick, need fast answer

  12. RubeRx
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Dugout Strategies and Summary Review

    Hello. I had my first draft run on Dugout FC this morning and just wanted to share my experience. First of all, the draft lasted almost 3 hours so make sure you are comfortable, concentrated, well fed and with a stable internet connection. I was on my laptop and I wouldn't risk doing it on a mobile device because I encountered several coding errors along the way.

    You will receive an email with the pecking order minutes before the draft. 9 out of 10 people showed up, so the remaining ghost team didn't get any picks. Funny because he got randomly assigned the first pick overall and didn't create a shortlist. Considering it’s a snake draft, it might have caused a few glitches.

    My league is head to head, so in this particular scenario, there will be a week you are up against the ghost team with no players. In order to get a WIN, you must beat the average for that week according to Dugout.

    Clearly, the site is still a work in progress as even a day prior to the draft I had trouble logging on and it failed to save my shortlist. I recommend you export your shortlist to an excel spreadsheet as well, just in case.

    How many players should you have on your shortlist?

    There is no right answer to this. I wasn't sure so I had many. I ended up with just a bit over 100, but I don't think that many is necessary.

    I had roughly 30 FWD, 30 MID, 30 DEF and about 10 GKs. 

    You can probably get away with 60-70. As the players get selected, they automatically get removed from your shortlist. By the end of the draft, I had roughly 25 left.

    Best way to organize your shortlist?

    Once again, I don't think there is a correct answer. I believe it comes down to personal preference. Personally, my first 30 were strikers, followed by 30 mids, etc. I don't believe this is necessary now because you are able to filter your shortlist by position, just in case you are looking for a certain defender or midfielder for example.

    Update your shortlist at all times!

    I highly recommend that while waiting for your turn, you should move at least 2-3 options up your shortlist just in case someone steals your pick. This happened to me many times. You can search by name, and also select the number next to the player and type in actual place you want them to be in.

    Everything went smoothly until about round 12, when it decided to skip one or two players for no apparent reason. In addition, for some active players, the system decided to just auto-pick their choice based on their shortlist.

    I repeat, it is crucial that you edit/update your short list as you are doing the draft just in case either of these scenarios occur. You don't want to get a random pick you don't want in case of an error.

    At times, the timer just froze at 0, and we had to wait for it load back up again. You may have to refresh a couple times throughout the draft. In the end, only one team really got screwed and ended up with 14/18 players. The remaining 8 teams ended with 18. We are currently deciding how to compensate him with some of our picks. Perhaps a trade here and there. You can always pick free agents once the draft is over, obviously. Free agency is first come, first serve.

    Our league manager already contacted Dugout about the above situations, so hopefully they will be able to get it fixed before you draft.

    Selection Process

    In a perfect 18 round, 10 player draft, most starting players will be gone.

    Consider there are 20 teams x 11 starters, equaling a total of 220 total starting players.

    With 10 players drafting 18 players, you have 180 players on all fantasy teams leaving you with ~40 starting free agents.

    When you select your draft pick, the system prompts you with the following confirmation:

    Are you sure you want to draft the selected player? One player changed his mind, and selected NO. This prompted the system to select the next highest person on their shortlist, which happened to be Jedinak. Another crucial coding error. Make sure you are absolutely sure on the player you are selecting!

    As stated in the above article, most people picked up the premium strikers first, followed by the mids. My first round went Hazard, Kun, Fab, Alexis, Costa, Rooney, Silva, Kane, Theo, Benteke. By the end of Round 2, all of the Arsenal mids were gone.

    There a few players classified as M/F such as Sterling, which can be very flexible when picking a starting squad. Highly recommend you pick him up early. Alexis and Walcott are classified as strikers

    Since most of premium options will be gone by Round 2, I definitely agree that you should focus on your front 7 before anything else.

    I was able to pick up my first defender, Koscielny, in round 6 or 7. I don’t remember exactly because there is no viewable draft history option.

    I didn't worry about a GK until the final rounds, and Butland fell to me so I was more than happy with that. Yes some people will draft in Chelsea defenders such as Ivan, Terry, etc but I wanted to focus on my front 7 as the good mid options thin out very early. There is a wealth of defenders to choose from, even after the draft is over.

    I didn't feel the need to get two GK because if Butland does get hurt, I can always pick up his backup Given/Haugaard from free agency as they will be available. It's also not likely you will get 2 GKs with a perfect rotation because someone else will likely pick up the corresponding partner. After the draft, there were about 5 starting GK free agents, the three from the promoted sides along with Adrian and Krul. Some went with 1 GK and some went with 2 GK. 

    Finally, I wanted to share my team, as I think I did very well to balance it. If you made it this far, I would love to see how my team compares to other serious players like yourself. Consider that my league ended up being 9 players, so my squad may end up being a bit stronger since we had more options to choose from.

    I'm not sure what the right team structure is, as I may have ended up with too many strikers. But like I said, players like Raheem are flexible and can be placed in the midfield or up top. Dare I say essential?

    This is what I ended up with.

    1GK, 6 DEF, 6 MID, 5 FWD.

    Butland
    Bellerin Bertrand Chester Koscielny Kolarov Moreno
    Ayew Mane Milner Sterling Tadic Young
    Alexis Bamford Bojan Gomis Ighalo

    Hope all of this information will help you on your draft day. Asides from the hiccups, I had a blast doing it.

    Good Luck!

    PS: Didn't realize how long this turned out to be, maybe I should have submitted this as an article.

    1. The Cisco Kid
      • 12 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Thanks for the report! There's a lot of great advice in there, and I'll be going over it with a fine-toothed comb before my Dugout FC draft. Also, kudos on a strong, well-balanced team!

    2. Margarido
      • 11 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Tks for the heads up.
      I'm doing it tomorrow. Lets see how it pans out.

    3. A-VB
      • 9 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Big thanks to Rub again..

      My college league draft has just finished mate.
      I've assembled my team in the form of 1GK - 6DEF - 7MID - 4FWD.

      Will like to have some thoughts from you guys ? Here it is,

      Guzan
      Dann - Morgan - Bertrand - Naylor - Jenkinson - Cawson
      Milner - Ayew - Blind - Matic - Tadic - Bolasie
      Lukaku - Giroud - JRod - Rooney

      Thoughts please ?

      1. The Cisco Kid
        • 12 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        I like it. I'd be concerned with Guzan as my only 'keeper. Could you get someone like Schmeichel or Butland or even Myhill/Foster?

        I think you'll want to be aggressive with free agent defenders. Bertrand is the closest to a premium defender you have, so all the others need to be expendable.

        Your midfield might be a little lightweight. If you get the chance, I might try to upgrade for someone like Ozil, Silva, Fabregas, or Ramsey. It's not that any of those guys are bad, but they're more consistent than explosive.

        Nice strikers. They're all likely to be in the top 15 strikers; Rooney, Giroud, and Lukaku will be in the top 10.

        1. A-VB
          • 9 Years
          8 years, 7 months ago

          Thanks a lot for your thoughts Cisco Kid..

          So you are saying that I should have another GK alongside Guzan, right ?

          Good news is, Schmeichel has been released by one of the managers yesterday immedietly after the draft for Falcao. What do you say ?

          1. The Cisco Kid
            • 12 Years
            8 years, 7 months ago

            Grab him. I'd probably keep both, but that's not really necessary, I don't think. Do you have a 7th mid? I only count six.

            1. A-VB
              • 9 Years
              8 years, 7 months ago

              Yea, It's Wanyama.

              I took Charlie Adam yesterday, but swapped him later and Adam is freebie now.

              1. The Cisco Kid
                • 12 Years
                8 years, 7 months ago

                Then that's the guy to cut for another 'keeper.

  13. Gunners n' Roses
    • 10 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    I read it through, and glad to see you collated all of the input you gave me together. Don't have to go hunting for it now. Will keep this in mind, for sure.

    Thanks mate.

  14. WFC_Seb
    • 10 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Silva or Walcott?

    Advice please

    1. Gunners n' Roses
      • 10 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Silva for the season.

      1. WFC_Seb
        • 10 Years
        8 years, 7 months ago

        thanks

  15. richhills
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    RMT please guys:

    Ruddy (Butland)

    Bellerin Clyne Kompany (Caulker, Wisdom)

    Ozil, Sterling, Depay, Walcott (Hoolahan)

    Pelle Rooney (Wilson)

    1. ARC_FC
      • 8 Years
      8 years, 7 months ago

      Defoe + Ramsey/Cazorla or Scheinederlin + Bony

      Advice please! Thanks!

  16. fitzmister
    • 8 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    ming / henne
    darmain - clyne - mert (francis / bennet)
    sinclair - haz - silva - coq - (dyer)
    rooney - benteke - costa

    Thoughts please?

  17. Nishad Basheer
    • 8 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Fabianski//Guzan

    Clyne//Francis//Mertesacker //Azpilicueta

    Özil//Henderson//Hazard// Redmond

    Kane//Rooney

    Sub : Deeney Turner Wanyama

    Guys Pls RMT and suggest changes .. Thanks in advance

  18. Nee Hao Kuang
    • 8 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Cech
    Clyne/Koscielny/Amavi
    Ritchie/Hazard/Walcott/Mané
    Deeney/Kane/Rooney

    Subs: Yoshida/Wanyama/Huth/Elliot

    Pray tell me what should be the starting XI?

  19. jimmyjones02
    • 8 Years
    8 years, 7 months ago

    Hi Cisco Kid,

    Completed my leagues draft and made an error on strikers. Any trade tips to strengthen my attacking options?

    My squad is:
    GK - BUTLAND/HOWARD
    DF - ALDERWEIRELD/CLYNE/WILLIAMS/DANN/MONREAL/VAN AANHOLT
    MF - CAZORLA/ERIKSEN/WIJNALDUM/PAYET/CLASIE/CORK
    FW - BERAHINO/C.WILSON/BAMFORD/FIRMINO(ALSO CAN PKAY MF)