Pre-Season Section Now Live

looking forward to the lineups coming out! 🙂

also want to see brazil put in a good shift

The start of pre-season friendlies! Great isn't it?

I had thought of republishing my old beginners guide to Fantasy Football...

http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2008/07/06/fantasy-football-a-beginners-guide/

Handy for anyone having to force new players into their leagues.

*LONG POST ALERT*

I copy & pasted this from someone last year... Although Marks Li k probably covers everything.

Picking a Team and Playing the Game

There are numerous ways to go about choosing a 15 man squad but there are some helpful points to consider when picking your team.  

- Its a squad game, players will get injured, suspended, rested, dropped or even miss out due to birth of their new born child so it’s important to make sure all 15 squad members are starters for their team so they can step in if needed.  The ability to call on a sub can save you spending 4 points on a replacement for the given game week.
- Captaincy is crucial, a good captaincy choice can turn a bad week into an average week and  a good week into a brilliant week.  It’s important to have a reliable starter as your choice to maximise the potential for a good score, a sub appearance and you could well end up with on point for your captains score.   If you decide to choose a more risky captain it’s advisable to have a less risky vice captain.
- Fixtures are a factor when picking, the probability of your player scoring higher points against weaker opposition are much higher.  Look out for teams with a nice set of fixtures, the difficulty of a fixture should be a high consideration in picking a captain. Defenders benefit greater than attackers for having a favourable fixture.  Some weeks teams may have double fixtures due to postponements, this can be extremely advantageous as they will have double the chance to score well.  Also look out for teams who miss out on a game week as it could lead to you being unable to field 11 players or a weakened team.
- Form, obviously at the start of the season no players have form (only from Pre season) so its hard to predict who will be hot or not but as the season goes on it can be beneficial to pick up players on a hot streak as well as selling those stuck in a rut, after all confidence is all important in sport.
- Transfers can make or break your game week, whether you have to replace an injured player, someone under performing or just want the hottest property, the player you choose will have an affect not only on that game week but future moves.  Players prices inflate and deflate, if you have the exact money to make your desired move it could be a good move to make an early transfer to prevent you from being priced out of the move, players who have had a good game week score are likely to rise.  Spending points on players can be beneficial especially if it’s to remove injured players, those who have become out of favour or to give yourself a great captaincy option for that week (just remember spending 4 points is the equivalent to a striker scoring a goal so it is tough to recover those points in that given game week but may be beneficial in the long run).  
- Wildcards, choosing when to wildcard is an important decision that can have a huge effect on your season.  A large amount of injuries could cause you to hit the button or just a string of bad performances with your team in need of a freshen up.  With you having to use one wildcard from gw21-24 your likely to not want to use your other close to these weeks.  Saving your wildcard for a double game week can give your game week score a huge boost as you could pick a whole team consisting g of players playing 2 games each increasing points potential.

Goalkeepers

Goalkeepers from better teams have more potential for clean sheets but are less likely to get as many save points which makes the difference in point scoring between high and low cost keepers being less than with defenders.

- A first choice keeper with cheap back up eg Hart/De Gea + 4m.  Suits those who don’t want to be overly hands on and make changes each week.
- Two rotating keepers, mid to low price eg Krul/Mignolet.  The keeper is then picked for the game week on strength of opposition.  Teams tend to concede less goals at home so it can be advantageous to pick a pair in which one keeper is always playing at home eg Newcastle/Sunderland or Villa/West Brom.

Defenders

Defenders score the least points in the game so 3 defenders at the back should help maximise points potential.  Defenders with attacking potential can be a god send with clean sheets being a lottery.

- 2 expensive and 3 rotating cheap defenders, the expensive defenders starting all games with the best option from the 3 cheap defenders to start the game week.
- 1 expensive with 2 pairs of rotating defenders, the expensive defender plays all games with one defender from each pair rotating depending on difficulty of fixture or playing at home.
- 5 cheap defenders, with point scoring being favoured towards the midfielders and strikers, money can be sacrificed in defence to help bolster your attack.

Midfielders

Midfielders are on average the highest points scorers.  With an extra point for a goal over strikers and point for a clean sheet they have more potential for a bumper score.

- 2 expensive 2 mid price 1 cheap, a set midfield with the cheap midfielder on the bench for most games.  Having this combination makes transfers easy as you cover all price ranges.
- 3 expensive 2 rotating cheap midfielders, just like the method for defence the two low priced midfielders rotate depend on difficulty of fixture.
- 3 expensive 2 mid priced, for those wanting to play 3-5-2.

Strikers 

Strikers are you main source of goals and with bonus points heavily favoured towards goal scorers it could be said to be your most important area of your team.  It may be advisable to choose your forwards first then pick the rest of the team accordingly.

- Whether it’s 2 expensive 1 cheap, 1 expensive 1 mid priced 1 cheap or even 3 heavy hitters the choice comes down largely to budget.

       

I'm going to the Emirates cup so will give some detailed analysis on players like Sanchez and possible cheap targets like Diaby

Cheers! Any developments yet on alternate methods of payement?

It looks great and I'm sure it'll be really useful in the lead up to the season, cheers Mark.

Any idea when FPL will open Mark 😉

Awesome.

Mark, I can't seem to vote for any of the user tables. Is this by design, or a bug?

I'll definitely be updating on Burnley's performance's 🙂

Help please

Oh boy!! 😀

Conclusion: West Ham B are pretty average

The only player I want to know about is Cresswell...

Thiago Silva, Depay. But wait on line up.

If Depay starts then without a doubt he is in my team,

got clasie depay and huntelaar (c) at the moment

Are we?

I am not

Not a clue. I can never second guess which rumours are correct and which are total rubbish.

We are?

Jose will be afte Khedira

Have you seen that fellow Saffer Rud(e)i around lately?

Or Anelka...

Or the lesser spotted Kim-boo 🙂

*Jonathan Williams

That option isn't available for all countries.

Looks like things are getting a bit heated over it.

It doesn't... I tried but it always said please contact customer care for your card and blah blah...

So, at last I had to use my friend's paypal account to get the membership.

You're Tommy Cooper. How do we know you're not messing 😉

I paid this way

Here's the Scout predictions fella...

http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2014/07/11/world-cup-lines-ups/

I think Cesar would be good for this round.

I'd try and squeeze Silva in there, maybe Garay, Oscar and Clasie to Silva, Gustavo and 1m?

upgrade clasie to ferdandino/gustavo for Brazil, they sweep up the recovered balls

What happens if later? 1 week off FFS?

Thanks Chris, I've flagged up to Paul to look into.

Not mcds game...

Muller (c)

B

The 3/4 place game usually is high scoring so maybe Robben or Oscar

C with Luiz

Bowl of porridge and a bowl of yogurt with sultanas here followed by 3 boiled eggs 🙂

haha, mine is dead too. It was all good until Scout Camp!

I'm thinking the same,I'll have a look around line up time

Good fella, you ?

Looking forward to fpl ?

All good here Beardman. 🙂

Very well, back from a long vacation around Europe. A summer free from fantasy football does one good!

Hey there Zach.
The word is that there are new people in town.
Psst..they are impostors.

Everyone is!!! 🙂

Nah,this is the 1st season strangly I'm not counting down the hours till Fpl starts,if it were to open the weekend before the season start all the better

Some people are.

I hate those people.

Krul will start. Just get him and maximize outfield. Captain Robben and Lahm.

reading* not erasing 🙁

Anelka was a midfielder? 😯

He was a hit on the club scene

Fifa World Cup

Scored 2 goals coming off the bench. To be honest not many young players did much.

Works well if you are 1st.

4am*

Reported.

Not been on much so not sure, mine feels template-y though
Cillessen
Boateng howedes blind de Vrij Rojo
Lahm Kroos Oscar Mascherano
Muller Messi Robben Schurlle

Krul, Devrij, Thiago, Gustavo, Huntelaar / Depay, Messi, Mascherano, Demi, Rest from Germany

Enzo Perez is a waste of money... If your players don't play that bad then you'll never play him on the last day!!!