Ten Tips for a Successful Draft

Just two weeks separate us from the start of the 2017/18 Premier League season which means now is the prime time to be playing the FPL Draft game and building your teams for the year to come.

I’ve collated ten tips to help you dominate your draft and ensure you’re set up for a great season.

Nailing the draft won’t always ensure you win your league, but it’s a long way back if you whiff on all of your picks.

This list highlights strategies that you’ll want to keep in mind when you take your turn to pick.

Think Long Term

Remember, a draft pick is not just for August. You’re aiming for the ideal situation, where you draft players that stay on your team for the whole season.

Unlike in the standard FPL game, you won’t always be able to transfer in premium players on a hot streak because they will likely have been drafted already. There’s no guarantee you will have the waiver priority to pick up the next Dele Alli when they appear out of nowhere this season.

A player like Willian is a popular pick in the standard game right now because we know his place in the Chelsea team is assured with Eden Hazard out injured. But temper his value in draft formats since Hazard won’t be injured all year and at some point will come back and push Willian to the bench.

You won’t be able to transfer him out for the same calibre of player you could in the standard format since the best players will have been drafted.

Place a Premium on Guaranteed Starters

The best way to ensure you pick players with season-long Fantasy value is to target those who will be nailed-on for the whole year. You should discount players from big teams who are susceptible to rotation in favour of the star men from smaller teams who will be relied on all year to carry their team’s attacking success.

I would fade players like Raheem Sterling, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge and buy into the guaranteed minutes of Anthony Knockaert, Dusan Tadic and Christian Benteke instead.

But Don’t Forget About Upside

At the end of the day, there’s no prize for second place in Fantasy.

You’re drafting to win, which means you need to pick players with the potential to explode points. There’s no harm in choosing a few boom-or-bust players in order to increase your potential upside if those players turn out to be a hit.

Riskier players like Marko Arnautovic, Cesc Fabregas and Heung-Min son are all definitely worth drafting even if they may not start 30 games because they offer tremendous points-per-game potential that could be the difference between 1st and 2nd in your league.

Just don’t fill your whole team with high-risk players, or you could find yourself out of the running by mid-October. As in all things, finding the right balance is key.

Draft Rotating Goalkeepers

This is a strategy that will be familiar to everyone on this site. Lots of people in the standard game will opt to pick two goalkeepers who rotate home and away fixtures every week to ensure that they always have a starting keeper with a home game and therefore a better chance of keeping a clean sheet.

This is usually done with two budget keepers; a popular duo this season is West Brom’s Ben Foster and Lukasz Fabianski of Swansea City. But in the draft game, there is no budget so there’s no reason you can’t draft Petr Cech and Hugo Lloris in the later rounds to guarantee yourself an Arsenal/Spurs rotation pair.

The Fantasy Football Scout Season Ticker is a great tool for assessing pairs of teams that rotate well. As in the standard game, rotating home/away players can also be done with defenders too.

Keep an Eye on the Latest Transfer Rumours

Between now and your draft, Alexis Sanchez could have journeyed north to Man City, been snapped up by Paris Saint-Germain or signed a new six-year deal at Arsenal (anything is possible). He could be one of the most valuable Fantasy players in the league, or he could be worthless.

Be careful drafting players who are linked with a move abroad or to a club in the Premier League where they won’t be guaranteed a starting position. Some players to be wary of include Ross Barkley, Riyad Mahrez and Philippe Coutinho.

On the other hand, if you draft a player who gets a move to a better club and is still nailed-on you could bag a bargain. Some players to watch that could improve their surroundings include Gylfi Sigurdsson, Virgil van Dijk and Andre Gray.

Consider Handcuffing Your Best Players

“Handcuffing” involves drafting two players from the same team in the same position to cover you in the event that the more premium player gets injured or loses his place.

This strategy aims to insure you against the damage done from your first round pick getting injured as you plug in the handcuff who suddenly assumes a much bigger role in the team. Some handcuff pairs you could target include Romelu Lukaku/Marcus Rashford, Alexandre Lacazette/Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata/Michy Batshuayi.

If the first player gets injured, you at least have the back-up who steps up in their place. This tactic is only worthwhile when you have a first-round premium player and a back-up who you can draft in the very last few rounds of the draft.

Even then, there is always the chance that the back-up just sits on your bench all year and never plays. This is by no means a strategy you should feel you must employ in every draft.

Watch the Clock

On your Draft Hub page on the FPL Draft site, you can check your league’s Pick Time Limit. This is the amount of time you have to pick a player on your turn. The time is set to 30, 60, 90 or 120 seconds.

It is vital to stay focused – drafts can take a long time from start to finish, but you don’t have forever to make each individual pick. Don’t get distracted or you could find your pick has flown by. Don’t hang around waiting either – decide your pick well within your time limit.

Nobody wants a draft dragging on longer than it should, especially in larger leagues with more than eight teams where there are a lot more picks to get through.

Plan Ahead

You don’t have a lot of time to decide which player you want when you’re on the clock, so it’s vital to plan ahead while your league mates are picking their players.

If you see that your turn is coming up soon, look to line up a few players on your watchlist that you think will still be available for you to take. Then, when it is your turn you can pick the best player left without being pressured by the ticking clock.

Of course, you could rank all players on your watchlist before the draft. A good starting point is my updated draft player rankings found here.

Use the Chat

Drafts can take a lengthy amount of time, so you may as well use that time to engage with your league mates.

If it’s a public league, or includes people you don’t know, it’s a great opportunity to chat with like-minded enthusiasts and create an engaging environment for the rest of the season. The message boards are also a great way to psyche out your opponents during the live draft.

Push your league mates to draft players higher than you have them ranked or pressure them into acting quick and forgetting a star player so that they fall to you. Just don’t overdo it – you don’t want a reputation as that guy.

Enjoy it!

The draft is one of the highlights of the Fantasy season, so have fun.

It is so satisfying to come out of a draft with a team stacked with players you are excited about, safe in the knowledge that only you will benefit from their points this season.

This wraps up my third and final article of the pre-season covering FPL Draft strategy. I really appreciate the positive feedback from all.

Happy drafting!