For me it's early transfers. I wait as long as I can, but always keep an eye on predicted price rises/falls. If it looks like a player I want or want rid of is either going to rise or fall I'll make the transfer early and take my chances with injuries.

I just don't agree with the wait until Friday/Saturday deadline school of thought, especially early season. I feel making money on your rivals can be too big an advantage to pass up.

In my 13 Seasons of playing I can only recall a couple of times I've been stung (probably more likely forgotten some).

I make early transfers, despite being very hit-averse.

That's about it I think.

I often punt on big hitters before they hit form, Kane Sanchez etc. Never works though

Never make transfers before friday night or saturday morning

TV is least of my concerns

-12 or -16pts hits are piece of cake, dont like to make unnecessary moves though

Not too shabby a strategy this season but I've always put "too much money" in defence.

I'm so greedy with what I want from my defenders - always after that extra return, and I get far too annoyed at late CS wipeouts!

I think at one point last season I fielded

Walker - Alonso - Bellerin - Davies - Bertrand.

Which is *utterly bananas* looking back.

I have a compulsion to go against the template in some way. Probably not the best way to play but so fun when it goes right.

Don’t mind a -12/20 if I think it’ll pay off. Took a -20 season before last and got a gw rank 14. (I try to stay hit free mostly)

I base my 50/50 decisions on instinct rather than stats

Picking Trolls... Hard, hard trolls.

Also panic transfers when there is literally need to to panic or transfer...

Why do I even play this game...

I totally disregard price rises/falls and do my transfers as late a possible.

Stick with players that I like, as if I'm their real manager nursing them.

Double- and triple-ups seem to scare a lot of people, but I don't give them a second thought unless I'm planning to rotate the players (which is pretty difficult if they have the same fixtures!).

I remember the end of the 2016/17 season, I had 5 GRs between 5-99k in a row whilst simultaneously owning 3 high-scoring Liverpool players (incidentally the same year the FPL winner never owned a single Liverpool player).

The triple-up wasn't a worthwhile differential it because it was a triple up, or because it was a differential, but because the players were great options, with many managers happening to avoid one or two of them due to fears that doubles and triples are somehow inherently risky, as well as the feeling of danger that permeates FPL communities from relatively low ownership.

Whether I'm right or wrong, there is often strong opposition to doubles and triples on here, and it's one of unwritten rules that I'm more than happy to break 🙂

Hits I take too many and the early GW transfer has nailed me a few times in this game.

1. Always early transfers
2. My current WC team has 3x BOU, 3x CHE & 3x MAN C
3. MY current WC team has 3 big differentials: Rico (0.0% owned), Sterling (2.6% owned) & Lacazette (3.2% owned)

Punt on captains. Mixed results with this last year when missing big Kane hauls when going for the likes of lingard and Lacazette! Largely kept to boring choices so far but always up for a punt.

For me it’s mostly being too stubborn and digging myself into a hole.
It can be being stubborn about a player and keeping him for too long or refusing to get him in because he “can’t possibly keep it up”.
Being too stubborn about a certain strategy/tactic has also hurt me in the past, examples could be following a decided DGW strategy after it clearly wasn’t the best move or refusing to change team structure from 3-4-3.
I think stubbornness is a flaw many FPL managers have - a great manager should be flexible and adaptable...

Refusing to pick arsenal players cos i'm a spurs fan.

In recent years i have been doing ok at FPL. Not in the thierry henry/ van persie days!

I break the "always start the attacking player" rule often. I'm more interested in starting the player that's likely to get the most points, whether that's a defender, midfielder or striker.

However sometimes I overdo it, like when I benched Vardy away to Spurs - I guess I thought Vertonghen had a better chance of keeping a CS at home to Leicester (who weren't scoring many goals back then) than Vardy had a chance of scoring, but luckily Vertonghen got injured in the warm-up and Vardy's 13 points autosubbed on for me.

I always put a player in my squad based on how "weird" their name sounds to me. Usually is a cheap player for the bench. My last season's favourite was Rajiv Van La Parra! I took him on my team purely on an article i red about the origin of his name! So for example if i have to choose a 4.5m 5th mf or a 4m defender first thing on my criteria is their name

Don't dislike points on the bench. The more the better I say, they'll be on the bench because they've a tough fixture, next week they'll be playing, and it won't cost me a transfer to get them in, unlike everyone else.

I'm a) way too punty and b) way too stubborn.

Punty inc captaining Callum Wilson for his hatty last year, but also captaining Jordan Ayew for his red card.

Stubborn is that if there's a bandwagon and I wasn't ahead of the game on it then I tend not follow the crowd.
Fortunately this year I've had Pereya, Richarlison, Mendy, Mane etc in from the start. I'm already refusing to get distracted by Pedro, Walcott etc!

Got rid of Mkhi as soon as possible on the IB, the mere sight of him in my team was too much to bear 😆 hic!

Early transfers to build Value. (comes in handy in the long run) Nothing worse than being 0.1 short of the perfect looking team on WC...

I am willing to take hits to gain or maintain value (only if I believe I will recoup the -4 that week)

Personal strategy of going against the grain for certain high priced big hitters. *My opinion is if they miss, I will shoot up the ranks, if they hit, the value spread through my team can hopefully match the score.

Ignore TV. Pretty obvious but you look at all the top players, they almost all make transfers exclusively on a Friday. All that extra info. Plus I noticed (from experience of years of rash transfers and SV chasing) that the next week you'd want a completly different player in that spot that you transferred your 6.5 mid that was dropping (e.g Walcott) for an average player (e.g Maddison) just coz one was dropping and one was rising but now you've committed to your player in for the sake of .2 rather than assessing all the info and potentially saving and a full restructure the following week. Or at least plan towards that. A team you want long term. I'm by no means a top player but since I implemented this simple 'rule' my ranks have got better.

I rarely pick a perma-bench midfielder. Rotating mids/forwards to save transfers when one is out.

Prefer top defenders too but that's never a rule I strictly follow.

Not at all averse to early transfers and always play the first WC early doors.

First half of the season trade early to build value. Second half of the season trade late to maximise points.

Don't start a Patreon channel

People are talking about TV like its the difference between having Salah and Walcott when doing WC2.

Usually the player weve gained value on, are players we'd like to continue having, either because they are on form, or because we know that they'll be a pain getting back in, as the difference between selling price and buying price will be steep.

Most managers playing the game won't see a huge difference in the value of the team their fielding, even though their team value might be very different.

The way I see it, the benefit of having a bit extra value built, is that it might give you a couple of 0.1 cushions to sleep on when you dont want to commit to an early transfer for different reasons. Later in the season, those 0.1 cushions can help you get the player you want, even if they rise in price.

Two things

1) Early transfers (especially up till about Jan) - I like to move fast and stick to the obvious and catch rises/avoid falls

2) Hits - I take lots of hits, probably took about 100 points worth last season