How important is a strong substitutes’ bench early in the FPL season?

Our new FPL Masterclass series unites three of the best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers around: two-time India champion Lateriser, seven-time top 10k finisher Zophar and five-time top 1,000 finisher Tom Freeman.

Between them they have 20 overall ranks in the top 10,000, nine of which were within the top 1k.

They’ll be chipping in with regular Fantasy advice ahead of the start of 2021/22, with opinion on everything from tips for newcomers to captaincy picks.

Our trio of top managers will also be writing for Fantasy Football Scout every week throughout the new season – and only subscribers will be able to read all of their articles in full.

Having previously provided general advice for FPL managers ahead of the upcoming campaign and discussed proven assets v Fantasy gambles, our panel now ponder: how important is having a strong bench early in the season?

ZOPHAR SAID…

The answer to this depends on how many punts you are taking and how many rotation-prone players are in your squad. The likes of Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) and Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) are nailed-on to play every game but if you are going to go with the likes of Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m), Joao Cancelo (£6.0m) etc then you probably need some reliable back-ups.

Rotation isn’t as rife early on in the season as players are still fresh after their summer breaks and fixture congestion due to European competitions hasn’t kicked in yet.

If, like me, you go with more nailed players, then I think a bench with three £4.5m outfielders and a £4.0m goalkeeper is enough. Ideally, I would like two of them to be £4.5m defenders as you actually get some decent point potential there, much more than you would from a £4.5m midfielder.

However, there is always the temptation to go with one £4.0m defender to invest more money in attack and I think this can be done for the first few weeks until you use your first Wildcard. You really need to be confident in the minutes of the players you are picking with this strategy though.

LATERISER SAID…

I’m all for spending your pounds on the pitch and that has always been the case for me. This becomes a lot easier at the start of the season: if you are going in with players who are nailed-on, you don’t really need to worry about having a strong bench.

So the depth of your bench invariably depends on whether you are going in with assets who are susceptible to rotation. If you are opting for Manchester City midfielders or Diogo Jota (£7.5m) then I’d make sure to have to playing outfielders on my bench.

The pool of £4.5m defenders looks really strong this season which is why it shouldn’t be really difficult to have two bench players at that price who are capable of returning something as an auto-substitute. Outside of that, I’ve never spent more than £4.0m on my second goalkeeper (some of the best ‘keeper hauls come against good opposition because of the saves accumulated).

There is no European commitment for teams at the start of the season either and they are very fresh, as well, which is why they’d be less prone to rotation in my opinion. So I’d definitely go with a £4.5m defender and attacker in my squad and then you take a call for your fifth defender based on how secure the rest of your squad is and decide whether you want to spend £4.5m or £4.0m there.

TOM SAID…

At the beginning of the season, not so much. I generally like to keep it cheap as I want my money on the pitch. However, I do like to have a couple of options who can at least bag you some appearance points if needed. So, playing time is key, but anything else feels like a bonus.

As your team value builds, you can then look to beef your bench up ahead of the busy winter schedule when rotation is rife. In the last couple of seasons, I’ve spent around £17.5m of my budget on substitutes in Gameweek 1, which feels about right.

I do think it depends on which type of FPL manager you are, though.

For example, if you like making early transfers at the beginning of the week in an attempt to build team value, getting a good £5.0m option sat first on your bench, like Tomáš Souček (now £6.0m) in 2020/21, is a good idea, just in case your new signing picks up a knock in training before his first outing. A similar strategy could also be useful if you have one or two rotation risks in your starting XI, like Riyad Mahrez or Diogo Jota, or perhaps if COVID-19 is still impacting teams during the season.