Do you feel like you are falling slightly behind on the FanTeam season-long game? Or are you in a decent position but want to try to climb to the really high ranks?

In the following article, I am to give some pointers on how to make up ground, if you perhaps haven’t had the start you would have liked. 

The most important thing above all that I must stress is this: we are only 10 weeks into the season. In other words, there are still 28 Gameweeks left to score points and nothing too drastic needs to be done to anyone’s team! Even if you have a team full of highly-owned players, that combination of 11 players that you have will be owned by very few other managers.

With all this being said, there are some subtle things I want to highlight that you could do in order to move up the FanTeam ranks.

MANAGERIAL CHANGES

A key thing from this week is looking at one particular team who just changed manager: Spurs. They have just hired Antonio Conte, a really successful head coach who has won the Premier League in his time at Chelsea. He is likely to favour a 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation at Tottenham Hotspur, which immediately brings three players to the fore to me: Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Sergio Reguilon. With a favourable fixture run ahead, and these players with nowhere near as much ownership as they should have, getting on them early could be a good way to get a few weeks ahead of the field.

90-MINUTE MIDFIELDERS

It’s not just Spurs that have powerful assets for the upcoming run. There are a bunch of midfielders who regularly get 90 minutes who could be great in the coming period (midfielders and forwards get an extra point for lasting the entirety of a game), particularly over Christmas when having nailed options is more beneficial than ever.

Youri Tielemans has looked great so far this year, adding attacking returns to his extremely high minutes, while Leandro Trossard tends to get 90 and has been playing extremely advanced in recent weeks.

I cannot complete this section without mentioning my favourite player: James Ward-Prowse. He is somewhat fixture-proof as his main route to points are set pieces and penalties, but he also always gets 90 minutes. All of these players have low ownership, and also don’t cost much. It’s a great combination for taking a calculated risk in a way that also will not completely ruin your campaign.

While I’m on the subject of midfielders, another player who has favourable fixtures – if not yet the guarantee of 90 minutes – and has been playing ‘out of position’ is Maxwel Cornet from Burnley. He has also scored three goals in his last two games, and four in just 277 minutes of game-time since his move to the UK.

DOUBLE-UP/TRIPLE-UPS ON DEFENDERS

Talking about strategy for a moment, one way I like to be unique is to double and triple up on defences. This can be particularly fruitful if the team you choose go on a decent run and pick up a fair few clean sheets over a period of time. When timed perfectly, going aggressively on a particular defence can really make a difference: if you have two or three defenders from a team, and the majority of others have one or zero, that is a really quick way to rise up the ranks. Again I like the fact that defenders are relatively cheap, so it’s a low investment for your ‘riskier’ strategy.

WILDCARD ADVICE

For those of you lucky enough to still have your Wildcard, that is an extremely easy way to make mass changes and make your team different in key areas. A well-timed Wildcard can be worth a staggering number of points, especially if a lot of other people have used theirs early on. Remember, on FanTeam, it is much more important to activate your Wildcard as soon as the previous Gameweek finishes, as all of the price changes occur the day after previous Gameweek ends (most often). You will lose £1.5m+ of team value if you activate on a Friday, as opposed to a Monday!

My advice to make significant ground would be to wait for a week where you think a lot of less highly-owned players are coming into really good fixtures and then be aggressive. Gameweek 14 is one particular option for this that stands out to me, where all of the ‘top’ teams have favourable fixtures and most of them beyond. A late Wildcard (Gameweek 18 or 19) could also reap rewards, particularly with AFCON and the Club World Cup happening shortly after this, so you can set up your team for what will be a really tough period for many other FanTeam managers.

DON’T PUNT ON CAPTAINS RIGHT NOW

One thing I must advise against at this moment is captaincy punts. I think this may be something I have to do towards the end of the campaign when I have a better understanding of exactly how my season is shaping up. Typically I will assess this with around ten weeks of the season to go. At present though, Mohamed Salah is looking in better form than he has ever been before (no mean feat). I just cannot even consider captaining anyone else right now, particularly with Liverpool’s fixture run. 

AVOID RASH MOVES

A final thought from me would be to not do anything rash. Although taking regular hits seems appealing, in effect you are putting yourself further behind before the Gameweek even starts. Occasionally, I think they are the right move, especially if your team is riddled with injuries and suspensions, but in general, you will put yourself in a better position by remaining calm. Sometimes the way of making the most points is to give yourself two transfers for a week where everyone seems to be out; while others are taking multiple hits, you can use your two transfers to solve the problems that everybody has, and enjoy a rank boost before the Gameweek has even commenced. This is something which I have had success with in recent years.

Thank you for reading this piece. Hopefully, it has given you some inspiration for a few ways to be different enough. Best of luck for the upcoming Gameweek and please let me know what you think of the article!

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