With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2023/24, we’re welcoming back our team of Hall of Famers and guest writers for the new campaign.
Here, FPL Focal shares 20 tips from some of the best FPL managers he’s featured on his channel over the years.
Focal and our other writers will be providing regular articles and team reveals throughout the new season, with only Premium Members able to access every single one.
You can sign up here for the new campaign – once you’re aboard, you’ve locked in the price of your Premium Membership for good, so long as you don’t cancel.
1 AVOID BANDWAGONS
This one is especially applicable at the start of the season when transfer activity is high. At the start of 2022/23, Josh Dasilva (£5.0m) scored two goals in the first two games from just 0.07 expected goals (xG). Unsurprisingly he wasn’t able to maintain that huge overperformance and his next goal wasn’t for another 16 Gameweeks. Underlying numbers and the eye test are a good way to assess if they’re a bandwagon or not.
2 DON’T LET FEAR RULE TRANSFER DECISIONS
It can be a desperate feeling when your players are letting you down, while seemingly those you don’t own are smashing it. Point number three ties into this one too. Don’t rip your team balance up to try and squeeze in all the big players and don’t hop from premium to premium based on last week’s results.
4 DON’T ROTATE GOALKEEPERS
This one of course can have success, but there’s a reason why many goalkeepers from smaller teams do so well: they rack up save points. Spending £4.5m or more on both ‘keepers is a waste of money, just get a £4.5m and their £4.0m backup. Or better yet, if there’s a £4.0m shot-stopper who will play then get them and only in that case consider rotating.
5 PLAN AHEAD
This one is so important. Many managers wing it week to week and that’s fine if that’s how you want to play, but to hit the highest ranks and win your mini-leagues you need to plan transfers and captaincy in advance. There are great free tools like PlanFPL.com that let you plan your transfers for future weeks. Captaincy is one of the most important aspects of the game, so make sure you have a good one lined up every Gameweek.
6 PLAY WITHOUT EMOTION
What happens on the pitch is out of your control and lack of control can be frustrating not just in FPL but in general. If you’ve had a frustrating Gameweek don’t make a rage transfer on a Sunday night and never make a drunk transfer!
7 DON’T WILDCARD UNLESS IT’S ESSENTIAL
You only get two Wildcards and it’s the most powerful chip in the game. Weigh up whether there’s any way you can avoid it, even if it requires a hit or two. If you’d only change a few players in your starting XI then it’s a waste. It’s such a powerful chip that you really want to maximise its utility, and in the second half of the season use it in preparation for double and blank Gameweeks.
8 ROLL A TRANSFER WHEN YOU CAN
Having two free transfers is a huge advantage. Just because you have a transfer it doesn’t mean use it, as the added flexibility of having two banked is massive. Imagine a premium striker gets injured and the best replacement is a premium midfielder, that’s two transfers to get there.
10 BE OPEN TO NEW TACTICS
It’s easy to get comfortable in a way of playing, but the FPL landscape is constantly evolving. Perhaps you Free Hit in a Blank Gameweek for three seasons in a row, but this season a Double Gameweek could be the optimal time to use it. One-week punts are generally frowned on, but hopping on to a premium with a Double Gameweek has become more popular and something that many have had success with in recent years.
11 PUT BIASES ASIDE
Whether it’s owning players from rival teams or even captaining players against your team, put biases to one side when playing FPL. If you truly believe the best captain is the one playing the team you support then take the points and move on. Honourable mention to Ben Crabtree though, the die-hard Everton fan who did manage to win FPL in 2016/17 without owning a Liverpool player all season!
12 AVOID HITS
Hits don’t pay off a lot of the time. It’s a big gamble and most of the time a completely unnecessary one. Assess whether those four points will be repaid. A hit really should be for a player that not only represents a massive upgrade in a specific Gameweek, but it also has to be someone you want for the medium/long term.
13 HAVE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT
Planning is key and don’t abandon your plan if it’s a solid one. Having a plan and then abandoning it can leave you even worse off.
14 MID-WEEK FIXTURES DON’T OFTEN AFFECT WEEKEND MINUTES
This one can require some assessment player by player, but as a reminder, footballers are world-class elite athletes and they’re fully capable of playing on Wednesday and then again on Saturday. You’ll often hear that someone played 90 minutes midweek so they’ll be benched at the weekend. Some assessment based on what type of fixture is important too, if there’s an easy Premier League fixture sandwiched between two UEFA Champions League semi-finals then the chances of a rest could be higher. Be very careful with this one, you’ll find more often than not it doesn’t happen.
16 CONSUME FPL CONTENT
You can consume content and choose not to follow what you’re hearing, but soaking it up for your own assessment is a good thing. No one is right 100% of the time, which goes without saying. There are always angles you may not have considered which is when content can be a great tool at your disposal.
17 DELAY YOUR TRANSFERS
A lot can change over the course of a week, particularly when there’s midweek football on. Players you own can get injured. It’s common sense really but the later you make a transfer then the maximum amount of information you have available to you and therefore you’re more informed. It can be tempting to move early when a price change is coming but in many circumstances riding out the £0.1m loss is worth it.
18 FIXTURES ARE KING
Look to bring in players who have good fixtures on the horizon and when they play for good teams then even better. Fixtures nearly always create form.
19 DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO POINTS
It sounds counterintuitive but the stats that really matter are underlying ones like xG and its variants. Go for the player who has blanked in three Gameweeks but with brilliant xG over a player who’s jammed some goals but has poor underlying stats. It evens itself out over the medium term usually.
20 KNOW YOUR SET-PIECE/PENALTY TAKERS
A player who is on free kicks and corners will inflate their chances of a return every week, and even more so penalty takers. There’s also approximately a 21% chance of a penalty being awarded in a match, so just over one in five.
BONUS TIP
As a bonus tip, which came from Dan Bennett – take care of yourself. It’s awesome to have a hobby you’re passionate about but being so emotionally invested can take its toll on you. At the end of the day, it’s just a game, so reach out if needed and switch off after the deadline if you’re too invested. Also, avoid constantly checking your live rank in the middle of games, you’ll burn yourself out. Take care of your mental health.
