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 General provides his top 10 tips for Gameweek 1 and beyond.
Our 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. Have a flexible Gameweek 1 squad, keeping price points in mind
“Is this a flexible squad structure?” is the most important question to ask yourself on August 11 when you’re looking at your ‘final’ draft.
We have very little information going into a new campaign so we need to be able to adjust accordingly during the first few weeks as the key players for the season emerge. Keep price points in mind.
For example, starting with the most expensive defender in the game Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) makes sense as he can be downgraded to any other defender later. Selecting one £8.0m forward alongside Erling Haaland (£14.0m) is another example of keeping things flexible. It’s much easier to go from Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) or Ollie Watkins (£8.0m) to Christopher Nkunku (£7.5m) as opposed to the other way around. Keeping £0.5m in the bank, to begin with, is advisable.
2. Look ahead to see what your FPL team will look like in future Gameweeks
The FPL website doesn’t have this feature but Plan FPL (coming soon to the Fantasy Football Scout Members Area) is a great resource.
Looking ahead is something I don’t do enough of. I often fall into the trap of having all my defenders facing difficult opponents in a certain Gameweek because I didn’t look ahead. The old-school approach works here, too: writing out your team for the next three or four Gameweeks. It highlights where the weaknesses will be in your team in the future and this can help shape your transfer and captaincy decisions.
3. Play the fixtures and use a ticker
Fixtures come above everything else for me when it comes to picking a Fantasy Football team, especially at the start of a season when we are effectively going in blind.
I’ll be leaning heavily on the teams with favourable fixtures for the opening four Gameweeks for my Gameweek 1 picks. As a creature of habit, I’ve always used the Scout ticker, which is great. You might want to have a go at creating your own ratings, too, adjusting it as the season progresses.
Always have a fixture ticker nearby when you’re on the FPL website/app.
4. Note down your early transfer thoughts then refer to them on Friday/Saturday
On Sunday/Monday when the Gameweek ends, make a note of your initial thoughts on transfers for the next Gameweek. The first question I always ask myself is – can I save a transfer this week? Note down two or three transfer options in order of preference then come back to it at the end of the week.
It’s easy to get caught up in Twitter hype about players during the week and forget about how you were feeling at the start of the week. It’s useful to have a reference point when it comes to making moves. You can then weigh up whether the new idea is better than your initial one.
5. Use the Watchlist feature on the FPL website and update it often
If you don’t already use the watchlist feature on the FPL website, you should check it out. It’s a very useful way of keeping tabs on the players you’re interested in, rather than having to scroll through all 20 squads when making your transfers each week. It helps to avoid falling into the trap of buying a player you had no intention of investing in just because a bandwagon gathers pace on social media during the week. To add a player to your watchlist, simply click on their profile and you will see ‘Add to Watchlist’ at the bottom.
If you want to view the list of players you’ve added to the watchlist, go to the ‘Transfers’ section of the FPL website, click on ‘All Players’ in the dropdown box and you will find ‘Watchlist’. To remove a player from the watchlist, click on their profile and you will see ‘Remove from Watchlist’ at the bottom.
I update mine after each Gameweek which I find very useful. If you don’t have time for that, you could update it at each international break this season.
6. Minimise transfers and points hits
I aim to make around 40 transfers during a normal uninterrupted FPL season. To achieve this goal, I fix the weakest link in my squad often and also roll a transfer as often as possible. This helps to avoid unnecessary hits.
Saving a transfer and giving yourself more flexibility the following Gameweek plus another week of information is one way to get an edge over your trigger-happy mini-league rivals. By managing the squad efficiently throughout the season, 40 transfers is a realistic target.
Points hits are fine in certain scenarios, like Double and Blank Gameweeks, but avoiding them elsewhere has been a successful approach for me. It’s hard enough to get FPL points without giving some of them back!
7. Stay calm after a bad beat
Bad luck is part of the game. Accept it and don’t overreact when it happens. A great team on paper can score 19 points one week, 85 points the next; that’s FPL.
Managing yourself is just as important as managing your team. When things don’t go your way, stay calm, don’t make rage transfers. Log out for a couple of days and come back with a fresh head on Thursday or Friday. The winner of FPL will have bad Gameweeks this season, just like the rest of us. The key is how we react to them.
8. Keep the chips for the second half of the campaign
The best approach to the chips between now and Christmas is to forget that you have them. Keep them up your sleeve for a later date. We will have to navigate blanks and double later in the season which is much easier to do with the chips in hand. This doesn’t apply to the first Wildcard, which must be used at some point before the Gameweek 20 deadline (Saturday 30 December).
9. Forget about your allegiances
Whether you support a Premier League team or hate a Premier League team, put those feelings aside if you want to have a successful FPL season. Don’t let your allegiances impact your FPL decision-making process. Pick the best players in the game, not the players from the team you support just for the sake of it!
10. Have fun!
The most important tip of all. Remember, it’s just a game. Don’t let this game affect your personal life. If it does, step back and find a way to enjoy it more.
Play your own game and don’t follow others. There’s no such thing as an FPL “expert” (no matter what people tell you!), we’re all in the same boat going into Gameweek 1. The most fun way to play the game is making your own decisions. If that means not picking Haaland in Gameweek 1, go for it! If something feels right to you, don’t let others throw you off course. Don’t put any pressure on yourself to achieve a good overall rank or mini-league position, again, it’s just a game and there’s a lot of luck involved!
Happy tinkering folks!
- FPL General’s podcast returns for 2023/24 – listen here
- Get your FPL team rated ahead of 2023/24
- FPL pre-season 2023/24 guide: Tips, best players, fixtures + more
- FPL 2023/24 pre-season minutes tracker: Every player, every game
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