FPL General: 8 things to think about before finalising your team

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 puts together a pre-deadline checklist.

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The new Premier League season is finally upon us. That felt like the longest break ever! Productivity levels in the workplace on Friday will be at a yearly low as FPL managers prioritise finalising their teams for the new campaign. The hardcore will take the day off…

In this digital age, the amount of readily available information can be overwhelming. There’s FPL content being thrown at us left, right and centre. Make sure you take a step back from it all on Friday and spend some time with just your team. Reduce the noise so you can think clearly. 

I’ve put together a few tips that you can run through before the Gameweek 1 deadline to help you settle on a squad that you’re happy with.

Are these picks my own or have I been influenced by others? 

This is the first question to ask yourself on Friday. Go through each of your 15 players asking this question. I guarantee at least one or two of them wouldn’t be in your team if you hadn’t consumed pre-season FPL content. If you find a player you’re not really keen on but you’re seeing him in lots of other teams, remove him and back someone you like instead. 

Check your first draft and compare it with the final draft

This will help with the first tip. It will highlight the players you fancied initially when the game launched. Ask yourself why those initial picks are no longer in your team and evaluate whether there’s a good enough reason for that or not. You might end up putting one or two of them back in! 

In my case, the first draft included Jordan Pickford (£4.5m), Luke Shaw (£5.5m) and Sven Botman (£4.5m) but they’ve been in very few drafts since. Having taken the time to go back and look at the first draft, all three are now back under consideration for Gameweek 1. 

Put a list of golden rules/overall strategy together

During the season, it’s very easy to forget how you decided you wanted to play the game during pre-season from a strategy perspective. I find it very useful to have a list of rules which also includes my overall strategy, pinned on the wall in my home office – which is where I usually make my transfers on a Friday night.

The key is to have it somewhere where you’ll see it/read it often. Saving it as a desktop/laptop wallpaper is another option or having it saved as a tab so it’s easy to access. It gives me clarity of thought when I’m feeling flustered about transfers or when the fear of missing out kicks in when a bandwagon takes off.

Here are a few bullet points from my list for this season:

• Safe picks for Gameweek 1, avoid new players to the league and teams in transition  

• Pick proven FPL assets from good teams that have good fixtures, keep it simple

• Bank a transfer as often as possible

• Aim for 40 transfers in total over the season

• Fix the weakest link in the squad, don’t ignore fires

• Aim for a maximum of -20 in hits over the season (aside from Blank/Double Gameweeks)

• Friday night transfers: be open to early transfers first few Gameweeks

• Don’t let fear rule transfers, we can’t have them all – trust your picks

• Ignore player ownership – focus on points, not percentages 

Look to see what your team will look like in future Gameweeks

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of putting too much weight on the Gameweek 1 fixtures and forgetting to look ahead. It’s very important to have a look to see what the starting XI will be in Gameweeks 2, 3, 4 etc. to highlight any weaknesses. This is particularly important for defenders. Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m), for example, looks great for the opening three matches but what’s the plan for Gameweeks 4 and 5 when Brighton face Newcastle and Manchester United? Will he be benched or sold or are you happy to start him in those trickier fixtures? Maybe having a fourth defender on the bench, who has good fixtures when Brighton have tricky ones, could be the play. Looking ahead to future Gameweeks will help you pick a Gameweek 1 squad. 

Keep £0.5m in the bank (if you can)

Price changes are very frustrating at the start of an FPL season. A £0.1m rise or fall can price you out of a move if there’s no cash in the bank. I always try to keep £0.5m aside to begin with to combat this issue but only if I’m 100% happy with the squad. 

A dilemma I’m facing this week is whether to stick with Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) and have the £0.5m for future transfers or spend the extra on his Arsenal teammate Martin Odegaard (£8.5m), who is more secure for minutes. I’m leaning toward taking my own advice and sticking with Martinelli, who was also in the first draft! 

Remind yourself of the fixtures and last season’s stats

When we start endlessly tinkering as the deadline gets closer, it’s important to look at a fixture ticker while you do so. When you’re on the FPL website, there should always be two tabs open, one being FPL, the other a fixture ticker. 

At the start of pre-season, we see a lot of last season’s stats being bandied around. But as we get closer to kick-off, there is less focus on them as attention turns to pre-season games. I put a lot more weight on the stats from last season than I do performances in friendly matches. Even just going back and having a quick look at the expected numbers for midfielders and forwards in 2022/23 could change some of your Gameweek 1 picks. 

Make sure the bench is decent

It’s important to have at least one decent sub that can come in if needed. A £4.5m defender, for example, rather than having two £4.0m defenders from promoted teams. Stick Matt Turner (£4.0m) on your bench too when he becomes a Nottingham Forest player on the website/app. 

Aim to bank a transfer in Gameweek 2

Having two free transfers by the time we get to Gameweek 3 can be very useful. Some minor surgery is often required by that stage as new information/statistics emerge. If your team is looking fine for Gameweek 2, roll the transfer. 

Happy tinkering, folks, and best of luck for the new season!