Bored of FPL as it is? All that planning, chips, and transfers too draining? Has “the machine” slowly taken away your fun of the game?

A simple solution: make a “Limited Zombie” League.

Are you sick of the content creators in the “group-think” bubble? Sick of the droning on about “variance”, “micro and macro thinking”? Who talks like that in real life?

Online tools proliferate; independent thinking is frowned upon, or even mocked.

I remember back when it used to be fun. Back in the days when Fantasy Football was called “luck” not variance. You would pick the penalty takers Stuart Pearce and Denis Irwin, and Paul Rideout was always a good mid-price option up front. And of course, you had to get the bill payer’s permission to sign up for the Fantasy Football game in the newspaper, using a dial-up landline phone.

Sadly, for those of us who do not get unbridled joy out of “data analytics”, those days have long gone.

FPL has become less joyful, and less based on instinct. It is more like having to suffer through endless corporate analytics presentations. Where is the fun in that? Every transfer you make, you feel you have “to suffer” through these presentations in the hope of getting an insight, to see where the masses are going. You pore over websites, and hope someone online leaks some “insider information” before you make a transfer, which skews the field.

You have to pore over spreadsheets, overly complicated fixture tickers, or worse, sign up for “advice” for a fee on X!

Others are copying content creators verbatim to win a mini-league: people from outside the UK not able to stay up for the latest insider scoops, etc. xG and xA are spoken about as if they are tangible things, much like Dolores O’Riordan said: “What’s in your head? Zombie, zombie!”

I say, “Enough!”

So what is the solution?

It is simple: strip the game back to its basics. Select your 15-man squad under the following restrictions—for example:

 FPL 26/27 — FFS Unofficial “Limited Zombie” League

Fancy an FPL challenge where your GW1 squad has to survive the entire season?

The idea is: build your squad once, then manage it for 38 Gameweeks without making a single transfer.

The Rules

Your 15-player squad is locked after the GW1 deadline.

🚫 No transfers all season 🚫 No Wildcard 🚫 No Free Hit 🚫 No Bench Boost 🚫 No Triple Captain

But unlike a traditional “set and forget” league:

✅ Change your starting XI every Gameweek ✅ Change your formation every Gameweek ✅ Change your captain every Gameweek ✅ Change your vice-captain every Gameweek ✅ Change your bench order every Gameweek ✅ Automatic substitutions are allowed

So you have to live with the 15 players you picked at the start, but you can still actively manage your squad every week.

Format

Classic scoring

Free to enter

Targeting 50–100+ managers

Serious and competitive players welcome

No money or entry fee

Bragging rights only 😎

The Challenge

Can you build a 15-man squad in GW1 that can survive 38 Gameweeks?

Just for fun, select a 15-man squad. No transfers or chips are permitted, but sub changes and C/VC changes are permitted.

No transfer market to rescue you.

No wildcard to fix your mistakes.

No panic buying after an injury.

Just your original squad and your ability to manage it.

GW1 squad = your squad for the entire season.

Enforcement

The only things prohibited are transfers and chips.

Your GW1 15-man squad will be recorded after the deadline. If you subsequently make a transfer or use a prohibited chip, you will be removed and disqualified from the league.

Formation, starting XI, captain, and bench changes are all completely legitimate and encouraged.

Interested?

Get 50–100+ Limited FFS zombies together for 2026/27.

League code: uk9fc7

No transfers. No excuses.

Etc., etc….

The same will of course work with head to head leagues and so on.

Suddenly, all that draining “research” and having to listen to “corporate-style” content creators is gone. Many of them lurch between the faux enthusiasm of a children’s TV presenter, or worse, they do not even bother hiding their boredom.

Suddenly, if you bring the game back to a more basic level, you are not in the “group-think” bubble. You are “set free”. Paradoxically, the FPL game becomes much more fun through these limitations, and much more liberating. No more herd mentality, no more being de facto “forced” to go along with chip “strategies” that the most influential have decided are the best.

All of that ends—it is just you picking 15 players. No transfers, no chips. Just control of that GW1 15-man squad, substitute order, C/VC, and formation changes.

Take back the game!