I'm sticking with Wanyama for now as my fifth mid....but when hopefully my budget is bulging post Christmas I'll certainly be looking to draft in a better fifth pick to take advantage of the 'all out attack' chip.

A cheap mid for now... when i have more money i will bring a decent 5th mid. (only will play the allout attack chip) in the 2nd part of season

Guys out of Leicester defence, Under the rotation loving manager,is Schmeichel the most nailed starter in defense?

I miss Shane Ferguson @ 4m.

I'll be going for Fletcher or Westwood most likely.

Amongst the significant changes made to FPL this year, does anybody know whether FPL have tweaked their price changes formula this year? Personally, I found there was hardly any advantage to be had at all from anticipating bandwagons last season as fluctuations in prices happened at so slowly and steadily compared to the volatility of previous seasons. It was actually quite rare last season for a player to rise by 0.3 in 1 gameweek...

Is Huth nailed? More tempted by 2.9% ownership than morgan's 19.2%

for me I'm really struggling to spend more than £4.5m on my 5th midfielder and I'm going to try to prove why

a good way to pick your team at the start of the season is to use what an accountant would call zero-based budgeting...in FPL terms this is an accounting exercise to find out which players give you best value for money

so pick the best 15 decent cheap players according to the RMT and note down your expected points total over a sensible number of weeks...(if you're definitely wildcarding early then choose a small time period)...at this stage put at least one £4.5m midfielder into your team and leave him there until near the end of this exercise

so your keepers should cost £8.5m, your defenders £22.5m and so on with lots of cheap players

now since a captain gets double points he's effectively half price...so pick a superstar with high ppg (points-per-game) and kick out the player with the lowest ppg in his position...this superstar will give you good value...calculate the extra points you get and divide by the extra cash he is costing you...specifically you want to calculate the points per £0.5m...so if he gets you 60 extra points over 6 weeks and he costs you an extra £6.0m you divide 60/12 to find out that he gives you 5 points for every £0.5m you're spending on him...you should find out that this figure of 5 points/£0.5m (say) is good value compared to the other players you'll be adding into your team shortly...this way I'm predicting that you'll be able to prove what most people already assume, that having at least one superstar in your team so you can captain him is well worth the money

you should have lots of money left over

now start looking at other highly-rated players, starting with players slightly more expensive than those you've got just now...so look through all the £5.0m defenders before you look at the £5.5m defenders etc...temporarily stick them in your team and see how many points you get...calculate the points per £0.5m for these players...(I mean the extra points you get divided by the extra cost you are spending by putting that player in)

now I'll gamble by predicting that at this stage you'll gain more per £0.5m from adding attackers than you will by adding defenders...(get your money up front)

start adding the best players you find into your team...by building up your team this way you make sure you don't miss any bargains...let me go out on a limb and say that if you're looking over 7 weeks you'll put Chadli into your team and never remove him

now get to a team value of £98-£99m while you've still got a £4.5m midfielder in your team...remember you should have done your best to get the team that gives you the most points according to the RMT and not the team that you actually like yourself

Triggerlips is suggesting that it MIGHT be an idea to spend some or all of this last £2.0m (say) on your cheap midfielder...I'm not a member so I can't check but I bet you that you'll get lower points per £0.5m by spending on this cheap midfielder than you will by spending the money elsewhere...and that's because you're putting money on the bench each week so the points you gain from spending more on this cheap midfielder have to be set against the points you lose from benching another attacking player as well as the points you lose by not spending on another player who'll actually be on the pitch

and if it turns out that I'm wrong and Triggerlips' "hunch" is correct, well you're the person who'll have worked it out for yourself and you can laugh at me...(or maybe Triggerlips has already done the maths and he's dropping hints without laying it on a plate for us?)

Interesting read Trigger and this was something I discussed on here a few weeks back

some people went for it others thought like Jonty that the all-out-attack chip could be saved for later in the season when we have a bigger budget to get a better 5th mid than the likes of Wanyama and Fletcher

Trigger sir, one concern I have about this approach though...

A 352 requires us to bench our 3rd striker most weeks.
And, a playing 3rd strikers typically costs ₤5.5mil.

As a result, we're benching ₤1mil more than we normally would each week.
Perhaps more if we choose to play our 3rd striker ahead of our more expensive 5th mid.

I understand that we don't choose players in a vacuum or in pairs but, Pounds = Points & having too many of them on our bench every week could be problematic. Yes?

PS. I do understand you're not touting this strat as gospel!
Just like to hear your thoughts on this viewpoint.

Even spending more on a 5th mid probably won't prevent them getting 2pts when you play the all out chip. Best off getting a 4.5 from a good defensive team and hope for 3pts imo.

3-5-2

I've a question.

Are people going all out with their transfer kitty with the idea of WC'ing at the first international break or saving £2m/£3m, or more for likes of Aguero/Alexis rather than WC?

I completely agree with 100% of what you have written Trigger.

Yea there you go I've said it.

Very convincing case for getting a better fifth midfielder in. But once you've built a team with a 4.5 mid in, it's so hard to lose those big names from your team to get a 6.0 mid in instead...

I fully agree with this approach Trigger. However I will eventually get a budget mid when an obvious bandwagon reveals themselves. I still have fond memories of cashing in on the likes of Barkley and Sterling when they were budget assets. Did a lot for my TV

Who on here can profess to really genuinely always perform near the very top of the overall league? Of you guys, are we absolutely convinced by this 4.5M midfielder approach?

I resist every year, because in my mind the ability to rotate a front 8 is more valuable than having a more expensive from 7 with no flexibility.

I always do pretty well in my mini-league, but I am hampering my chances of hitting the top 10,000 overall on a consistent basis? Do any of you (consistent top performers please) believe it's a must-embrace strategy? I'm curious

** I did land 1913th the year before last, but was just outside the top 100,000 last year