Tips

The Complete Guide to Our FPL Gameweek 1 Tips and Advice

The final window on the FPL advent calendar has been opened, the big day is finally here! Whether you are a fantasy veteran or a first-season newbie, welcome to one of the most exciting days of the year – the first day of the new Fantasy Premier League season!

At the moment over five million FPL managers are busy tinkering with their teams, making final tweaks based on the new arrivals in yesterday’s transfer window and the latest team news emerging today. It can, at times feel overwhelming.

To help ease the pressure a little, David, Neale (aka Skonto Rigga), and the Fantasy Football Scout team, together with our wonderful community of passionate FPL managers, have been busy collating all the useful nuggets of FPL gold.  

Firstly, don’t get caught out – the FPL deadline for Gameweek 1 is 7pm UK time. With more teams starting the season than ever before, be aware that the computer servers at FPL towers will undoubtedly be under increased pressure. It is advisable to select your final squad in plenty of time, just in case the servers slow down. 

One of the big decisions FPL managers have to make every week is who to trust with the captain’s armband. A decision which editor-in-chief David Munday, described as quite easy on the first captaincy video of the season. The stand-out pick in the opinion of both David and Joe is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

In the video, David went on to highlight the relatively low number of clean sheets Liverpool’s opponents, Norwich, kept in the Championship last season compared to the teams around them, and the number of defensive injuries they are currently suffering. 

Using the new ‘Flat-track Bully’ feature in our Members’ area, David then backed up his selection of Salah by revealing that, last season, the Egyptian scored an impressive 20 goals and managed 7 assists against teams outside the Premier League top six. In the 2017/18 season the totals were 22 goals and 6 assists. In other words, Mohamed Salah is a safe bet which, more often than not, is exactly what we want with our captain.

However, if you would like to consider another option – perhaps you are like former FPL winner Ben Crabtree, an Everton fan who won FPL without selecting a Liverpool player for the entire season – the Captain Sensible article highlights some enticing alternatives.

One of the challenges of playing FPL is deciding which premium-priced players to own given our limited budget of £100m. The dilemma was articulated by James (aka HamezMace) in the must-read FPL Question Time:

“Can you fit Kane, Sterling, and Salah into the same team?”

Sam from FPL Family admitted:

“It’s impossible to fit all the premium assets into your fantasy team – I’ve tried!”

The answer according to Ted (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego) and Tom from Who Got The Assist? is to go with captain favourite Salah and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling. Tom explained:

“My judgement is that the City and Liverpool midfielders are two who will end up being the highest-scoring players that I ideally will own all season, with the all-important captaincy armband passing between them.”

In the article featuring a panel of FPL experts, the FPL General revealed that he will be going with as many as three or four £6.0m+ defensive picks. While Tom (aka avfc82) pointed out the potential value in a certain Leicester City asset:

“It’s hard to look past Ayoze Pérez for me. Reclassified as a midfielder, Pérez scored 12 Premier League goals whilst at Newcastle last season. Now playing in a better team, you’d expect him to profit from Rodgers attacking approach and up that output.”

Of particular interest to FPL managers on the opening day of the season is the latest team news. Neale has collected all the most pertinent quotes from both today’s press conferences and yesterday’s press conferences. Using that knowledge, Neale has updated the incredibly useful Team News section of the website, featuring best-guess lineups and the latest news on a team-by-team basis.

Our Community have also been adding productively to the site with a number of thoughtful contributions. TheFantasyFreÆK, an experienced FPL manager who once finished fourth overall, started a Hot Topic on 10 things you might have missed and need to know before FPL starts.

For managers looking to find the missing piece to their FPL jigsaw puzzle, The Complete Guide to FPL Pre-season groups players according to position and budget making it easier to identify the final player to complete their squads. A wealth of information is contained within.

To highlight only three of a number of excellent community articles: shaun_drift looked at £4.5m Goalkeeper rotations; Limit80 revealed how he used underlying stats to help him to a top 10k finish last season; and Rossi3254 explained why Spurs have the potential to cause a few headaches this season.

Away from the drama of the start of the Premier League, Meltens previewed Gameweek 19 in Fantasy Allsvenskan, while TallestJohn has been helping fantasy managers with their selection in Eliteserien Fantasy, his most recent article previewed Gameweek 16

To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.

COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS

The regular community tournaments return for the 2019/20 season. To join Fantasy Football Scout FPL League enter ooyz44 in your Leagues’ section on the FPL site. The code to join the FFS Members League can be found on the Members page

Last season’s winner of both competitions was the FPL champion himself Adam Levy (aka Elvy). Adam’s winning margin in the open-to-all FFS League was 70 points – world number three Andrew Green was second – and in the Members’ League Adam won by 99 points from world number 18 Tore Bjorheim. 

Adam also won RedLightning’s Opening Day League last season, he finished 158 points ahead of world number 247 Timothy Shelbourne. The league is running again this season, as usual entries to this mini-league were only open for the first 24 hours following the launch of FPL for 2019/20 season in June.

This season also sees the return of the FFS Head-to-Head Leagues. These will be run by Mark Reynolds (aka MIR) with support from Geoff and Chris Atkinson (aka RMT’s Professor). To participate please join the “FFS H2H League” code: gh0126. Entries will then be put into divisions and leagues according to their HOF rankings. Right now, entry will close with the start of Gameweek 1.

TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition returns for a seventh season, and this year the winner will receive free Fantasy Football Scout Membership for the 2020/21 season. Simply enter bcvy39 in your Leagues’ section on the FPL site. The Gameweek 22 deadline will be the closing time for entries, over 3,000 managers have entered so far. Note that for those entering after Gameweek 1, you must pass all the previous safety scores to qualify.

Despite finishing 14,224 overall last season, Alan Robertson (aka Villaweeal) triumphed over 4,614 entrants to lift the title. He followed in the footsteps of previous winners: Nice To Finally Michu, Isco Disco, Miro, Hakchak, and Jam0sh.

In the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league, Mark was unable to maintain his lead as Ted Maw (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego) overtook him on the final day. Ted scored 87 points in Gameweek 38 and finished 633 overall. This is Ted’s first top 1k finish in his 11th season, eclipsing his previous best rank of 33,968. Meanwhile, Mark only managed a disappointing final day score of 47 (-8) and dropped out of the top one thousand.

In more drama on the final day, Andy Sullivan regained the lead to win RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league by 13 points from Callum Croal and Craig Till Reumert, finishing as world number 44. The league is running again this year, details of how to enter will be available next week.

There was an extremely close finish in RedLightning’s January to May League with Andrew Hughes holding on to win it by a single point from Vimal Krishnan. Andrew had 8 green arrows in the last 10 Gameweeks, rising from 19k in Gameweek 28 to a stupendous 205 overall.

Ted (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego) claimed the title in The Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league to add to his success in the FFS Mods and Cons. He finished 22 points ahead of Gavin Tarrant. Ted’s top 1k finish is all the more impressive given that he was ranked at 46k in Gameweek 27. 

Over the summer, FFS users have been participating in the Swedish Fantasy Allsvenskan. The current leader in the FFS mini-league is Daniel Sebestyen who is currently third in the world.

Daniel has played his ‘Two Captains’ chip and his first Wildcard, but still has the incredibly powerful ‘Park The Bus’ chip left, along with ‘Attack Attack’ and the second Wildcard. He’s 18 points off first place and 14 points behind second place. The overall leader has played all his chips, while the world number two only has his ‘Two Captains’ chip remaining.

Second in the FFS mini-league is Simon Eriksson, 36 points behind Daniel and ninth overall. A further 16 points back in third is Niklas Tysander, who is an impressive 15th overall. It promises to be an exciting finish to season, with nine Gameweeks to go there’s all to play for!

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition at geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk

https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/the-complete-guide-to-fpl-pre-season-2019-20/

MORE TEAM-BY-TEAM ANALYSIS CONTENT

Arsenal | Aston Villa (manager) | Aston Villa (defence) | Aston Villa (attack) | Bournemouth | Brighton | Burnley | Chelsea | Crystal Palace | Everton | Leicester | Liverpool | Man City | Man United | Newcastle | Norwich (manager) | Norwich (defence) | Norwich (attack) | Sheffield United (manager) | Sheffield United (defence) | Sheffield United (attack) | Southampton | Spurs | Watford | West Ham | Wolves

TopMarx Fan of Fantasy Football and Monty Python. "Archimedes out to Socrates, Socrates back to Archimedes, Archimedes out to Heraclitus, he beats Hegel. Heraclitus a little flick, here he comes on the far post, Socrates is there, Socrates heads it in! Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad, the Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. Follow them on Twitter

2,247 Comments Post a Comment
  1. BlueEddy
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Good luck guys n gals!

    1. Poppa Klopp
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      You too!

    2. GREEN IS GOOD
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      *And gender fluids.

  2. Poppa Klopp
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Any obvious errors?

    Pope
    Robbo, VVD, Digne, Zouma
    Salah, Sterling, Perez
    Auba, King, Greenwood

    Heaton, Montoya, Dendonka, Hayden

    1. Taking the Mkhitaryan
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Posting this

    2. The Wise Owl
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Deadline was 20 minutes ago....

    3. Podge
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Nah you’re well set

      1. Poppa Klopp
        • 5 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        It’s on!!!!

      2. Podge
        • 13 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        As an aside the word set has the longest description in the English dictionary

        1. Dave FC
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Just Googled to check (suddenly nothing better to do!), and wow. Set is indeed the most complex word in the English language, requiring the longest description with over 430 ‘senses’ of the word.
          Best thing I learnt today - thanks.

    4. Net Gains
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Greenwood won’t play at all

    5. ★Kuntheman★
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Yeah I saw your team before the deadline, you captained Greenwood by mistake

      1. Poppa Klopp
        • 5 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Hahaha, that’ll be the beer

    6. Mike2795647
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Good starting 10, Greenwood will be Mr Cameo for a while only and bring in an odd point IMO - love it if wrong though as I have him

      1. Poppa Klopp
        • 5 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Greenwood was a necessary evil to get Auba in - after lukaku left I decided to take the punt

  3. JONALDINHO
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Away for the weekend so here's the plan. Come back Sunday evening watch Liverpool v Norwich followed by match of the day 1 and 2. Only problem is I can't use my phone + listen/watch the football or talk about it. Will it work?

  4. teddypicker
    • 14 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    'The site is experiencing technical difficulties.'

    Yeesh

  5. The 12th Man
    • 10 Years
    4 years, 7 months ago

    Anyone else on Salah(TC)?

    1. Podge
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      It’s a single gameweek that would be stupid

      1. The 12th Man
        • 10 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        That’s a closed mind view.

      2. conorbon
        • 10 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Didn’t a lot of people tc Sane last year in a double and end up with nothing? Your point is very narrow minded

        1. The 12th Man
          • 10 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Aguero GW2 last season. Salah or Mane against Huddersfield. SGW.
          Norwich home good fixture. Salah looked good against City.
          Of course it might not work out.

    2. AndyCook
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Doesn’t make sense when you don’t know the state of the doubles

        1. The 12th Man
          • 10 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Last two seasons I’ve saved my TC for the doubles. Massive fail.

      • g40steve
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Big balls hope you do well

        1. The 12th Man
          • 10 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Thanks

      • timmmuh
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        I used TC last year on a single game week and it worked great (Mane week 36 got 13 points for 39 total). Good luck.

      • Nezwolf
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Isn't Salah the most captained player this gw by a country mile - my thoughts were that triple captain may not make much difference as everyone else would get x2 points anyways. Best to use in a gameweek with a few options and make bigger gains perhaps?

    3. conorbon
      • 10 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      Good luck everyone!

      Thank you to all who took the time to rate my many teams over the summer

    4. michudagawd
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 7 months ago

      This is what I ended up on.

      Defence too light?

      Pope
      Cathcart VVD KWP
      Salah (c) Perez Martial Sterling Trossard
      Auba King

      Button Rico Zouma Greenwood

      1. JONALDINHO
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        I'm afraid it is.

      2. AndyCook
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Probably a little

      3. JustPark
        • 8 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Moura for a brace?

        1. Royal5
          • 12 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Fingers crossed

        2. Podge
          • 13 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Please

        3. conorbon
          • 10 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Prefer Kane for a Hattie

          1. Podge
            • 13 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Have you not watched him ?
            He’s a mid now

            1. conorbon
              • 10 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Hahahaha calm down

            2. g40steve
              • 6 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Who scores from halfway 😉

        4. diesel001
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Kane

        5. UnitedFan
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Andy doesn't know whether he has Moura or Martial due to last minute transfer.

      4. Optimus.
        • 13 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Sky ff down :/

      5. Madderegern
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Omg its been such a long summer ! My gf is already annoyed .....

        1. Hits from the Bong
          • 5 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Upgrade

          1. FredrikH
            • 11 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Briefed my mind but na.ha

          2. Madderegern
            • 9 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Out of funds 🙁

        2. Jeremy Corbyn
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          she fit?

        3. Supersonic Marv'
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Use your free transfer.

        4. Tommyg
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 14 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Lol. The question is, should I just volunteerily move into the shed now or later???

        5. Make Arrows Green Again
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Show off

        6. The Wanton Trader
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          So is my wife. She’s got to go upstairs to watch Eastenders. 😆

        7. FredrikH
          • 11 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          HA

        8. Now I'm Panicking
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Re-inflate her

        9. Yip Jaap Stam
          • 5 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Bench boost?

        10. Saxe-Gotha
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Current GF > New GF for a -12

        11. g40steve
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Pics or single?

      6. Meme2011
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Anyone have Ozil or Kola and didn’t get them out in time?

        1. F0oTBall GuRu
          • 5 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          yes the crooks on their mopeds still ahasing ozils merc...

      7. HNI
        • 10 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Loving TAA pick with Milner benched. Lotnof corners to create chances for VVD 🙂 Have both

        1. Amey
          • 5 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Mo on pens too

      8. Bubz
        • 10 Years
        4 years, 7 months ago

        Hope this is 5-0

        1. Optimus.
          • 13 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          at HT

        2. Ask Yourself
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          5-1 with no TAA or Robbo involvement yeah

        3. AndyCook
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Can we not hope the season is interesting..

        4. Not A Troll
          • 4 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Just activated my wildcard. Thoughts?

          Pope Button
          Digne Montoya VVD Robertson Kelly
          Sterling Salah Barkley Perez Dedoncker
          Kane King Greenwood

          1. conorbon
            • 10 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            No you haven’t?

        5. dunas_dog
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Main ML rival over last 4 years playing a very different but strong team. Bit worried already!

          Ryan
          Robertson VVD Digne
          B Silva Martial Barkley Pérez
          Kane Aubameyang Firmino

          1. Utensilitility
            • 4 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            I like it. You're toast.

          2. Make Arrows Green Again
            • 7 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            That guy is your main rival?

        6. Gunners n' Roses
          • 10 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          I wasn't on here last season, is the Prematch Preamble gone? :((

          1. Tommyg
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 14 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Here is your coat...

          2. Podge
            • 13 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            I don’t think they did it on the Friday deadlines

          3. the Penman
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 12 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Yes, sadly.

        7. 1zverGGadeM
          • 6 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Good luck everybody!!!
          Hope you all get your score at the top of your leagues!

        8. semiconductor
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Against all odds and teams in here I downgraded VVD (I still have Robertson) to upgrade 2 4.5m defenders.

          VVD+Montoya+Diop to Zinchenko+KWP+MNiles

        9. Demí
          • 13 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          What was Moura's ownership if anyone has a rough recollection?

          1. badgerboy
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 8 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            7-8% last time I checked. Should be under 10.

          2. ENZO SZN™
            • 6 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            10% ++

        10. Tiki-Taka
          • 13 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Can someone make me feel better about not going for a premium striker for the first time ever?

          Allison / Button
          VVD / Coleman / Zinchenko / Zouma / Rico
          Salah / Sterling / Bernardo Silva / Siggy / Fraser
          Jota / 4.5 / 4.5

          1. Tommyg
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 14 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Mids score better. It's a fact.

            1. Tiki-Taka
              • 13 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Just waiting on that Auba / Kane brace GW1 to cause a frenzy for everybody

        11. New Article
        12. Madderegern
          • 9 Years
          4 years, 7 months ago

          Is it just me, or are the scouts blinded by Brighton....? Two Brighton players away to Watford could be devastating to any FF start.

          1. AndyCook
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Yeah those picks look rogue

          2. Sharkytect
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 9 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Here's to another 8 months of my wife asking me what I'm looking at on my phone all weekend long

          3. bitm2007
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 9 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Ryan, Button
            TAA, VVD, Lepotre, Zinchenko
            Salah, Sterling, Perez, Trossard, Dendonker
            Wilson, Jimenez, Greenwood

            0.5m iTB

          4. Boomerang V
            • 7 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Origi will score a hat trick just because I got rid of him in the last minute

            1. Mike2795647
              • 9 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Yep, did same

          5. Seanigula
            • 14 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            People are still playing this? 🙂

            Hello to all my old-school homies...Granny, Mark, PDM, GreekFan, RoysBrotherJohnson (you know you miss him!)

            Good luck to you all !!!!

            1. Yossi
              • 13 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              RBJ actually posted a few days ago, was quite scary

          6. Eze Really?
            • 9 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            When will FPL open?

            1. bitm2007
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 9 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              July, maybe late June 2020

            2. Mike2795647
              • 9 Years
              4 years, 7 months ago

              Now

          7. FCSB
            • 8 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Best of luck everyone!!

          8. Stevie B
            • 13 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            I am happy that the new season has started. But this joy will probably only last until tomorrow.

          9. Judeksi
            • 9 Years
            4 years, 7 months ago

            Aaaand update done!