In this article, community writer FPL Paz gives us a checklist on how to build the best Gameweek 1 squad for the upcoming season.
There are five simple things to consider when building a Gameweek 1 squad and they are broken down into five categories for the purpose of this piece. They are: Team Structure, Captaincy, Fixtures, Money, and Pre-Season:
Team Structure
- Pick players from different price points to allow you to make easy future moves
- Allows you to fix any post-Gameweek 1 holes in your team quickly.
- Two mid-priced midfielders allow you to quickly jump on players like Mount, Foden, Diaz, Maddison, Bowen, Saka or other expensive mids.
- Having the most expensive players in each position (except the goalkeeper) allows you to have “cash cows”
- Allows you to get direct replacements at each position in one move.
- Example: if Haaland is a flop, then a direct move to Kane is doable in one transfer.
- Limit promoted players/punts
- No need to fall into the trap of “this player can cover for x” (i.e., Diaz can cover Salah).
- Good to pick proven FPL assets.
- Bournemouth, Fulham and Forest have bad fixtures and are unknown assets.
- Avoid booking in transfers
- There will be other fires to put out post-Gameweek 1.
- More information regarding minutes, formation, and assets will come up, so booking in a transfer reduces your flexibility.
Captaincy
- Pick two premium assets to attack easy fixtures each Gameweek
- Allows you to switch to another premium asset in case of injuries quickly.
- With Salah/Haaland, you have the two best captains in seven of the first eight Gameweeks.
- Plan 6-8 Gameweeks ahead
- You never get to a Gameweek without knowing who your captain will be.
- It allows you to plan for those Gameweeks in which there are better options.
- Example: Salah/Haaland owners in Gameweek 6 know Kane/Son are better options)
- Don’t try to use “cover” for captaincy
- Captaincy is your most critical decision, so give it to consistent FPL assets.
- Example: Captaining Kulusevski in Gameweek 6 to cover for Kane/Son.
Fixtures
- Look at the first 6-8 Gameweeks only
- No need to plan for the whole season because of the Wildcard and unlimited transfers after Gameweek 16.
- The earlier you plan to Wildcard, the less ahead you should look.
- Use a Fixture Ticker for breaking down the best fixtures for both attackers and defenders
- Ignore the unreliable FPL Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR)
- Pick players from the best teams
- Liverpool, City, Spurs and Arsenal all have good opening eight fixtures
- Bournemouth, Fulham and Palace have the worst opening eight fixtures
Money
- Spend most of your money on your starting XI
- Bench needed less with five subs now brought into play.
- Leaving 0.5m in the bank allows you to account for price rises/falls.
- One or two playing subs is fine.
- Look for value/minutes
- Easier to find a £4.5m playing defender than a £4.5m playing forward
- Spending money on players with more expected minutes reduces the chance you will have to rely on your bench.
- Avoid hyped-up cheap options as they can decrease your team value. Example: Sam Greenwood is highly owned but will get few minutes, which may make tons of managers sell him and decrease his price.
Pre-Season
- Use it to scout players and teams
- Is anyone playing ‘out of position’?
- Who is getting the most minutes?
- What formations are teams putting out?
- Look at the context of the results
- Who was the opponent?
- Are any key players missing?
- Avoid drawing definite conclusions
- Only because someone scored does not make them “essential.”
- Use pre-season as supportive data and not conclusive data.
- Keep track of transfers as bad picks can suddenly become good picks.
1 year, 8 months ago
Thanks for this, Paz! Good to get back to basics with a checklist like this when you're wrapped up in pre-season form, bandwagons and who knows what else.