Well, that’s it. Another Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season is in the books. For me, there’s some huge disappointment about an overall rank that exceeded 400,000th.
Clearly, a lot of mistakes were made. But what can be learnt from a ‘bad’ season to ensure that the next one goes better? I remember that Scout’s own FPL General once said that he has a set of rules stuck to the side of his computer, which he always checks before making his weekly transfers.
With this in mind, I want to devise my own list of rules to keep in mind when 2025/26 commences.
Have some designated bench players
One of the things I found most annoying about last season was constantly getting benching decisions wrong. Time after time, I’d end up sidelining a double-digit haul. To rectify this, I need to stop giving myself difficult benching decisions.
So let’s pick cheap players that will always stay out of the starting XI. Specifically, my eighth attacker, fifth defender and second goalkeeper. That’s their designated roles; I’m going to pick players especially for those spots. I won’t rotate or add depth because a certain asset has been priced too cheap. Nobody is being picked to sit on my bench until a future fixture swing.
These players have one job only: to stay on my sidelines. Yes, I’d like them to be on the pitch getting some real-life game time, but their sole reason for being around is to be an autosub for emergencies, should there be a shock no-show.
Sure, I may get it wrong. That benched eighth attacker might rack up a great score one day. But knowing they were never in contention to start for me will soften the blow. To me, there was no decision to make, so it couldn’t be wrong.
Chase the points
It sounds obvious enough, right? Chase the points. But with so many traditional and expected goals (xG) stats in the Members Area, alongside Rob T algorithms that are getting cleverer and cleverer, the noise makes it easy to forget that the only thing that matters in FPL is points. Raw, pure points.
I’m not advocating playing the game like a complete casual, where you filter players by price on the FPL website and simply buy whoever has the most points.
But I want that to be my starting point. From there, check out relevant data like xG Delta, shot volume, chance creation frequency and goal conversion rates to see if such points are a flash in the pan, or sustainable in upcoming matches.
Be boring and obvious
AKA be more Jonty. One golden FPL rule is to always make the obvious transfer, but when you invest so much time into playing the game – reading articles, crunching numbers, listening to content creators, etc – it’s easy to lose sight of what is glaring.
All of a sudden, as the deadline approaches, you couldn’t think of anything more dull and tedious than that straightforward transfer. Then you try to be too clever. You convince yourself that the game is meant to be fun, so let’s try something spicy.
Sure, you may get a little high from rolling the dice on someone you think no one else has spotted, but that quickly turns to despair by Saturday evening when scrolling through your X timeline. Yet another self-inflicted, plunging red arrow.
How should managers identify the standout transfer? Check out the latest videos from a select few content creators that you trust, then see which player they’re all talking about. For example, in Gameweek 38, Jarrad Bowen was on a lot of thumbnail images. He was like the proverbial poop in a field; he was everywhere. If that player is still not in your FPL team, ask yourself why.
Don’t go against the crowd
As Lateriser once famously said, the crowd is not stupid when talking about picking differential captains. In 2025/26, one thing I want to make sure I do is – in that final hour before deadline – check my FPL team with the ‘Big FPL’ content guys. Flick through their deadline streams and make sure my players and captaincy aren’t deviating too much from the common consensus.
Again, if everyone on social media has the same set of core players, making almost identical key decisions, ask yourself why. Once the season is underway, when everyone is suddenly talking about players and teams being better or worse than expected, it’s easy to let something so obvious slip.
