Just a simple guide for those who are new. Have fun learning! Can be navigated through "How to Play?" tab above as well.
Gameplay Strategies
- Statistics Rules, Not Team/Popularity/Preference
- Pick By Fixtures
- Money Business
- Big Guns for Captains
- Bonus Magnets
- Set Piece Marvels
- No Rubbish Benchwarmers
- Attack Takes Precedence
- Less Transfers = More Points
- Follow the Flow v Lead the Trend
- Double Decker
- Wildcard
- Research Gives You the Edge
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Fernando Torres
Unfortunately commercial value is useless in FPL.
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Statistics Rules, Not Team/Popularity/Preference
First thing first, not all Premier League stars are fantasy stars! Players like Fernando Torres is adored by millions of fans across the world, and yet, he is unproductive, both reality and fantasy, since he joined Chelsea (I am not ruling out the chances that he will shine this season though).
Therefore, it is always important to check for player goal, assist, clean sheet figures and make your decisions based on that. Not because of A is the player from your favourite team, B is your idol etc..
Pick By Fixtures
Not only that picking the right player matters, picking the right player at right time is important too. The opponents whom your players face generally affect your gameweek's fantasy scores. Good fantasy points are scored usually against lesser oppositions (e.g. West Ham, Wigan and Birmingham of last season) and the opposite against stronger foes (e.g. Man Utd, Chelsea and Man City).
Hence, to become a good fantasy manager you have to plan at least three to four gameweeks ahead and make squad/transfer decisions based on forthcoming fixtures.
Money Business
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Charlie Adam
Price hiked by more than £1m last season.
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For your information, prices of players rise/drop according to their performance and fantasy managers' transfer movements. Every £0.2m of price increase after your player is bought will amount to £0.1m of profit for selling the player.
With this at mind, it is again important to buy and also sell the right player at right time. A good transfer strategy will raise your budget significantly, allowing you to get better quality players as the season progresses. You will not want to lose simply because you cannot afford to buy strong players, will you?
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Robin van Persie
Big guns like him can score in average ten
points per game for months.
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Big Guns for Captains
Peacemaker-J's definition of BIG GUNS: players that can provide consistent double-digit or close to double-digit scores week in, week out. Examples: Robin van Persie, Carlos Tevez, Charlie Adam etc..
Big guns are the pillars for your teams: majority of your fantasy points will come from them. With that in mind, you should choose your desired big guns carefully and captain them strategically according to fixtures. Picking the correct captain will save you from misery when the rest of your team fails to score and give you a big leap in rankings when your other players perform well too.
Bonus Magnets
Peacemaker-J's definition of BONUS MAGNETS: players that score bonus points week in, week out due to their consistent and outstanding on field performance. Examples: Charlie Adam, Robin van Persie, Luka Modric etc..
What do bonus magnets provides? Not only that they provide extra points for you, but they also help to make your gameweek scores more consistent. Bear in mind that a top-ranked FPL player scores good points almost every gameweek, because a bad score will take you down a lot when you are at the upper band.
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Leighton Baines
He has a handsome left foot.
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Set Piece Marvels
Peacemaker-J's definition of SET PIECE MARVELS (I know you are getting boring): players who have good chances to score fantasy points (directly or indirectly) through free kicks, corners and penalties. Examples: Frank Lampard, Gareth Bale, Leighton Baines etc..
Why are set piece marvels good? Let's take Leighton Baines as example. Whenever Everton is awarded a free kick or corner at the front third, Baines the set piece taker will take it. Since every set piece in the opposition's area is a chance for a goal or assist, Baines will have much more opportunity than the rest of the team to score. It is not a coincidence that Baines was the highest scoring defender last season.
No Rubbish Benchwarmers
This sentence has two meanings, (1) your substitutions must be decent enough to cover your squad when needed; and (2) your squad should not have someone who warms the bench in reality most of the time.
In short, get cheap yet effective fifth midfielder (e.g. Joey Barton of Newcastle), fourth and fifth defender (e.g. Andy Wilkinson of Stoke City), third striker (e.g. Fraizer Campbell of Sunderland) and backup goalkeeper (e.g. Craig Gordon of Sunderland) to cover up your starter. Also, avoid those players you are uncertain of whether they will start a game (e.g. Berbatov, Chamakh).
Attack Takes Precedence
Before I begin, let's clarify on this: Offensive players/attackers are not limited to forwards. It simply means players who are productive in providing goals and assists. Ashley Cole, a defender, for me is more to an offensive player.
Whenever you have a dilemma of whether investing more on attack or on defence, choose the prior. The rational: every clean sheet gets you only 4 points, and you can only get one clean sheet per game. Every goal gets you 4/5/6 (forward/midfielder/defender) points and every assist gets you 3 points, and you can get more than one goal/assist per game. Added with the offensive trend of Premier League these recent seasons, attackers generally provide you better fantasy points.
Less Transfers = More Points
Every transfer more than your gameweek quota (1 or 2 depending on your actions) will deduct 4 points from your current gameweek score.
Therefore it is wise to control your temptation to make a transfer. Only transfer when you think it is necessary/inevitable. The top fantasy teams in general made less than five penaltied transfers per season.
Follow the Flow v Lead the Trend
Two very distinct strategies in FPL - follow the flow and lead the trend.
Follow the flow: imitating the majority's transfer, squad and captain decisions. A good way to learn the essences of FPL for newbie. You will not score too bad because when the majority scores "badly", you are not considered bad.
Lead the trend: forecasting the upcoming hot fantasy prospects through analysis and experience.This is for experts who want to lead and win the game and private leagues. Not an easy task if you are without experience.
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One of the crucial aspect of FPL that you
must pay more attention to.
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Double Decker
Peacemaker-J's definition of DOUBLE DECKER: due to game delays or fixture changes, some teams play twice in one single gameweek, providing chances to score higher points than usual.
Golden rule: buy players, start players and captain the top scorer of the team who are in a double decker in that particular gameweek.
Of course, don't do that if you don't think that that double decker team (e.g. relegating team) is going to perform.
Wildcard
A wildcard is a powerful weapon that allows fantasy managers to make unlimited transfers for the gameweek that it is being used. There are 2 wildcards available - one to be used anytime you like and another only for winter transfer period (2 Jan to 4 Feb).
Wildcards are so powerful that they can change the tide of the game (especially private leagues). They should only be used when they are really needed - either your team are performing awfully bad or you strongly believe that you can form a new team that can score significantly better than your current one.
One good moment to use wildcard is at first few gameweeks. By forming a new team with good form, you can start to widen the gap with your private league rivals and boost your transfer kitty (team value) through the value rise of the performing players.
Research Gives You the Edge
Just like a stock market, you need to make some research in order to make good investments. Study your players, keep intact for latest news and check out your team frequently to make you team better than your friends!
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