You may be a seasoned veteran of the Fantasy Premier League world, with this season being your 5th tour of duty. Or perhaps you’re a novice to fantasy football, and still trying to untangle your way through the confusing world of assists, double gameweeks, free hits, bench boosts, FDR (fixture difficulty rating), etc. The terms can be quite simply endless.
Nevertheless, there are always tips and tricks to evolve your game and turn those red arrows green to climb up your league tables, whether it is discovering when is the best time to use your wildcard on transfers or researching predicted Premier League lineups for any given weekend.
New FPL season optimism
The overwhelming enthusiasm for the Fantasy Premier League has exploded over the past few years, with over 9 million people competing for the 21/22 season. It is a game that has incorporated so many, who may not necessarily be football fanatics, but love competition and games. Friendships have been forged and blossomed over the absurdity of Fantasy football. Social norms have been breached and average fans have been able to feel a close connection to those stars they watch on the pitch every week, as they both compete at the same level through fantasy premier league. Conversations in the weeks leading up to the official Premier League season opener are full of FPL banter, as well as hope for one’s FPL team during the upcoming season.
However, initial FPL excitement typically wanes after a couple of poor early game weeks (GWs) and, as a result, teams get left sitting idle for months.
Yet did you know there are easy ways to recover from early FPL setbacks?
One being to follow the people and websites who dedicate their lives to the emotional rollercoaster that is Fantasy Premier League.
FPL tricks of the trade
One way to keep your team’s head well above water is to pick your team based on a number of factors, including tracking predicted Premier League lineups, looking at injuries and suspensions, and researching the odds of a player’s chances of gaining a score or an assist.
Tracking data like this might seem extremely time consuming, but we live in a day and age where there are websites out there who do this work for you.
The starting player, who plays a minimum of 60 minutes, brings in at least 2 points. This might not sound like a lot, but fantasy premier league is such a game where 2 points could be the difference of several places in your overall ranking.
Predicted lineups: An underused tool
The Premier League season is a long 9-month slog, and sometimes it is difficult to keep up with which players are playing regularly and which ones have dropped out of the team, due to any number of reasons. The number of FPL points that are dropped by simply not paying attention to which player will be starting a game would surprise you, such is the importance of looking at predicted lineups.
While it’s not always 100% accurate (nothing in the world of fantasy premier league is 100% guaranteed, unfortunately), taking a glance at likely premier league lineups before the deadline to confirm your FPL team for a GW is the most underrated way of climbing leagues and getting those green arrows beside your ranking.
Sites such as the official Fantasy Premier League site also use the latest team news, stats, lineup predictions, and set-piece takers, which are updated on a daily basis, to predict (to the closest possible accuracy) which are the best players for a FPL team owner to target for that particular gameweek.
Help with fantasy football
Other tips and tricks these sites use to help you maximise your GW points tally include focusing on player form and ratings, the fixture difficulty level for a certain team, up-to-date price level changes, and, perhaps most importantly, teams of fantasy premier league experts who dedicate their the majority of their time to staying up to date with the most miniscule FPL news, enabling them to write up strategy guides and articles designed to keep you ahead of your rivals, and hopefully FPL glory amongst your friends.