It’s that time of year again folks and with just over a week left until the deadline, here are a few tips for assembling the team that’s going to take on this world this season.
Be a nerd and do your research
Sure, you’ll tell all your mates that you’ll casually throw a team together on the Friday night before the start of the new season, but Fantasy Football regulars know well at this stage that it pays to do your homework.
Everyone should know, for example, that Luis Suarez won’t be available for the first six games regardless of whether he’s playing for Liverpool, Arsenal or not even playing in the Premier League at all.
Cast your eye over Manchester United’s opening fixtures and you’ll see that they include clashes against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in the opening six games. Chelsea, on the other hand, have two games in the very first gameweek, both of which are at home and both of which, on paper at least (Aston Villa and Hull), look likely to result in comfortable home victories.
Part of the appeal of football and of Fantasy Football in particular is that it defies logic so managers prepared to put in the hours may or may not reap the benefits of the extra preparation, but they are less likely to be resorting to their wildcard within a few weeks.
Swallow your pride and discard your club loyalty
You might not like it, but it’s an accepted fact of Fantasy Football that if you want to succeed, sometimes you have to put your faith in individual players you might not like from clubs you profess to hate.
It must have broke a lot of Arsenal fans’ hearts, for example, to have to select Robin van Persie following his move to Manchester United at the start of last season, but if they didn’t pick him they were missing out on the highest points-scorer in the competition last season.
A similar situation may well arise with Luis Suarez or Wayne Rooney this season depending on how their ridiculously drawn-out transfer sagas conclude before the end of the month. If you want to do well, however, pride has to go out the window; much like Suarez and Rooney themselves this summer, a lack of loyalty is the way to go.
You don’t have to cheer loudly when they score or anything like that – even though you’ll probably be secretly delighted and might even feel a little bit dirty as a result – but Fantasy Football is a ruthless business and those who don’t adopt a cold and analytical approach will be left behind.
Hop shamelessly aboard any bandwagon before it’s too late
A scenario that is guaranteed to materialise throughout the season is an individual player going on a hot streak and leaving a manager with a dilemma as to whether to introduce said player as soon as possible, or wait it out until that inevitable hot streak comes to an end.
You might often hear a fellow Fantasy Football manager say: “Well, everyone else in my league has him so if he doesn’t do the business they’re all screwed.”
True, but while the player is doing the business, everyone else is picking up the points while you’re left languishing at the bottom of the table. Think of Michu last season, for example. Everyone waited for the goals to dry up and, barring one rough patch, they never really did. Papiss Cisse was the same the season before and there are too many examples to mention of players going on runs of five, six, 10 and even more matches where everything they touch turns to gold.
Most managers hopped aboard the Michu bandwagon last season and if you didn’t, you really should have
Just because you didn’t have a particular player before everyone else doesn’t mean you can’t shamelessly hop aboard the bandwagon when they’re doing well; there are no ethics in Fantasy Football and the sooner a manager realises it, the better.
Take a chance on a new signing
Michu, Eden Hazard and Robin van Persie last season, Sergio Aguero the season before, all examples of players who have made an immediate impact upon their introduction to their new clubs in recent seasons.
Hazard, for example, recorded five assists in his opening two league games for Chelsea and Michu couldn’t stop banging the goals in; some signings will take time to settle but some will endear themselves to the fans straight away and from a Fantasy Football point of view, it’s good to have one or more of those who belong to the latter category onside.
Of this season’s new arrivals, Chelsea’s André Schürrle (£8.0 million) was scoring goals at a rate of around one in every four in Germany in a Bayer Leverkusen side that were a distance behind the top two. The Premier League is a big step up from the SPL but Norwich’s Gary Hooper (£6.5 million) knows where the goal is and Liverpool’s Iago Aspas (£7.0 million) has looked decent in pre-season although managers should be wary of using that as a barometer of form when the real stuff starts.
Manchester City, meanwhile have gone quietly about their transfer business during the summer and with some relatively easy-looking fixtures before the Manchester derby on 22 September, it will be interesting to see if Alvaro Negredo, Stevan Jovetic (both £9.5 million), Fernandinho (£8.0 million) and Jesus Navas (£9.0 million) can make an instant impact.
Blessed are the set-piece takers
There are some players in the Premier League who are very, very good but don’t always have the Fantasy Football stats to back them up; the likes of Jack Wilshere, Michael Carrick come to mind.
Conversely, there are other players who might not be very good but because of their ability at free-kicks, corner-kicks and penalties they rack up the points. Leighton Baines (£7.5 million) is somebody who falls into both categories and has been a points goldmine in recent seasons but while not necessarily tagging them as only average players, keep an eye out for the likes of Charlie Adam (£6.0 million) and Chris Brunt (£5.5 million), whose dead-ball prowess could be a vital source of points in the season ahead.
As usual, we are running a Fantasy Football League on the site and if you were involved last year, lucky for you all you have to is to make sure you have a team in again this year and you will be included in the J-League.
If you haven’t previously been involved in the league, simply log onto the Fantasy Premier League website and enter the code 513657-130798 before the incredibly strict deadline on Saturday, 17 August at 11.30am, just 75 minutes before the start of the new season.
Let’s do this.
