Forbes Advocate

Basic tips for English Premier League fantasy managers

Basic tips for English Premier League fantasy managers
Basic tips for English Premier League fantasy managers

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The English Premier League (EPL) is arguably the most important league in football, at least for EPL fans. Many fans indulge in the fantasy premier league to support their teams, play with friends in mini-leagues, or compete against the world.

However, it isn't easy to outsmart over 8 million fantasy managers worldwide. So, today, we will discuss some basic tips for fantasy managers that will help beginners improve their fantasy teams, strategy, and ultimately, their overall rank throughout the season.

Basic tips for English Premier League fantasy managers

Here are some basic tips for English Premier League fantasy managers that will help them improve their overall rank.

  • Watch matches

It goes without saying that watching matches, at least of the top six teams, will help you better understand formations, injuries, and in-form players. If nothing else, catch up on Match of the Day to spot talent, player form, and understand which players can give returns.

  • Use your budget wisely

It is important to use your entire budget (£100m) at the start of the season, but you need to spread your funds and not spend half of it on 3 or 4 expensive players. Of course, you need a few heavy hitters, but it should not come at the cost of your entire team.

  • Formation and bench players

Ideally, you want to play more attackers in your team, as they have the most goal involvement. Midfielders get the most points for attacking returns and an extra point for clean sheets, which makes them very desirable. Your formation should ideally be 352 or 343 for most of the season.

Moreover, you need bench players that play at least 60 minutes (for 2 points) but aren't too expensive. Opt for £4m to £5m options nailed on to play. This way, you can spend more money on your starting 11 and still get some returns from bench players when needed.

  • Fixture planning

You should check upcoming fixtures of players to gauge their potential points in upcoming weeks. Check the Fixture Difficulty Ratings of players and teams for the most "green" fixtures in at least the next three to six game weeks to prevent wasting your transfers.

It also helps to stay up to date with the latest EPL odds, so you know which teams have better odds of winning upcoming matches. You can target key attacking players from favourable teams and plan to transfer them to your fantasy team.

  • Don't play the market

You need to understand how profit and loss work in the player market. You lose money easier than you make it. A player needs to go up by £0.2m for you to gain £0.1m when you sell them. This system is designed to prevent players from playing the market, and while profits are important, they shouldn't be the main reason you buy or sell players.

You should sell players when they lose form or when their situation changes like they are injured or benched indefinitely. Similarly, you should try buying players who are in good form or when they have a favourable run of fixtures coming up.

  • Evaluate the best and worst teams

It is important to evaluate which teams have the best and worst attacks and defence. This will help you capitalize on the best attackers against the worst defenders for attacking points and on the best defenders against the worst attackers for clean sheet points.

Alternatively, it will also help you avoid opposites.

  • Create an effective chip strategy

You need to learn how the Bench Boost, Free Hit, and Triple Captain chips work and create an effective strategy to use them. Since you can only use them once, try to make the most of each chip by targeting double game weeks or, if needed, blank game weeks.

It is also a universally known strategy to utilize the bench boost in a double game week, right after using a wild card in the previous week. This way, you can potentially have a full playing squad (15 players) of double game week players.

Alternatively, you could use your triple captain chip in a double game week on a heavy-hitting player with easy fixtures. There are many ways to use your chips and many ways to complement them with your wild cards or other aspects of the game.

Just make sure you aren't using chips to catch up on points. Instead, hold off on kneejerk reactions, plan your strategy, and only use chips when most beneficial.

Conclusion

The top English Premier League fantasy managers spend a lot of time gauging players, teams, following news, updates, and planning their transfers and strategy. You don't have to play or plan at their level as a beginner, but the mentioned tips will help you stay competitive and do well against your friends in mini-leagues.

Lastly, don't regret your choices or get disheartened by poor results. It is only a game and what's important is that you keep playing to the best of your abilities. We guarantee that you will learn from your mistakes and get better every season.

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