No matter your experience or expertise in relation to playing Fantasy Premier League, odds are your most essential objective is to finish as high in overall rank as possible. Naturally, anyone who signs up for FPL for the first time is automatically placed in the overall pool, and you can monitor their overall rank week to week.  But as you begin to play, you may not notice that there are standard “mini-leagues” you can join or create in which the league is pared down to just a handful or several hundred managers, making the goal of finishing first not as ominous as competing for first place amongst nearly three million managers. At the end of the day though, the concept of the game is unchanged — it’s your total overall score against others.

What IS offered within the FPL game that is conceptually different is the Head to Head league. This type of league is similar to many who are familiar with playing fantasy American football. A league is made up of an even number of managers, the computer generates a schedule, and each gameweek, your task is to defeat the particular opponent you’ve been matched up against. Unlike American fantasy football, FPL Head to Head leagues use the familiar table format in tracking the standings, 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, zero for a loss. Throughout the season, tracking your Head to Head leagues adds a bit of role play in this game of fantasy. Now, instead of just saying, “Hey, I’m ranked 384,609th in the world,” which doesn’t sound all that impressive, you can say “Hey, I just won my 5th straight match, and I am now 2nd in the table”.

You may find that strategy in regards to transfer moves and captaincy choice will alter when taking Head to Head matchups into consideration. In a week where you are going to play against someone you know, and you want nothing more than to beat them, you will be prone to making managerial choices you would not have otherwise made.

For example, any team you are playing against in a given week can be and should be viewed closely by looking at that manager’s gameweek history and appraising the players they had from the previous week. As far as any transfers made during the week leading up to your matchup, you cannot see who your opponent has taken in or out, but you can confirm how many, if any, transfers were made during your opponent’s build up to your match by looking at the Gameweek Transfers on their team page. You may find when looking at your opponent’s team and comparing it to your own, that you do not like your chances that week. Perhaps many of your best players have tough fixtures, or you have been beaten by the injury stick. Instead of thinking in terms of “what transfer is best for my club in the long run,” (whether it be to get rid of a suspended player losing cash value on your team or making a point to get a defender who has not just a good matchup for the week you are buying him, but several good matchups upcoming to be useful for the foreseeable future), you plan for the short term, and do whatever it takes to beat your opponent.

So instead of maybe using your one free transfer to make a logical move, you find it impossible to ward off the temptation of taking an 8 point hit to roll the dice and bring in a little extra firepower.  Or maybe there is an obvious candidate for captaincy in a gameweek, and you and your opponent both own that player. If you feel the rest of your squad is not as potent as your rival’s, you may opt to give the armband to someone else, knowing captaining the same player is just going to cancel itself out. You may even be so focused on winning a Head to Head match, you play your wildcard in a moment of weakness.

One way or another, making your decisions based on Head to Head leagues will cause an alternative universe, for better or for worse.  In playing the standard game, your objective is clear — make the correct transfers.  You may wisely decide this is the week to downgrade an expensive forward so you can free up funds to bring in an expensive midfielder the following week. It may mean your squad for that week isn’t as strong as it could be, but it is a move designed for an overall bigger payoff down the road. It is difficult to think in these terms when playing Head to Head. You will feel compelled to make drastic moves designed for short term payoffs, and doing this will normally make you more susceptible to taking points hits. and alter the overall structure and philosophy of your team. However, having said that, it is entirely possible that 8 point hit you otherwise wouldn’t have taken can wind up being a fantastic move that pays off big.

My personal strategy in dealing with Head to Head leagues is this: Stick to your normal approach in your decision making, with your overall rank as top priority, for at least the first dozen gameweeks until about the halfway point of the season. If at that time, your objective of finishing inside the top 5k overall looks impossible, or whatever your goal may be, then begin to focus more on your Head to Head leagues.  Even if things have not gone well for you up until that point, unless you are extremely unlucky, you should still be in the hunt in your Head to Head leagues, having won a few gameweeks where your score itself may not have been impressive, but you were fortunate enough to earn a win against a manager whose week was even worse.  Instead of wallowing in frustration of a lost season in regards to your overall score, have some fun and focus your attention on ruining another manager’s week. If there is one common element to all fantasy games, no matter how poorly of a season you may be enduring, it is the thrill of dishing out the smack talk to your buddies.

May your arrows be green.

Follow me on Twitter at @FuzzyWarbles.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

Those of you familiar with the independent film of the early 80’s may recall a documentary titled Koyaanisqatsi. It was a mesmerizing journey through the impact of man on the earth throughout our history, featuring some beautiful images, while many of them were grim. The film title is derived from a phrase used by the Hopi tribe that means “life out of balance”. If you are anything like me, you are facing a daily battle of maintaining balance in your life, typically with mixed results.

So maybe you let your bills pile up for too long, or you neglect your yard maintenance for too long or your exercise routine does not validate the mandatory two doughnut per day requirement necessary to perform daily life functions. By the way, when I say “you”, I am obviously referring to myself. I admittedly suffer from “life out of balance”. But that does not mean I cannot find an alternative universe where I am able to balance things more efficiently and can be rewarded for my discipline and equilibrium. There is always Fantasy Premier League (FPL).

Today I want to emphasize the importance of balance in the maintenance of your FPL team. This is a concept that will include some examples but the idea in general is what’s important. First, I think it best to break down your budget as applied to your positions. This is generally where I feel money should be spent, using a £100.0m budget as a measuring stick:

Keepers: £9-10.5 mil

Defenders: £25-27 mil

Midfielders: £37-39 mil

Attackers: £29-31 mil

Now if you add up the lowest number from each position, you arrive at £100m.  The additional range is meant to imply that you should be wary of spending any more than that listed limit for fear of taking too much funding away from another area. It also compensates for managers growing team value as the season rolls along, and those additional funds can be allocated as such.

Here is a breakdown of individual slots at each position.

Keeper – Unless there is an injury and a 4.0 backup emerges, all starting keepers range from a price of 4.5m to 6.5m.  You either take the minimum, two rotating 4.5 keepers for 9m, or the maximum, an elite every week starter at 6.5m and a non-playing cheapie at 4.0m, maxing you out at the 10.5 limit.

Defender – 5 positions, I break them down by price:

DEF1: 6.5m, DEF2: 5.5m, DEF3: 4.5m, DEF4: 4.5m, DEF5: 4.0m–TOTAL: £25m

To me, you take two solid defenders in that 6.5-5.5 range that you intend to play every week. When one of these players hits a tough run of fixtures, use a transfer to a find a monetarily similar replacement. Then you opt for two 4.5 defenders that rotate nicely to fill that required 3rd defender spot. Finally a dirt cheap fill in 4.0m option that can free up the budget and will rarely feature in your XI.

Midfielder – 5 more positional breakdowns:

MID1: 10m, MID2: 9m, MID3: 8m, MID4: 5m MID5: 5m–TOTAL: £37m

This budget allocation allows for premium mids as long as you can find those bargain 5m options on the back end. This season, there has been plenty of those; Aaron Ramsey, Ross Barkley, Robbie Brady, all started the season at 5.0-5.5m, and are atop the leaderboard at the position at the moment.  These are guys you usually will want to hang on to for as long as possible (except for Brady, now, who is injured for 4-6 weeks), focusing your transfers on the more expensive mids where their price means they need to be in form to justify the money.  Maybe you feel you need Michu, perhaps David Silva has been letting you down. Keeping 27m always amongst your top 3 mids ensures you have the cash to bring in a heavy hitter.

Forward – 3 more to go:

FWD1: 12m, FWD2: 10m, FWD3: 7mil

All the cost cutting that causes managers headaches in the other positions is done for one important reason: to be able to own whoever you want at the 3 coveted forward positions.  This is where a team can most likely suffer Koyaanisqatsi, and fall out of balance.  One common scenario is the manager that put too much into his forwards, he went RVP, Aguero, Suarez.  Well, now he wants Lukaku because he is looking the business at 7.5m. Simples, bring in Lukaku for Suarez and pocket around 4m.  The tendency for this manager is to look at his current squad and think, “I can use this 4 million and upgrade my worthless 4m defender to Leighton Baines!” Problem is, now you’ve thrown a ton of cash into defense, and this unbalanced spiral begins. Eventually, you want Suarez back without dropping Aguero or RVP for him.  Where did that extra 4 mil go? Now you are looking at multiple transfers just to get back the guy you had to begin with.

Long story short, accept the fact that you can only own one, maybe two elite strikers at a time. Just pick the right ones! If you have the discipline, you will always keep enough in the bank to make a switch to any striker you want in one transfer rather than taking hits.

May your arrows be green.

Follow me on Twitter at @FuzzyWarbles.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

Before the start of every Fantasy Premier League season, veterans of the game such as myself have their own version of Christmas morning — when the game goes live, and more importantly, when the prices of players are released. Much scrutinization occurs over the next several weeks over which players look a value at the start of the season. One key element in weighing players, specifically defenders and midfielders, is recognizing out-of-position (OOP) prospects. Players who are classified OOP will return more fantasy points for you than those who are not, mainly clean sheet points.  Most defenders offer little in attacking returns. To have a defender that is playing farther forward and attempting to garner those attacking returns while still getting credited for four clean sheet points is worth its weight in gold.

There are two main reasons a player becomes or is considered to be OOP:

1.  The first is a natural move by the player himself, or a decision made by that club’s manager.  Someone at Left Back the previous season may have shown an asset to the club by getting forward a ton and contributing to goals but also showed below average defensive ability. That manager may shift the player, who is viewed as an overall positive influence on the starting XI, from a left back to a left midfield spot.  Naturally, the folks running the FPL site have no knowledge of this change in position during the offseason and can’t assume anything. Generally, a player will be designated to whatever position they appeared most in the previous season. But if you are following the news closely during the preseason, you can make that assumption yourself.

Anyone ever heard of Gareth Bale? You know, that rarely talked about player that went to another league or something. YES, him. Bale actually began his Spurs career as a bonafide left back.  Then, he kept showing such pace and creativity, he was moved up to a midfield position. In the past couple of seasons, we have witnessed him become one of the most lethal players when on the ball. By the end of his time with Spurs, he was their center forward.  So lesson being, players get moved out-of-position by their managers based on their developing skill set and fantasy managers need to take advantage.

2. The second scenario for an OOP player is the club’s formation and how FPL decides to classify the players in that formation. For defenders in question, some managers will adopt a 3-5-2 formation where the club goes with three center backs and two “wing” backs — players that would be full backs in a conventional 4-man defense are now playing farther up the pitch with defensive midfielders tucked within.

Current Everton boss Roberto Martinez used this formation with Wigan, and though the Lactics rarely kept clean sheets, it made players like Emmerson Boyce and Jean Beausejor fantasy relevant. The former notched 4 goals last season for Wigan; the latter, 7 assists. Not bad returns for budget priced defenders.

The same goes for OOP midfielders and the 4-3-3 formation. This is another “wing” situation where the player classified as a midfielder is playing farther forward, supporting the striker on either side. Now there seems to be some discrepancy over the classification of players in this formation over recent seasons. For whatever reason, the wing players in a 4-3-3 for Liverpool are almost always classified as forwards, hence no OOP scenario. Other clubs seem to get away with it just fine. Theo Walcott has been playing the wing for Arsenal for a few seasons now, occasionally even starting as a lone striker, but for whatever reason, is continually listed as a midfielder. His fantasy returns are such that he would be worth investment at any position (when he returns from injury), but an OOP midfielder is so valuable because the attacker position is so sacred, with only three spots available. Chelsea have players like Eden Hazard, who is listed as a forward in other versions of fantasy PL games, as a midfielder as well.

Now, I could spend the remainder of this column listing who is currently an OOP player in the FPL game, but my job is not to play your game for you. Instead, I will offer up this season’s most obvious example for an OOP defender. OOP defenders are so valuable because you are essentially paying for a midfielder that can get you 4 clean sheet points. This season, when the game went live and all the players and prices were listed, one name jumped off the page and went straight into my draft, stayed there through the first deadline, and is still in my squad — Seamus Coleman of Everton.

What’s funny about Coleman is that a few seasons ago, he was the perfect OOP prospect. Priced at a £4.0m minimum, playing for a top 10 side.  He was very young and had to impress David Moyes enough to become a regular and he did. He finished among the leaders at his position and his price ballooned to £5.2m by seasons end. For the next two seasons, he was then classified as a midfielder, and no one invested and his fantasy returns were minimal. Now this year, he’s back at being a defender in the game and is currently fourth in scoring at his position and looks a lock to be a top 10 defender by season’s end, barring injury. His price has averaged better than a £0.1m increase every gameweek.  If you don’t have him already, he’s still worth the price in my opinion if you get on board now.

May your arrows be green.

Follow me on Twitter at @FuzzyWarbles.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

The Fantasy Premier League game isn’t just about goals, assists and clean sheets. That would be too simple. No, there’s much more to it than that, and that is what makes this game so intriguing. It is as complex and absorbing as a manager chooses to make it. This game is about prediction. No one has the superpower of predicting everything spot on. A player that has all the criteria aligned to emerge with a huge fantasy haul in a given match can pull up with a hamstring injury five minutes in.  Yes, Rafael van der Vaart… I’m looking at you.

A major component in the scoring of FPL is the Bonus Point System. This aspect of the game has been modified over the years. It used to be strictly based on the perception of the human eye.  Reporters were assigned to each game, and they would determine who deserved recognition, and assigned bonus points accordingly. Then, for the past couple of seasons, the Bonus Point System was altered to a system determined by a computer that would reward points based on cold hard statistics. The problem with this version of the BPS in many manager’s eyes was that it had become too goal-centric and that almost always, the points were allocated to the winning side only.

Now this season, the BPS has been modified yet again, and this time, I feel they got it right. New statistics have been added  to the BPS criteria, players now get credited points for the following that go toward their Bonus Points total (along with the standard criteria):

1.) For every 3 open play crosses

2.) For every significant chance created

3.) For every 8 clearances, blocks, and interceptions (totaled)

4.) For every 8 recoveries

5.) For every 3 key passes

6.) For every 3 successful tackles when combined with unsuccessful tackles

7.) Match winning goal

8.) Pass completion success rate (at least 30 passes made)

You also have events that subtract from this bonus system:

1.) Missing a “big chance”

2.) Making an error that leads to a goal (hello Jonjo Shelvey)

3.) Every two errors that lead to an attempt on goal

4.) Being tackled 3 times

5.) Conceding 2 fouls

6.) Caught offsides 3 times

7.) Every 3 shots off target

What this new system does is level the playing field and making just about any player on the pitch eligible for bonus points, whereas in the past, these points were mainly reserved for those scoring goals or providing assists ONLY. Now, a holding midfielder and defender in general do not necessarily need to score a goal or keep a clean sheet to earn their reward. Defenders, especially center backs, do not have to be the attacking threat they once needed to be in order to ever see bonus.

Currently, after four Gameweeks of action, there are 14 FPL players that have earned 5 bonus points or more. Eight of them, over half, are defenders. The leading defender in bonus, Leighton Baines, has yet to provide a goal or an assist this season. It is because of this shift in the BPS that managers are beginning to consider 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 formations, whereas in the past, playing only 3 in the back was a given. Couple this with the fact that scoring as a whole in the Premier League is way down so far this year, and one must consider if their philosophy of the past needs to be readdressed.

My advice is as follows. This appears to be a season where midfield is the weakest link in the formation. Spend your cash on your strikers as you normally would, but instead of having 4 high priced midfielders, try replacing one with a budget option and invest more in defense.  Baines, Vidic, Walker, Zabaleta, Enrique, Ivanovic… there are plenty of high priced defenders to consider. But this season, instead of having only one or perhaps two from the elite class, it may be time to roll with three of these type options, and finding a nice rotating option for your 4th and 5th defenders and give a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 a try.

May your arrows be green.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

You can make some great decisions in the Fantasy Premier League game: bringing the right players in and out at the right time, choosing the right defenders to bench each week, and so on. But the most important decision, the one that will make or break your Gameweek more often than not is choosing the right captain. Getting it wrong, even when your overall score for the week is a solid one, can cause a dark cloud hanging over you, as you double your 2 points to 4, while another player throws up a 15 that could have been 30. It is enough to develop an ulcer.

There is no one secret that can be shared to provide you with the right method of choosing a captain in a given Gameweek. But what follows, I feel, are the most important factors in determining your captain. Combine these factors to assist in making your selection.

1.) Consistency Overall – Does this player produce more often than not? There is a reason Robin van Persie costs £14million. Not only does he score regularly from match to match, he is capable of bagging a brace or more in any given fixture.  Any player can pop up with a big score—do not rely on a player having a big previous gameweek as the sole reason for giving him the armband. Look at his performance record. Has the player scored/assisted multiple goals before? The more consistent a player is, the likely more expensive they are in the game, and when they play, are the most reliable. But there are other things to consider…

2.) Current Form – How has the player done in the past 2-4 matches? While one big Gameweek can be achieved by any random player, several good games in a row is a pattern. If I have RVP and Christian Benteke, and in the past four matches, Benteke has scored three goals to RVP’s zero, I’m going to side with Benteke. This is especially true for strikers. Their output is more goal reliant than anywhere else. If they are not in form, you are facing a high probability of a 2 pointer doubled to 4.

3.) Opponent – With all other factors being equal, I will take someone like Michu vs Sunderland over Olivier Giroud vs Manchester United. Odds are, players with equal form and consistency will fare better against bottom side clubs rather than the top clubs.  Simple logic, the better teams are tougher to score against if you captain an attacker, and are tougher to keep out of goal if you are captaining a defender.

4.) Home Game – Predictably, more often than not, a player produces better at home. Like most things, there are exceptions to the rule, but for the most part, when looking at a player’s fantasy output over the course of the season, you will find more points scored overall at home. This should not be a primary reason to captain, but it provides another tiebreaker when trying to choose between your options.

5.) Injury/Rotation – Rotation is especially important for teams in Cup play.  Clubs who are playing a heavy schedule with midweek games are more likely to rotate players, causing headaches for fantasy managers. Chelsea players are especially dangerous to captain. Outside of their keeper, Jose Mourinho has a ton of world class players at his disposal.  With Champion’s League aspirations, he has no qualms about resting a star player at any given time.  Eden Hazard is an example of a player that would be perfect for the armband, assuming the above mentioned criteria has been met. But know the risks.  What is especially painful about rotation is, the player you captained does not get the start, but makes a sub appearance in the 85th minute, contributes nothing, and you have just doubled a 1-pointer into a 2-pointer.  Avoid rotation threats. As far as injuries go, pretty self-explanatory. If there is even a slight doubt about a player’s fitness, better to play it safe and look elsewhere.

Generally an attacking player is preferred when choosing the captain, but as we have seen, especially with this year’s change in the Bonus Point system, defenders have to be considered as well.  I think most managers tend to avoid doing it because if you lose that clean sheet five minutes in, it appears to be a failure with 85 minutes to go, whereas a striker sitting on 2 points in the 85th minute always has a shot at coming good in the final five.  If you play a defender, consider one that has attacking potential to go along with his clean sheet potential. Players like Seamus Coleman and Pablo Zabaleta are atop the current leaderboards thanks to their clubs ability to keep clean sheets and for their attacking threat, which they achieve by playing farther forward.  Measure these factors and pick the right captain!

May your arrows be green.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

It’s that time of the season where the transfer deadline day has ended, the first international break of the season is upon us, and we have time to sit on our hands to contemplate what we should do to improve our Fantasy Premier League team.

As mentioned in last week’s column, there’s always a wild card to be played, and this is the first Gameweek of the season where one can validate its use. There is no use in concealing the truth any longer to you the reader… I activated my wild card this Gameweek. In the years I’ve been playing Fantasy Premier League, I have used my wild card at different stages of the season. But I felt justified in playing it now as I didn’t jump on the right players earlier in the season.

After seeing such exciting new potential players to have including Mesut Ozil, Erik Lamela and Mamadou Sakho, I had to have them. And when I went to move a few players around, they all fit in perfectly — with £0.0 to spare.  I knew that if I were to gradually make the transfers to shape this wild card squad, the funds would not be there. So, in a moment of weakness, I pulled the trigger. I was even given an “Are you sure?” prompt.  Summarily ignored.

My advice to you this week is to do as I say and not as I do. This is mainly because at this stage of the two week layoff, you will not reap the benefits of building team value you would have had, had you done it immediately after the last deadline.  But as far as transfer planning in general goes, this is the week to study the player movement that took place at the transfer window, and determine how they affect your current squad.

For instance, I am a Kolo Toure owner from Gameweek 1.  With the addition of Mamadou Sakho to Liverpool’s central defense, as well as Toure being injured, it is all but a guarantee that the French international who’s about 10 years younger than Toure, will immediately take the elder’s spot. So if you remain logical and disciplined and hang on to your wild card, which I was unable to do, before considering the “must-have” player to bring in, consider how players on their new clubs affect the players you already have. Having to wait an extra week or two to buy a player for 0.2 or 0.4 more than you would had you bought from the start is far more tolerable than being stuck with a player who is now not starting for you and eating up £5-9 million of your budget. Also bear in mind, that even with major signings, there isn’t a guarantee these marquee players will be handed starts immediately.

Plus, be weary of players who may get injured on international duty, or may still be jetlagged by the time the new Premier League Gameweek kicks off on September 14.

So in summary, avoid doing what I have regretfully done (unless it turns out to be genius, then of course, why didn’t you follow my lead?). Evaluate the player movement and plan your transfers accordingly. Odds are, one way or another, the value of one of your players, for better or worse, has likely drastically been altered.

May your arrows be green.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

This week’s Fantasy Premier League tips focus on the precious wildcard. If well-timed, the wildcard can be an opportunity to make huge strides with your side as you yearn to climb the rankings. It is a tense feeling, that moment in the transfer section of the game when you click “Play wildcard” and open Pandora’s Box. One could play their wildcard at any moment in time, but perhaps you should have a plan as to when to open that box.

Here are the seven scenarios of when you should consider using your wildcard, and why:

1.) After Gameweek 1 – This scenario has already passed us by this season but the premise is simple: You had an abysmal first gameweek. All of your selections look wrong, while everyone else racked up the points. This is usually not a good idea. Unless you have really been beaten with the unlucky stick, stand your ground. Your selections may not have paid off week 1, but unless you have a situation where you don’t think you can start a complete XI in Gameweek 2 due to injuries or players not starting, give your current team a longer look.

2.) After the Transfer Window Closes/International Break – This is the earliest time where I think there is a legitimate reason to play your wildcard. You’ve had a few gameweeks to scrutinize your squad. It is clear it’s not going in the direction you want it to. Heading into Gameweek 4, there is a two week gap between Premier League fixtures. It is also the period when the summer transfer window closes. Playing your wildcard here will allow you to take advantage of late player movement– sometimes a player who looks not worthy of investment on one club can turn into a bargain in their new environment. Also, a two week period for transfers to be made within the fantasy game creates a greater chance of earning team value by bringing in players who are rising in price as there is more transfer movement.

3.) The Holiday Season – In December, the Premier League schedule gets quite busy, resulting in stretches where clubs are playing 3 matches in seven or eight days. This period is when the real-life managers will rotate their starters out more frequently for sake of rest, making it ever so hard to put out a fantasy XI where all your desired starters are starting every match. One could conceivably create a wildcard team geared toward this period of the schedule, drafting in players based on guaranteed pitch time. While using your wildcard to take advantage of this is admirable in its intention, I find this strategy a little too clever for its own good.

4.) Saved for Double Gameweeks – This is probably the most popular strategy in the veteran FPL community. Without fail, there will be fixtures moved around because of Cup commitments or inclement weather. When the rescheduled fixtures are announced, this creates double gameweeks. You can stockpile a starting XI playing 22 matches if you choose wisely and have a gigantic points haul that can take your Fantasy Premier League team from grinding it out in the rankings to shooting way up the leaderboard.

5.) Double Down with January Wildcard – While option 4 is my most recommended, if it can be done in January in congruence with option 5 here, then you can really hit the jackpot. We are all given a second wildcard to use, but only for the month of January, to aid managers who may be severely crippled by player movement in the January transfer window. You can organize the playing of both of your wildcards so that you can have a really strong team for the entire month. The only downside is, it feels a bit of a waste if the first of your two wildcards still looks good when you plan to play your second.

6.) Destroy your Rival – If you have patiently held your wildcard through January and the FPL season begins to dwindle, what better reason to play it than to punish your rivals in standard and head-to-head leagues? If you have a friend or opponent that you just want nothing better to do than beat, use that wildcard with brute force. This is especially entertaining in a head-to-head league scenario where your opponent may glance at your previous week’s team, thinking he or she has an idea what they are in for, only to be blindsided by a FPL smackdown.

7.) In Case of Emergency – Hey, just hold on to it until a disaster occurs. It could be gameweek 6, 26 or 36. Inevitably, every FPL manager will face a crisis of some sort with their squad. Two starters injured, another suspended for 3 matches, another dropped from the XI the week prior, another just hasn’t done diddly-squat in four Gameweeks and you are fed up. Well, here’s a chance to right the ship and start from scratch. It’s your ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card. Everybody deserves a second chance, don’t they?

May your arrows be green.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

Well, the first gameweek of the Fantasy Premier League season is complete. There’s plenty to digest as we get a first real evaluation of how teams are shaping up in reality and what the repercussions are in fantasy. There is no other gameweek during the FPL season that has more impact on deciding what to do with your team more than the aftermath of GW1 heading into GW2. It’s one thing while the season is in full swing to react to a transfer or two you’ve made, or what to do about an injury or a player losing his spot in the starting XI. But after GW1, you have to react and consider the selections of ALL 15 players you started the season with, while also considering the unpredicted players who shined in GW1 that you don’t own. Now you really need to consider building your budget, and that involves dropping and adding your players at the right time.

Generally, as a rule of thumb, you do not want to make your transfers for the week until as close to the deadline as possible. The logic is simple. A lot can happen between a player bagging a brace on a Saturday and the following week’s deadline — mainly, an injury during training. Customarily, managers of Premier League clubs hold a press conference on the Friday before their weekend match. Much information can be gleaned from these reports, as managers will either be kind enough to state if a player is available for selection or the not-so-kind will at least drop a hint to their intentions. Once all the “pressers” have been released, it’s safe to go ahead and make your transfer as there is little to no further information given from any club between then and the deadline.

Now, while it is logical to play it safe and wait until the last minute to make your transfers, sometimes it is worth it to take risks and make your transfers early. While the specific reasons vary a bit for doing this, there is one driving force behind taking this risk….MONEY. As mentioned in the introductory column, it is vital to gain an edge in this game over the casual player by monitoring the rising and falling prices of players, and planning your transfers accordingly. Each night, roughly around 9:45pm EST, the FPL game processes the transfer movement by managers in the game, and based on a combination of ownership percentage and movement of a given player, will increase or decrease a players cost by 0.1. Remember this: A player’s price cannot increase or decrease by more than 0.3 in a given gameweek.

Get to know the statistical filters offered by the Fantasy Premier League game on the Transfers page of your team. They are your friends. You can monitor two statistics in these filters that will give you an idea of players in the game who are about to rise or fall. Mainly, the “transfers in/out (by round)” filter will offer a clue as to who to expect to change in price, but you can get an even more accurate idea by comparing this filter for a particular player to the “teams selected by %” filter. The more ownership of a player, the more transfers in or out it takes to affect their cost. Conversely, the players with low ownership take less total transfers in or out to cause a price change. There are resources that provide daily projections/predictions for price changes out there. One I personally use is totalfpl.com. Bear in mind, information offered on this subject is not recognized by the FPL game as being official or accurate. Use at your own discretion.

Normally, the most transfer traffic is done within 24 hours after the deadline (as a reaction to the bulk of matches played on Saturdays) or 24 hours before the deadline. You may want to take risks, especially early in the season, to make your transfers early. And you can justify taking -4 point hits in the early gameweeks to risk early transfers to bring in “essential” players and removing your “mistakes,” before the bandwagons begins and player prices fluctuate like mad.

As a tip for this week, think about your Chelsea and Aston Villa players. Most managers invested in both of these clubs because of their opening Double Gameweek. Well, for every week a club gets a double, there will be a week where they get a blank. For these two clubs, this will occur in Gameweek 3. So for Chelsea, this means playing Manchester United away from home during Gameweek 2, then playing no one the following week. This will no doubt cause a surge of transfers out of Chelsea players between now and the Gameweek 3 deadline. Romelu Lukaku, thought to be Chelsea’s starting striker, has already dropped by 0.1 after surprisingly not getting the starting nod in either of the Blues matches, and will continue to plummet between his lack of playing time, their next tough opponent, and the blank gameweek that follows. Unless you want to lose a lot of money, this is an example of a player to drop sooner rather than later.

On the other side of things, managers love to pounce on budget priced players who put up great numbers before their price rises to the point where they no longer represent the value they had from the start. Defender Luke Shaw fits this profile and has already begun to rise in price as few managers started the season with him in their lineups. If you want Luke Shaw, hurry up and get him before he gets too expensive. This is why I personally justify early season points hits. Not only am I getting a player at his cheapest (4.5 for Shaw at the start), I am also now earning team value as each rise in his price gradually increases my team’s total budget. I am also rather certain that a large number of managers will play their wildcard after week 1, overreacting to a disappointing first week. This means even more player movement than usual, and as a result, more price changing. If you deem a player essential and it takes a hit to get him in now, you have my blessing.

Finally, a piece of advice on transfer strategies in general. Much like the majority of managers believe it wise to invest more of your money in attack rather than defense, the same principle applies to transfers. You should be making a large percentage of your transfers for the season in attack, less so in defense, and only if truly vital at the keeper position. When you bring in a defender, you should be thinking long term, say 6 gameweeks or more. A player that will start for you most if not all the time thanks to a kind run of fixtures. By minimizing transfers made at the back, you can use more of them without cost in attack where you can bring in the players who are at top form and offer the potential for some gargantuan point hauls.

May your arrows be green.

Editor’s note: Join the World Soccer Talk private league version of Fantasy Premier League so you can compete against the readers and editors of World Soccer Talk. Discover how to join our private league for free today.

Editor’s note: Today’s Fantasy Premier League feature marks the debut of a brand-new weekly feature on World Soccer Talk — Fantasy Premier League Strategist — written by FPL expert Steve Rothgeb where he offers several inside tips to help you increase your FPL point score each week.

Don’t forget there’s still plenty of time to pick your team for this season’s Fantasy Premier League game, which is free to play. As we do every year, we’ve created a private league version that you can join so you can compete against the readers of World Soccer Talk. Find out how to join our private league today.

The Fantasy Premier League game continues to grow in popularity with each new season. And with each new season comes a wave of new managers ready to give the game a try. This weekly column will be dedicated to analyzing the many different strategies to consider throughout the season. For this first column, it’ll be more focused on beginners or those FPL players who need a refresher on what to consider when building your FPL squad.

Here are my 8 tips:

1.) Budget –  You have £100 million to spend on 2 keepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 strikers. The general philosophy is to budget where you can in defense in order to invest in more dynamic players in attack. There is no reason to have two keepers who cost more than £5 million each. Either pick a nailed-on option from a top club who will never be rested along with a £4 million keeper you will never start. Or find a pair of cheap keepers whose schedule rotates well with each other. There is no reason to spend more than £10.5 million on keepers. Typically you want to spend as little as you can in defense while still fielding relevant players, investing more and more in attack.

2.) Rotation – As alluded to above, rotation is a vital strategy to this game.  In your defense, out of five open spots, you want to pick 2 or 3 that look good for at least the first 6 gameweeks that will be your every week starters while in your side, and fill the final 2 to 3 slots with budget £4.5, £4.0 options. More often than not you will want to roll out a formation of 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. You must start with a minimum of 3 defenders, and that’s typically what managers will opt for as they will want as many attacking players in their XI as possible. Rotation is key because if you can find two cheap defenders, whose home/away games rotate so that one is always playing a home match, they can fill that final slot in defense.

3.) Coverage – You are allowed up to three players from any club in your squad at any given time. Sometimes it’s more important to make sure you have at least one from a top side for “coverage”. This is especially true for top clubs with an easy stretch of schedule. For this season, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham all have a relatively kind run of fixtures to begin with, with potential for higher fantasy output as compared to the fixtures of Manchester United or Chelsea. So consider making room for at least one player from the top clubs with good fixtures.

4.) Wild Card – Each manager is issued two Wild Cards for the season — one that can be used at any time, the other that can only be played for a stretch of gameweeks during the January transfer window. Many managers who score low in Gameweek 1 will kneejerk and play their wild card for Gameweek 2. Others like to hold it for the end of the summer transfer window, capitalizing on player movement and cut-rate prices. Others like to wait till the winter, when games get postponed more frequently due to weather or rescheduled matches due to Cup involvement. This causes Double Gameweeks (DGW), where you can potentially get 2 games worth of scoring from a player in one week.  You could use a Wild Card to take advantage of DGWs where you could potentially field eleven players playing a total of 22 games, earning a huge points haul, then Wild Carding the following week to balance the team back to a more normal structure without penalty of points hits. (Take note: Chelsea and Aston Villa have a double gameweek in Week 1.)

5.) Taking a 4 point hit – Some are of the philosophy to never take hits unless absolutely necessary. Others will have shown to take hits on a regular basis with success. You want to see that pretty green arrow at the end of each gameweek, and you can still achieve that when taking a hit.  I find that it can be advantageous to take hits in the early part of the season, to bring in players that show themselves to be essential.  You want to bring players in that appear to be breaking out before their price inflates. Last year, Michu began his first season with Swansea City priced at £6.5, but it only took a few gameweeks for his price to go up a full million as he burst on the scene seemingly scoring at will. If you had him from the start, you will have pocketed £0.5 million on him and increased your team value. You want to build that team value early to be able to afford the best team possible as the season rolls along.

6.) Research – Research is absolutely crucial to staying up in the rankings. Sometimes when you need to bring in a player as soon as their game concludes, the player is is so appealing to transfer in. But if you wait until close to the following deadline, so many other managers will have brought that player in, raising his price by £0.3 million. Remember that no player can rise or drop more than £0.3 million within one gameweek. If it at all possible though, try to make your transfers as close to the deadline as possible once you’ve heard every bit of news about a player. Nothing stings more than bringing in a new player that doesn’t even feature the first week you bring him in.  The fantasy landscape changes often, especially while the transfer window is open.  You may reconsider investing in Oliver Giroud for example if word comes out from Arsenal that they are shopping for a new striker before the window closes.  Research statistics from preseason matches to get an idea of who is in form to start the year. Find out who looks poised to be a dependable starter week in, week out.  There are many expensive players in this game that cannot justify their price because they cannot be counted on for starts.

7.) Captaincy – This league is won and lost by captaincy choices.  Your other 10 players could have a ho-hum gameweek, but if your captain scores 16 points (which doubles to 32), you can immediately jump back into respectability. Conversely, your other 10 can have a pretty good week, but if you get the captain wrong, while the majority of managers get it right, you can still take a dive in the rankings.  The key is to always have a viable captaincy option for every gameweek.  Players like Robin van Persie and Gareth Bale are so expensive, not just because they score so many points, but because they are dependable enough to be a captaincy option every single week.  Otherwise, you might use a Chelsea midfielder one week, a Liverpool striker the next based on form and fixture. Always look to the week ahead. Ask yourself ‘Do I have a viable captaincy option next week?’ If the answer appears to be no, then your top priority in selecting a transfer for that upcoming week is to bring in a player you can captain with confidence.

8.) DON’T PANIC! – The slogan of the Hitchhiker’s Strategist’s Guide to Fantasy Premier League. Listen, even a veteran of this game can start the season in a rut. You did all the research, you planned ahead, you’ve got some nice rotation pairings ready to go, you’ve got a great looking team.  Then, about 5 hours into the season, everything has gone wrong.  Your most expensive midfielder pulls a hamstring and is off the pitch after 20 minutes.  One of your defenders gets a red card or an own goal, or BOTH.  Yes, it has happened.  The striker you captained fails to find the net and you are left with a paltry 4 points. Unless it is a complete train wreck, save your wildcard, take a point hit if necessary and gradually reshape your team.  You may find a player who did nothing the first two gameweeks suddenly pop up with a big score. You hadn’t transferred him out yet because its 3rd or 4th on your list of priorities and by the time you are ready to drop him, he has renewed your faith in him.  Most of the expensive players with high ownership are just that for a reason, they are world-class players that can hit form at any given time.

Some things to consider as the Saturday deadline approaches.

May your arrows be green.