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Matthew Glazier
Betting Expert

22 December 2024

How to Win Playing Fantasy Premier League

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Learn How to Win Playing Fantasy Premier League with our free guide. First thing’s first, why should you pay any attention to my Fantasy Premier League tips?

It’s a good question and it all comes down to whether your overall ranking stacks up better than my performance over the past ten years.

fantasy premier league results

Congratulations if you’ve been knocking it out of the park when it comes to FPL although I’m willing to wager that you’ve struggled to hit the top 50,000 on five occasions like I have. OK, so there was a bit of a stinker during the 2017/18 season, although I have been in the top 200,000 every other time and that’s despite the fact that there are now around six million people playing the Fantasy Premier League game.

My 10 Commandments For Winning FPL

I can practically guarantee that my Fantasy Premier League team will achieve an overall rank higher than 500,000 next season. I’ve finished in the top 300,000 in nine of the past ten seasons and there have been seven top 100,000 finishes which is highly respectable. It’s little wonder that my friends don’t want to play for cash when it comes to Super Leagues!

The reason why I’m confident of a strong FPL performance is that I have learnt on the job, made mistakes and now follow a simple set of rules which will ensure that I have the edge over the majority of FPL managers for the 2021-22 season. This is not me being arrogant, it’s just a percentage game and I’m willing to share my FPL secrets with the WhatAcca.com readers.

  1. Don’t Worry Too Much About Your GW1 Score

Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. FPL managers get really antsy when it comes to their Game Week 1 team and that is largely because it sets the tone for future Game Weeks along with the fact that you can make unlimited transfers until the first game kicks off.

However, GW1 is the hardest to predict and you should not be dismayed if you get a modest points total from the players you select. It’s much better to play the long game instead of making kneejerk transfers or playing a GW2 wildcard only to find your original GW1 players go on to knock it out of the park.

2. Don’t Overthink Your Team Selection

There are three things certain in life: death, taxes and Mohamed Salah scoring big FPL points on a regular basis. There is NO point trying to be too clever and avoiding the obvious big-hitting players who are clearly going to rack up goals, assists and clean sheets on a regular basis. If a player has done it before in FPL on a regular basis, the chances are they will do it again.

3. Look at the Upcoming Premier League Fixtures

Each team will play the other nineteen clubs home and away throughout the season although it’s fair to say that there are “easy runs” and “difficult runs” for each side. For example, if Arsenal are playing Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea in their next three matches, it’s plausible that the Gunners players are unlikely to score big FPL points.

However, if Arsenal are playing opponents such as Norwich, Brentford and Burnley, then the opposite is true and the best attacking players for that team become a more attractive prospect.

4. Don’t Wildcard Too Early

The current FPL game gives you two wildcards throughout the season, one for the first half and one for the second half. The wildcard is a precious asset as it allows you to make wholesale changes to your team without incurring a points deduction. The first wildcard is available from Game Week 2 and amazingly, there are thousands of managers who activate it in this week.

However, I recommend holding back for as long as possible. It’s generally key to let the dust settle and see which teams and players are performing best before making sweeping changes. Unless you have genuine cause to change three or more squad players, it’s probably not worth it.

How to Win Playing Fantasy Premier League image

5. Try to Save Your Free Transfer and Make Two the Next Week

Every Game Week, you get a free transfer so you can make a change without any penalty. Should you want to make additional transfers, it will cost you four points for each one you make although I strongly advise against starting the Game Week with a minus figure.

Instead, it might be worth trying to “bank” the free transfer and use two the following Game Week which gives you more wriggle room. For example, you could swap out an expensive midfielder and a cheap striker for a cheap midfielder and an expensive striker with this strategy. Why not also learn more about the English Premier League Betting facts as they can also provide some useful insights into some of the statistics of the players.

6. Make Sure Your FPL Players are Playing

It might sound really obvious but a lot of FPL managers pick players who are not always guaranteed to start. It might be that you only leave yourself 4.0 million to sign a final defender although there is no point having non-playing members of your squad as there are regular points in the season when star talent is rested or rotated.

7. Spread Your 100 Million Budget Evenly

We’re all like a kid in a sweet shop picking our first FPL draft team although it doesn’t generally pay to go for three expensive strikers considering that this leaves you with less funds when it comes to goalkeeper, defence and midfield.

My idea of a balanced squad is to have a mixture of expensive, mid-range and cheap players for every position. That will make life a lot easier when it comes to making transfers without having to pay a penalty.

8. Don’t React Badly to a Poor Game Week

Here is a stone cold fact. You WILL have a bad Game Week during the 2021/22 season. It’s nigh on impossible that you will have 38 strong Game Weeks as football is an unpredictable sport and even the best players don’t deliver big points hauls on a weekly basis.

Therefore, if you get a low score for a particular GW, it’s best not to throw toys out of the pram and start trying to tinker a squad which could well score heavily in the next few weeks to come.

It is also worth looking at the factual data by visiting the Official Fantasy Premier League statistics page.  Or for daily updates why not take a look at the Official Fantasy Premier League Twitter page.

9. Use Bench Boost Chip for Double Game Weeks

The Bench Boost chip is probably the best of all as you can activate that for a particular Game Week and essentially have all 15 of your squad players all scoring towards your overall total. Due to the FA Cup and bad weather, you often find that teams have two games in the space of a Game Week and that’s the right time to play Bench Boost.

It’s brilliant to have 15 players all playing two matches each, providing 30 different scoring opportunities along the way.

10. How to Choose Your FPL Captain

Choosing the right captain every Game Week can be tough. It usually pays to pick either a midfielder or striker as they are the positions where the biggest points totals can be racked up. It can often be worth checking the Anytime Scorer betting market to see what the odds are suggesting.

Ultimately, it pays to go with the obvious when it comes to captain and we like to go for a leading attacking player who might be playing at home against lower-quality opposition.

Matthew Glazier

Betting Expert
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Matthew Glazier is one of the biggest names in the sports betting industry, with this leading writer having twenty years experience which includes working for bet365, William Hill and betfair.

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