Picking Your Team

I posted some of this information up last July when I first started the blog, but I thought I'd revisit it, add to it, and re-post for any new managers, or anyone who's simply forgotten it all from last year! It's some basic methods that have worked for me and many others for seasons now, so it's only fair to share...(also check out "The Rules" on FantasyEPL)

Firstly, I've posted the scoring matrix above (click the image to enlarge it if you can't see it clearly). You cannnot be successful in this game if you don't know what players score/lose points for. It amazed me last year when one of the guys in my private league (for 5 seasons) had only just realised defenders don't lose points for conceding goals, so he would never pick defenders playing tricky games, even as fillers (more on this later). Not knowing the scoring system can cost you dearly.

Anyway, from my experience of playing Yahoo Fantasy Football, it appears that if you can hit an average of 100 points per game-week (180+ in double-game weeks) you've got a pretty good chance of finishing in the Top 500. You always have £100 million to spend, so before picking anyone I look at a player's price and decide if I think they will "return their value"... a player who costs me £6 million should really earn me 6 points. If all my players return their value, I'm looking at 100 points. It's not an exact science, but it's I feel it's a sensible way to approach the game each week.

e.g. For Week 1...
Florent Malouda has a market value of 13.07, so the question I ask myself is: Do I think he will get around 13 points for the week? He's playing quite a nice game at home to West Brom and has a chance of scoring (or exceeding) this amount, so he will be considered.

However, if I look at Mikel Arteta, he has a market value of 16.83, so do I think he'll score 16-17 points for the week? Despite the fact he's a great player, it's a big ask with a tough away fixture against Blackburn first up, so it's possible he is a bit too expensive for Week 1.

I hope that makes sense - it's very basic, but I'm sure a lot of you do the same thing.

An obvious one - look to pick players playing in home fixtures if possible. It's a fact the teams pick up more league points playing at home, and it works the same in fantasy football...players playing in front of their own fans take more shots, get in more crosses, keep more clean sheet and score more goals, so there's far more fantasy points to be had, especially when you're playing Derby Blackpool.

Next, it's obvious again, but always try to pick 11 players who will actually play! There's nothing worse than failing to check team news news on a Friday and paying money for a player who doesn't feature - it's probably the most frustrating thing in fantasy football! Sometimes you can't do anything if a player gets injured in the warm-up, or the manager chooses to rest a player unexpectedly, but if you pick Joey Barton when he's serving 6 months in prison then you only have yourself to blame. There's loads of sites to check for injuries & suspensions - see the Useful Resources links on the right hand side of this blog.

The next thing is to try and load up on as many set piece takers as you possibly can. You're likely to get more assists, but more importantly Yahoo is one of the only fantasy games that rewards for successful crosses/corners won/shots on target, so these players quickly rack up the points, even in 3-0 defeats & this can be vital. Do your research on who takes kicks for all Premier League teams (this could be a good starting point...).

You also want to keep an eye out for players who end up playing further forward than their fantasy position suggests. Exhibit A: Gareth Bale. Listed as a defender again this season, but playing as an attacking left midfielder for Spurs, it's the equivalent of trading a defensive spot for an extra midfielder, and that is a huge bonus. Just look at the average points scored by players last season and you'll only see a couple of defenders on the first few pages - over a season it's the midfielders and strikers who get you the big points.

If you decide you want to load up on the more expensive players but are struggling for cash, then you can sometimes use "fillers" to fill spots in your starting XI. I'd class a filler as player with a price below 5.00, but it's common to find players as low as 1.00 as the season progresses (Tuncay! :). Fillers can free up funds for the big purchases, but almost always offer the risk of not playing/negative points. For this reason I would try not to have more than 1 filler at a time - it can completely unbalance your team.

I also try to pick 1 player each week who I feel very few other teams will have. A good example in the past has been my unlikely hero, Danny Higginbotham, who scored twice for me on the two occasions I picked him in the 08/09 season. Sunderland had home games on both occasions & I'd noticed he was getting forward for corners in previous games. I got very lucky when I picked him, but a lot of the successful players take risks & get lucky. I'd encourage anyone playing the game this season to make 1 "hunch" pick each week - it's very satisfying when it works!

If you get stuck, you'll always have the information on this blog, including my weekly recommended Player Picks posts, plus the fantastic advice over on FantasyEPL. Also, thanks to the excellent community we've built up here there's no better place for assistance than the comments sections under each post or in The AM Chat Room. We have a global audience, so you'll find people willing to assist you at all hours of the day & night, but in particular on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

I'll leave it there for now - there's more information about dropping/keeping discounts and "the barndoor" which I could add, but I don't want to overload people before the season even starts. I hope you find this useful, but please feel free to add any advice of your own via the comment section below this post.

My plan is to start looking at Week 1 Fixtures & Player Picks over the weekend and hope to have something ready to post next week, but until then join the blog leagues & enjoy playing around with your team selection...

...isn't it great to have Yahoo Fantasy Football back!? :)

Cheers,
AM