Here’s our Telegraph fantasy football returns to fantasy football geek article where we recap on the rules and show a first draft team
Telegraph fantasy football returns to FFGeek – rules review and a first draft team
Last season was my best in telegraph fantasy football and I finished with a 227 overall rank
The rules
There doesn’t appear to be any rule changes from last season that I can see but here they are in a nutshell. Obviously you should satisfy your self as to the rules yourself by reading them on the site.
The basics
It’s an 11 player game. No subs, no captains no wildcards. It couldn’t be simpler or easier to play.
The game includes premier league and FA Cup matches
There are a number of formation options and no limits on players from 1 team.
Transfers
40 transfers per season and 5 in a week maximum
You can make transfers between games as long as there is 2 hours between kick off times
Point scoring
This is straight from the Telegraph Fantasy Football site
All players:
Starting XI appearance (2 pts)
Substitute appearance (1 pt)
Goal scored (5 pts)
Key Contribution (3 pts) – Can be more than one player
Red card (-3 pts)
Yellow card (-1 pt)
Missed penalty (-2 pts)
Own Goal (-3 pts)
Goalkeepers only:
Penalty save (5pts)
Goalkeepers/defenders only:
Full Clean Sheet – player plays 60 mins or more (5 pts)
Part Clean Sheet – player plays fewer than 60 mins (2 pts)
First goal conceded (0 pts)
Each additional goal conceded (-1 pt)
Points are not awarded for penalty shoot outs.
Clean sheet bonuses:
In order to earn a Full Clean Sheet bonus (5 pts), your player must complete at least 60 minutes of the match and his team must keep a clean sheet for the entire match (excluding penalty shoot-outs).
If a player is on the pitch for less than 60 minutes and his team keeps a clean sheet for the full match, he’ll score a Part Clean Sheet bonus (2 pts).
All players still earn 2 points for starting a match and 1 point for coming on as a substitute.
So, for example, if your goalkeeper/defender starts the match, plays an hour or more, and his team finishes the match with a clean sheet – they will score 7 points.
The FFGeek first draft team
So my focus with in structuring a team is to have all top 6 team players (Man City, Man Utd, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea) except for 1 midfielder and the goalkeeper.
To do that I’ve found that you need to play with 4 at the back and with less than 3 strikers. Last season I pretty much went 4-4-2. This season my first draft team has started as a 4-5-1. in order to meet that criteria.
The 2nd criteria is that in midfield I’ve generally looked for the creative set piece midfielder due to the wider key contribution rule. Players like De Bruyne, Ozil and Eriksen are top of my consideration list.
Lastly the World Cup has changed things somewhat with the late returners. See my FPL article on the subject.
With defenders it’s a balance between attacking potential, gametime security and price.
With that criteria and limitations in mind here’s the first draft team:
Goalkeeper
Here I’ve gone for a team that I’m hoping can outperform their expectations in Wolves and picked new signing Patricio
Defence
I’ve literally gone for the top 4 teams of last season in defence.
For Man City Otamendi looks the only certainty to start of the World Cup returners. Interestingly Mendy seems to be on the pre-season tour so I could switch to him for extra attacking potential
Man Utd have 2 defenders in Smalling and Bailly that should start the season and hopefully have some longevity. With Valencia an unknown return date injury those are Bailly and Smalling. Bailly is slightly cheaper and fits into the team overall price easier than Smalling would have
Robertsons price at £3.8m compared to Van Dijks at £4.3m settled that for me as well as his attacking potential
With Spurs the World Cup returners has meant it was either Sanchez or Davies who would lineup GW1 and have some longevity. Again there was a slight price saving for Sanchez which sealed it. Spurs have a number of absentees and are playing their first 4 games away so I may flip to a Chelsea defender with Christensen and Rudiger the only ones that budget would allow.
Midfield
It was a truly awful season for Ozil in 17/18 and that’s before you even mention the World Cup. However only De Bruyne had a better xA than Ozil when on the pitch so I’m hoping that something to prove plus the presence of Lacazette and Aubameyang on the pitch potentially can transform his season
Sane was a tricky one. His stats from last season were so good that I chose him over D Silva and Mahrez. It’s not an easy one but I may just flip to De Bruyne anyway once he’s back.
I’m hoping I don’t need to explain Salah.
Sanchez was another who had a pretty ordinary season but with a off season rest and the likelhood of getting set piece representation then he looks a gamble worth taking
Lastly I’ve gone for the new Southampton midfielder Elyounoussi as a potential gamble on the back of quite incredible Swiss League stats for Basel. You may remember the last Premier League player who’s route to the premier league involved Basel. None other than Salah. Anyway 11 goals and 15 assists in 31 starts at a goal or assist every 100 minutes or so is quite mind blowing so he seems worth a throw of the dice. He’s also very cheap.
Striker
Just Aguero here although I have cash in the bank to flip to Kane who is probably the priority forward. I did think hard about Aubameyang but his 2 first fixtures in the face of a flip to Kane did rule him out. While I have Kane I doubt I will ever have Eriksen as a double up.
That’s it hope you found it useful
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