Fantasy premier league tips – some thoughts on team structure

Fantasy Premier League

Here’s some thoughts on structuring your team for the fantasy premier league 2014/15 season.  It’s fairly short and basic article so please excuse it if it’s a statement of the obvious.  I just thought it was worth going over again before the start of the season and before I talk about the rotations

Fantasy premier league tips – some thoughts on team structure

If you’ve followed my articles last season reagrding “10 top fantasy premier league managers”  you’ll realise that this isn’t just my views but those of some managers who have been suscessful year after year.

Formation

At the risk of starting from the very basics,  obviously you have to field 11 players made up of 2 GKs, 5 defenders 5 midfielders and 3 forwards.

Generally the formation most of the top fantasy premier league managers used was 3-4-3.  If you look the amount of minutes that  it takes the different positions to earn a fantasy premier league point then the defence is disadvantaged.  The lower the better obviously.

The top 5 defenders total point scoring midielders obtained a fantasy premier league point last season every 17.6 minutes.  The top 5 midfielders every 14.8 minutes and the top 5 defenders every 13.3 minutes.  In terms of total points Baines scored 180 points, Yaya Toure 241 points and Suarez I think was 284 points.  Granted the defence is cheaper but the points are in the attacking areas.

Therefore the 3-4-3 is the best formation to maximise attacking points in my view.

Here’s some thoughts on the different positions

Goalkeeper

A straight choice between 2 cheap keepers who you will rotate for their respective home games and going for a top 4 challenging keeper.  With the top 4 challenging GK’s you can then find the cheapest reserve possible.  Possibly even a non playing GK as injuries and rotation are quite rare.  Aim for a £4.0m reserve.

The theory behind 2 keepers who you rotate for their home games is simple.  Last year there were 138 home clean sheets vs 95 away clean sheets.

To give a basic example the geographically rotating keepers of Newcastle and Sunderland last year would have got you 12 clean sheets.  Having say Szczesny would have got you 17 clean sheets but would have cost you more.  Thats not the full story though as the cheap keepers will get more save points and bonus points.

This year Szczesny costs £5.5m.  Add a non playing £4.0m GK and the total outlay is £9.5m.  Mannone and Krul would cost you £9.0m.

Those are just examples.  Arsenal have been linked with other GKs so there’s a bit of a watchout in that area.

I’ll probably make my decision based on value and the options available rather than have any pre conceived notion now.

Defences

Assuming you’re playing 3-4-3 then in my mind there are 2 basic choices.  Play 1 player from a top 4 challenging team and then have 2 pairs of home and away rotating players. Chelsea would be my option at the moment as last year they definitely had the outstanding defence.

Then it’s a case of getting 2 rotating cheap players.  You should be aiming for £4.5m x 2 if possible with teams that dovetail home and away as close as possible.

The next option would be to play 2 top 4 challenging defenders and then rotate the other 3 depending on the fixture.  At the moment City or Arsenal would be my 2 choice for the other 2 defensive options.  This would give you more clean sheets than option 1 but would be more expensive.

What the first option does especially is require secure gametime players as not only do you not wanting to be using transfers on £4.5m defenders but you want to avoid a player who’s place is uncertain  and end up with you rotating defender away to Liverpool

As I said I’ll do an article on those rotation options soon.

Midfield

2 choices again here.  Go for 4 quality players with a cheap secure gametime reserve of £4.5m.  That doesn’t necessarily have to be a high scoring player as they will only come on when someone doesn’t play.  2nd choice is to go for 3 big hitters and then rotate the 2 remaining midfielders home and away.  They should be around £5.0m-£5.5m each.   I’ve generally ended up with the 2 rotating midfielders as I like to have the big hitters in although again it depends on specifics and value.  The top 10 fantasy premier league managers I followed generally though go for 1 reserve.

Strikers

At the risk of stating the obvious strikers are the most likely to score and therefore take bonus points.  Therefore they are the natural captain options.  Unlike last year when you could just set off Luis Suarez as your captain this year will require some further options.  Therefore 3 big hitting strikers maybe a necessary option.

One thing that was apparent from following the top 10 managers was that the players, apart from the rotation players or the reserves all from the top 6 teams apart from maybe 1 player.

Thats it more articles to come.

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fantasy premier league tips

fantasy premier league tips

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