telegraph fantasy football tips – Last seasons 7th place finisher overall Bryan Forbes O’Rourke with his draft team and TFF strategy

Telegraph fantasy football

Here’s our telegraph fantasy football tips article where we interview last seasons 7th place overall finsher Bryan Forbes O’Rourke where he dicusses his TFF strategy and shows his draft team so far.

telegraph fantasy football tips – Last seasons 7th place finisher overall Bryan Forbes O’Rourke with his draft team and TFF strategy




Bryan, congratulations on your finish of 7th overall last season in Telegraph fantasy football. A fantastic achievement. But before we get into the TFF discussion tell us a bit about yourself. 

I’m a 40 something year old fantasy football dinosaur, residing in the coastal town of Leven in Fife with my two young children. The local team is East Fife Nil, I support Dundee United who are almost as bad these days, and Watford having been at a few games at Vicarage Road during the Elton John era. I play chess and like to walk the hills and mountains close by when time allows.

Looking back to last season, how close did you come to finishing 1st overall?

Quite close really. I had two transfers remaining prior to the FA Cup Semi final and took out Aubamayang to bring in Lukaku for the extra game (or two if United won). That was a blow as Lukaku got injured very quickly after and Aubamayang kept on racking the points up.

You have quite a long history with Fantasy Football. Tell us about that.

I have been playing since day one, the days of the premium phone lines and postal transfers in the 1990’s. I won a world cup competition in 2010 and have had many manager of the month prizes and such like. I have a feeling in my bones that this year could be the year with TFF. Or it could just be the onset of arthritis?

Last season in Telegraph fantasy football did you have an overall strategy in the way you play?

I usually have an idea of the teams I think will do well at the start of the season and look to get a heap of players from these teams. I hope to get a good start and make a few transfers at the first International break to set the team up for the weeks up to Christmas and then use more transfers over the festive time. I still favour the attacking line ups, the 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 and generally ignore the FA Cup fixtures (except when I don’t like last year)

Form or fixtures and stats or eye test? Where do you fall on these for picking players?

All. I carry over a list of players I like from the previous season. Then its study the fixtures and set the team. Then adjust with form and the eye test around the first international break.

How have you approached World Cup returners and new players to the premier league this season?

I wont be starting with any players who haven’t featured preseason.   No Kane or Lukaku for example. I generally don’t choose players from promoted teams initially apart from the odd enabler.

Are there other ways you think this season will be different to 17/18?

Much the same, the rules haven’t changed any. I intend to make 4 or 5 transfers after the first international break to adjust to form and bring in World Cup late returners.

Are there any key players or teams for you to pick and any players or teams to avoid?

I think City and Liverpool will do well again. Southampton might struggle and West Ham should pick up.

What advice would you give to any TFF manager going into the new season?

Try and keep to roughly one transfer a week (40 transfers, 38 fixtures ). Don’t use the full 50m budget, keep a little spare you will need it as sure as day follows night. If your’e not in the top 5000 after Xmas give up and do something else with your time and come back stronger next year.

Thanks very much for the interview Bryan and we hopefully will see alot more of you over the season

Ill be sticking a few teams in this year and Ill be happy to share the journey with the readers on a regular basis, with my imaginatively named team FantasyFootballGeek. I hope its a great year ahead for everyone!

Here’s my team so far:



telegraph fantasy football tips

See also these telegraph fantasy football tips articles from our TFF contributors

Ben Humphreys team

Stephen Troop on TFF’s most owned players

Andrew Ferguson top 1k finisher in TFF

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