Whether your aim is to avoid embarrassment in your workplace league or win the cash league with your mates, these Fantasy Premier League tips will give you the edge you need.
Fantasy Premier League is a deceptively simple game. Just pick 15 players within the budget, and off you go! However, there is a skill to the game, and good managers will consistently outperform bad ones.
Being good at FPL is just as much about avoiding making mistakes as it is about playing the game brilliantly. Do the fundamentals right, avoid the pitfalls, and you will do better than most of your opponents. There is still plenty of room to play the game in your own way, even if you follow these basic FPL tips.
THE TEN FANTASY COMMANDMENTS
We have written ten fantasy commandments and split them into five do’s and five don’ts. Heed these Fantasy Premier League tips, and you will do better than most other managers.
The five do’s
1. Pick players that play
The most essential Fantasy Premier League tips. Picking players without guaranteed game time is a common mistake among fantasy managers. You’re ahead of the pack just by selecting established first-team starters.
It’s tempting to pick talented youngsters that might just have a breakthrough season or go for new, exciting signings. But remember that youngsters and new signings often are eased into the squad. So you will not lose out by bringing them into your team once established in the starting eleven.
Fundamentally, FPL is not a game that rewards unearthing new talent. There’s no prize for being the first to own a great player.
The cost of bringing in a player that starts to perform well is low, and soon all other managers will own him. But, on the other hand, the cost of getting a few players wrong is high, which means you must make significant changes to your team.
Ask yourself, is this player the preferred player in this position in his team? If the answer is no, then move on.
If you really want to take a punt, limit it to one player, and have a plan for replacing him.
2. Play it safe with your captain
The captain scores double points and is the most critical player in your team. That’s why you should always have one of the big hitters in the league in your squad.
The hallmark of inexperienced players is to go for punts — captaining players with an outside chance of a great Gameweek that few others are selecting as their captain. The thought process behind this is easy to follow; it’s a high risk, high reward type of play. However, this tactic is guaranteed to fail you in the long run.
Go for the player with the highest likelihood of scoring goals in each Gameweek. You’ll soon start outperforming the managers in your league who pick outsiders, even if they get one right initially.
Here’s a secret to finding the best captain every Gameweek. Every week bookmakers have an army of statisticians calculating the likelihood of any given player scoring a goal. This likelihood is provided to bettors as odds that they can bet on. The higher the probability of a goal, the lower the odds offered by the bookies.
If the bookmakers do a poor job of setting odds, they lose money or customers. So they have strong incentives to be as correct as possible.
You can use this to your advantage by checking the odds of a player scoring goals before making your captain decision.
Check out this page to see who you should captain this week based on the bookmaker’s odds. We have even translated the odds into the percentage likelihood of a goal for your convenience. Make sure to bookmark the page, and at least pay it a visit every Friday before you pick your captain.
3. Spend budget on players that create goals
Clean sheet points are great, but scoring goals or assisting is your team’s primary way to score points. It’s a horrible feeling when a late consolation goal wipes out the clean sheet points of your expensive central defender. Make sure your defensive players carry an attacking threat. Wingbacks that contribute to the attack are essential in FPL. By the same logic, most good fantasy managers don’t spend a lot on expensive goalkeepers.
4. Pick players from all teams
Fantasy is all about making football more fun to watch. Bringing in players from teams you don’t like can be painful. But if you want to get a decent score, you need to ditch any principle about not picking players from specific teams. But you can draw the line at captaining them or even playing them against your own team. Look at it as a hedge; at least you’ll get some fantasy points if your least favourite team wins big.
5. Stick with your plan
Your team will have horrible weeks. However, if your main players still have easy fixtures ahead, they are still good picks. So trust your initial reason for picking them. The exception is if your player is dropped from the team, and you can’t be sure he’s coming back in. As we’ve covered, there isn’t a player in the world that can score points while sitting on the bench.
The five don’ts
Fantasy Premier League tips isn’t all about what you should do, it’s also important to be mindful about what to avoid doing.
6. Don’t forget the deadline
You can make changes to your fantasy team up until 90 minutes before the first game kicks off in the Gameweek. After the deadline has passed, your team is set for the Gameweek, and all changes will only take effect the week after.
Even the most dedicated fantasy managers will miss the deadline occasionally. This is especially true when there’s an unexpected Friday Night match that you completely forgot about.
A good trick is to set up your team for the next gameweek as soon as you can after the deadline has passed. Prioritise your substitutions and set a sensible captain. But, as we’ll explore in a moment, you should still hold off doing the transfers until later in the week.
7. Don’t make transfers early
You need to be strong-willed to resist the urge to swap your wasteful striker with the player that just scored a hattrick immediately. However, patience is gold. Teams often play midweek games in competitions like the FA Cup or Champions League. So wait and see if players pick up any injuries before you make changes.
8. Don’t take hits (too often)
You have one or two free transfers every gameweek, and any additional transfer will cost you -4 points. That might not seem like much, but it stacks up. So don’t take hits out of FOMO because some player you don’t own had a great gameweek.
When to take hits
If a hit enables you to change the structure of your team, it can be worth it. Use hits to get rid of players who don’t play and bring in players you intend to keep for the future.
9. Don’t give up if you fall behind
It’s demoralising to be hundreds of points behind the leader of your mini-league. But things change quickly in FPL, and a few good gameweeks can put you right back there. Nothing is decided until very late in the season. Experienced fantasy players have seen things change drastically towards the end when players become injured and matches take on more importance.
10. Don’t waste your chips
You get several chips to play that can drastically impact your point score.
Don’t play the chips too early. You have a long season ahead, and there will be Gameweeks where teams play more than one match because of previously postponed games. The two wildcards you receive are especially effective chips, and you should set up your team with a rough idea of when you want to play your wildcard.
In contrast to the original ten commandments, the above rules are bendable. There might, for example, be times when you need to make an early transfer before a player rises in price. Sometimes several hits are the best solution. But in most cases, following the commandments will leave you with a higher score than if you break them.
These are the fundamental Fantasy Premier League tips, but they don’t say anything about what players to pick. Luckily we’ve written a handy guide to players in all price ranges:
Premium players in FPL 2022/23
Mid-Priced players in FPL 2022/23
FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE TWITTER ACCOUNTS YOU SHOULD FOLLOW
Most of the fantasy discourse happens on Twitter. These are a few accounts that provide essential Fantasy Premier League tips.
Ben Crellin – essential for information about match schedule and double gameweeks. Follow Ben here
Ben Dinnery – keeps track of player injuries. Follow Dinnery here
Abu Bakar Siddiq – author of a weekly thread with invaluable information. Follow Abu Bakar here
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
All the Fantasy Premier League tips will get you nowhere unless you know the rules of the game. Luckily, the Fantasy Premier League rules are quite simple. You will learn most of them by picking your first team. Here are the most important things to know.
- FPL managers have a budget of £100.0m to pick 15 players. Players’ prices indicate how many points they are expected to score.
- A maximum of three players can be chosen from each Premier League club.
- You must choose a starting eleven from your squad of 15.
- If a starting player does not play a single minute for their club, the first player on your bench will automatically take his place. Therefore, make sure to prioritise the bench in the preferred order.
- The initial 15 players you choose can be transferred out during the season. Managers are given one free transfer for each Gameweek and can save up to two free transfers. After using your free transfers, each transfer comes at a -4 point cost.
Price changes
All players are subject to rises and fall in their initial price. How many managers transfer in or out a specific player determines price changes. Changes happen once per day, and a player’s value can only change 0.1m per day. Unfortunately, there’s no way on the FPL website to find information about when a player rises or falls. But there are a few good predictor sites. The most accurate seems to be www.fplstatistics.co.uk.
Chips explained
Fantasy Premier League features chips that can enhance your team for a single gameweek. They are powerful tools and should be used consciously.
Bench Boost – All points scored by your bench players are included in your total score. Make sure you have 15 starting players before playing this chip.
Free Hit – Enables you to make unlimited free transfers for a single Gameweek. After the Gameweek, your squad is reset to how it was before you played the chip. Use this if there’s an especially tricky Gameweek to navigate instead of taking several hits.
Triple Captain – Your captain points are tripled instead of doubled. Use this when your best player has his best game of the season.
Wildcard – This is the most powerful chip as it enables you to completely change your team. You receive two wildcards, one before and one after Christmas.
All transfers are free of charge. Use this when you have several players that face much tougher fixtures or when you cannot bring in other high scoring players without taking several hits. The wildcard should be used strategically as it allows you to plan for a shorter term than the entire season when picking players. Use this to your advantage by choosing players with a kind run of fixtures in the near term. You can then get rid of them all at once by playing the wildcard.
How do my players score points?
Playing matches – Playing matches is essential, and if your player is not making an appearance, he will receive 0 points.
60 minutes is the magic number, after which all players receive 2 points. It’s also a crucial threshold for goalkeepers and defenders, who receive 4 points after 60 minutes if they keep a clean sheet.
Scoring goals – Scoring goals is the most valuable action any footballer can do, which is reflected in the points scored. Therefore, players who score many goals will always be good fantasy picks.
Providing assists – An assist is awarded to the player who makes the final pass before a goal is scored. Note that in FPL, an assist is also given for rebounds. If a goalkeeper saves a shot or it hits the woodwork, and a goal is scored from the rebound, an assist is awarded.
Keeping clean sheets – Where attacking players score points based on individual efforts, defensive players score points on the team’s performance. A clean sheet is awarded for not conceding a goal while playing at least 60 minutes.
Bonus points – In addition, FPL awards bonus points to the three top players of the match. The ranking is based on a wide range of statistics. Honestly, the calculation is too complex to even try to make sense of. The takeaway is that attacking players scoring goals will get bonus points. Defensive players keeping clean sheets in low-scoring matches are also prime candidates.
Negative points – Defenders get minus points by conceding more than 1 goal. In addition, all players get penalised for getting booked or missing penalties.
All players
| Action | Points |
| For playing up to 60 minutes | 1 |
| For playing 60 minutes or more | 2 |
| For each goal assist | 3 |
| Bonus points | 1, 2 or 3 |
| For each yellow card | -1 |
| For each red card | -3 |
| For each own goal | -2 |
| For each penalty miss | -2 |
Goalkeeper
| Action | Points |
| For a clean sheet | 4 |
| For every 3 shot saves | 1 |
| For each penalty save | 5 |
| For every 2 goals conceded | -1 |
Defenders
| Action | Points |
| For each goal scored | 6 |
| For a clean sheet | 4 |
| For every 2 goals conceded | -1 |
Midfielders
| Action | Points |
| For each goal scored | 5 |
| For a clean sheet | 1 |
Forwards
| Action | Points |
| For each goal scored | 4 |
Check out our extensive guide to World Cup 2022 Fantasy
Fantasy Premier League Team Selection
Here is an early draft for a strong FPL-team for the 2022/23 season, this will be regularly updated until deadline day.
