As I have been saying, the hardest part of the FPL is initial team formation, because it is like shooting in the dark. You have 100 million budget to make the best team out of nearly 500 players, and you just have some hints and information on starting line up from the pre-season and the player's form. It will be harder for the newbie to form the optimal team from the available budget. I was planning to write some tips for the newbie on allocating the budget, and I came across tips from FPL scouts on different approaches to invest the budget which I will describe here.
(Note: The price of the player you selected should not be the same as the template. The template is just an idea to allocate the budget)
Balance Approach
It is the most flexible approach with options available everywhere in the field and has the advantage to be able to play any formation. In this approach, the budget is almost equally divided into all parts of the field. Try to go around 9m in a goalkeeper, you can either get mid-budget price goalkeeper or 2 rotating 4.5m priced goalkeeper. As per FPL scout, try to get all your defenders within the budget of 25.5m. In the midfield, you will have 3 regular starters, a bench warmer at 4.5m and a cheapy at 5.5m who will substitute with cheapy striker or defender based on fixtures. Similarly in the front line, get two premium strikers and a cheapy striker who rotates with mid or defender. Thus you can play either 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 based on fixtures and form of the player.
Heavy Midfielder Approach:
In this approach, you invest heavily in the midfielders. Last season, 5 midfielders were featured in top 6 highest scoring players. Salah got record 303 points and second to him was Sterling who got 229 points. The highest scoring forward was Kane who got 217 points. Thus, there is too much value in midfield, and this approach will be the best if the midfielders continue to hit big like last season. Most managers are certain that Salah will hit big this season too, and he already got the ownership of 50% and above.
Here you need to go cheap in defenders who can rotate week in and week out and get two regular forwards along with one bench warmer. You will be playing 3-5-2 formation in most of the GW.
Forward Approach:
In this approach, you get the 3 premium strikers who will start you every week. You will have a limited budget for defenders and strikers when you heavily invest in the forward line. You will be playing 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 based on the fixture in most GW. This fixture will work the best if all the forward you selected are in hot form and get you big score every week. If they don't, you will quickly fall behind, and you should think of shifting the budget to midfield.
Finally, there is another approach where you heavily invest in defenders and start 5 or 4 defenders every week, as attacking premium defenders provides more points per million invested. From last season, Azpilicueta, Alonso, and Otamendi offered points from both ends and were among top players in terms of points per price. I have never tried this approach. I usually go for a balanced approach and be flexible with my team selections. But this doesn't always work. To illustrate, last season, I started with a balanced approach, then invested heavily in midfield and defenders as there was too much value in it compared to the forwards.
Thus, it all depends upon the form of players, your ability to catch bargain players, and getting the inform players before their price hike. Like last season, I believe Salah started at 9m, but he quickly rose to 10m. That is, you paid extra1m for Salah if you got him late which could have been used in other players if you have got Salah early. So, always remember that you need to get the bandwagons early and remove the sinking players early so that the team value is always in rising. If you keep the out-of-form players for long, your team value will quickly go below 100m, and it will be hard for you to afford premium players going forward. Once again, good luck with team formation, and happy Fantasy.
Scorum-Fans/SBC League:
Once again don't forget to join Scorum-Fans/SBC League for Fantasy Football. Click here for details. You can check the list of verified manager here. If you joined but didn't see my name, contact me. We already have 174 SCR and 500 SP in a delegation in the prize pool. I am honored to have many contributors contributing to the prize money. Here are our sponsors:
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I already announced the prizes to overall winners here. My main target is to collect a minimum of 190 SCR so that I can award GW winners with 5 SCR every GW. So far I have collected 63 SCR. So 127 SCR more to go, and I believe I can reach there. If you are willing to contribute, you are more than welcome. As a return, I will do my best to recognize you in every upcoming post related to the contest and will do my best to upvote you here and there. If you are willing to sponsor, please comment below or discord me: lawlees#6547, or telegram me: @lawleees.
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