How to master FPL: Tips to help you dominate Fantasy Premier League

Fantasy Premier League is back for the 2024-25 season with more than 10.5m people from all over the world having played the popular phenomenon last season.

Whether you’re in it to win it or simply love FPL for the challenge, we’re on hand to offer our advice following the game’s relaunch this week.

The Football Faithful FPL league code: wdr671

Top tips to help you succeed at Fantasy Premier League:

Stay up to date 

It goes without saying but the better FPL players are usually those engrossed in all things Premier League. Staying up to date with the latest news can lead to the marginal differences you need to climb your mini-league.

Injuries and suspensions throw spanners in the works for FPL bosses, so pay attention to the in-app status of players before confirming your transfers and selections.

However, the data from the official game is not always 100% accurate, so a useful tool is listening out for the Premier League press conferences that usually take place the day before a game, or on the Friday before the weekend’s action. You can find all the latest info from manager press conferences right here at The Football Faithful.

Don’t pick a ‘balanced’ side

This isn’t real life, or even Football Manager, and things work differently around here. Premier League teams all own their unsung heroes, those willing to engage in the uglier sides of the game. Water-carriers, work-horses, you know the type.

In FPL, however, there’s no room for players of such style in a game where points very much make prizes. Throw balance out of the window and load up on goalscorers, goal creators, and clean sheet specialists.

Want five wingers across your midfield? Go for it.

Plan ahead

Like chess or pool, the very best players in FPL are planning more than one step ahead.

One-week punts might seem attractive, but analysing upcoming fixture schedules is essential to long-term success. Throwing in an asset who is at home to a relegation candidate can seem like a good idea until you realise that player’s next five fixtures are all against top-half teams.

With changes this season allowing up to five transfers to be banked, avoiding knee-jerk reactions is more crucial than ever.

Fantasy Premier League: 70 of the best FPL team names for 2024/25

Don’t leave too much value on your bench

Your bench options are there for a reason, emergency replacements if someone in the starting side fails to feature. However, these players are on your bench for a reason; you don’t consider them good enough to make your team. So why use too much of your budget on them?

Primarily, your bench should feature budget enablers – so long as they are likely to play if required.

Use stats

The overpopulated use of stats in football irks some, with numbers almost always able to be skewed to strengthen a desired argument.

In FPL, however, stats can be king. If a player passes the ‘eye test’ and tempts you into a transfer, a quick glance over the numbers will certainly do you no harm before pulling the trigger.

There’s a whole host of in-depth stats available from Premier League-based sources, which can help consolidate your decisions or unearth untapped potential for your team.

Minimise the amount of hits you take 

We’ve all been there. A bad week of FPL can make you want to pull hair out and rip up your squad. However, multiple transfers – with the exception of Wildcards and Free Hits – cost FPL players points and that can add up over the long run.

Imagine missing out on your mini-league by a small margin, and thinking back to that gameweek where you went hit crazy. For the most part, extra transfers are not worth the -4 penalty, while the increase to a maximum of five transfers being able to be banked, up from two previously, should help reduce hits.

Make your transfers later in the week

Knee-jerk reactions to beat the bandwagon and accrue team value are all too frequent in FPL. It can pay off but the sensible route is more often to wait until closer to the deadline.

Midweek games in cup competitions and Europe can cause havoc if a player picks up an injury that rules them out for the weekend. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a player bagging big in a gameweek and going instantly after the transfer, but it’s not always wise.

The FPL players with the most attacking returns in 2023-24

Keep an eye on price changes

This might contradict our previous point to an extent but keeping an eye on price changes is important.

Players will increase in price the more they are transferred in in FPL, while their price will decrease if large numbers ship them out. If there is a player you are certain you want to bring in, don’t wait all week and end up frustrated at missing out due to a price change.

Don’t be too clever when picking a captain

The arrival of a certain Norwegian goal machine has somewhat removed captaincy dilemmas, with Erling Haaland more often than not wearing the armband for FPL managers.

There’s good reason for that too; Haaland is as sure a bet as you can find in returning points, having scored 63 goals in 66 league appearances in English football.

Sure, outside punts can deliver, such as those who went against the grain to captain Josko Gvardiol (27 points in GW37) last season, but the safest bet is usually the best one.

The premium players are premium for a reason.

Save your chips

If you’re new to FPL, managers are handed three chips and two wildcards per season.

• Bench Boost – All 15 players, including substitutes, earn points in the gameweek activated.

• Free Hit – Managers can make unlimited transfers to their team for one week only. Their existing squad will return for the following gameweek.

• Triple Captain – The player captained earns triple points, rather than the usual double for wearing the armband

• Wildcard (x2) – Managers can make unlimited transfers to their team.

It’s important to remember that each chip can only be used once and when it’s gone, it’s gone. It can be tempting to use these early in the season to gain an advantage but chips are more often useful later. Chips are best maximised when the fixtures pile up and double gameweeks appear, or if your team is in urgent need of some drastic DIY. Don’t waste them early doors.

This season there will also be a fourth chip, the ‘Mystery Chip’, which FPL will soon reveal the details.

Ignore allegiances

Refusing to include Manchester City players in your team because you’re a die-hard Manchester United fan? Grow up.

It might be tough to stomach your arch-rivals doing well, but it will be an ever more bitter pill to swallow if your FPL rivals are using that success to bank precious points.

The same can be said for undivided loyalty to players from your own club, keeping them in the side in blind faith (Yes, we’ve been guilty of this one before).

It’s a ruthless game is FPL. Put loyalties to the side and focus on points.

Read – Fantasy Premier League: Major changes to FPL announced ahead of next season

See more – Ten absolute bargain buys in 2024-25 Fantasy Premier League

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