Fantasy Premier League

Toby Margetts

Description

Fantasy Premier League has become more than a game. It's a phenomenon. With well over 6,000,000 players signing up for the 2019/20 season and around 24 septillion possible lineups, there are untold subtleties that separate 99% of players from the elite 1% who consistently occupy the top of the overall rankings, not to mention taking home the prize pots and bragging rights at the end of each season.This book will show you how to join that 1%. FPL veterans and perennial top 1% finishers Toby and Gianni share everything they've learned from over 10 years of FPL graft - from pre-season scouting to the final sprint, unveiling the patterns and habits that only the best exhibit. It's an invaluable manual of data, managerial nous and the all-too-familiar learnings of despair and heartbreak, neatly packaged up to power your team to the top. Armed with this unprecedented knowledge and know-how, you'll have an enormous edge over anyone you come up against. This book is not a guide to how to play Fantasy Premier League - it's how to win.

Informations

• Publié par: Ockley Books
• Date de parution: 02 août 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781913227234
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Published by Ockley Books Ltd / Monument Creative Publishing Ltd
First published 2019
All text copyright of the authors.
The moral right of the authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted.
Editing and layout by Rob MacDonald
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior permission in writing from the author and publishers Ockley Books and Monument Creative Publishing.
Front cover and interiors designed by Ollie Farthing
Printed and bound by:
Ashford Colour Press
Unit 600, Fareham Reach
Fareham Road
Gosport, Hampshire
PO13 0FW
For my mum, Francesca Margetts. Though no longer with me I m forever grateful for the immense support and enthusiasm you showed me in everything I ever did, not least when I told you I wanted to write this book. I miss you.
CONTENTS
Foreword
About the authors
Introduction
PART 1: The Secrets of Building a Winning Squad
The Importance of Pre-Season
How to scout effectively
Assessing pre-season
The Business End of the Summer
The release of player data
The Distribution of Spend
Allocating your budget like a pro
Money on the bench
The Selection Process
Getting ready for GW1
FPL formations of the elite
Player specifics
The art of rotation
When to confirm your squad
PART 2: The Secrets of Maintaining a Winning Squad
The Strongest Weekly Line-up
Picking the right formation
Managing your bench
Player knowledge is power
How non-Premier League matches affect your FPL team
How to plan for future gameweeks
The Secret To Transfer Market Domination
Looking beyond goals and assists
Predicting a haul
Form vs fixtures
Passing the eye test
Assessing affordability
Money in the bank
Why prices rise and fall and how to game the system
Beware tied-up value
When it s OK to take a hit
So when else is it OK to take a hit?
When should you NEVER take a hit?
Saving your free transfer for a rainy day
Spot the differential
Club representation
Mastering the bonus points system
Knee-jerkers and bandwagons
Timing your transfer
Negotiating the January transfer window
A tool to help: Better FPL
A tool to help: Fantasy Football Fix
A tool to help: fplstatistics.co.uk
Optimising Your Chips
Using chips like a pro
Wildcard
Free Hit
Triple Captain
Bench Boost
The Psychology of FPL Management
Managing the inner chimp
PART 3: The Secrets of Imposing a Winning Squad
Managing your mini-league
Common FPL scenarios and how to come out on top
Types of FPL manager and strategies to beat them
Beware the bubble
Mind games
The Diary 2018/19
Early season
The festive feast of football
New year, new me?
Doing the doubles and beating the blanks
The final sprint
Playing for Prizes
FPL loot: what s on offer to FPL s elite?
Silverware scenarios
See you at the top
Useful FPL tools, links and resources
Useful Twitter handles
Glossary of terms
FOREWORD
It was 5pm on a rainy Sunday when I got a Whatsapp message from a certain Gianni Buttic . A mate and I have written a book , it said, and we d love to get you involved . Now I ve known Gianni for quite some time - we met back in 2011, when he worked as a producer on a TV show I was hosting. He s a talented, lovely guy, but never in a million years did I think he d ever be writing a book. I had no idea who his mate was (turned out to be Toby, who, being a fellow Brightonian, is a good guy by default!). And to be honest, my immediate thought was, what the hell could they be writing about?! . Somewhat sceptical, I asked Gianni the question, and he duly replied with the three sweet words that all us fanatics love to hear: Fantasy. Premier. League.
My love affair with sport began at a young age. I was born in Brighton, but spent most of my childhood in Jamaica with dreams of making it as a pro tennis player. Football was always a hot topic in my house, particularly among my cousins - it s them I have to thank for turning me into a Brighton fan. I m sure anyone who has watched the Fantasy Premier League Show or BT Sport Score will attest to me often harping on about the Seagulls while hosting the programmes. It was on the latter in November 2017 that I awkwardly celebrated a Glenn Murray goal, live on air, only to realise it was the halftime broadcast and I was watching a replay of the first half. Cringe! A small hit to my pride, but sometimes you just can t put a lid on the passion. Plus, the goal was that good it was worth celebrating twice (so I tell myself anyway!).
I discovered Fantasy Premier League in 2013 and, much like Toby and Gianni, became a shameless addict. It became apparent to me just how much time and thought I was dedicating to it during a recent flight home from Rome. As I settled into my seat I realised I had little in the way of reading material and the WiFi situation wasn t looking good, rendering my iPad fairly useless. So I did the only thing any self-respecting FPL nut would do and drafted no fewer than eight versions of my next Wildcard team, using some good old-fashioned pen and paper. Seeing how engrossed I was, the guy next to me became curious and peered over my shoulder like he was missing out on something. It was only after I said it that I realised how weird I m planning for my next Wildcard sounded! Needless to say that killed the conversation stone dead. Absolute amateur!
When we landed, I realised that I d spent over two hours obsessing over my eight teams. Worst of all, the exercise was ultimately pointless - later that gameweek, I made one measly transfer and banked my Wildcard for another week, making my draft teams pretty much redundant. Two hours wasted, you say? Absolutely not. I loved every second of it.
That s the beauty of FPL. Yes, winning is great, and good God this book will show you how to do it, but - and it sounds clich d - the taking part is just so immersive. So multifaceted. Endless variables and freak gameweeks mean even the most diligent of FPL managers can have a shocker. There s so much to consider. So much to ponder. Like the actual Premier League, it s just so hard to predict. It feels impossible to master and that s why I can t get enough. The futile pursuit of unattainable perfection.
And that s why I love the idea behind this book. I m ridiculously competitive and FPL is a great outlet for it. I d like to think I m doing ok at it too, having finished just outside the top 1% last season. But in FPL, if you stand still, you re going backwards. There s always something new to learn and I ve truly not come across anything in the FPL world that is as detailed as this book. Take it from a woman that has spent hundreds of hours reading blog posts, working with the experts, listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos.
The lads sent me the first few chapters and, despite being a fairly involved FPL manager, there were a bunch of oh my God moments and major revelations. I simply had to agree to a foreword in order to see the rest of the book before anyone else!
I ve been hosting the Fantasy Premier League Show since the 2016/17 season. If you ve ever watched it, you ll know that it s fast-paced and the discussions tend to be gameweek-specific. We invite the cr me de la cr me of fantasy pundits onto the show and they never disappoint as we prepare FPL managers for the gameweek ahead. By contrast, this book offers a multitude of tips over the course of a season and the ability to revisit specific chapters or sections when you need to brush up on your theory. It delves into the nitty-gritty topics that true FPL geeks like me will appreciate, like understanding the bonus points system, how to manage your inner chimp and how to distribute your spend so that, statistically, you give yourself the best chance of success. It will show you how to build team value and where to find the OOPs. It will help you optimise your chip usage and there s even a very funny first-person diary that documents Gianni s innermost thoughts throughout the 2018/19 season. You ll find out a lot about him here. Hilarious!
And there s one final ulterior motive for this foreword. I ve been reminded on several occasions that, between them, Toby and Gianni have both finished above me in every season I ve played. Well, the joke s on them, because I m confident that s about to change. And nothing would be sweeter than beating them with their own book.
Jules Breach
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Toby and Gianni met at university in 2007 and quickly bonded over a mutual love of football. Having dabbled in various newspaper Fantasy Football games, Fantasy Premier League (FPL) going mainstream was perfectly timed, providing a welcome respite to their studies and a focal point for discussions during frequent trips to the library students union bar.
What started out as just a bit of fun turned into something of an obsession for the pair who - almost certainly to the detriment of their degrees - began debating the intricacies of how to maximise their FPL points each week. Over time, these shared learnings shot them to the top of their ever-expanding mini-leagues. It even pocketed them some much-needed cash after convincing a group of friends to make it interesting by fronting 10 into a prize-pot for some winner-takes-all action.
Ten years and plenty of student debt later (minus the Fantasy winnings!), Toby and Gianni remain committed to conquering each other s (and the world s best) FPL achievements. Between them they have finished in the top 1% of global FPL players in six of the last seven seasons, including a top 0.36% finish for Toby in 2019 and a top 0.38% finish for Gianni in 2015. To put that in context, over 6,000,000 teams entered the 2018/19 season.
What once were closely-guarded secrets between the two are now being revealed to the world in the hope that you too can dominate the utterly immersive world of FPL, and maybe even make a few quid along the way