Seven reasons to quit playing

Or how I learned to stop worrying and love FPL

Are you losing your fantasy football mojo? Has a poor start to the season left you bottom of your mini-league? Or maybe the effort of monitoring Pukki’s price rises is beginning to feel overwhelming? 

Don’t give up!

Like most things in life, if you want to succeed it pays to persevere, and – although it can take a while – once you find your fantasy football rhythm and the points start pouring in, you’ll be glad you hung in there. Trust me.

Here are the seven most common complaints we hear from new FPL managers who are starting to lose patience with the game, and our tips to getting through those early-season fantasy blues:

1. My team is no good / I have all the wrong players

Tip: At some point during the season, every FPL manager bemoans the desperate state of their team and why they still have Perez in their lineup (or is that just me?). Avoid the death spiral, and don’t bleed yourself out by making multiple costly transfers. If you haven’t used your Wildcard yet, now could be a good time to play it (see our Guide to Wildcarding). If you’re not Wildcarding, prioritise your transfers according to fixtures and likely price rises/falls and move players on week by week with minimal point hits (I tend to baulk at anything more than a -4). With a few savvy tweaks, a squad that can seem desperate in GW4, can look genius by GW7. 

2. I’m too far down my mini-league to win / Tim from Accounting is too far ahead

Tip 1: Don’t sweat your mini league position at this stage of the season – there are opportunities for big gains later, especially around double and blank gameweeks.

Tip 2: When you’re chasing, it can feel like big gambles are the only way to catch-up – but this seldom pays off, and it’s more likely you’ll end up even further behind. Even if you’re chasing a large margin, at this stage of the season you’re better off building your team around obvious choices – heavy-hitters and players with strong upcoming fixtures – to keep pace and then aim to make small but consistent gains with the odd differential here and there.

3. My players are injured / not playing

Tip: If your team is struggling to field 11 starting players, it’s time to Wildcard or spend -4 on an extra transfer.

4. I keep forgetting to change my captain 

Tip: When checking your gameweek points (say on Monday morning), take a moment to update your team for the next gameweek – choose your first 11, organise your bench and set your captain and vice captain. You can always tinker and make transfers later, but if you get too busy and forget, at least you’re set up for the weekend’s fixtures.

Tip 2: Salah.

5. I forgot to update my team and make a transfer

Tip: Set yourself a weekly reminder (say Thursday night), to check our Cult Leaders picks, set your team and make your weekly transfer.

6. FPL is more work than I thought

Tip: We’re here to help! Follow our Template Team, sit back and relax.

7. It’s getting boring, everyone has the same players

Tip: It sounds obvious, but the solution is to mix it up. Look at the top teams in the FPL rankings for different team set-ups, add your favourite players and/or take the odd punt on a Cult Leaders differential.

Tip 2: Try joining other FPL leagues – friends, family, work, forums. The game is more fun when you can talk about it at work and in your spare time, and you’ll see other people succeeding with wildly different teams.

-Si