Forwards

Your forwards are a tricky bunch to choose. So many factors need to be taken into consideration when deciding on your front line.
Its easy to go for obvious players like Torres or Berbatov, but that doesn't leave you with much to play around with for your other strikers. Its also one of the areas you're likely to chop and change, due to upcoming fixtures, goal droughts and scoring runs.
Because most teams play with 2 or 3 strikers, its hard to predict where the goals will come from. For example, Robin Van Persie is likely to score against Hull as is Adebayor. Goals tend to get shared amongst the strikers, yet only 1 or at best, 2 midfielders will regularly get on the scoresheet at each club. This makes it easier to identify them and classic examples are Ronaldo, Lampard and Gerrard.
You don't have that luxury with strikers as Adebayor may score one week, the Van Persie may get the goals next week. The art there will be predicting the right weeks.
Players like Adebayor, and Defoe, tend to go on scoring runs with goals bunch together, whereas Torres will be more evenly spread and consistent.
So who do you pick?
In Fantasy Football quarters, that is the $64m question.
Form is by far one of the most important criteria, and striker thrive on confidence and confidence comes from scoring goals.
The fixture list is also a major factor as even less consistent strikers will score against weaker teams, and an out of form player often kick starts their season against these teams.
Look for teams that have creative midfielders who regularly provide for strikers. Again this is where Adebayor and Torres benefit from Fabregas and Gerrard.
If you're confident of only needing to strikers, then go for a cheap option who plays every week at one of the promoted teams. Zaki at Wigan this year is a bargain at £6m in FPL and is scoring goals consistently.
This would free up some cash to opt for players like Defoe or adebayor as first choice.
At the start of the season, look for players who have traditionally been high scorers, uet had comparitively poor seasons the year before. These comeback kings may be over their blip and ready to re-ignite their careers. Drogba maybe a good example here.
To summarise, due to form and fixtures this is an area you may want to visit weekly, yet maybe one that you rarely need to change.
Its incredibly tricky to pick at the start of the season, but should be easier to judge after a few weeks.

My picks at present are:- Adebayor, Defoe and Zaki.

Midfield

As previously said, midfield is an area where goals scored and assists are the main points criteria. But there are so many factors to consider.
Look for players that have new signings competing for their position as this can lead to unsettled players and rotation. Deco arrives at chelsea so its hard to see Essien, Cole, Ballack et al playing the same high number of games. Berbatov arriving at Man Utd puts pressure on Rooney's and particularly Tevez' place.
Ronaldo was FPL's top scoring player last season and nobody came close to his points return, but with his value at £14m it leaves you incredibly short of funds for the rest of the middle. A lot of teams last year had Ronaldo, but had to settle for cheaper players to play alongside him. It was a case of "putting all your eggs in one basket", as when Ronaldo had a bad week, (any week he failed to score,) teams were struggling to get past 50-60 point totals per week.
3 mid-high priced players (or 4 if your planning on a 3-5-2 formation) can make up the overall shortfall in points whilst also ensuring you have another 2-3 players to score points if one has a bad game.
Players such as Arteta, Downing, Barry and Ashley Young are vastly cheaper and together are more than capable of plugging the gap left by Ronaldo. Ashley Young is mis-classifed too as he often plays up-front enabling more goal chances and assists. Barry takes Penalties and free kicks as does Downing, who is also at the centre of everything creative at 'Boro, whilst Arteta has almost single handidly created Evertons goals for a few seasons now. These "big fish in little seas" are prime candidates for bonus points. Downing also has Alves and Mido scoring the goals from his creative moves, so he will likely gain some assists rather than seeing his efforts go to waste.
When a midfileder gets an assist or a goal to his name, this also often generates Bonus points.
With some cheaper midfield players, you may then have room for one of the other big boys, such as Gerrard or Lampard, who although expensive, are still a few million short of Ronaldo.
If your still not able to afford them, then look further down, and with Man City now "on the up", then the likes of Wright-phillips, Elano and Petrov, or Gamst-pedersen at Blackburn, who should thrive in the Position vacated by Bentley. With Santa Cruz on fire, making use of GP's plays, then some assists and bonus points also look likely whilst he is also capable of the odd goal.
Valencia at Wigan is a cheap option and with last seasons 2nd lowest scorers boosting their attack options this term, then Valencia looks set to improve on his assists and goals. Also there is Man City's Johnson and Ireland who look safe at least until City start splashing the cash in January, and who are capable of scoring goals whilst having Robinho to feed off their efforts.

Goalkeepers And Defenders

I'll deal with Goalkeepers and Defenders together, because the principles for selecting them are basically the same.
Like all the positions in FPL, you can use one of the defenders as a sub, who will rarely feature in your side, 'cept for the sole purpose of cover. So if 4 of your 5 defenders are good enough, then just go for the cheapest "starter" you can find.

Important factors for both positions here, are clean sheets.
In season 2007/08, the highest number of clean sheets were from Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool. David James also had an exceptional season and his points were boosted due to the number of saves he made, (120 compared to Reina's 66).
Using this information, and the fact that this season, Portsmouth's defence looks less likely to offer James much cover, then i would stick with one of the keepers from the big 3.
This would also apply to the defenders and with Jamie Carragher amongst the highest points scoring defenders last season, he looks a safe bet again, already leading this years Fantasy Points table for defenders. Its pretty safe to use any defender from either of the big 3 as your fairly sure of consistant clean sheets. Finances allowing, go for "ever presents" like Carragher, Ferdinand, Vidic and Terry who, free from injury, will be the first names on the team sheet.
But beware of the Rafa Rotator...
Carragher is possibly the only Liverpool defender sure of his place which is why he scored considerably higher than any other Liverpool defender. (remember, in theory they should all benefit from the same number of clean sheets, thus same number of points? Well at Liverpool they didn't.)
One solution would be to have Reina in goal ensuring you dont use too many of the other big 3 players at such an early selection stage. This wont be an issue at Liverpool because there is only 1 other player certain to be on the teamsheet every week...Gerrard!

Tip: cheaper defenders at those clubs will score roughly the same number of clean sheets. As long as they all play, then they all get the clean sheet. Therefore why waste money on expensive defenders when you have cheaper alternatives playing alongside. As defenders can lose points for conceding 2 or more goals, its also rare for either of the top 4 to concede high numbers of goals in a game.

However...
...Everton's Lescott and Villa's Laursen were big points scorers, thanks to scoring 8 and 6 goals respectively. At 6 points a goal and almost certain bonus points for doing so, can you afford to overlook them or any other goalscoring defenders?
Choose your matches wisely though as its unlikely either Villa nor Everton will allow these players to push forward against tougher opposition, yet will encourage it at relegation candidates. And are they likely to keep as many clean sheets?


In summary then, try to have a defence made up from 1 player from each of the big 3 and also consider Arsenal, and Players like Lescott & Laursen, who are more than capable of scoring goals, to make up for less clean sheets. The last defender can be a cheap option but make sure he is a regular starter as you may need him for emergency cover. Cort at Stoke is a great choice here and he has a track record for scoring goals.
If you need to, look for cheaper players at the same clubs as they will all qualify for the clean sheets and equal points although be careful that they dont suffer from rotation.
If you still need cheaper players, then just look for teams who have/are likely to have a high number of clean sheets. Studying form and upcoming fixtures is a great way to benefit from this option but can be time consuming.
A good way to save cash is to go for a mid price Keeper such as Wigan's Schwarzer or Man City's Hart, who score well and are cheaper than the top choices.

Picking your players - Formations

Picking your team is much like a jigsaw, in that you need to carefully work out your team based on player value for money and which formations you want to play.

In FPL you must pick a total of 15 players and you only have £100m to play with.
When i tell you that this equates to an average of just £6.6m per player, and Ronaldo costs £14m then you can see this is not easy.
You Must pick 2 Goalkeeper, 5 Defenders, 5 Midfield, and 3 Forwards.
You may only pick 3 players from each Premiership team.

Fantasy Premier League lets you choose from 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, or 4-4-2.
When choosing a formation, its important not to get too stuck in that formation because you never know when you need to make changes, and although it can be important, its not the most important aspect of the game.
Your formation will be automatically adjusted to your chosen 11 players. The remaining 4 players will occupy your Subs bench.

Firstly, lets list some things that players can score points with in FPL.

For playing in a game 1
For playing at least 60 minutes in a game (includes playing points mentioned above) 2
For each goal scored by your goalkeeper or defenders 6
For each goal scored by your midfielders 5
For each goal scored by your forwards 4
For each goal assist 3
For your goalkeeper / defender conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 4
For your midfielder conceding 0 goals (must also play at least 60 minutes) 1
For every 3 shot saves made by your goalkeeper 1
For every penalty save 5
For every penalty miss -2
Bonus points for the best players in a match 1-3
For every 2 goals conceded by your goalkeeper or defenders -1
For every yellow card -1
For every red card (includes any yellow card points) -3


Looking at the information above, we can see the most points come from goals, clean sheets, and assists, with higher points awarded to defenders/midfielders for scoring goals. Midfielders are also prime candidates for assists and bonus points (which are like Man-of-the-match points) for the top 3 performing players in each match.
It is for this reason that most teams opt for a 4 or even 5-man midfield and this is generally where the big money is spent.
Packing out the midfield for tight games where a winner is hard to predict is an idea because midfield are generally well involved, whereas strikers may not get much of a look in, whilst also, clean sheets are hard to predict.
I personally like to use a 5-man midfield to maximise the assists, goals scored, and bonus points. These are the points to keep in mind when picking your midfield players.
To summarise it best to have a basic formation in mind and generally the points are in the midfield, but some weeks will be easier to predict clean sheets (fill your defense), and also the opposite, a sackful of goals, in which case you may want to opt for 3 strikers.

Which Fantasy Football Game...?

The answer here comes down to personal taste and how you want to play it.
If you want to win big cash prizes, then you will likely need to pay to enter and sometimes incur expense as you go along as most of these are played over the Phone. Most of the daily Newspapers run these types of games and their rules often differ slightly to online versions. They normally have set transfer limits or windows do not offer the use of subs.
Because they are administered mostly over the phone, they can often be tricky to participate in.

Online games are generally much easier as you can see all the info you need, can research players much easier. They're also generally free to join, however, do not always offer significant prizes, or only offer prizes for the overall winner. When you bear in mind, the official Premier League game attracts over 1.6million players, this top spot is out of 1,599,999 players reach!
Those figures suggest, or rather confirm, that the official Fantasy Premier League game is the biggest and most popular around, and it is this one that this guide will concentrate on. Apply these tips though and you will most likely benefit in whatever game you choose to play.

Introduction

Fantasy Football is a game played in various formats, but easiest and commonly, online.

In it, you start with a budget for you to pick a team of 11 players, (some games allow you to pick a squad of 15 players, such as Fantasy Premier League [FPL]). These players then earn you points each gameweek based on that players achievements in his real life matches. For example, say Fernando Torres is in your team, and in real life for Liverpool he scores 2 goals, he will earn you points for your fantasy team.

The number of points awarded and the whole scoring system is largely similar across all Fantasy Games, although some also award bonus points for man of the match performances or penalties/shots saved for Goalkeepers.

In general, all games offer points for-

1. Clean sheets (Goalkeepers/Defenders)
2. Assists (All Players)
3. Goals (All Players)
4. Appearance

The points are added together for each of your players to work out a total points haul for the week, which then gets added to your overall total.

All games have an overall league and some allow you to create mini private leagues too. Fantasy Premier League also have a "Head to Head" league made of 1 player representing each of the Premier League teams, where only the current gameweeks points count and you compete against another player. Whichever player scores most points that week wins the "match".

Like real life, you get

• 3pts for a win,
• 1pt for a draw and
• 0pts for a defeat.

Some games offer prizes and manager awards, and also run Knockout Cup competitions.