My Thoughts on Fanteam
I’ve tried lots of platforms, but FanTeam is something that’s really growing on me. I’ve always been into my fantasy football, but the chance to play for money was a fantastic prospect for me.
I’m not a Fanteam wizard, cashing in on every tournament that I enter. However, I have made a profit in the first three months of playing. Instead of withdrawing, I put all of my profit into the Fanteam £1 milion game, which is a season long Fantasy Premier League game.
(2022 Update: I broke even on the Season-Long Game. Quite disappointing really, but I couldn’t keep up with all of the game restructures due to COVID. In addition to this, 2 weeks in the Dominican Republic disrupted any momentum I was building).
This post will provide tips that I’ve taken on board since starting. The hardest thing when starting off is to understand how the game works, but this is where I can help.
So let’s get into it, with these Fanteam tips.
Into Your Fantasy Football?
Register at FanTeam & you can still enter the Season Long game. In addition to this, there’s a 150% Deposit Bonus available for new players.
FanTeam Tips: A Must Read
I’ve categorised these tips into two sections, must reads for beginners, and ‘further’ tips for existing players. Let’s get started.
Build a Balanced Lineup
The first thing that you might do when building your first lineup, is to focus on the attackers too much. Whilst it would be great on paper having Aubameyang, Salah, Rashford, Mane & Greenwood in the same lineup, your team will suffer in the other positions.
Although you would often get points for goals, these could easily be cancelled out by goals conceded, as you’ll have no option but to choose players from the lower end of the league in defence.
You’ll be better off long term to mix your star players alongside other players which are lower priced, but can still perform.
Players such as Callum Wilson, Danny Ings, Patrick Bamford or Ollie Watkins would be good partnerships with your star players, leaving you plenty of money in the tank to upgrade your defence.
Go Against the Trend
This is a contradictive point, which I would only suggest as a tip for single game competitions.
Why not the Fantasy Season long game?
Well, Ownership is a tactic in FPL. You can see how many entrants own a specific player, which is a way that you can ensure you aren’t left behind. For example, the ‘cheat code’ in previous seasons was to choose Mo Salah as Captain every game week. He was on fire and would score often. Over 50% of entrants had Mohamed Salah in their team.
If you didn’t have Salah in your side, there’s a great chance that you’re going to be left behind the pack. Unless you got lucky and had another player that outscored him.
In the single game contests, it can actually pay to not hold the premium players, which most other players prefer.
Let’s take a look at the Aston Villa vs Liverpool game last night. Most, myself included, expected a Liverpool whitewash.
I didn’t actually play this one, but I would have captained Salah, no doubt. I probably wouldn’t have many Villa players, if any.
There were a few players out there which decided to go against the grain, deciding to pick Aston Villa players.
They could well have a time machine, as nobody expected the score to finish 7-2 to Aston Villa!
Jack Grealish stole the headlines with a score of 23, with Ollie Watkins just behind with 19.
In comparison, Mohamed Salah was the highest scorer for Liverpool, taking a score of 12.0.
The next highest scorer for Liverpool was Firmino, with 4.0.
It certainly won’t happen every week, but it just shows that going against the grain could rocket you to the top of the rankings, taking home the prizepot in a £5,000 guaranteed tournament.
Play the Free Rolls
If you are taking part in the Season Long FPL games, you’ll also be able to participate in the weekly freerolls.
It can be quite easy to forget about these, but they’re important to join, as they have £1,000 guaranteed prizepools.
I’ve taken part in three, missing one, and I’ve currently earnt just over £5 back. Over the period of the whole season, these could pay for me main entry fee! All it takes is a single win.
Exploit Player Positions
This isn’t a secret, as it’s something you’ll see when you’re building your lineups. In truth, everyone probably already does this, but it’s important that you understand how crucial this can be.
The main one for me is forwards that are positioned as midfielders on Fanteam, but also on FPL & other platforms.
Midfielders don’t tend to score a huge amount of goals from open play, typically relying on set pieces, penalties etc. Take a look at Bruno Fernandes & Jorginho, who score the majority of their goals via penalties.
To maximise your points potential, it’s best to fill your midfield out with the best scoring players (sorry for pointing that out!).
When you look deeper into it, you’ll find there’s some midfielders that you’d expect to be categorised as Forwards.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane & Raheem Sterling lead the way, with more players such as Mason Greenwood & Son also classed as midfielders.
If you can fill up your midfield with these… forwards, well you can expect regular goals & points to match.
This also gives you the opportunity to choose Harry Kane, Aubameyang or Vardy as your forward players.
