With the Premier League season kicking off on Saturday, millions of football fans from around the world are making last minute changes to their fantasy teams.
The game allows the savviest football fans to demonstrate their vision for the beautiful game. For others, who have never even seen Gillette Soccer Saturday but feel obliged to sign up to a Fantasy League with friends or colleagues, the game offers a confusing glimpse into a foreign world.
For both types of player, Simon March can offer advice. The 36-year-old beat 3.5 million others to become last year's overall winner of the competition.
March gave Business Insider six key tips for the upcoming season, including three players that you would be mad to leave off your team sheet.
6. Pick good value players, not the best players.
March said that most fantasy league players are overly obsessed with picking the top players. Instead, they should look for the best value for money.
"All fantasy managers start with the same, finite budget but there are ways to stretch or amplify the impact of that budget," March said.
"For example, as far as fantasy football point-scoring is concerned, there’s not a lot of difference between an average defender in a great defence and a great defender in that same defence. The latter, however, is likely to be more expensive than the former. So there’s a cost saving there with minimal loss in terms of points."
5. Prioritise flexibility
"The biggest lesson I’ve learned from my years of playing fantasy football is that you can’t anticipate everything," March said. "Flexibility is, for me, the crucial hidden quality in a fantasy team that will translate into points over the course of a season."
"[F]or example, you could splash out on you strikers and have a great-looking forward line but this inescapably means you’ll have budgeted in other areas. This imbalance could prevent you from moving quickly enough on, say, an emerging form midfielder or it could reduce your options if you have injuries or suspensions in your defence. Alternatively, if the game you’re playing has a limit on the number of players you can pick from a single team, maxing these out means you might struggle to bring in another player from that team should they become a ‘must have’."
4. Pick players from a team you hate
You cannot let your real-world allegiances influence how you pick your fantasy team, according to March.
"That might mean picking players from a rival club and playing, maybe even captaining, players in fixtures against the club you support," March said. "Or it could mean dropping your heroes if they’re underperforming. Letting your decisions be dictated by what you hope to happen rather than what you expect to happen usually doesn’t end well."
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