Kopsource Fantasy League Tips: Essential Guide to Success

Posted on 12. Aug, 2010 by Dominic Campbell in Fantasy League

With the season days away, many of you will be preparing your fantasy teams for war. However, there are some of you whose team would struggle in a pillow fight let alone a season long battle. Never fear, Kopsource has a few tips for those who have been left scratching their heads.

Pick a strategy

Before setting up your team, you will need to decide what your strategy will be. In the world of fantasy football, though, there are only two options. You can either buy great, or settle for average.

Buying great, easy as it may sound, will leave you short on cash very quickly. This means you will have to base your big names around cheaper options. For example, last season I had Lampard, Gerrard, Fabregas and Torres in my team; this posed a problem as I had spent almost half of my budget on 4 players.

The rest of the team then had to be cheaper/low scoring players who are playing for lower teams.

Alternatively, you can buy average. Although this doesn’t sound as appealing as buying big names, it allows you to set your team up around a squad of players in the £7-8M region.

Goalkeepers

It is a classic mistake of many fantasy leagers to purchase expensive goalkeepers. This is needless.

Points are determined on clean sheets and saves. So while Reina may keep a couple more clean sheets than Schwarzer, he will have less saves to make. Choose a goalkeeper from a team who have a pretty solid defence, but also rely on their man between the sticks. Last season Sorenson and Joe Hart where great for their teams.

Defenders

Defenders that score offer you very valuable points, especially if they lose their clean sheet bonus. Having a defender who will contribute assists and goals is always a plus. So it’s best to mix and match your defenders. Evra, being expensive, sits in a solid defence, yet also pushes up and contributes vital assists. Shawcross on the other hand is a cheaper option but also chips in with the odd goal.

Be careful, though, you do not want to purchase a hot headed defender who will lose you points via bookings.

Midfielders

Set piece takers; I cannot stress this enough. If your player takes corners, free-kicks and penalties, he is likely to get you alot of assists. Wingers are also a good shout as they provide most of the games deliveries.

However, it would be foolish for anybody to buy a defensive midfielder. They do not score highly, at all. If you choose Lucas or Muamba, don’t complain that you have fallen down the rankings in your league.

Strikers.

Strikers are difficult as they can be great one week, then fail to score in the next few games. Choose a striker who is going to play 90-minutes and stay injury free. You have three spots to fill so choose wisely. A good idea would be to buy a player like Drogba and line him up next to players such as Zomora and Bent.

Captains

Your captain will get you double points. Defenders usually don’t make for great captains but should a team like Chelsea play Blackpool, then Ashley Cole would be a good shout. If you feel a player will get a couple of goals or assists, then select him.

The best captains are usually the expensive midfielders and strikers. So Rooney, Torres, Fabregas and Gerrard all make for good calls. However, look at the team your player is playing against. It always helps. There is no use making Fabregas your captain if he is playing against Chelsea as these are usually games with few chances.

Kopsource advises…

Kenwyne Jones has just joined Stoke, so he will be played regularly and they will be looking to him for goals. In my honest opinion, he is worth a shout at only £7M.

Look to Newcastle for some cheap players. They have a team with International experience who will offer goals and assists should you pick correctly.

Dirk Kuyt is a very good shout. The likelihood of the Dutchman being played as a striker in a few games is high, so he you will find he scores like a striker but his points will go down as a midfielder; which is a good thing, you get more per goal.

Plan ahead. You can always make subs, so it is a good idea to keep an eye on the next subsitute to make. You will find that certain teams end up playing twice in a week, so add those players in when the time comes and select one as your captain. Double points.

- Why not take our advice and sign up to our league? There are prizes to be won and you never know, if you follow our advice you could see yourself win one of the following:

1. A Dive-id Ngog t-shirt will be given to whoever manages to be in top position come 1st January.
2. The end of season winner will win themselves any jersey of their choice. However, with this being a Liverpool site, that jersery will be a Liverpool one.
3. Of course, no competition is complete without the ‘losers loser award’. So a booby prize will be awarded to whoever finishes last.

To get involved, all you have to do is go to www.fantasy.premierleague.com and sign up for an account. You will then be asked to do the following:

Design a kit (2mins), Pick your team (2 GK, 5 DF, 5 MD, 3 ST) and finally… Manage your team from subs, to captains and formations.

Once you have made your team, click the ‘league’ link on the left hand side and enter this code:

182608-51836

You are now a member of the Kopsource Top Tier.

Easy!