Barclays Fantasy Football 2014/15 – Top Tips

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las, from a league table perspective, Barclays Fantasy Premier League (FPL) 2013/14 was a disappointing season for me. I say from a league table perspective as points-wise it was my highest total to date. It would seem that the general standard of FPL play is improving, although the particularly high points hauls of 2013/14 probably owed more to the performance of Luis Suarez – glad to see the back of him!

My stubborn, contrarian streak negatively impacted my performance last season (in some seasons it has aided me). Sticking with Van Persie when he was fit, thereby missing out on some hefty Suarez points hauls, and ignoring the Ramsey bandwagon, hurt me. For instance, in one gameweek alone I missed out on approximately 50 points after Suarez’s heroics against Norwich.

As the last two seasons have been relatively lean, I have revised my FPL ‘Top Tips’ for 2014/15. I now accept that incurring points deductions in FPL is not the biggest sin and possibly has some merit, particularly early on in the season and in joining the big club player bandwagons as demonstrated by Suarez, Y.Toure and Ramsey last season. Still, my contrarian outlook remains and I like to think my misjudgements of last season have sharpened up my analysis. I hope you find my recommendations below helpful.

Barclays Fantasy Football 2013/14 – Top Tips

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arclays Fantasy Football 2012/13 was my annus horribilis. I should have known that my egotism and vanity in labelling myself the Warren Buffett of the Barclays Fantasy Premier League would come back to bite. Actually divine retribution had nothing to do with it; rather, the astonishing individual performances of Van Persie, Michu and Bale, all of whom I ignored for too long, overly deterred by their hefty values.

2012/13 was certainly a year that favoured concentrating your resources on a few individuals and less on a balanced approach. Defences were particularly poor with four point clean sheets markedly reduced amongst the big four teams. It also favoured the aggressive players willing to lose four points in transfers to a greater extent than previous seasons.

Anyway, although my 2012/13 was not great by my own Buffett standards, being the saddo and egotist that I am, I felt the need to reveal my 'Top Tips' for 2013/14 (not that different from 2012/13); adherence to which I reckon will stand you in good stead throughout the season.

Barclays Fantasy Football – Updated Starting Line-ups – Transfer Window

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nfortunately, the opening three weeks have been distinctly unfruitful for me in Barclays Fantasy Football. Rooney and Taylor (Neil) picked up injuries; Clark was sent off; and Kagawa and Hazard confounded my prediction that they would need a period of adjustment to the rough and tumble of the Premier League. Instead, Shinji and 'Azard' (I love the pronounciation; I imagine myself on a Stella Artois advert behaving in louche manner when I say it) have gone about their work like billy-o and established themselves as the principle inventive fulcrums for their two clubs.

These misfortunes have forced me into the desperate act of 'whacking out' my wildcard, which has given me no pleasure whatsoever as this is not something that should used readily. Certainly not after three weeks. Indeed, in my previous Barclays Fantasy Football seasons I played my wildcard around the 30-week mark. I felt forced to play it at this early juncture as, without losing points in transfers, I would have not reached my desired line-up until around the week 8 mark – a little too long to wait. Of course, I still hold myself in greater esteem than all those idiotic, short-termists who have already used their wildcard! 

Barclays Fantasy Football 2012/13 – Top Tips

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s I hold myself out to be the Warren Buffet of the Barclays Fantasy Premier League, I thought that it was only fair to pass on my wisdom in this arena to each and every one of you. Actually, the real reason is that I need another outlet to satisfy my vanity. The Ten Commandments of Barclays Fantasy Football are as follows:

1. Do not waste points on transfers barring exceptional circumstances

I'm always amazed at the large number of people who employ this tactic believing that they are guaranteed to hit the jackpot and score a hundred-plus points if only they could have a particular line-up that week. The only certainty is that you will lose four points, which really adds up during the course of the season if done on a regular basis.