It’s been a long while since we’ve updated this site, due to various other going-ons, but the recent glut of games in the Premiership and subsequently, fantasy leagues, have got us thinking and reminded us of a few key principles to keep in mind during this busy time. These hold true especially when your team is not doing particularly well and you are thinking of re-jigging things dramatically…

1) DO NOT make 2 transfers in a gameweek, no matter what the situation. To us it’s just giving 4 points away unnecessarily. We’d rather take the risk of a player not playing than take a 4 point hit, because you are essentially hoping that the new players scores 6 points just to break even.

2) Try to keep short-term solutions to a minimum. Here’s an example. In the last couple of weeks I’ve brought in John O’Shea (Man Utd) and Alex (Chelsea) for short-term points spikes. Bringing in O’Shea was a short-term solution to pick up 2 quick clean sheets, and it seems to have worked reasonably well. I was planning on bringing in either Skrtel or Carvalho as soon as they came back, so enough cash was kept aside. Bringing in Alex however, didn’t work well at all, because he was injured within half an hour of Chelsea’s game against Fulham and may be out for an extended period. This means that he will have to be transferred back out after one gameweek, essentially making it a wasted transfer without picking up any real points. This may be the last time that I attempt such short-term (cheap) solutions.

3) This fantasy league game is a lot like the stock market… you can’t time all the ups perfectly, but you’ll do a whole lot better by staying with quality stocks (players) than those who are chasing the next big thing all the time.

4) Start getting a reliable bench in place a week at a time, so that you know u can rely on it when times are tough for yout team.

5) Once you’ve done all that, let that team have an extended run and try and not make too many changes to your core players (approx. 9 or 10 of your starting XI should be your core).

We’ll be back later in the week with a few more tips and some previews. Till next time, cheers.