Dream Team Transfer Windows
EDIT: Thanks for popping by via whichever search engine you use. This is a post from 2010 so it’s probably not going to give you any hints for the current Dream Team transfer window. It’s got a few good pointers in terms of transfer strategy but your best bet is to head over to Fantasy Soccerball who might be able to help you out!
It’s that time of year in the fantasy football calendar when The Sun opens up the Dream Team transfer window for the second time. This gives the participants the opportunity to get rid of their crap players and bring in some fresh blood.
Choosing which players to bring in isn’t simply a case of “who’s scored the most points” there is a bit more to it than that!
For a start, you have to adhere to the rules regarding formation and squad value. Chances are that if you select the highest scoring players in each position you’ve blown your £50m budget by quite a lot! Usually you’ll be able to get three or four expensive players (those valued at greater than £6m) into one team and then fill it with the lesser-valued players.
One thing you can do is change your formation. I prefer 4-3-3 over 4-4-2. In theory it will be your strikers who will be your team’s highest scorers (except for Ronaldo last season!), and so if you have 3 of them you have a better chance of scoring more points. If opting for 4-4-2 you should go for those players who have a habit of scoring goals. Frank Lampard is one such player. He gets forward a lot and is also the penalty taker for Chelsea, and so he generally scores well.
The most important factor for me is the player’s value for money, i.e. how many points they’ve scored against their price (I call it their “points per million”). If there are two players with identical scores but one costs £2m more than the other, chances are you’re better off putting the cheaper of the two into the team as he represents better value for money.
The next step is to look at who’s injured and their expected date of returning to the squad. This is useful between transfer windows as it gives you the chance to wait until the next one to bring a player in. If it’s the last one and they’re still three weeks away from returning to fitness, do you take a gamble and put them in hoping they’ll score lots of points for you if and when they do return, or go for the safer option of a player who will score lower points regularly?
At this stage of the season it’s a good idea to look at the fixture list for Premier League teams as a player who plays more games should score more points! Look at which teams are still left in the FA Cup and also the teams who are still competing on the European stage. Fulham and Everton both have 2 more Europa League games to play and if they win those, they’re guaranteed another 2, Fulham are also still in the FA Cup.
Another reason to look at the fixtures list is to gauge which defenders and keepers to go for. When it comes to the lesser-value players that you need to fill up your squad with, you need to be wary of which teams they will be playing in the next few months. A Stoke defender would probably score more points if they haven’t got games against Arsenal and Man Yoo coming up.
So with all this in mind you’ve got a pretty tricky task ahead of you. Of course you could always close your eyes and stick a pin into a list of names!
