After having my arm twisted by a colleague yesterday, I've dusted off my fantasy PL managers hat and thrown it into the ring. (My Sorare fantasy hat is constantly in the ring!)
The problem with fantasy premier league is you really have to be committed to it. Monitor performances, study form etc. to get the best out of your team. I can sustain this for a couple of months, but then after the christmas period I tend to get a bit bored/ distracted and focus my attention elsewhere.
Additionally with the development of P2E, and in particular Sorare, I've been less inclined to give my attention for 'free'.
Picking a team by theme
To solve the boredom issue, a colleague told me how he picks his teams for FPL, i.e. by picking a theme. For example, all players whose name begins with 'K' were entered into a team, and so this is how 'KFC' entered the premier league fantasy game...
For the season 2022/23, we've gone inter-continental. So rather than picking teams with players from any nationality, we've decided to narrow the selection parameters by continent. And so this season in the FPL leagues we will see 'Latin America XI' and 'Africa XI'.
You also don't need to worry about coming up with a cool or witty team name...
So here we are, the team has been entered!
Restrictions on choice
The only perceived downside of selecting a team this way is the limited choice. For my team, Africa XI, the majority of eligible players fill midfielder roles leaving me a bit thin on choice of defenders and forwards. In a way this makes the game a little easier, you no longer have to trawl through pages of players to find those bargains who may actually play.
Additionally, the team picked will normally come under budget, in the case of Africa XI, I have a surplus budget of £8m to play with.
Another 'issue' was actually identifying those players that would qualify for the team, fortunately the 'Players' info pages does specify from which country a player comes.
However, there is a mismatch of data, players listed in the players section as forwards for example, can only be selected as midfielders.
Introducing Africa XI
Goalkeepers picked themselves as the choice was extremely limited:
But actually Mendy at Chelsea is a very good GK option to have and I'm sure will be present in a lot of FPL teams.
Picking the full quota of Defenders was difficult, but there was still quality to be found:
Another Chelsea player in Koulibaly adds that extra bit of class in defence. My main concern is game time for some of the others, with new signings at Liverpool, Matip may not get as much time on field.
Midfield was spoilt for choice as FPL have categorised players in midfield who will play more forward roles. However, the team looks strong in this department:
Options up front were limited, so my Forward line looks quite thin. There's a heavy reliance on Leicester having a great goal scoring season, and also hoping that Forest find their way to the net a few times
This is my current line up, and subject to tinkering between now and Friday night!
What do you think? Drop a comment below if you have any suggestions or comments.
I'd also be interested to know what tactics other managers are going with this season.
Also - is there an appetite for a 'Publis0x' mini league?
