When I started this site I wanted to avoid patronising folk with guides and tips. However, I’ve noticed quite a bit of traffic coming here looking for tips, presumably looking for some pointers when it comes to selecting their team for the new season, so I’ve given in. I’ve knocked up my first guide giving you some general points to consider when selecting your squad, I’ve even thrown in some player tips along the way. What do I know? Not much, but at the very least, you might learn from my mistakes…

General Player Selection

This is an insight into general things to consider when selecting a lineup for the season. There are specific things to take into account for positions like Goalkeepers and Defenders which I will go into in another article. This one however, just looks generally at how you identify and more importantly, rule out players for your team. This isn’t written with any particular Fantasy Game in mind, it applies to them all. Having said that, squad games do give you more freedom to risk an injury prone player or perhaps one who picks up a few cards. Even in these games however, injuries, suspensions and dreaded rotation can be an acute pain in the posterior. Transfers can of course be used to fix problems in your side throughout the season, but a solid foundation of reliable players can free those precious transfers up to be used to capture form players and to sign emerging players rather than fix problems with your starting lineup. So here’s some points to consider before you snuggle up to that player list…

Look for Out of Position or misclassified players

The old chestnut. When exploited for an advantage, these are players classified as defenders when played in midfield or classified as midfielders when played up front. It’s an obvious one but every season there are one or two classic examples to be had – Portsmouth’s Matt Taylor being last years best example. The top-scoring defender in many Fantasy Games - but he played 95% of the season on the left of Pompey’s midfield and cracking one long range goal after another. His clean sheets tally wasn’t disastrous either. This season most games should get the Taylor classification right (the Telegraph being the first). However there is bound to be others to watch for notably Wigan’s Scharner – often classified as a Defender but will doubtless play in midfield for Wigan and Birmingham’s McSheffrey. This lad is the main source of Brum’s goals and assists and his classification is likely to be mixed between midfield and a forward. Steve Bruce does tend to play the lad out wide but his attacking attributes are such that he’s likely to be his team’s main threat and Fantasy Points scorer. That pretty much makes him an obvious cheap/mid price midfielder if classified as such. I’ll alert you to any glaring misclassifications in any games as they crop up via the news pages so keep ‘em peeled here.

Look for “Sleepers”

Every season there are players who under perform – either through injury, morale or just a serious loss of form. These players can they awaken to find their former self a season later and soar back up the Fantasy scoring charts. The Fantasy Games base a lot of their player values on last season’s form so you can sometimes get a real bargain by anticipating players that will return to top form for the season to come. West Ham have more than a few of these – Benayoun and Harewood for example – both very decent point scores in 2005-06, both disappointing (despite the late flourish) last time out. Benayoun will do better this season. Harewood probably will too if he gets a decent move as anticipated. The other major sleeper at Upton Park is Dean Ashton. A big points scorer in 2006 after his move from Norwich, stricken by injury all of last season. He could be a bargain buy for those managers who can remember his former glories. Other notable sleepers who should improve on their points tally this season include:

Joe Cole - sure to be a decent scorer with 25+ games under his belt this season
Jimmy Bullard - on fire before injury so definitely worth looking at once fit
Steven Davis - wasted by O’Neill at Villa last seson, could flourish at Fulham this.
Kevin Nolan - Only 3 goals last season but hit double figures in 2005/06. His effectiveness will depend on Little Sam’s tactics so watch for early form.

Then of course there are Van Persie, Owen, Roberts at Blackburn, Camara at Wigan and Luke Moore at Villa. All strikers who were stricken by injury who should all increase their points haul this season.

Look for New Arrivals

Last season Kevin Doyle quickly became a massive asset to Fantasy Managers. It took many by surprise and yet, his potential was there to be found in his stats for Reading in the Championship the previous season. Finding gems amongst the promoted players is possible because they often offer good value. The chief factor that dictates player value in most Fantasy Games is last season’s points tally - promoted players don’t have Premiership form by which the game organisers can base their values - therefore some quality signings can be grabbed at a premium. I’ve already mentioned McSheffrey at Birmingham but the likes of Giles Barnes at Derby, Carlos Edwards at Sunderland and also Earnshaw at Derby are all certainly worth a look if you’re scratching around for mid-price/cheap players.

New foreign players are also worth considering of course. Word of warning here though - don’t be dazzled by the bright lights of publicity that will follow some of these players around in pre-season. The likes of Torres will get all the headlines before the season starts but that won’t guarantee that he’ll live up to the expectation. Be cautious with foreign signings and assess how they bed in. These are ideal signings to make using your first few transfers since typically, they’ll take more than a few games to get with the pace of the Premiership - just look at Martins at Newcaslte last year. He stuttered at the start then started firing half way through the season. If you can study the form of these players and catch them at the right time, they can win you mini-leagues. However, gambling your early budget on them at the cost of established Premiership players isn’t advised. The selection stats will be of help when looking at the potential of both promoted players and new foreign imports since, where possible, I’ve included stats from last season, no matter what division they played in. Take a look at Gareth Bale’s goal attempts per game and tell me you’re not tempted to commit the cardinal sin of signing a Spurs defender again.

Look for likely ever-presents

As a general rule the more matches your players play, the more points they have the opportunity to score. With this in mind you need to target players who are likely to play at least 32-34 games of the 38 available per season. Finding these players isn’t easy there are a number of factors you have to consider, which are…

Avoid Card Magnets

Be aware of players that will miss matches through suspension. One game for collecting five bookings isn’t a disaster but if they hit 10 then its 2 more games and it starts to get concerning. Players like Barton at Newcastle and Reo-Coker at Villa, picked up double figures in bookings last season and are both likely to serve at least one suspension next season unless they change their ways at their new clubs. Likewise it’s worth checking out the discipline of new arrivals to the Premiership before considering them. Muntari at Portsmouth for example, an excellent player but sent off 3 times last season for Udinese. Will he bring that kind of discipline to the more physical Premiership? Who knows, but it might not be worth the risk. Similarly, Reading’s new signing Kalifa Cisse – arrives in the Premiership having gathered 9 bookings and 1 red card for Boavista. Use my selection stats to arm yourself with these facts so you can isolate those players who could run the risk of multiple suspensions.

Avoid Sicknotes

Pretty unpredictable in the main but then there are players cursed with bad luck when it comes to injuries. Look at Wigan’s Chris Kirkland last season – he’s suffered from injuries all his career and again last season he was struck down having made a very promising start to the season. There are players who are, regretably, prone to injury. Along with Kirkland, players like Dyer at Newcastle, Lennon at Spurs, Laursen at Villa, Robben at Chelsea, Saha at United and Viduka now at Newcastle. These are players who have struggled to hit the 30 games a season consistently who you should maybe think twice about including if your lineup. In addition, before you make your initial lineup choice, be sure to check out my injuries and bans table to ensure you don’t sign a player already going into the season crocked.

Rotation=Evil

An evil thing that Fantasy Managers fear above all else. The big villain here is Rafa Benitez. His relentless shuffling of the Liverpool side makes a rich gold mine of Fantasy Points so rickety and insecure, only the bravest of prospectors should venture there. Only Reina, Carragher and Gerrard are secure in their places with Finnan and Agger not far behind. Even that little lot will miss at least 2-3 games each around Champions League games because Rafa just can’t resist. For that reason be aware of Liverpool players and also other clubs that could rotate because of Cup and European commitments. Tottenham will rest players for Europe so you can expect their frontline of Berbatov/Bent/Keane and maybe Defoe to rotate like mad for some League games. Likewise Jenas and Lennon will doubtless get several rests if Spurs progress in Europe. Be aware of who will get fixture congestion and certainly be wary of Liverpool and Spurs next season, Jol and Rafa are the big tinkermen.

Find the “Untouchables”

A no-brainer. You need players who are on the teamsheet every week. That means you need players who are first choice in their position and who don’t have any real chance of losing their place for a prolonged period. In truth these aren’t that easy to find. I’ve already mentioned that Liverpool have about 3 players who are automatic first choice. Looking at United next season you have Van der Sar, Ferdinand, Vidic, Rooney and Ronaldo – the rest all have healthy competition to see off before they can be 100% certain of a place or be protected from regular rotation. At Chelsea you’ve got Terry, Essien and Drogba even Carvalho, top defender for many last year has Ben Haim to compete with him now. While Lampard, formerly untouchable, could be rested for a few games now that Sidwell has been secured.

Most of the top teams only have a handful of players who you can really guarantee will get 30+ games. This is where the second tier clubs and players like Scott Parker at West Ham, Anelka at Bolton, Gamst Pedersen and Bentley at Blackburn and Arteta at Everton all come into their own. They are likely to be big scorers again this season and, barring injury, will all play that 30+ figure without any sweating on your part required. Can you really be that definate about Scholes, Giggs, Robben, Joe Cole, Kuyt and Torres in comparison? Of course in a squad game this doesn’t matter so much. You can juggle these glamorous names with steady figures who can step in to contribute when Scholes is rested or Kuyt rotated but in a game limited to just a single selection of 11 players it becomes a major consideration.

When transfers are valuable, high scoring first choice players like Arteta give you one slot in your team you don’t have to worry about changing for the entire season and that can be priceless. If you have 4-5 players like Arteta, who play week in, week out and score on a regular basis, then you can use your transfers to juggle the other 5-6 positions and capitalise on form. If you have a 9-10 players missing 1 in 4 games, then your transfer ambitions could be distracted to fix them rather than pounce on the form players that can win you leagues.

Be Wary of Forced Absence

Firstly be aware of signing players on loan from other Premiership clubs. As part of these agreements they are pretty certain to be ineligable against the club that owns their contract, therefore that’s 2 appearances you can tick off straight away. Another forced absence this season is the African Nations Cup. To keep it short, its a big tournament hosted by Ghana which will affect 20+ Premiership players who could all miss up to 4 games in January/early February. I’ve a page dedicated to this here which lists those players likely to be affected. Either avoid these players in your initial lineup or make plans to have the transfers put aside to sell and maybe buy them back (in the case of Drogba) when this comes around.

That’s about it. I’m spent, for now at least. I’ve got some more guides in me though, so pop back in a week or so to see what other dubious paths I can point you down.