FAB is a very tricky concept to master in Fantrax Draft PL fantasy football leagues. Deciding which percentage of your budget to spend on certain players every week, or how much to offer and accept in trades requires a lot of strategy and can change a league as a whole. I've seen it all. I have seen FAB wars, I have seen managers give up all their FAB before the draft (me), and those who have taken FAB monopoly within the first few weeks. This article will look to sway you in the direction of spending/trading away your FAB as soon as possible. For more incredible analysis and Fantrax advice check out 23/24 Draft Kit and our Pricing Plans.
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Why You Should Spend FAB as Early as Possible
Genie is here to explain his thoughts on spending your Fantrax FAB budget early, for those of you playing with this version of waiver claims.
Keeping your Free Agent Budget is a burden
How is having extra resources to pick up hidden gems week in week out a burden? How is having some sweetener FAB to add to trades a negative? Well, I'll tell you how. The longer you keep your FAB, the harder it is to value it in my opinion. Going into the season with the intention to make your FAB last as long as possible will probably lead to you missing out on many solid pickups, and potentially good trades where FAB is involved. As you slowly start to spend your FAB you may start to be more cautious week in and week out, which will cause you to continuously miss out on pickups. The best example I can think of is Schar going for 0 FAB in one of my league after gameweek 3. In the first three gameweeks he managed scores of 31 (!!), 10, and 3(vs. City), and was about to enter a friendly schedule. We were approaching the final week of August here, so instead of spending even a few FAB to get this defender showing potential, managers decided to hold out for late signings.
Spending your FAB early will allow you to not hold back on ensuring you get early trades across the line while FAB still interests people, and you are able to get those "early" hidden gems (more on that later). As the season goes on I truly found managers are less interested in trading for FAB, after starting to be content with their own strategy or most commonly, not seeing a point unless they can achieve a FAB monopoly. The conservative method is one that will cost you more often than not - it can lead you to miss out on potential superstars, avoid beneficial trades, and take gambles on January signings that don't pan out. In short, spend it all early.
Trading Your FAB Decreases the Risk
I am a big advocate of trading away your FAB before the draft even starts. I think this is one of the easiest/best times to offload FAB. The season hasn't started, and the summer rumour mill is in full swing with a lot of big names rumoured. Many managers will be tempted to bring in an extra 25+ FAB to get ahead of the inevitable FAB war and have the best chance at getting 1-2 new signings or even a big name asset who is about to enter the league. When you are in the camp of keeping your full FAB to splurge on new signings that come in closer to deadline day or at least after your draft, then you run a huge risk of it not going your way. Trading for an extra draft pick gives you some assurance of not only getting to select an extra player you think will perform that is tried and trusted, or allow for a domino effect type trade. A domino effect type trade could be something like this. You trade 75 FAB + a 11th round pick for a 4th round pick. You then package BOTH your 4th round picks for a 2nd round pick + a 7th round pick. The domino effect has led you to getting 4 picks in the first 3 rounds....not too shabby.
Let's look back at some of the bigger signings that came into the EPL after a majority of drafts took place and how it played out for those who held their FAB to spend on these new assets.
Gianluca Scamacca (F, WHU)
Scamacca was seen as the Antonio replacement by West Ham fans and fantasy managers alike. Antonio was starting to become injury prone and not hitting the heights he had in previous years. Well, turns out Scamacca didn't fare any better in terms of injuries this season. It took a while for Moyes to play him in the EPL XI, despite him getting plenty of runouts in the conference league, and off the bench. His first 2 starts were August 18 vs. Aston Villa (6 points) and October 1 vs. Wolves (15 points). Despite the wait, 2 decent outings surely had managers excited about Scamacca's potential over the bulk of the season. After his October 9 start vs. Fulham (19.5 points), he didn't manage another double digit score until......January 4, which ended up being his final start of the season due to injury. Scamacca only managed 11 EPL starts with 3 goals and 3 double digit outings. I have seen managers spend as much as 60-80 FAB on him the previous season, and this is a perfect example why selling your FAB would have been smarter. That 60-80 FAB could have been used to potentially get in a 4th-6th round pick, spread out nicely to pick up later transfers, or to swoop surprise pickups like Willian and Iwobi.
Alexander Isak (F, NEW)
Newcastle's new striker turned out to be a great revelation....in his 17 starts. Another summer signing, another big chunk of FAB spent for less than 20 starts. Isak surely won managers gameweeks with 3 scores of 20+, and 11 double digit scores in 22 games played. Isak is definitely one that showed his promise for the future with a good debut season. Between injuries and rotation to Wilson, though, he just couldn't get enough starts to make it worthwhile to spend up to 100(!!!) FAB on him. I have no doubt about Isak's potential for the 23/24 season, but hoarding and spending all your FAB on an unknown quantity from another league that went to a Newcastle team that has recently not been too prolific onto a team that wasn't really top 4-6 at the time was a huge risk.
Casemiro (M, MUN)
A steady Eddie with upside and downside alike. Casemiro had a love hate relationship with fantasy managers. Between his high floor, random attacking returns, and of course multiple game suspensions he was a tougher one to predict. Casemiro went for as low as 0 in some leagues but as high as 45 in others. We knew his role and the glaring need for him in the United XI. Despite that, he was still an unknown coming from a much better team (Real Madrid). He is one that should go in the mid-rounds this year, but for less than 50 FAB, I think he was a proper investment. He managed 24 starts, 4 goals, 3 assists, but also 7 yellow and 2 red cards, with a 9.5 PPS. This is an example where spending half your FAB on him, and trading half your FAB for a mid-round draft pick would have paid off huge dividends for your team.
Antony (F, MUN)
Most overpriced signing ever? Maybe, but I have faith in Antony coming good in the future. For immediate impact he was not worth either the 100 million price tag or the 100 FAB multiple managers spent on him. He managed 23 starts, 4 goals, 2 assists and a PPS of 8.1. While that isn't too bad, he isn't exactly winning you gameweeks, which is what you should get for all your FAB. Whether it was his price tag or just United struggling early in the season, Antony just never really found his feet outside of his incredible start of 3 goals in 3 games. He only managed to crack 20 points just 1 time, which wasn't until April 16. Throughout that time he was probably dropped, re-added or traded away for pennies on the dollar. When you spend big on "big name" signings, there's always this risk. Will they be the next Haaland or the next Werner? Seems like Antony was closer to the latter.
Lucas Paqueta (M, WHU)
Paqueta was supposed to come in as the new chief creator for West Ham. Some warned his arrival would mean the end of Said Benrahma and also worrying for Bowen. Paqueta overall was a decent pickup for those that dropped FAB on him. He started 27 games with 4 goals, 3 assists and a PPS of 10. He is one that went under the radar when names like Antony and Auba were thrown around, but proved to be the best of the three. Seven outings of 15+ points was a delight for managers, but the majority of them coming in the 2nd half of the season was frustrating. This goes to show the frustration and patience needed with new signings. While they may inevitably come good, it could take some time for them to really find their feet, causing you to undervalue them in trades just due to exasperation and impatience.
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang (F, CHE)
I'll keep this one short. Managers should have avoided him at all costs. He had a poor stint in his last season at Arsenal, and the fact that he had no clear path to playtime on a team struggling in attack should have screamed DO NOT PICK UP! Yet it was the "big name" that caused managers to waste up to 100, yes,100 FAB on a player who finished the season with 34 total points and only 5 starts. Use your judgement when it comes to the big names and don't just splurge the FAB for the sake of splurging the FAB.
Don't Hold Back on the Early Waiver Wire Pickups
Managers are always hesitant on early waiver pickups, especially when it comes to spending their FAB. Seeing a free agent player get 20+ in gameweek 1 is always a tough one to judge. You never know if it is a one off or a sign that this player will have a good season. If you have the FAB, it is worth finding out. Almiron, Iwobi, and Ben Mee are players that were picked up in many leagues after the first few weeks of the season, and boy did that pay off. Managers who had the FAB were willing to spend close to 20-25 on these players and the "risk" paid off. The early weeks of the season are where you should be looking to spend a lot of your FAB, especially if you missed out on some of the big name signings and can't get any trades over the line. Picking up players with hot starts could mean they will have a good season, or at least be more significant in their team this season. Name value needs to go out the window here, and you need to only look at this season. A good example could be someone like James Garner, who could be in line to ball out this season. A decent floor player, but if he manages back to back double digit outings, he is worth splurging the FAB on. Clearly his role would have improved and he found his footing in the EPL.
Saving FAB to plan for double and blank gameweeks is a common rationale managers cite for not splurging on week to week pickups. As someone with 0 FAB during the double game week madness later on in the season, I can assure you there are other ways to prepare for and win those weeks. Missing out on early season pickups who could provide 30 gameweeks worth of solid value is definitely worth a lot more than planning for a total of 6 gameweeks over the course of the year. When it comes time for the double and blank gameweeks, thinking a few weeks ahead is the way to go with no FAB, just holding 1-2 extra players during that time will let you be successful in those weeks without missing out on good waiver wire pickups.
January Signings are Overrated
The 2nd transfer window comes about halfway through the season after the busy "Christmas" period. When we start to approach mid November I notice managers tend to start planning for the January window by either keeping their FAB, or slowly and subtly trying to get in a little extra FAB here and there. This is a mistake. Saving your FAB for the January window is a waste of time. If you spend your FAB right in the first half of the season, you won't really need to hope and pray for a Bruno Fernandes type January signing to save your season.
Most of the time January signings are overrated. Not only do they usually not start right away, they also likely need time to adjust to the EPL. For example, imagine saving 70 FAB to drop it on a player like Mudryk. Yes, a big name, a big budget acquisition...but he only managed 64 total points since he signed. Truly not worth it. The risk is a lot more than it is spending big on summer signings who have more time to integrate and potentially even a preseason game or two to find their feet. January signings, especially from other leagues, need to adapt to a much tougher league, and integrate with a team that has already played roughly 18 gameweeks together.
While some players may hit the ground running, a lot won't. That doesn't mean their future prospects are poor for upcoming seasons, and that is what clubs could be looking at. Instead of a short term save our season solution, January signings could be meant for the following season. But the club was able to get a good price or wanted the player to start to get integrated earlier than just the summer. All in all, while you might strike gold and find the next Bruno Fernandes, there is a better chance you wait all this time to find yourself a Mudryk. Another tidbit of advice...some of the best January signings will be the lesser known names going to smaller teams where they have a defined role and clear path to minutes. Think Hamed Traore - someone who went for basically 0 FAB in most leagues but quickly started posting double digit scores.
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