Everyone always consider the Fantrax EPL season a long slog, 38 weeks where patience is what wins you a league. I'm here to give you a different way to approach Fantrax this season. Instead of patience, focusing on trying to win your league early in the season, or at least have a nice gap from the rest of the table. As a sprinter my coaches live by the saying "get the work done early in your race", basically let the others play catch up, and the same mindset can be applied for winning Fantrax leagues. For more incredible analysis and draft help check out our 23/24 Draft Kit and our Pricing Plans.
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The Draft
The start of your Fantrax title charge of course beings with the draft, and draft prep. I do believe that draft prep is key to a successful draft and thus having a good chance to win your league. The draft has to be coupled with good in-season management, but a strong draft will have you on the front foot before we even kick off the season.
When it comes to draft prep, to win your league, you will need to plan based on your draft slot. This isn't a one size fits all type approach, it is important to note every draft slot should have a unique strategy, but also one that you feel will be best. For example, you may be someone who is set at drafting a forward in round 1 regardless of slot, if so you will need to adjust the rest of your strategy depending on which slot you get. Getting Kane in early round 1 vs. Jesus late round 1 will change your strategy for the next few rounds. With Kane you know what you are getting so can maybe go a bit riskier, but if you take Jesus at slot 10, your next round should be a bit of a safer pick.
In my Tips and tricks articles, I've given some key pointers on how to approach the draft, and these ways should be followed if you intend to push ahead in your league early. With trying to win early, there can't be much time for patience, so injured players are a definite no. Defensive mids and their consistent and slow and steady pace should be avoided, and upside prioritized. Especially in the mid - late rounds it must always be upside, upside, upside.
Another tidbit, will be to draft defenders with the best early fixtures. You can refer to our article here about that. Drafting defenders with solid opening fixtures especially if a team has a good run for the first 7-8 games can get you the jump start in both fpts for and of course H2H points in your league table. When looking at both promoted assets, and late round fliers, the early schedule should also play a factor in your thinking.
Early Season Trades
I truly believe early season trades can make or break your season. The earlier the trade the less certainty behind the values. Everything is a toss-up if you choose to trade before the draft, during the draft, or even the first few gameweeks into the season. Players may not have hit the heights they should be, teams might have a slow start, or players are in a purple patch that will end. When it comes to early season trades the way to approach it is with a "domino" effect goal come the mid-season time of year. My goal is to always accumulate as many top assets as possible. Despite my success, it takes time to put the plan into motion, and must be broken down into a lot of little steps instead of trying to just go all in for as many first round picks.
Anyone in a league with me will know that I enjoy trading out my 100 FAB for draft picks. I know other managers are better tactically when it comes to FAB, and I rid myself of it so overall a win-win. I try to do some package deal that will allow me to get back some sort of 2nd-3rd round value where possible. Sometimes though this isn't really possible with managers wanting to wait until post draft to start trading, fair enough.
I try to start building the roster from the ground up. What I mean is sending combinations of players from the lower rounds of the draft for one slightly higher. For example last season I was able to sell Shaw + Malacia for Lingard after the draft. In hindsight this deal is awful. At the time of the draft it made sense, trading away 2 players that had a lot of uncertainty and rotation risk for 1 asset that has proven he can shine when the focal point of the team. From here I was able to package Lingard in a deal to bring in Kane...obviously he wasn't the big piece but adding him in as just a sweetener was able to get me the deal over the line.
A little roadmap of deals could look something like this (despite me using "rounds" in my explanation, these trades are meant to be done throughout the early season not necessarily throughout the draft).
Give: Round 14 + Round 12 player --> Receive: Round 10 player
Give: Round 10 received player + other Round 10 player + 15 FAB --> Receive: Round 7 Player
Give: Round 5 player + Round 7 received player + Round 7 player --> Receive: Round 3 Player
Now your roster will have 4 players from the first 3 rounds, but the job still isn't done!
4. Give: Round 3 received player + Round 4 player + 35-50 FAB --> Receive: Late Round 1/Early Round 2 asset
5. Give: Round 2 player + Other Round 3 player + 30 FAB --> Receive: Player selected between spots 5-9
While this isn't an exact road map to win your league, the end goal puts you rostering - 3 players in the first 14 picks. While the depth may be sacrificed having 3 elite players coupled with some upside + consistent assets in rounds 6 and below should make you an every week contender. My goal is to always accomplish these trades before October/November, and to target those first round assets who may have had a slight slow start but are starting to show signs of improvement or enter a better fixture run. Think of James Maddison of last season and his slow start. If you want to win your league early you have to do the work early, and take the risks. I always believe in sacrificing depth for superstars who can put 30+ points up in multiple weeks. In order for this to be successful you will need to be very active on the waiver wire. If you don't trust your streaming strengths, then this strategy may not be one you should adapt.
Being a Ruthless Manager
I have discussed numerous times last season about the importance of being a ruthless manager. If you want to win your league early on, then this applies now more than ever. There really is no time for patience, and being nice. If a player isn't performing who is a "lower-end" asset then they should be dropped. 3 weeks of poor performances should be more than enough to get the hook. An injury for longer than 6 weeks to an asset taken below round 3/4 should be dropped. These are all strategies that need to be adopted if you choose to be ruthless.
You need to be actively chopping and churning your team with the waiver wire, taking players in good form, ones with great schedules, and ridding yourselves of the ones constantly performing below par. A lot of managers are always willing to "sacrifice 1-2 weeks" in the early part of the season because it's a "long season", but in my opinion all this does is set you back two losses so early in the season. I really hate the idea of playing catch-up when it can be avoided. Ensuring you always have 11 starters, that means backups for the late games, is another MUST DO when adopting this strategy.
When it comes to your top assets, those taken in the first 3 rounds, it becomes a delicate balance. If they aren't performing usually I like to offer them out and see what is there ASAP. A few managers may still pay up 90-95% of their value which I am more than okay to take. I would much rather take 90% value on my first round asset that is flopping, and roster more in-form players from a bit later rounds. An example last year is me giving up Sterling for Rashford + Gray in the very early weeks of the season. Sterling was very poor and Rashford was showing signs of life, I decided to back the player in form while getting in a Gray sweetener to get rid of my first round pick. It was a risk for both sides, but as I said when you want to win as many games as possible in the first-half of the season these are the risks that you must take.
Waiver Wire Activity
I can't express enough how crucial this is, if you want to get as many early season wins as possible. Depending on how much FAB you have after gameweeks 1-2 will depend on your strategy here. Obviously saving your FAB for January and beyond shouldn't even enter your mind if you want to get those wins early. You need to pounce on players and spend big, even if it turns out to be a waste. It's those risks on the guys such as: Almiron, Iwobi, Willian, Schar, etc... that can win you a lot of weeks early in the season. If you hold back for "better" prospects, or want to wait to see their consistency first, you will miss out on them to another manager who wants those wins nice and quick.
Defenders should be among the position you are actively looking to stream and drop on the waiver wire. Defenders that aren't elite, or even "above average" are easily droppable after even 1 bad performance. Seeing Brighton lose 4-2 to Wolves in gameweek two should make anyone not named Estupian an instant drop from that back line. Their confidence will be a bit fragile, and it isn't worth finding out how they will respond, especially when we are so early in the season. Despite Brighton being a top team a loss to them or any other "top" team early in the season where a lot of goals are conceded should sound the alarm bells at least for a few weeks. Unfortunately if you want to win your league early you don't have a "few weeks". United last year conceded in their first 3 games of the season, but also looked defensively awful. In that first week vs. Brighton despite conceding just one goal they really could have conceded 7. Dropping Varane wouldn't of been the worst idea....especially considering United lost 4-0 the following week.
Stay tuned for an article discussing the best early season waiver wire strategies, and the way to properly use the "eye test" to get ahead of the game!
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