❗ Once again, there’s some theory before the Haaland and no-Haaland drafts. You can skip it, but I feel the bigger picture is extremely important here.
Alright, reader.
In less than 24 hours, we’ll begin the beautiful journey through the new FPL season, which will end on 30 May next year.
You’ll learn new things, make sound decisions, have a lot of fun, and let FPL be a pleasant experience that won’t harm your mental health – that’s the Data Dribble philosophy in a nutshell.
When you’re reading this, you’re likely to be flooded with a huge number of drafts on social media, on your favourite websites, and from YouTube creators, maybe with your mobile gallery full of screenshots of drafts you liked.
It’s a peak period of overwhelm, FOMO, and creeping doubts.
Which is perfectly normal.
Being strictly methodical helps in these situations.
The first phase of building the draft isn’t about choosing players or the structure, but about realising what type of manager you are, clarifying your goals, determining how much calculated risk you’re willing to take, and deciding on the philosophy for the first half of the season, along with the chip strategy.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that every season is different. And oh reader, this one is special. I already discussed this a few weeks ago in my chip strategy guide:
💡 This is the most uncertain season in recent times
9 clubs will start the season with a new manager
Several key players had long, gruelling World Cup-affected seasons and will be eased into the new campaign, which may mean late arrivals or managed xMins
There are 3 promoted sides, each undergoing the classic Premier League rebuild
The transfer window will close after Gameweek 2
There’s a 3-week international break after Gameweek 5. We’ve never had a break this long. How will managers respond? Will they adjust heavily based on what they’ve seen in the first five gameweeks?
There’s no perfect GWs 1-19 chip strategy. You can’t draw strong conclusions from a sample size of one season
Most of us will get some things wrong in Gameweek 1 drafts.
Although I tried to predict as many things as possible in the pre-season content and have a pretty good track record over the years, it’s still just an educated guess based on the current information. Often, a single transfer can set off a chain of events that affects how a team functions.
If you have time, and haven’t had the chance to do so yet, I recommend reading the guide I mentioned above, which covers the most popular strategies and helps you get a better feel for them.
You can ignore the drafts there – use it just for strats:
The starting point
Alright, my thinking:
💡 I’ve decided to play Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 – that decision shapes everything else.
1️⃣ Playing it in GW1 lets me build the squad without carrying a suboptimal bench for longer than necessary, and without using transfers on it.
2️⃣ Also, I don’t want the chip to dictate my strategy over the long run of fixtures.
It could all pan out just fine, but I don’t want to risk situations where things outside my control, like injuries and suspensions, would prevent me from playing it in the desired week(s) and force me to postpone it, or to fix my bench with FTs just so I can play it.
I don’t want to solve those problems and lose EV/xPoints in the process.
I’ve always believed that avoiding problems before they appear is a big part of playing “good” FPL.
Yes, one of the purposes of FTs is that they help you solve problems. But they also allow you to attack the upside and capitalise on new information. I would like to focus on that.
And I feel that BB1 will allow me to do so.
💡 Why not Bench Boost 2?
Some of you will go for Bench Boost 2, which could work out well, but it doesn’t sit right with me.
The main appeal of that strategy is Coventry playing Hull at home.
Although the Sky Blues are favourites, there are so many changes in both teams that I don’t want to:
predict how they line up
guess at team strengths after they have spent €232 million in total
risk injuries and suspensions between GW1 and GW2
It’s part of my risk management framework because I know I’m the type of manager who likes to take occasional calculated risks, trading steady floors for high ceilings in some spots, and I feel I need to balance that somehow.
Being conservative with captaincy is another part of that. You can think of this as a list of rules that mitigate risks, allow me to be aggressive elsewhere, and help me enjoy the game more.
Now, you can approach Bench Boost 1 in several ways
Among the engaged player pool, it’s very popular to commit to an early wildcard – you pick the week, be it GW3, GW4, or perhaps GW5, and try to maximise early fixtures before then.
Then, you act on new information about how teams play, line-ups, the transfer window, etc., during those early weeks of the Premier League, which is far from ideal for me personally. The transfer window closes late, and some teams’ dynamics can change massively in GW3+.
You wildcard into the chaos.
Alternatively, you can manipulate the draft by planning for an early Free Hit week. That’s one way of using that chip.
The other is a get-out-of-jail card (solving problems) and a ceiling-raiser (attacking upside).
Although it’s fine to use it early, you’re committing to one specific play and limiting your flexibility.
You need to assess pros and cons…
💡 In an ideal scenario, I’d like to Wildcard in GW7.
With all the information I need, and seeing how managers set up the first week after the international break in Gameweek 5 – not too early to lack proper signals, not too late to be left behind.