Good news FPL managers! Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 launched a few days ago and we can slowly start to think about our fantasy teams for the new season. I mean slowly because there is still a lot of time till the new Premier League season starts on 13th August 2021. Here are our first thoughts, tips, and (yes) a first squad.
How to approach the launch of FPL 2021/22
It is highly likely that you will not build your new FPL squad today, and that is fine. Your FPL team by the time of the GW1 deadline will look very different from your first draft. But that does not necessarily mean that you should postpone creating your squad to august.
However, it also does not mean that you should dive into FPL too deeply right away as it could cause you a quick burnout. Just, find a compromise, take your time, and start to slowly absorb the FPL information about the new season.
Look at prices, potential bargains, watch player performances on EURO 2020, Olympics, friendlies… Let your mind acknowledging the FPL information around you, but do not go too deep right away.
Let your mind working on your squad somewhere back in the subconsciousness. And when the time will come, you will be ready to find THAT optimized solution, THE GW1 squad you WILL be happy about. But that time is far away…
So, let’s start with our first thoughts about Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 season.
Fantasy Premier League 21/22 First thought
There is nothing really new in this season. Rules, chips, almost everything remains the same as we are used to.
Fixtures
We always consider fixtures to be one of the most important things when selecting your FPL squad because the fixture is the only thing you can predict with 100 % certainty. And Fantasy Premier League is a game about predictions (but also about optimization and risk management). We can really predict which players will score and when. We just can assign some probabilities to those events for example based on bookies odds. But when it comes to the fixture, we now with 100 % certainty who are the next opponents of players in our fantasy squad.
We constructed our Flat Track Bully index based on this assumption. This index measures how certain players perform in easy and in tough fixtures.
Let’s look at which teams have the best fixtures at the beginning of the new season based on the FDR (Fixture difficulty ranking). You can find the full fixture list with FDR rankings at the official FPL site.
Teams that have the best fixtures in the first 8 gameweeks: Everton, Watford, Manchester United, West Ham, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leicester, Brighton.
Teams with the worst fixtures in first 8 gameweeks: Norwich, Southampton, Leeds, Chelsea, Crystal Palace.
So, you can focus more on teams that have good opening fixtures. Especially, when you need some cheap options (sub 6.5 million).
Budget picks
Some players have caught our eye at the very beginning with their appealing price tag. Some of these players could be no-brainers in our GW1 squad.
- Jota (7.5 m)
- Mount (7.5m)
- Raphinha (6.5m)
- Souček (6.0m)
- Jimenez (7.5m)
- Bissouma (4.5m) – bench fodder
- Sarr (6.0m)
- Fofana (4,5m)
- Dubravka (4,5m)
- Digne (5,5m)
- Sánchez (4,5m)
Initial scout squad
We will finish our initial short preview with our first scout squad. It is our first draft that will look completely different by the GW1 deadline after we gather more information about the Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 season.
