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Christmas in Fantasy Football is the time of the year where the fixtures come thick and fast, and with such a congested schedule comes the opportunity to make a lot of ground.

In my latest piece, I want to talk about five key ways in which I think you can set up your FanTeam team for success over this period – and to cover for a lot of things that may or may not happen. 

PLAYING SUBSTITUTES

A simple one but I cannot stress this enough: this is the most important time of the season to have a full playing bench. The fixtures come thick and fast, and some of the niggles that may not affect a player’s playing time in a normal ‘Saturday to Saturday’ schedule will cause them to miss time on the pitch.

The other point on this of course is just rest and rotation, which a lot of the current Premier League managers regard as extremely important. There will be the most unexpected benchings between now and the New Year, even from players which you regard as ‘nailed’, purely as a result of the relentless fixture schedule. You may recall in pre-season that I tipped to have the likes of George Hirst as my eighth fodder attacker- I will ensure that sooner rather than later he is replaced with a playing striker in teams where I still have him!

DELAY TRANSFER DECISIONS

Secondly, with Covid threatening an extremely vigorous comeback, I would hold your transfers as late as possible. This means two things: roll where possible, and also try to do any moves you go ahead with in a Gameweek as close to the deadline as is possible. Rolling gives you maximum flexibility for when ‘that week’ comes along, where there are multiple fixture cancellations paired with regular injuries and suspensions within your squad. I cannot stress how much easier it is to deal with that situation when it arises with two free moves as opposed to one. Similarly, waiting till the very deadline to do your moves is extremely beneficial, as it gives you the maximum information possible, and enables you to make the best and most-informed transfer decisions. 

LIMIT EXPOSURE TO ONE TEAM

A third thing, related to COVID once again, is limiting your exposure to any one team. I suppose this is a way of spreading the risk if a fixture gets cancelled. To use an extreme example, if your 15-man squad consisted of a triple-up on five different teams, then if a fixture between two of those five teams gets cancelled, you would lose 40% of your squad as a result (six players). If you only ever have a maximum of two players per team, then this already reduces the worst-case scenario by two whole players, as you could only possibly ever lose four if one game gets cancelled. I think right now I would make an exception to this rule with Liverpool, who are a fantastic team (and have mostly nailed players), but for almost everyone else I would stick to my guns and only pick a maximum of two.

90-MINUTE MEN

Fourthly, I want to make a key point about the players you do bring in. As I mentioned before, some weeks the end goal will just be to get a full starting XI out where you can, and the type of player you bring in could really help to give you the best chance of achieving this. During the early or late season, I would be much more inclined to bring in slightly less nailed players, who I think have the ability to haul in an odd Gameweek. However, over this period in particular, I would prioritise bringing in the absolute most nailed players from a team who you identify to have favourable fixtures. Off the top of my head, some recommendations for this mould of player would be James Ward-Prowse, Ollie Watkins, Raphinha, Tomas Soucek and Youri Tielemans. These players, when they are fit, tend to play the majority of minutes for their respective teams, and on a week where there are a few rests across the league, you would like to think that you could still count on these high-minute options to still be some of the first names on their respective teamsheets.

NO SHORT-TERM MOVES

Finally, be wary of bringing in players for the short-term only. With AFCON on the horizon, if you bring in a player who is taking part in that tournament, you are only going to get a few Gameweeks out of them before you then lose them for at least two games. Similarly, be cautious of bringing in players who are on four yellow cards before the midway point in the season. Needless to say, these are the most likely players to miss Christmas fixtures due to suspension, and you may need them in any given week. I would also stay away from injury-prone players during this period, with lots of fixtures coming in a short period of time. A minor injury could cause a player at this time to miss four of five fixtures when regularly they would only miss two or three. Bringing in players who have a history of logging high minutes season after season are much less likely to get injured. 

I hope this provides a decent platform for you to try and maximise points over this period. It is also important to stress that luck will play a huge part as to whether you happen to have players who miss game-time, particularly through COVID and rests. If you have a particularly unlucky Gameweek, the next one will be right around the corner to put it right. Try to stay calm and cautious and you will have the best chance of success over a VERY busy Christmas. Most importantly, enjoy all the football that is about to come our way!

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