With the Gameweek 1 deadline breathing down our necks, it’s time to get our final draft locked in. If, like me, you have a number of drafts competing for your attention, a good way of deciding between them is to pick one and fast forward to future Gameweeks and get a feel for how your squad will look further down the line. You can then do the same with your other drafts and see which one sits better with you having taken a longer-term view.

This will enable you to identify weak spots and even - dare I say it! - book in future transfers. Below is an example of one of my drafts and how it could look by Gameweek 4.

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Gameweek 1

This draft is a slight variation of a previous ‘Salah + Haaland’ draft, only in this one Gabriel Martinelli (£8.0m) has been downgraded to James Maddison (£7.5m) to free up £0.5m so that I can upgrade George Baldock (£4.0m) to Rico Henry (£4.5m), with the latter offering me a bit more squad flexibility.

I’ve also opted for John Stones (£5.5m) over Ben Chilwell (£5.5m) because I want a second City player for their opening match against Burnley.

As we can see, the Algorithm is giving me an Expert Rating of 79.1%, which isn’t great but isn’t terrible either. A large part of this is my decision to opt for João Pedro (£5.5m) up front; the Algorithm doesn’t have enough data or assurances that Pedro will start, hence he is only projected to score 1.8 points, despite the easy fixture against Luton.

Whether starting with Pedro turns out to be a smart move is anybody’s guess, but his inclusion enables a squad with Mohamed Salah (£12.5m); a decision which is easier to reverse if you own him, than if you don’t.

Gameweek 2

The second Gameweek sees a formation change from 3-5-2 to 4-5-1 whereby Pedro makes way for Henry, which the Algorithm prefers. A Fulham side without Aleksandar Mitrović (£7.5m) increases the likelihood of a clean sheet for Henry and, as always, a chance of attacking returns.

John Stones makes way for Chilwell who, having got the Liverpool fixture out of the way, embarks on a great run of fixtures and will probably remain a lock for some time.

Gameweek 3

This Gameweek sees a boost in my Projected Points to 55.0 and a switch back to 3-5-2, with most of my players facing easy opposition.

Here I have switched Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) with Bryan Mbeumo (£6.5m) to get ahead of Brighton’s poor run of fixtures and to jump onto Brentford’s solid run.

Another option here, would be to think about a slight re-structure to incorporate Harry Kane (£12.5m) with Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) making way, should the former be in good form, and the latter not firing.

Gameweek 4

By Gameweek 4, Brighton’s fixtures have turned dismal, and it is here we say farewell to Pervis Estupiñán (£5.0m).

There are a number of options available at this price point, but here I have bookmarked a transfer for Manchester City’s newest acquisition Joško Gvardiol (£5.0m) who could be a steal at that price if he looks to be getting regular minutes, something we will have a better idea of by Gameweek 4.

Future Planner

The Future Planner is a sleek and easy-to-use interface. It closely mimics all the functionality of the official FPL website but comes with a large collection of optional features which are customisable. Perfect for tinkering.

The Main Console allows you to flick between drafts, and look ahead to future Gameweeks. It also gives you your Projected Points for that Gameweek and an Algorithm-based ‘Expert Rating’ which changes in real time as you make changes to your squad. To discover the 'Expert Rating' the FPL Artificial Intelligence extracts the drafts from 100's of the best managers on social media. The top managers' data is accumulated and results in the aggregated 'Expert Rating'.

The Squad View defaults to ‘Standard’, which resembles the FPL website, showing the name of the opposition in the current Gameweek. Using the optional tabs on the Main Console, you can view Fixtures, which gives a player-by-player mini FDR; Prices, which removes the guesswork for calculating ‘current’ versus ‘selling’ prices for all your players (perfect for budget management); and Projected Points, which takes data direct from the website to give you predicted points for each of your 15-man squad.

Below the Squad View, you will see your proposed transfers for the current Gameweek and an overall Fixture Planner showing a five-Gameweek horizon, which is great for stepping back and taking a high-level view of your plan.

Try the Future Planner out now by clicking here.

By Matt Whelan

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