The 2026/27 Fantasy Premier League season is almost here, and whether you’re building your first FPL squad or aiming to improve your overall rank, getting the basics right can make a huge difference.
From choosing the right players and planning transfers to managing chips, captaincy and team structure, FPL can quickly feel overwhelming. But with the right strategy, you can avoid common mistakes and give yourself the best chance of climbing the rankings.
This guide breaks down 10 essential FPL tips every Fantasy Premier League manager should know, helping you make smarter decisions, improve your Gameweek planning and challenge your mini-league rivals.
In this blog, we reveal the proven strategies used by some of the most successful Fantasy Premier League managers in the game.
These insights come directly from the Elite XI: Team Reveal feature — a hand-picked group of expert FPL managers with a history of elite finishes and consistent success.
From building a strong squad to navigating tricky transfers and maximising points each Gameweek, this guide is packed with practical FPL tips to help you make smarter decisions and improve your rank.
Your Gameweek 1 squad is the foundation of your Fantasy Premier League season. Get it wrong, and you may spend the first few Gameweeks fixing avoidable problems instead of making proactive transfers.
A common mistake among new FPL managers is putting too much budget into one area of the squad while neglecting other positions. Once the season starts, value picks and in-form players will quickly emerge — and they could come from defence, midfield or attack.
If your budget is too heavily focused in one position, it becomes harder to react quickly. A more balanced squad, with players spread across different price points and positions, gives you greater flexibility when making transfers and helps you move for the best emerging options.
For help with your Gameweek 1 squad, you can always use the Future Planner tool shown above. You'll be able to create up to five drafts and compare the projected points for each one.
The best FPL assets can return in any fixture, but even premium players are more likely to score big against weaker opposition. Likewise, budget picks are often easier to trust when they have a kind run of fixtures.
That is why fixtures should play a major role in your transfer decisions. At any point in the season, some teams will be entering a difficult run, while others will be about to face a more favourable schedule.
Moving away from players with tough upcoming fixtures and targeting those with strong fixture runs is one of the simplest ways to improve your chances of gaining FPL points.
The Fixture Planner is a great tool to keep an eye on the Premier League schedule. It looks at the fixtures from the perspective of both defensive and attacking difficulty to help predict the likelihood of your transfer target(s) keeping a clean sheet and/or getting an attacking return against the opposition.
Pre-season always brings excitement around new Premier League signings, whether they have arrived from another club in the league or from overseas. These players are often fresh in the minds of FPL managers, making them very tempting picks for Gameweek 1.
The issue is uncertainty. We do not always know how quickly new signings will settle, whether they are guaranteed to start, or how they will fit into their manager’s system. Some may be eased in slowly, rotated with existing players, or need time to adapt to the Premier League.
Taking one calculated punt is fine, but filling your squad with too many risky picks can cause problems in the opening Gameweeks. Early on, it is usually better to build around reliable starters with strong minutes, proven roles and clear FPL potential.
One of the most common mistakes new FPL managers make is chasing points that have already been scored, often selling perfectly good players in the process.
Over the course of a Fantasy Premier League season, some of your best returns will come from players you were tempted to sell. Likewise, some of the blanks you avoid will come from players who scored a one-off haul the previous Gameweek.
It takes discipline not to be too reactive in FPL. A better approach is to judge players over a block of fixtures, such as four to six Gameweeks, rather than one isolated performance. This helps you stay patient with good picks and use your free transfers to fix genuine problems in your squad.
Many FPL managers are guilty of overthinking captaincy. It can feel brilliant when a differential captain hauls and the popular picks blank, but those moments are usually the exception rather than the rule.
More often than not, premium players like Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland are the safest captaincy options because of their consistent points potential and ability to deliver multiple returns in a single match.
Going against the obvious captain too often can quickly backfire. In most Gameweeks, keeping captaincy simple and trusting the standout premium option is the smarter long-term strategy.
If a premium asset has a strong fixture, try not to overthink it. There will be occasions where two or more premium players all look like good captaincy options, and that is when the decision becomes more difficult.
In these situations, tools such as Player Points Projections can help you compare expected returns using the Fix Algorithm. The Captain Reveal tool can also remove some of the guesswork by showing projections for who other managers are likely to captain, helping you identify the popular picks before the deadline.
The eye test can be a powerful tool in Fantasy Premier League. Watching matches helps you spot things the stats may miss, such as a player’s positioning, role in the team, or how involved they are in attacking moves.
The problem is that most FPL managers cannot watch every Premier League match in full each weekend. That is where stats become essential.
Using data alongside what you see on the pitch gives you a much clearer picture. Underlying numbers such as expected goals, expected assists, shots, chances created and minutes played can help you identify players who are performing well — even if the FPL points have not arrived yet.
The Opta Stats Sandbox is a great place to find relevant FPL stats with easy-to-use filters to customise the data you see.
A combination of both eye test and stats is the best way to scout your next transfer.
No matter how experienced you are, every FPL manager will face squad issues during the season. Players get injured, suspended, dropped, rotated or lose form. A common mistake is ignoring these problems and using transfers on the latest “must-have” player instead.
That can work in the short term, but unresolved issues can quickly build up. If an expensive FPL asset suffers a long-term injury or is no longer first choice, it usually needs to be dealt with before chasing a new bandwagon.
Keeping your squad healthy should be the priority. Making sure you have regular starters, decent bench cover and no obvious dead spots will give you a much stronger platform for future Gameweeks.
Knowledge is power in FPL. While making an early transfer can sometimes help you beat price changes, it also comes with risk.
Your transfer target could pick up a knock in training, play extra minutes in a midweek cup match, or suddenly become a doubt before the deadline. There is nothing more frustrating than using a free transfer early, only to find out later in the week that your new signing may not start.
Where possible, wait until after the manager press conferences before making your moves. Team news, injury updates and rotation hints can help you avoid wasted transfers and make better decisions before the Gameweek deadline.
For the 2026/27 season, FPL will now provide its own price-change predictions on the official website. At Fantasy Football Fix, we’ll be exploring how we can build on this information and continue giving you an edge over your mini-league rivals.
Transfers are one of the most important tools in Fantasy Premier League, but it is easy to make them more complicated than they need to be.
A simple approach is to look at the players in your squad who are out of form, have poor fixtures, or are no longer secure starters. Then compare them with players who are in form, have better fixtures, and offer stronger points potential over the next few Gameweeks.
Quite often, the answer will then become clear. For those times when two options present themselves, the Opta Player Heatmaps tool allows for detailed direct comparison between two players.
When more than two players are ticking all the boxes, then the Fix Comparison Matrix (shown above) allows you to compare key statistics for up to five different players.
Fantasy Premier League can be an emotional game. A good Gameweek can feel brilliant, while a bad one can be frustrating, especially when your mini-league rivals seem to get every decision right.
But it is important to remember that FPL is still a game. Luck will always play a part, and sometimes you can make sensible decisions, follow the right process, and still end up with a poor score.
When that happens, try not to dwell on it for too long. Take a step back, reset, and focus on making good decisions ahead of the next Gameweek deadline. Over a full season, a calm and consistent approach will usually serve you better than chasing every setback.
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