DEFENCES: STACK OR ATTACK?
In case there is some Fantasy Premier League managers reading this out of interest, it's probably best that the terminology used in the heading is defined. More specifically, what is a stack? A stack is when you load up on one team's players in certain position (in this case defence). Stacking is a common strategy within daily fantasy football and can largely be seen as putting all of your eggs in one basket. It's not popular within FPL as you need to think further ahead, however, in daily fantasy you can take a one week punt… a gamble as such. As for attack, all this means is attacking defenders. Bet4theBest rewards defenders who find the net with a whopping 8pts; the highest return within their scoring system. Therefore, the question is, do you opt for three attacking defenders or a three-man defensive stack. Let's take a quick look at the points on offer for defenders and the scoring rules most commonly associated with each method.| Scoring Rules | Points | Method |
| 60+ Minutes | 2pts | Both |
| Clean Sheet | 3pts | Stack |
| Goal | 8pts | Attack |
| Assist | 5pts | Attack |
| 3 Corners Won | 2pts | Attack |
| Player | Team | CS Rating | GS/A Rating | Total |
| Ivanovic | CHE | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| Dann | CRY | 6 | 7 | 14 |
| Huth/Fuchs | LEI | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| Valencia | MUN | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| Van Dijk | SOT | 5 | 7 | 12 |
| Baines/Mori | EVE | 6 | 5 | 11 |
| Van Aanholt | SUN | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| Davies | HUL | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| McAuley | WBA | 3 | 4 | 7 |
ATTACKERS: GAMBLE OR BLOCK
A key part of choosing your attackers in daily fantasy contests comes down to monitoring player ownership. Certain players will have very high ownership throughout all of the contests available, therefore you need to decide whether to purchase them and block other people's points OR gamble against owning them and hope they blank. Last week, gambling against Ibrahimovic AND Aguero would have been costly as both scored a brace and were selected by way over 75% of teams. Ownership often correlates with recent form and star factor, the table below displays which three players we believe will have the highest ownership in each position.| Player | Pos | Form | Star Factor | Ownership % |
| Aguero | FWD | 10 | 10 | 80%+ |
| Ibrahimovic | FWD | 10 | 10 | 80%+ |
| Vardy | FWD | 3 | 9 | 50% |
| Hazard | MID | 8 | 9 | 75% |
| Mahrez | MID | 5 | 8 | 60% |
| Barkley | MID | 8 | 7 | 50% |
| Shaw | DEF | 8 | 7 | 40% |
| Walker | DEF | 8 | 7 | 40% |
| Bellerin | DEF | 5 | 7 | 35% |
THE EARLY FIXTURE DIFFERENTIAL
On Bet4theBest, when you enter your team there's no option to change it again. Therefore, it's common for the majority of managers to wait until the 3pm matches before entering their team. This would allow you 1 hour between 2-3pm to chose your team with the lineups on hand for 6 matches (12 teams). If you opted to do this in Gameweek 1 you will have likely missed out on points from Riyad Mahrez, but more importantly, if you missed the first fixture in Gameweek 2 you will have missed out on Ibrahimovic's brace on Friday night AND Aguero's brace in the early kick off on Saturday. Tottenham vs. Liverpool is the 12:30pm fixture this game week. Liverpool have looked strong it attack but unconvincing at the back so far this season, often looking to outscore their opposition rather than shut them out. Therefore, it's highly likely that both teams will score, so opting for their defenders would be a bold move. Daniel Sturridge could be worth a punt after his brace in Liverpool's midweek League Cup match against Burton Albion. Sadio Mane could also be a decent addition to your side after his strong debut performance against Arsenal and two assists in midweek. For the hosts, Vincent Janssen is the ultimate differential as he's still yet to score and has remained largely unnoticed. Erik Lamela provided decent returns in Gameweek 1 and could profit from Liverpool's shaky backline.MY ENTRY STRATEGY
As I mentioned in the introduction, the opening couple of weeks have been very profitable for me. I've experimented with different tactics and they've largely paid off. In case you missed it I wrote about my Late Entry Strategy & Success last week. I'm very tempted to enter a team into the £5 entry £750 GPP that fades both Ibrahimovic and Aguero. There's a lot of good strikers that are being overlooked this week due to the form of the aforementioned duo. Therefore, I assume that Sturridge, Lukaku, Benteke, Giroud and Negredo will have very low ownership… form over fixture though, right? Otherwise, I'll have a team in the £10 entry £1,500 GPP that includes the likes of Ibrahimovic, Aguero & Hazard alongside a selection of my finest differentials who can hopefully set my team apart. I'll also be monitoring the leaderboards come 5pm. If the top 5 have less than 40 points with Aguero/Ibrahimovic to go, then I'll more than likely put a late team in with players from Hull vs. Man United, West Brom vs. Middlesbrough and Man City vs. West Ham in an attempt to close the gap.
Good luck this weekend and look out for me (@jamieFPL) on the leaderboard.
