1. Positive feedback

Let’s be honest, when your captain scores and one of your differential scores, it’s a nice vindicating feeling.

2. Improvement of (my) maths

As someone who had to take further maths exams after leaving school – to get my maths qualifications up to scratch – I have definitely found that FPL has been useful to improve my maths

As football has in general, as well as self-compiling statistics – and looking at data – FPL has helped me in terms of understanding percentages better.

In addition to this – no pun intended – it has helped me to understand big numbers better in regard to rank.

This has been particularly useful as a Dyslexic person – and it has helped me to understand bigger numbers much better.

3. An outlet to experiment

As somebody who has literally played every single formation there is to possibly play in FPL – at some point – the game has allowed me to explore different ways of playing the game.

This has occasionally allowed me to play 5 defenders, whilst them or most of them being set piece taking attacking full backs or wing backs.

It is not Football Manager or FIFA or eFootball, therefore playing two attacking midfielders in a two player midfield is not going to cost you a game – as it is literally or effectively an online fantasy game that enables you to pick 11 different footballers for any given GW.

4. Confidence boosts

As trivial as FPL may be, in the grand scheme of things, it can absolutely give you a confidence boost.

Well, at least in my experience I have found this.

Winning leagues did no harm either.

5. Improving (my) knowledge of football/the Premier League (even further)

Being in my 9th season of playing FPL, it is fair to say that I have seen many different clubs, teams and ultimately footballers play in the Premier League since first playing the game in 2012.

It has also affected how I watch matches, from the earlier days of marvelling over silky number 10s with the likes of Santi Cazorla, David Silva and Mesut Özil – to the likes of Kevin Nolan, Michu, Thomas Soucek & Ilkay Gündogan (those who arrive late in the area to bag goals) – to wide forwards such as Marcus Rashford, Mohamed Salah & Raheem Sterling.

It has helped me look at players in more detail – the positions that they were taking – which areas of the penalty areas they were getting into.

6. Meeting new people/networking

Aside from the joy of having so many brilliant and memorable GWs, playing FPL has enabled me to network on social media, by interacting with different people from the FPL community.

As well as putting myself out there on Twitter, I have been to the occasional event, and I have had the honour of contributing to Fantasy Football Scout and for FPLHints.

This has allowed me to have fantastic interactions with people worldwide.

7. Bonding With Friends/Family And Competing Against Them!

In a funny sort of way, I prefer competing against strangers when it comes to fantasy football (FPL/SkyFF), but FPL can very much be a way of bonding with friends/family when being in the same mini-leagues and/or being in touch by WhatsApp.

Due to the competitive nature us humans tend to have, we can sometimes have extra motivation to up our game when competing against friends/family, to avoid getting stick or whatever in chats!

Actually, in fairness, that sort of thing does not bother me a great deal, but I think it can push you to stay on your toes and to avoid complacency.

It can make you do that bit extra research or to make you make certain decisions to maximise your chances of succeeding in mini-leagues.

8. Creative outlets/blogging/other

FPL, SKYFF too, has given me an outlet to get somewhat creative with blog posts, posting on social media etc.

This has meant giving me responsibility by posting my teams most weeks.

When doing this, there is no hiding, and rightly so.

In a curious sort of way, I think blogging about FPL has been really useful in regard to maintaining discipline, keeping a routine and to keep engaging with the game.

Being part of the community has motivated me to explore new ways of playing the game, as well as looking at new data to help influence my decisions when picking players.

As much as I have not always been the biggest admirer of xG, I cannot deny that there is something in it.

Recently I have been exploring further metrics such as xGI (expected goal involvement), non penalty xG etc.

As well as now being much more familiar with xG, I have been much more conscious of the aforementioned metric in recent years, I have enjoyed exploring metrics with respect to teams (xG, xGA), home and away form etc.

I find that I am more of an eye test person, but at same time I know that the eye test is not absolutely flawless due to various reasons (bias, not being able to see every single match), but I think the use of statistics/data can very much complement the eye test.

I find this, reading data to implement in blog posts, to be a particularly useful skill in a general sense too – it is a skill to be able to read data/information – in order to improve my knowledge in an all round general sense.

Re creativity, doing blog posts has enabled me to add to posts from an aesthetics point of view in terms of adding images, graphics, screenshots, including hyperlinks and implementing clips to songs from Spotify.

I also find that it is useful for me to use my sense of humour when writing about FPL – you need it sometimes in this game – and as a way of including word play, puns etc.

9. Game Theory, strategy & all that jazz

Listen, I’m not saying that I am saying that I’m some sorta master strategist – definitely not – but when in mini-leagues there are definitely a few little cheeky tactics that you can apply to increase your chances of being successful and/or winning head to heads.

It is a game of different possibilities, but there are certain percentages that can be applied.

Having said of all that, you can literally do well and beat opponents by getting on the front foot with aggressive play and literally picking players you fancy to score highly in any given GW!

10. Commitment, consistency, dedication & more

Ok, this one may sound like a filler or simple or even deep or whatever, but hear me out for a minute.

Seasons are long, from August to May (usually!), and as much as it is a nice thing to literally pick some footballers on a screen! It’s not working down the mines is it. But. FPL teams do need a lot of maintaince (to some extent!) in a season, the chips do help too. But there is a lot to keep on top of, engage with etc.

Turning up every week is half the battle. You get to a Friday night and you’re like, flippin’ eck, who am I transferring in then.

But with that comes positives. It can put you in a fantastic mood for the weekend, especially if/when there is a certain attacker or player with upside that you fancy transferring in.

But once you start playing FPL in August, you have signed up until May. Apart from those who give up after a bad GW week or two in August.

This can mean a lot of thinking time during the week, keeping an eye on price rises etc.

I don’t bet, not that there is anything wrong with betting in a controlled and healthy manner, so I find that if you are after a ‘buzz’ – then playing FPL (or SkyFF) – can offer that sort of thing for free – some money leagues are entered by numerous people – but these leagues usually do not have big entry fees.

So in a sense, psychology is another factor in FPL.

The game can either be positive or negative from a mental health perspective.

I have read about psychology to an extent, obviously it is a broad subject.

I genuinely believe that I have made better decisions because of what I have read or heard re psychology. But not every decision has been perfect. Absolutely not.

One of the most interesting words or phrases I have heard since playing FPL and being a proud member of the FPL community is ‘FOMO’ – fear of missing out. It is something that I try to avoid when making decisions, it isn’t always easy though. So, in my opinion, there is absolutely a lot of psychology involved in FPL.

For better or worse.

And to add to this part, I think the game can be positive in the sense of it keeping you entertained, stimulated and engaged without having to go out drinking 10 pints on a Saturday whilst being in bar until 4 am!

But enough about my social life. Obviously that is a joke. But jokes aside, I think it can be useful to take in numerous Premier League matches (watching or listening to them on BBC 5 Live) whilst not spending loads on ale or feeling hungover on a Saturday or on a Sunday.

Sometimes I have a walk before a GW is about to begin, or I listen to some matches whilst on a walk, whilst the points come in and getting the steps in at the same time.

Ok, I’ll wrap this up on a light note, and in a fun way (for me!).

FPL has a broad range of terminology.

I can name a few here.

‘Differential’, ‘upside’, ‘effective ownership’, ‘heavy hitters’, ‘maverick, ‘dullard’ etc.

Some of these can be used outside of the ‘FPL arena’, but these have been uttered many times in the past or continue to be written in 2023.

Ok, quick edit, and this is getting posted.

[ Reposted on 12/04/15 at 15:30. ]