Over the years, the most popular formations in Fantasy Premier League have predominantly been 3-4-3 or 3-5-2.
This is not surprising, as point-scoring in FPL favours attacking players who score and/or assist.
However, there will be times in the season where 4-4-2 or or even 5-3-2 formations might be optimal based on fixtures or injuries. FPL managers should be flexible with formations and should adapt to the ever-changing landscape.
Yet it’s important to start the season with the optimal formation and here we will discuss the pros and cons of different line-ups, and which might be the best one to begin with.
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The attacking 3-4-3
This season, a 3-4-3 shape looks as strong as ever to start with.
We have a much better variety of forwards compared to last season. Two of Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), Erling Haaland (£15.0m) and Alexander Isak (£8.5m) will be the staple picks for most. The likes of Kai Havertz (£8.0m) and Richarlison (£7.0m) being reclassified as forwards makes things more interesting, too.
Also, with Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m), Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) and Brighton’s Joao Pedro (£5.5m) — to name a few — all representing good value, it really strengthens the case for a 3-4-3. Plus, we can’t own them all at the same time, so having the price points in place to move players in and out depending on fixtures is key.
You want to choose players in the price points where you have a lot of options to maximise flexibility.
Also, because we only have three forward spots available compared to five for midfielders and defenders, you will likely swap between them more often than in other positions.
Playing five in midfield with a 3-5-2
The 3-5-2 will always be strong because not only do midfielders score the most points on the whole but there are a lot more of them. This season, we have 252 midfielders in the game compared to 68 forwards and 190 defenders at the time of writing.
This means more choice and chance of good value options in that position. This season is no different and we have some real potential bargains like Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku (£6.5m), Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze (£7.0m) and Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.5m).
The only issue with having five playing midfielders is you have money spread across five positions, and you are likely to have a £4.5m forward for the bench, so moving to a 3-4-3 formation may need a few transfers.
However, you can use your fourth and fifth midfielders as a bit of a merry-go-round based on the best fixtures. You ideally want three midfielders who are fixture-proof and you don’t want to touch.
For example, in my team, my first three midfielders are Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) and Eze, and I plan to play them every week, and hope I don’t need to transfer them out.
Going ‘big at the back’ with a 5-3-2 — or plumping for 4-4-2/4-3-3
Having more than three staple defenders is always risky because you are mostly relying on clean sheets, which have less of a chance of coming in than attacking returns, and I think these formations are more suited to later in the season for short periods when the landscape allows.
However, ‘big at the back’ formations have been a lot more popular in recent years due to the advent of attacking full-backs.
Starting with more playing defenders in your XI means hampered flexibility and less chance of being able to rotate defenders based on fixtures. Also, any minor injuries will force you to make more transfers to switch defenders, where there is less upside. Ideally, the goalkeeper and defender positions are where you want to make the fewest amount of transfers.
If you start with a ‘big at the back’ formation and it doesn’t work out, it’s much harder to get out of it and you might be forced into an early wildcard.
With the amount of good-value £4.5m defenders available, such as Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa (£4.5), Fulham full-back Antonee Robinson (£4.5m), Palace’s Joachim Andersen (£4.5m), and Wolves’ Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.5), you don’t need to spend too much in defence. There are plenty of good picks you can rotate in pairs or even triples.
One or two premium defenders with the rest of the defence being budget seems like the best route this season, which again pushes us more towards a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 formation.
Finally, the new rule change which means that defenders and goalkeepers get penalised -4 bonus points for every goal conceded makes the more expensive defenders less attractive.
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Things to remember when choosing your formation
A 3-4-3 looks the strongest formation to start with this season followed by the 3-5-2 — but it’s key to be flexible throughout and not be afraid to adapt to different formations you are not used to.
I think that the 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 shapes provide the most flexibility as they allow you to make changes to your attackers more easily, which is where you want to be making your transfers.
Don’t ignore the bench. In 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, you will likely have a cheap fifth midfielder or third forward at around £4.5m to £5.5m. Therefore, it’s wise to look for those bargain picks and make sure they are solid selections who are starters for their clubs as you may need them.
It’s a good idea to have players at price points in which there are a number of good picks to aid your long-term planning.
Below is a solid structure for a 3-4-3:
As an example, there are a number of great picks in the £6.5m midfielder category, so I think that’s a good position to target in case your initial pick doesn’t work out. I plan on starting with Nkunku but have backup ideas there in the shape of Gibbs-White, Spurs’ Brennan Johnson (£6.5m) and Leon Bailey (£6.5m) who was fantastic for Villa last season.
The £5.5m midfielder slot has some potential good-value picks like Forest pair Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.5m) and Anthony Elanga (£5.5m). Fulham’s Andreas Pereira (£5.5m) and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo (£5.5m) also look very attractive. Therefore, you could get a £5.0m defender instead of a second £6.0m one, and upgrade your £4.5m midfielder to play a hybrid 3-4-3/3-5-2.
One thing to note is that the new FPL rules allow you to save up to five transfers. That should make it easier to transition between different formations, so maybe we need to be less worried about structure from the off — but only time will tell.
Taking full advantage of five bankable transfers would be on the basis that you are able to save them and no other issues crop up, which very rarely happens.
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