FPL Cup participation on the line in Gameweek 17

For some, the romance of the cup means everything, while for others it is seen as an unwanted distraction. However, with the hectic Christmas period in full flow, you could easily be forgiven for not noticing that qualification for this season’s edition of the  FPL Cup, the competition associated with the Official Fantasy Premier League game, takes place this weekend.

Yes, there are no free passes – the best performing managers from Gameweek 17 will go into the hat for the first round of the 2016/17 FPL Cup, which begins with those traditional Boxing Day fixtures. Only 2,097,152 managers will qualify for those 1st round ties (approximately 50% of the field).

So here are a few tips you can use to make sure you are among them.

Treat it as a Daily Fantasy Football 50-50 contest

You do not need to finish as the highest ranked manager this week, so use conservative strategies that will stand you in good stead to ensure that you finish within the top half of the field. These include:

♦ Selecting solid performers who deliver week in, week out.

♦ Avoiding contrarian picks that only have a small chance of paying off.

♦ Ensuring that you don’t over-stack your line-up with too many ‘blocks’ i.e players from the same team. If they blank, your whole line-up could be in jeopardy.

♦ Choosing defenders and a goalkeeper that have the best chance of securing those ‘clean sheet’ bonus points.

♦ Getting yourself bang up to date with all the latest team news, so that you do everything in your power to avoid non-starters. This might prove trickier than normal, bearing in mind that GW17 falls on the back of a full slate of midweek games.

You might also want to keep transfer activity to a minimum, so you don’t risk losing too much ground in your other leagues, should you miss out on cup qualification and think carefully about how you prioritise your substitutes, if you are forced to include questionable starters.

There are likely to be a number of ghost teams in the competition that include players such as Sergio Agüero and Philippe Coutinho, so that improves your chances of qualifying to a certain extent.

Remember to use our goal projections to help with those managerial decisions and prepare yourself for a nerve-racking weekend, as Manchester City versus Arsenal on Sunday and Everton versus Liverpool in the Monday Night Football cap-off the GW17 fixtures.

Are you captivated by the magic of the cup or is your mini-league status and overall FPL rank all that matters?