It really depends on how you setup your FPL side at the start of the season. Whether you want to have pretty much the majority of your cash in your starting XI and have so called “scrubs” in your side or whether you want to have one or two players who can come on and play if needed.

At the start of the season, I would state that you should go for the players that can come off of the bench. I mean take a look at my side, my bench I am playing Brighton goalkeeper Button, Diop of West Ham, Dendoncker of Wolves and Greenwood of Manchester United.

All these players will definitely play for their clubs over the course of the season, well perhaps except for Button who is second choice to Matty Ryan the Australian and Brighton starting goalkeeper, but the rest of the players will definitely get minutes at the start of the season.

The other option is to go big in the starting xi, have the likes of Mo Salah and Raheem Sterling in your midfield and the likes of Harry Kane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. For me I would not go for this type of strategy with your FPL side. It means that your money is tied up in too many players and not enough spread around your overall side, which will not work out well in the long run.

We recommend, working on your side and having a quality side to start the season off with. A side whereby you can look to the bench and bring in players as needed. Do not funnel all of your available cash into your starting XI and be left with so called “scrubs” on the bench that will never play. Take my four players in the picture above.

Each one of them, will definitely play at some stage during the campaign, but I would not consider any of them assured starters. Regardless of this, I would still pick them in my side simply because, I know that if one of my assured starters doesn’t play or has a bad game, then I can bring one or two of these players on for one or two points.

The funnelling of the money into your starting XI probably will work at the start, but in the long run will not work out in your favour. At the start of the season, having players like Mo Salah, Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane with scrubs or non playing players, in your side will be good, but again it won’t work out in your favour.

You will be forced to make changes and create a more balanced side by chopping and changing your side, once it is found that your side is so far down the overall table and you are basically playing catch-up.

So, if you are looking at your team and wondering which way to go at the start of the season. We would suggest going with the overall balanced side, instead of funnelling all the money into your starting XI.

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