Fantasy Premier League allows you to pick 15 FPL players – but only 11 make the cut every week
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So you've signed up to play Fantasy Premier League. You've got your FPL team name and you've worked out which players you want to target in each area.
£100m might seem like a lot of money to spend when they are only a handful of players worth over £10.0m in the game – but you're going to have to pick substitutes, too. Not that your subs get you any points.
So what's the point in substitutes? Let us explain.
FPL: How substitutes are used for in Fantasy Premier League
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There's always a possibility that one of your starting XI isn't going to play – maybe there's an injury, perhaps it's a suspension or even that the game is postponed due to unforeseen circumstances. In that event, one of your substitutes will automatically come into the team. That means that you can still rack up points.
Say your two goalkeepers are Ederson and Nick Pope. Ederson gets injured in the warm-up: the deadline to swap him out has already passed. Fear not though: you've still got Pope, who will play that weekend and get you points.
In the event of an outfield player missing out, they will be substituted by the highest priority outfield substitute who played that week. Formations will be kept to: so if your team has three defenders, a defender can only replace another defender.
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The other bonus of having a bench is that you're free to tweak your side as you see fit before a fixture.
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So say from your strikers, you have Taiwo Awoniyi – who's facing the team top of the league – and Erling Haaland – who's facing whoever's bottom. Kane is worth more than Toney and considered a better player – but you might want to leave him on the bench in place of Toney, if you think Toney is going to get you more points.
Remember, substitutions are made at the end of gameweeks, so your changes won't show up immediately.
Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
