You have £55 million to spend on your team, so how should you use it?
Travel Weekly asked travel industry fantasy football sponsors C&M Travel Recruitment and Youtravel.com to give their tips on being an outstanding team manager.
Enter the travel industry’s fantasy football competition.
The experts
- Angus Chisholm, managing director, C&M Travel Recruitment
- Paul Riches, sales and marketing director, Youtravel.com
What makes a good fantasy football manager?
Angus: A good manager needs knowledge, commitment, focus, skill and a little bit of luck!
Paul: Like all good managers you need an eye for detail. You also need to choose the best team players. Whilst individual flair is important, it will be the manager who gets the best from his team and is not afraid to take risks who wins the fantasy league
What formations are best?
Angus: A strong defence is best, but only if your defenders are good.
Paul: You need to study the form of not only your own but all the available players, in order to decide the best formation. You can adapt a defensive strategy a la José Mourinho, but I personally prefer flair and attacking tactics as per Professor Arsene Wenger.
Do I need to be a tactical expert?
Angus: It helps. You can optimise games played by making tactical changes at the right time.
Paul: Tactics are for wimps! Well, not totally. As in managerial positions, ‘ If you fail to prepare then prepare to fail’. Time spent analysing others’ tactics and adapting yours for every game will give you a great chance of success. And don’t forget, never underestimate the opposition.
Do I play with my head or my heart?
Angus: I have played with both my head and my heart and I assure you playing with your head is best!
Paul: On the real field of play cool heads and big hearts win games. In the world of fantasy football management you must use your head in a clear and logical manner. But some of the biggest games have been won by a change of heart….
What does it take to stand out from the crowd and win?
Angus: In order to stand out from the crowd and win picking a great team from the start is very important, if you are playing catch up it is always difficult.
Paul: To stand out from the crowd is easy! Forget the ‘total football’ wonderful attacking play, defensive superiority, points on the board are all that counts. As with all successful teams, you will need three or four consistent performers week in week out. If you don’t have that change things fast.
Where did you finish at the end of last year’s season?
Angus: I finished 5th overall and won the C&M private league (a popular winner as you can imagine).
Paul: Nowhere, as I registered too late! So don’t make the same mistake as me.
