During the 23/24 EPL season, I took on the seemingly impossible task of trying to win a 12 team league with NO draft picks, and NO waiver claims, only free agents. The whole purpose of this exercise was to try and show the importance of Waiver Wire and Free Agent pickups, staying active all season, and thinking "outside" of the box. Below I will present my takeaways to give Fantrax managers some key strategies to gain an edge in their leagues next season. For more in depth articles to help you plan for your upcoming draft take a look at our 24/25 Draft Kit.
Check out our 24/25 Draft Kit for all the pre-season information you could ever need. We've got a Live Draft Aide, Draft Rankings, Team Previews, Cheat Sheets, Strategy Articles, Draft 101. Dominate your draft!
23-24 Season Result
Free Agents FC Recap
This experiment was first attempted during the 22/23 season with a solid 6th place finish. However, to up the difficulty this season, the league was started during the first international break so everyone had player data to use. In addition, I was not allowed to submit any waiver claims making it a true "Free Agents" team. Suffice to say this was a tough year for Free Agents FC! The league was packed full of experienced managers with multiple years of Fantrax experience, and FAFC finished in 11th place overall with a 14-20 record. With the delayed start to the league picking up those "hidden gems" after the draft became nearly impossible. The best post-draft pickup came in Luton star Alfie Doughty. He became a mainstay for FAFC staying on the roster the entire season getting a total of 322.5 points for me. From November on, Ryan Christie also entered the fray who gave FAFC 187.5 total points, giving me 2 set and forget midfielders to build a team around each week. The other FAFC top scorers were - Maguire (159.5), Ogbene (136), and Ayew (106), no other player scored more than 98 points across the season for FAFC.
More often than not between 5-10 players would be dropped every gameweek (GW) allowing for a full team change to strategize pickups based on short-term fixtures and form. Having no real forward to rack up goals meant taking other routes to "high ceiling" type scores. A lot of different strategies were taken to try and win each matchup. This consisted of defensive stacking, streaming as many attackers as possible playing against Sheffield United, and jumping ahead on solid scorers with double GWs. In the end the lack of true "firepower" was the ultimate downfall of FAFC. No amount of strategizing and planning can help you prepare for Cole Palmer dropping 52 points, with Eze and Solanke dropping another 25 and 18 respectively to sink you.