This FPL strategy article will pick up where part 1 left off, as we look to plan our squad structure for the opening weeks of the new season.
The Using FPL Points as a Metric series uses data including FPL points scored by position and fixture tickers to act as a starting point for identifying transfer targets. Last season, the team ranked 14k.
You can find out more  about this series in my <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-tips-using-fpl-points-as-a-metric-introduction">introductory piece here</a>.
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<h2>Part 1 recap</h2>
If you&#8217;ve read part 1, you&#8217;ll note that I&#8217;m going to try to set up in a 4-4-2 formation to start the season, with a cheap enabler spot at each position for the bench.
To pick a team, I&#8217;m going to start with, as always, the below fixture tickers, and see what I can come up with. Let&#8217;s get into it&#8230;
<h2>The fixtures: FPL strategy</h2>
<h4>Goalkeepers</h4>
So here we are, the opening six fixtures of the season.
As always with this method of playing FPL, I&#8217;m looking for lots of &#8216;green&#8217; fixtures over a short period.
Ideally there shouldn&#8217;t be any &#8216;red&#8217; fixtures &#8211; but sometimes I&#8217;ll overlook it if the other fixtures are that good.
Fixtures in red indicate teams which conceded the least FPL points to opposition players. Fixtures in green indicate teams which conceded the most points to opposition players &#8211; or are newly promoted teams.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47271" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.58.13.jpg" alt="" width="494" height="334" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.58.13.jpg 494w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.58.13-300x203.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px" />
The fixtures for Liverpool, Leeds and Spurs tempt me here.
Spurs play two of the three newly promoted teams in their opening six games, as well as Southampton.
However they also play Chelsea and West Ham, who were not conceding many points at all to opposition goalkeepers.
Hugo Lloris (£5.5m) didn&#8217;t drop in price unfortunately, most likely because he finished second only to Alisson (£5.5m) last season.
I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d want to spend that much money on a goalkeeper early doors.
Leeds and Illan Meslier (£4.5m) can offer decent fixtures at a budget price.
Fixtures against Southampton, Everton, Brighton and Brentford all appeal, along with an opening day fixture against Wolves.
Wolves conceded the fifth-most FPL points to opposition goalkeepers last season.
This is an encouraging run and Meslier is also bolstered by the back his Baseline BPS (<a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-bonus-points">bonus</a> point system) was the highest of all goalkeepers last season.
If Leeds can find some defensive stability this season, he could be a bargain.
As much as I love Alisson (£5.5m), he does block a Liverpool spot. This alone rules him out for now, despite lovely fixtures.
<h4>Defenders</h4>
Liverpool, Wolves and Brentford fixtures look good here.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) is a lock in this team, with an early dilemma around whether or not to add Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) or to add Luis Diaz (£8.0m) alongside Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) in midfield.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47270" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.57.33.jpg" alt="" width="493" height="337" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.57.33.jpg 493w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-11.57.33-300x205.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 493px) 100vw, 493px" />
The Wolves/Brentford spot will likely be my bench player but if I&#8217;m short on funds, Neco Williams (£4.0m) of Nottingham Forest is a lovely enabler.
Both Wolves and Brentford play a combination of teams either newly promoted or in the five teams conceding the most FPL points to opposition defenders last season.
I can&#8217;t ignore Chelsea or Manchester City either. Joao Cancelo (£7.0m) and Reece James (£6.0m) are firmly on my radar as explosive, high-value picks.
However to include three or four of these more expensive defenders, sacrifices will likely be needed elsewhere.
<h4>Midfielders</h4>
Arsenal, Brentford, Brighton, Liverpool and Wolves all have encouraging starts to their seasons, playing either newly promoted teams or teams which conceded the most FPL points to opposition midfielders last season.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47272" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.05.07.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="336" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.05.07.jpg 495w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.05.07-300x204.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px" />
This makes the Diaz or Robertson choice difficult, but I&#8217;ve locked in Salah as a great captaincy option over the opening weeks.
Bukayo Saka (£8.0m) is on the radar but I&#8217;m also keeping an eye on <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-pre-season-guide-2022-23">pre-season</a> for some of the cheaper Gunners midfielders.
I&#8217;m seeing a lot of Pedro Neto (£5.5m) in drafts as well and costs will likely need to be cut somewhere, so a £5.5m slot will likely feature for this team.
In respect of Brentford, Josh Dasilva (£4.5m) looked encouraging at the end of last season, as did Yoane Wissa (£5.5m).
The loss of Christian Eriksen (£6.5m) does limit their appeal somewhat though, until we can see who is playing where.
Leandro Trossard (£6.5m) and Alexis Mac Allister (£5.5m) may make some later drafts but for now, they&#8217;re out of the running.
With how expensive some of the better forward options are this year, I&#8217;m tempted to start with a cheaper midfield to fund better forwards.
Despite their fixtures not being as good, I&#8217;ve noticed Manchester United playing Anthony Elanga (£5.0m) on the wing in pre-Season.
With that in mind, I&#8217;ve added him to our initial draft.
<h4>Forwards</h4>
Arsenal, Brentford, Liverpool, Man City and Wolves all have appealing fixtures to start the season.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-47273" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.18.50.jpg" alt="" width="477" height="338" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.18.50.jpg 477w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.18.50-300x213.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screenshot-2022-07-18-at-12.18.50-400x284.jpg 400w" sizes="(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px" />
Erling Haaland (£11.5m) may be new to the league but is already looking like a superstar.
It would be remiss of us to go without City&#8217;s new striker, who is likely to be on penalties and should be pretty nailed.
Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) is having a great pre-Season, so he will also make the first draft.
The final spot will be a £4.5m bench option.
Darwin Nunez (£9.0m) should be a starter for Liverpool from the off if Diogo Jota (£9.0m) can&#8217;t shake off his hamstring injury.
He is more of an unknown quantity than Haaland though, so he&#8217;s a wait and see for me.
Ivan Toney (£7.0m), whilst being nailed and on penalties, has lost some appeal as a result of Eriksen leaving. So for now, he doesn&#8217;t make the cut.
Raúl Jiménez (£7.0m) didn&#8217;t look great last season, so he is also an avoid for now.
<h2>Team reveal for Gameweek 1</h2>
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<li><a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/my-team">Build your own FPL team and get a personalised team rating, predicted points and more in our new My Team tool</a></li>
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<div id="attachment_47479" style="width: 731px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47479" class="wp-image-47479 size-full" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Points-as-a-Metric-My-Team.jpg" alt="" width="721" height="707" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Points-as-a-Metric-My-Team.jpg 721w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Points-as-a-Metric-My-Team-300x294.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Points-as-a-Metric-My-Team-610x598.jpg 610w" sizes="(max-width: 721px) 100vw, 721px" />Points as a metric team &#8211; built in the Hub&#8217;s My Team tool</div>
As you can see, the midfield is a little bit weak but I&#8217;ve funded a fully stacked defensive line and pumped money into the forwards for this first draft.
I also have what should be a couple of playing bench options in Williams and Andreas Pereira (£4.5m) at Fulham.
Naturally, this draft will evolve during pre-season, right up to the Gameweek 1 deadline.
Well there we have it. I hope you’ve found this interesting, and it would be great to hear your thoughts on it.
If you&#8217;re on Twitter and you&#8217;d want follow me, I&#8217;m <a href="https://twitter.com/RichP_FPL">@RichP_FPL</a>.
<h2>Using Points as a Metric: Part 3</h2>
See part three of this series &#8211; the Gameweek 1 team reveal &#8211; <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/using-fpl-points-as-a-metric-gameweek-1-team-reveal-2022-23">here</a>.
<h2>Do you play or want to learn how to play Fantasy Premier League?</h2>
Our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/how-to-play-fpl/">How to Play FPL Guide</a> is a great place to get started, whereas our <a href="https://www.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/how-to-win-at-fpl-the-complete-guide">How to Win at FPL Guide</a> covers more in-depth tips.
<h2>We have all the other Premier League fantasy football games covered too&#8230;</h2>
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Using FPL Points as a Metric part 2 | Gameweek 1 team reveal 2022/23

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