Top Barclays Premier League Fantasy Football tips

The Barclays Premier League football campaign has kicked off for the 2011/12 season so read these fantasy football tips to make sure you don't suffer poor performance. This fills me with great delight to announce the Barclays fantasy football game is now available to register. It is free and is tremendous fun as you can set up your team to compete in friend’s leagues, work leagues, random leagues, and the area you live in or even Country you support. There are players from all around the world and last year the total number of players was over 2.7 million so it is extremely popular. I did finish in the top 5% of these so I hope I can be of some benefit to those thinking about playing this season.

Once registered you have £100 million to spend on 15 players to include 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 attackers. It can be very time consuming to choose players so I hope I can offer some advice on tips on the best players and some of the best bargains. The competition really starts to hot up after the first few games are out the way and it is crucial to start well!

Your goalkeeper will score points for making saves and conceding no goals as well as making an appearance on the pitch (quite important to score points). It is not necessary to go with the best goalkeeper your money can buy as other less expensive keepers will make many saves and not concede too many to get you a good point’s total. Tim Howard of Everton was one of the best keepers last season despite Stoke not finishing very high in the Barclays Premier League. If you do have available money to buy a top keeper then go for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech as Chelsea rarely concede at home.

This is probably the hardest area to choose as defenders from top clubs are expensive and can be a complete flop. Ideally you want to go for defenders who get points for clean sheets and who pop up with the odd goal. If you want to spend top level on your defenders then John Terry (Chelsea), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Nejmana Vidic (Man United), Tomas Vermalen (Arsenal) and Gareth Bale (Tottenham) are 5 of the best for your money. If you need to buy a couple of cheaper players then look for Ryan Shawcross (Stoke City), Maynora Figueroa (Wigan), Steven Taylor (Newcastle), Chris Samba (Blackburn), Roger Johnson (Wolves) or Phil Jageilka (Everton). I hope suggesting these players doesn't curse them for the season ahead!

Midfield players can score points for assisting a goal and scoring a goal as well as clean sheet and appearance points. The two big point scorers though are for assists and goals so focus on midfield players who do this well. There are few better in this area than Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool) and James Milner (Aston Villa). Again, if you want to go for cheaper midfield players who still produce good point’s totals then look at Graeme Dorrans (West Brom), Charles N'Zogbia (Wigan), Stilian Petrov (Bolton), Tim Cahill (Everton) and the ever reliable point’s scorer Antonia Valencia (Manchester United). I used to focus on penalty takers but this is not as predictable as recent seasons especially with many top players missing them last year!

Goals, goals and more goals is the most important factor when choosing a striker! It is probably the easiest section to get right. Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Fernando Torres (Chelsea), Darren Bent (Sunderland), and Luis Suarez (Liverpool) will all score many goals this season so go for one or two of these if you have the money. As for the lower end of the market then there is potential with Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Hugo Rodallega (Wigan), John Carew (Stoke), Louis Saha (Everton) and maybe a bit of a gamble but huge potential Andy Carroll (Liverpool). Of course there are many strikers to choose from but the ones above will get goals but I can't guarantee they will be top scorer for the season!

I find it best to go 3-4-3 to try to maximise points if you start badly but you can do 4-4-2, 3-5-2 or 5-3-2. It is best to have a striker as your captain as they get double points every week. If you go for a midfielder then make sure they are goal scorers or you could find yourself bottom of the league!

Even after research and hours of picking your team the first week can arrive and you might end up being bottom of the 3 million players this year! I doubt it with this guide but if you are struggling for points after week 4 then you can completely change your team. I must admit I did last year and it worked wonders hence I can write this guide with confidence. You can make up to two transfers a week. Always look for players who play twice in a week as they can be big points winners! Frank Lampard scored 64 points for me in one week as I spotted Chelsea were playing twice - this can be a big advantage over other players in your league. Finally have fun! It is addictive and terrific banter between friends, colleagues etc and most importantly win!