Today, Fantasy football is huge. Interestingly, it can work for Soccer and also American Football. Whichever you love, it is important to understand how to be a good Fantasy Football Manager irrespective of their differences and similarities.
American fantasy football, also known as Fantasy Football, is a virtual game where team managers select and manage a team of real-life NFL players in order to accumulate points based on the performance of those players in real-life NFL games.
American football fantasy differs from soccer fantasy in key areas. For example, in regard to the scoring system, in American football points are allocated based on touchdowns, fumbles recovered, tackles etc. In soccer, fantasy points are allocated based on goals, assists, clean sheets etc.
Another difference is in the team selection. In American football fantasy, you can draft each NFL player for your team, each playing in his position, that is, quarterback, running back etc.
Meanwhile, in soccer fantasy, you get to select each player but the positions are flexible, using various formations, for example, 4-3-3, 4-4-2 etc. each playing in his position as a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder or forward.
10 Skills To Have To Be A Good Fantasy Football Manager For Either Soccer or American Football
1. Strategize
Firstly, a good fantasy football manager must develop a strategy when drafting his team. The strategy includes picking the right set of players and also reacting very well to an injury or absence of a key player in your team.
Strategizing is very important as it encompasses every other skill needed to be a good manager in fantasy football.
2. Knowledge Of The Players
To succeed in fantasy football, you must have a good knowledge of the players you pick. The players in your team must be high-performing players, able to give a lot of points.
With an in-depth knowledge of those players (based on current form and abilities), you might end up with the wrong set of players. Again, this has to do with strategizing.
3. Inquiry
Making inquiries to stay updated with team news, player injuries and changes of the style of teams from which you select your players from is very key. This brings about flexibility to adapt to the new changes being made and to adjust your team based on those changes.
4. Trading Skills
Knowing the right players to buy and sell is a very vital skill in this game as it will help in the long run. This also includes knowing when it’s time to sell a player, the reason for selling him and finding the best possible replacement.
In this game, high-performing players on the pitch are needed and when a player loses form and stops performing, it is only right to let him go byt sometimes, patience is needed when a player suddenly dips in form which brings us to our next skill.
5. Patience
Holding on to your selected players after a sudden dip in form can be very crucial. Also, sticking with your strategy during losing streaks is what a lot of managers lack. Although, you do not have to stay too patient with a player or strategy when it seems to be underperforming for a long period of time.
6. Stats Analysis
Every good fantasy football manager always uses stats and data for decision-making on their team. Analyzing the stats of the players you intend to sell or buy is a must-have skill to be good at fantasy football. Buying players solely based on the emotional connections you have with the club often leads to poor results on your fantasy team.
During analysis, the stats to check out for are the ones that actually fetch points. For example, in the case of soccer like Fantasy Premier League, you should check out for goals, assists, clean sheets etc. For American football, stats such as passing touchdowns, rushing or receiving touchdowns, fumble recovered for a touchdown, fumble recovered for a touchdown by the offense etc.
7. Waiver Wire Skills
Waiver Wire is a system used in American football fantasy like the NFL Fantasy. It is used to manage the distribution of players currently absent from a team’s roster among the teams in the league.
Searching the waiver wire for breakout players can be very helpful in the long run.
8. Team Management
Your team might be hit with injury woes from various players. Knowing how to manage your team in situations like that is a very underrated skill. Most managers get stocked in positions like that or sometimes they might just “give up”.
Injury woes are not the only reason to have good team management skills. Scenarios could occur which brings your management skills to the test.
9. Rules Of The Game
Some managers often neglect to follow the rules of the game which could cost them in the future.
These rules also involve knowing how the points allocation and scoring system is done to maximize your team’s potential.
10. Consistency
The last but not the least is consistency. As a good fantasy football manager, you should be consistent and stay active when managing your team – making the necessary changes to your lineups every game week and also staying active on the waiver wire in the case of American football fantasy.
Conclusion
Fantasy football has a few similarities to American Football and Soccer. Both fantasy sports have bench players which gives the managers the opportunity of having substitute options.
Both fantasy sports also have playoffs towards the end of each season to compete for the championship title.
All of the skills mentioned above, if practised effectively, could set you up for success in fantasy football.
