Always Cheating: A Fantasy Premier League Podcast

With ten game weeks now behind us in this FPL season, we have a few things to discuss. Mainly, we need to talk about Agüero. But we also need to talk about Sterling. And Salah. And Aubameyang, Pukki, Wilson, Vardy, and more. How do these players stack up when relying upon the 'eye test' method? Which players are we ready to drop from our squads, and which are will still invested in? Josh and Brand...

As the very minuscule returns from GW9 continue to trickle in, Josh and Brandon take some time to discuss exactly how an FPL season can go as poorly as this one has. Points have been hard to come by during the last month or so, but are we being too patient with premium assets? Are we expecting greatness where there is none? Is there anything we can do about FPL other than yell and complain? Listen...

This week, we welcome guest co-host Ian Stimson , from the Miles Offside Podcast , who sits in with Brandon to prepare for Gameweek 9. With the Premier League's marque fixture of Liverpool vs Manchester City coming up in Gameweek 12, we take this moment to discuss short-term FPL planning and how we can best calibrate our strategy for a brief four-week window, which will feature great fixtures for...

Entering another international break, we take time this week to discuss, in an FPL sense, what we like and dislike about all twenty Premier League teams. Along the way, we touch upon our biggest priorities going into GW9, from the urgency of transferring in Aubameyang to the urgency of transferring out Teemu Pukki. Plus, we dig into struggling premium attackers on Manchester City and Liverpool, as...

We're now seven weeks into the FPL season and some of our widely-held assumptions are being challenged. For example, are out-of-form midfield powerhouses like Mohammed Salah and Raheem Sterling becoming legitimately dispensable? Is Manchester City rotation and playing time finally too much to anticipate? And have the lights officially gone out on the Pukki party? It seems as though we're heading i...

Six weeks into the Premier League season, is anything certain when it comes to FPL? Are we sure we know what to do with Manchester City? Are we sure we know who the best forwards and defenders are? Are we sure we know who to captain week to week? We tackle these questions, look back on a frantic and oddly explosive Game Week 6, and define some short-term overall ranking goals, before previewing th...

Coming out of Game Week 5, it seems like everything is going wrong for FPL managers. So, this week, we put the call out to those who have actually had a good start to their season, asking them what exactly is working so well. Are managers finding success in certain players or formations? The answers may surprise you. We also review the highlights of this weekend's matches before setting our sights...

As FPL managers continue to wait out this international break, Brandon gives an update on his wildcard team and the current dilemmas in its selection. Does Mohammed Salah get the nod over Sadio Mané? Will Raheem Sterling be paired with Kevin De Bruyne or Sergio Agüero? And which budget strikers are the best bet for the next month? Josh and Brandon also tackle listener questions on Manchester City'...

The first international break of the season is suddenly here, so we're using the lull to take stock, asking one important FPL question of each of the Premier League's twenty clubs. We also recap our own team performances from GW4 and address concerns over Harry Kane, the most-likely-overblown feud between Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mané, and the push and pull between Manchester City's soaring attack...

The FPL results from GW3 provided an early-season gut-check: wildcard strategies are foundering, Harry Kane is blanking, and defensive fantasy returns have all but disappeared. In this week's episode, Josh and Brandon examine a misfired wildcard and then dig deeper into the Premier League's current clean sheet crisis. Plus, in a game of buy-sell-hold featuring a raft of attacking players, the host...

Norwich City striker Teemu Pukki stole the show in GW2 with his hat trick against Newcastle. Is the Finnish phenom suddenly a must-own for everyone's fantasy team? Plus, we discuss our list of players that were overlooked in FPL pre-season coverage, but are now exciting prospects—strikers like Ashley Barnes, midfielders like Daniel Ceballos, and defenders like Çaglar Söyüncü. Which of these emergi...

The first FPL game week of the 2019-20 season is over and there's a lot of information to digest. Don't panic! Before you commit to any knee-jerk moves, why not give this episode a listen? Josh and Brandon take listener questions and give our thoughts on key issues, including Alisson's injury (and the ongoing saga of double Liverpool defense), Manchester United's unexpected demolition of Chelsea,...

The new FPL season is less than a week away, and Josh and Brandon are here to explore a handful of this pre-season's great unanswered questions. We debate the opposing viewpoints of the "big at the back" defensive strategy versus a more balanced approach, share our thoughts on Everton's strange summer, run through the updated list of budget forward options, and talk one more time about Harry Kane....

Hail Cheaters and welcome to the 4th Edition of our “10 Tips for FPL Success.” Completely revised and updated for the 2019/20 Fantasy Premier League season, topics discussed by Brandon and Josh include: Avoiding the common player traps Fantasy sources to read (and possibly avoid) Making your mini-league fun for all 38 GWs Why you always set your “bus team” And much more, including time-tested tips...

Hail Cheaters and welcome to the final episode of our three-part FPL team-by-team previews. In this week's podcast we discuss Norwich City, Sheffield United, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Watford, West Ham, and Wolves. It's an odd group of teams - with probably only one Champions League contender among them in Spurs - but finding the gems are on tricky-to-evaluate teams like these is often where...

In the second of our three-part series previewing all twenty teams for the 2019–20 Fantasy Premier League season, we discuss Everton, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Newcastle. Considerations include the viability of each team’s opening five or six fixtures; key players, new players, and new managers on those teams; and which players might be poised to out-perfor...

In the first of our three-part series previewing all twenty teams for the 2019–20 Fantasy Premier League season, we discuss Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, Burnley, Chelsea, and Crystal Palace. Considerations include the viability of each team’s opening five or six fixtures; key players, new players, and new managers on those teams; and which players might be poised to o...

The FPL site for the 2019-20 season has officially launched and fantasy managers everywhere are already tinkering with their gameweek 1 lineups. At the outset, a new FPL season always presents unexpected challenges, so Always Cheating is here to confront the biggest questions: Given their prices, which players are most likely to present the best and worst value? How many premium strikers should we...

We are kicking off Always Cheating's 2019-20 season preview coverage with an episode devoted entirely to player price predictions. From Andrew Robertson and Raheem Sterling to James Maddison, Christian Pulisic, and even Sheffield United's Billy Sharp, these are our best guesses as to what some of the FPL game's biggest and newest players will be valued at once the new site officially launches. Sta...

Excitement reigns as the FIFA 2019 Women's World Cup kicks off in France this Friday, June 7. For a preview of the action, we're joined by Jeff Kassouf, author of the new book The Making of the Women's World Cup and founder of https://equalizersoccer.com. Our conversation runs from tournament favorites and dark horses to the general state of play with women's football around the world. Jeff also f...

Another season is now behind us. This week, we take some time to reflect on our own FPL finishes and to celebrate the winners of the numerous Always Cheating mini leagues. We also debate fantasy MVP picks from all twenty clubs, revisit this season's highs and lows, and discuss the key lessons we learned throughout the last 38 gameweeks. The podcast will be taking a few weeks off, but, rest assured...

We're so excited to announce that the Always Cheating FPL Podcast has won the Football Blogging Awards 2019 Judges Choice for Best Fantasy Football Content Creator. This is a quick bonus pod to celebrate and thank our listeners who have supported us through the years. Whether you're a Patreon supporter, a social media follower, a fellow content creator, a real-life friend, or an FPL player who sim...

With just one gameweek remaining before we close this FPL season, big questions still remain: Who's the best replacement for the suspended Heung-min Son? Which teams are likely to rotate in their final fixture? What do we make of Manchester United and Arsenal's woeful form? And, perhaps most importantly, where are we looking for that last-ditch differential punt? Plus, we discuss GW38 captaincy fa...

The upcoming GW37 brings us plenty of FPL form-over-fixtures debates. Can Manchester United overcome their woeful recent performances and capitalize on an enticing run-in? Is Jamie Vardy still valuable with Manchester City up next? And what, if anything, can we take from Fulham's recent post-relegation results? Plus, we're recapping our GW36 scores (including Brandon's blockbuster Triple Captain m...

We're checking in on GW35 to see how things are going with the Bench Boost and this season's biggest double gameweek. Gerard Deulofeu's miracle brace and Duffy's masterful troll job are the stories so far, but the Manchester Derby and other key fixtures are yet to come. Later, we set our sights on GW36 and the make-or-break decisions between Liverpool and Manchester City attacking assets. Plus, we...