Why pre-season planning matters
The opening gameweek is the only one where every manager starts level. The decisions you make before a ball is kicked — which premiums to pick, how to structure your budget, which fixtures to target — set the trajectory for the whole season. A bad GW1 can cost 30-40 points and force an early Wildcard that burns a chip you needed later.
Pre-season is also when price changes are most predictable. Highly-owned GW1 picks rise fastest in the first week, so building early locks in selling prices before the rush. The managers who finish top 10k rarely have dramatic GW1 squads — they have clean, well-researched starting points.
Reading the pre-season fixture list
The first step of pre-season research is the fixture list. Download or screenshot the full schedule and colour-code each club's opening six matches by difficulty — this is your fixture map for early transfers, captaincy, and premium selection.
Look for clubs with a soft opener (ideally at home to a newly promoted or weaker side) and a run of green fixtures through GW4 or GW5. Players from these clubs are worth a slight premium in your initial squad because they generate returns while your rivals' picks are grinding through harder schedules. Avoid clubs with an opener away to a top-six side even if their individual player looks appealing.
Budget structure and the premium question
Most successful squads in recent seasons have run two or three genuine premiums — players at £10m or above — with the rest of the budget distributed across mid-price picks and budget enablers. The exact split depends on season pricing, but the principle is: own the best players at the top, find value in the middle, and keep your bench functional at the bottom.
Avoid spreading budget too evenly — a squad of 15 £6.7m mid-priced players is rarely the right shape. Lock in one or two elite premiums early (the players everyone will own by GW3), then build the rest of the squad around fixture-driven value. A strong GW1 template gives you something to deviate from deliberately, rather than scrambling.
Managing pre-season noise
Pre-season is full of signals that evaporate by GW2. A striker who scores three in a friendly is not nailed-on. A new signing impressing in a tour is not guaranteed to start. Use pre-season information selectively: confirmed starting line-ups, genuine positional changes (a midfielder moved to a more advanced role), or a manager's explicit comments about a player's role are reliable signals. "Great in training" noise from clubs or journalists is not.
Set your initial squad a week before the GW1 deadline so you have time to react to confirmed team news. Check line-ups from the final pre-season fixtures, read post-match manager press conferences, and finalise your bench and captain on the morning of GW1 once you have the clearest possible picture.