What Is The Point Of Substitutes On FPL?

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“Can someone please explain to me how substitutions work?”

These are the words of Reddit user iheartOPsmum on r/FantasyPL. Do you have the same question as our good fellow over here? Perhaps you are new to the game and still have a lot of questions. You do not know what chips are or how points are assigned or why your friends are always talking about checking the Premier League predicted lineups before each gameweek.

But all those questions pale in comparison to the elephant in the room: how do substitutes work?

Substitutes in Fantasy Premier League work a little differently from their real life counterparts. Scratch that, they work a lot differently from their real life counterparts. In the real world, Manchester United coach Ralf Ragnick might decide to sub out Harry Maguire in a match against Atletico Madrid because of an underwhelming performance, but in FPL, that is not possible.

So how then are substitutions made? To answer that, we first need to go over exactly how Fantasy Premier League works.

Unlike real life or most other football games, your players are not exactly “playing.” You aren’t tapping away at the controller trying to get Marcus Rashford to score a goal. You aren’t playing against any team or playing against your friends like you would do in games like PES or FIFA.

In the same vein, you aren’t bringing in substitutes because certain players are tired or wounded or playing poorly. You aren’t substituting players in order to switch up formations or restrategise.

So how do substitutes work? Well, you firstly need to understand how FPL itself works.

How FPL works

According to the FPL rules, you are to create a fantasy football squad choosing only 15 players out of all the players currently in the premier league.

Using a budget no more than £100 million, you are to select 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 3 forwards.

In order to ensure variety, you are only allowed to pick 3 members per Premier League team and no more.

Each player has an individual price which is determined by past season performances and FPL potential, hence why players like Kevin DeBruyne and Mo Salah are going to cost you a pretty penny.

Your goal is to accrue as many points as possible by the end of every gameweek. How do you score points? Points are assigned based on your players’ real-life performances. If Edouard Mendy keeps a clean sheet in real life, he wins you points in-game (if he’s on your squad, of course). If DeBruyne provides an assist, he gets you points in-game. If Harry Kane scores a goal, he gets you points in-game.

So your job as the manager is to predict which player will perform well in real life and add them to your lineup. The amount of successful players in your predicted lineup will determine how many points you get in a particular gameweek.

Now to the main question:

How substitutes work

Of your 15-man team, you can only choose 11 players as your starting XI. This predicted lineup will be your only means of gaining points for that gameweek. The remaining four players—your substitutes, as you might have guessed—will not earn you points. This begs the question, “What then are they for?”

In any gameweek, no matter how good a predicted lineup you have, there is every chance that one or more of your players might not be available during that gameweek.

Maybe a player sustains an injury. Maybe a player gets COVID or gets suspended. Maybe a match gets postponed due to snow storms or some other unforeseen circumstances, thus robbing your members of the opportunity to play. In any of these situations, a substitution is required. Someone else has to fill their shoes so that you can still get points for that gameweek.

Let’s say Łukasz Fabiański and Ben Foster are in your 15-man squad, and Ben Foster, who is your starting goalkeeper, gets injured after the transfer and substitution deadline. The game then substitutes Łukasz Fabiański into your starting lineup.

If any of your outfield players do not play in a particular gameweek, FPL will substitute the highest priority outfield substitute who played in that gameweek, provided he does not break the formation rules. For example, if your starting XI has 4 midfielders, you can only sub a midfielder for another midfielder.

The other benefit of having substitutes is that you change your squad before a match.

These are the functions of substitutes. They are not replacements for underwhelming players. They are not pieces used for changing strategies and formations. They are options made available for times of emergency or for changing a squad before (and not during) matches. 

We hope this article was able to clear some of your doubts. Play on, and have a wonderful gameweek!