Fantasy Football tips from the 2017 champion

Dan Cox scooped the £25,000 jackpot last season as his side 'The Chosen One' topped the overall charts, seeing off almost a million other teams in the process. 

As the last eight Premier League champions have found out, defending the title is no easy feat, but Cox believes following these steps are key to Fantasy Football dominance... 

Transfer targets 

Some of the best bargains come about on the back of big-money moves. Kyle Walker's £50million transfer to Manchester City is a good example, as his departure from Tottenham looks set to open up more opportunities for Kieran Tripper, who costs £1.4million less and provides lots of assists. It could prove the same case for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has been priced up as a Chelsea back-up player but could now be set to be a regular start for Crystal Palace after his loan move. I've already drafted my team and probably won't touch it again until closer to the season, but I'll be monitoring transfers and considering the repercussions. 

Follow the fixtures  

I'd say definitely look at the fixture list and focus on how you're going to get the most out of your team on every match day. The daily captaincy feature means that if you're going to be competitive you need to plan how to exploit the fixtures. Whenever Sky announce which games are on TV I look at the ways I can make the most of them, so for example if Tottenham are playing on a Sunday and then the following Saturday then I'd transfer Harry Kane in for Sunday morning. If I've got Alexander Lacazette as my captain for the opening Friday of the season and he scores then I'm already well ahead of somebody who doesn't have any Arsenal or Leicester players. 

Boycott the bandwagon 

I prefer to stick with the players I trust rather than jump on the bandwagon when somebody less renowned starts doing well. I actually refused to put Josh King in my team last season, so every time he scored it was a bit of a blow, but I liked my midfield and knew the players I had would consistently do a job. That also prevented me from using up all of my transfers early on, so I still had 20 left after Christmas, which was probably better than most other managers. 

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Formula for success 

I'd say forget a favoured formation, build your system around the players you want. I started with 3-5-2 but then I switched to a 4-3-3 to bring Marcos Alonso in, although that was a bit late as Chelsea had already gone on that long run of clean sheets. I then finished with a 4-3-3 because I wanted to fit more attackers in, but it was always more about the individual players than focusing on which positions are best for picking up points. 

Keeping tabs on team news

I'm a big fan of the daily captains and the new scheduling tool is definitely going to be very helpful in managing my team in advance, especially when I'm busy with the kids or have no signal on a Sunday morning. However, I do like to monitor team news and make late changes once line-ups come through so I don't get caught out by managers rotating their squads.  

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You can pick your team of the best Premier League stars and the Sporting Life League gives you the chance to win fantastic prizes for ending the season  at the summit.

A PlayStation 4, a copy of the FIFA 18 game and four tickets to a Sky Bet EFL match of your choice are the prizes if you fight off the competition to be the top Sky Sports Fantasy Football manager in the Sporting Life League.

You can take your place in the Sporting Life League by clicking on the join a league button and using 8300572 as the league PIN. 

The Sporting Life League is starting from scratch this season so you will need to enter again if you enjoyed the battle for supremacy last term.