The opening squad you build now is the one you spend the next month correcting. These are the items worth acting on.
Availability flags
Three kinds of flag, and they are not equal:
- Injured (red). Treat as unavailable regardless of the percentage attached. There is no upside in starting a player who is not going to be named.
- Doubt at 50%. A coin flip on a player you paid for. Early season, take the certainty instead.
- Doubt at 75%. Usually fine for a bench slot, rarely fine for your captain or a premium.
The percentages come straight from FPL's own status fields, which update after press conferences. The My Team tab surfaces every flag in your fifteen, and marks whether the player is in your starting XI — that is the distinction that actually decides whether you need to act.
Price movement
Prices move overnight based on net transfers. Two practical consequences:
- Buying early into a rising player is free money. Not because the points change, but because your squad value does, and value compounds into better squads by December.
- Selling a falling player late costs you twice — the drop itself, and the reduced budget for his replacement.
The My Team tab shows each player's movement so far, so you can see which of your picks the market is already leaving behind.
Set-piece duties
The quietest source of points in the game. A first-choice penalty taker carries roughly an extra 0.15–0.2 expected goals per match before he does anything else, and free-kick and corner duties lift expected assists.
We mark PEN / FK / COR on every player in your squad, first-choice only — second in the queue almost never takes one, so it is noise.
What to do with all this
Check three things before the deadline: no reds in your XI, no coin-flip doubts on your captain, and at least a couple of set-piece takers among your attackers. That covers most of the damage available to you in one gameweek.