Premier League Fantasy Football: How to score with Paddy Power Fantasy

In the official Premier League season-long fantasy game, goals and assists are pretty much all that matters. While goals and assists are also vital in Paddy Power Fantasy — and rightfully so — there are plenty of other ways to score points, too.

And they can win you some big prizes too.

Knowing how points are accumulated is the first step toward winning big in daily fantasy. Let’s go through the scoring settings for full-roster, multiple-match contests on Paddy Power Fantasy, breaking things down by position.

FORWARDS, DEFENDERS and MIDFIELDERS

For most game days, you’re required to roster four forwards/midfielders, two defenders and one goalie. Unlike the official Premier League game, on Paddy Power Fantasy, the forward/midfield positions are interchangeable, so you can have four midfielders, four forwards or any combination up to four.

Single-match contests consist of five-man lineups — four forwards/midfielders and one defender — with a captain slot, where that player’s points are multiplied by 1.5, but we’re covering the settings for only the full-roster, multi-match slates in this piece.)

All outfield players operate under the same scoring settings with just one exception — only defenders who play 90 minutes are eligible for a clean-sheet bonus. Other than that, it’s a level playing field for all non-keepers. A striker gets 1.3 points for a blocked shot just as a defender does, and a defender gets 7.0 points for an assist, just as a midfielder does.

Here’s the full scoring settings:

As you can see, goals are massively important, but there are plenty of other ways for players to score points for your lineup.

A forward can have a productive fantasy day without scoring a goal if he creates chances, puts shots on target and/or tallies an assist. In some instances, the best creative midfielders, like Kevin De Bruyne, can be just as valuable as an out-and-out goal-scorer, especially if that goal-scorer is overly reliant on goals for fantasy production.

Defenders on lesser teams are usually cheap, and they can be a decent source of fantasy points solely due to their team being under siege for most of the match.

On the flip side, full-backs on top-shelf sides, like Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, don’t offer much in the way of defensive statistics most weeks, but they more than make up for it with their contributions in attack.

In truth, players like Robertson, Alexander-Arnold and Lucas Digne are almost cheat-codes in daily fantasy Premier League.

Their designation as a defender makes them cheaper than the elite forwards/midfielders, but their attacking prowess gives them a great chance to get in on the creating goals.

One position that does take a hit due to these scoring settings is the defensive midfielder. Midfielders who don’t get forward often enough to generate assists or create chances have a hard time amassing fantasy points.

For example, defensive midfielders like Wilfred Ndidi, Rodri and Fabinho are more valuable in real life than in daily fantasy as it’s hard for them to have a big day when tackles and interceptions are just 1.3 points apiece.

GOALIES

With goalies, the scoring settings put you in a bind between choosing a goalie who is likely to see save volume but unlikely to win or going with a goalie on a favoured side who may not be asked to do much.

A goalie can net 17.0 FanDuel points via a clean-sheet win even before factoring in any saves, so goalies on the top sides have a big advantage, which is factored into keeper pricing, with keepers like Alisson and Ederson typically the most expensive.

The downside for keepers on the best sides is that they usually don’t make many saves in a match, so if they do concede a goal, most of their fantasy output will come down to the win bonus.

Keepers on lesser teams have a chance to make more saves, but, obviously, the more shots they see, the more likely they are to give up a goal, and they lose 2.5 points each time one gets past them.

Plus, goalies on underdog sides don’t have a great chance to get the win bonus.

Also, it’s worth noting that goalies get points for only goalie-specific events. So, in short, they wouldn’t get rewarded for a goal or assist if they got one (looking at you, Ederson).

POST-MATCH PRESSER

Here are the crucial points to catch.

While goals are very good and you’ll need to have goal-scorers on your roster to win big, attack-minded midfielders and full-backs are awfully valuable, too.

At the end of the day, you want players who will create chances and get shots on goal as that gives them a great chance to notch an assist or score a goal, and if they don’t get an assist or goal, creating chances and launching shots on goal will help ensure that they don’t have a complete dud of a fantasy day.

With keepers, clean-sheet wins are the dream, but if you can find a goalie who will be busy while having a decent shot at the win bonus, that’s the best of both worlds.