clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Playing the bench.

If you haven't heard, there have been several changes to the Yahoo game, in particular, bench players. There will also be a Captain's choice (who receives double points),more money to spend, an Auto Pick and more, but for now let's discuss how you plan to approach.... Playing The Bench.

By K.M.
Michael Regan

Just like at home when everything seems to be just fine, the wife goes and rearranges the furniture and buys a cat. Well, Yahoo has also changed things around this year and just like at home we are going to have to find a way to live with it.

BENCH PLAYERS:Yahoo has provided us with four bench positions this year, but with unlimited transfers still in play, how exactly will you go about maximizing this new addition? I will categorize some of my EARLY thoughts on ways to use or NOT use these players.

(1) SQUIRRELING: One way to approach this is to build an early armada of discounted players to hold and use when the time is right. A bench of say Paulinho @6.30, Navas @6.30 and Bony @7.29 midway into the season could prove invaluable and will have most managers drooling with envy. However, we can only field 11 players and the more money sitting on the bench leaves even less for the game at hand.

(2) CRASH & BURN: This is where you take the four cheapest players you can find at their respective bench positions and fill your bench leaving the majority of your cash to spend on the game at hand. We have 50% more cash to spread around and with most players coming in at last years levels our starting 11 each week can look pretty powerful despite paying full price for several main players.

(3) EVOLUTION:This is where your bench changes from week to week with maybe 1-2 bargain players and a couple well placed nicely discounted players only to be eventually wiped clean when on any given week the "dream" match up appears or better yet, when the dreaded double game appears and benches are cleared to make way for as many high powered starting 11 we can manage.

Is a discounted player sitting on your bench a good strategy? Given the fact that with 50% more cash available and unlimited transfers we can have BOTH Bale & RVP in our line ups to begin the season and despite a combined starting price of 53.60 we still have almost 88% of last years total cash to spend each week. (That's 53.60 + 9 for the (4) bargain bench players).

Or

Will properly placed discounted players rule this season sprint to the finish?

What are you early thoughts on this change?

More From Never Manage Alone