“And if I “Waiver” up, yeah I know I’m gonna be…”

With all due apologies to The Proclaimers, you don’t have to walk 500 or 1000 miles to pick up the best FPL talent off the waiver wire. Just read this primer and keep working on your in-season strategy for Draft Fantasy Football.

What are “Waivers”?
Waivers are claims a manager can make for unowned players. If you’ve already drafted your team at draftfantasyfootball.co.uk, you know which players you have, which players are owned by other managers, and which are unowned. Here is a brief overview of the different player statuses:


Squad: Players owned by you

Owned: Players owned by your fellow managers (you can trade for owned players!)

Free Agents: Unowned players you can claim in place of someone in your current squad, as long as you comply with your league rules on formation or maximum players per EPL team. First come, first served

Blocked: Players who have just been added to the game or who otherwise are not On Waivers yet

On Waivers:
• Players who can be claimed by whoever holds the highest waiver priority
• Claims are processed every Tuesday and Friday at 10AM GMT
• Depending on league settings, either reset each week to reverse order of standings, or move to last after a successful claim and never resetting (starting priority is reverse of draft order)

Of course, be sure to check out all the official rules here.

Now that you’ve had a refresher, get to work!

There are a number of holes already being formed in post-draft rosters. Roster moves now can be done free (first-come, first-served), before waivers even go into effect. Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho (96%) may end up at Barcelona, but I wouldn’t drop him until the transfer is 100% completed, in case there are any last minute changes of heart.

Meanwhile, Coutinho’s teammate Adam Lallana (56%) has been ruled out for several months, and given that he was the fourth or his fifth best fantasy option in his own midfield, he probably needs replacing rather than stashing.

There is also always concern that injuries sustained during the Summer will never allow players to properly settle or heal, which should worry Danny Rose (41%), Troy Deeney (25%), and Gareth McAuley (32%) owners. The trio above will hope to be back sooner rather than later, but Rose hasn’t been fully fit since last Winter, Deeney is no longer guaranteed to be Watford’s captain, and McAuley is 37 years old.

It’s never too early to have a plan B, and every manager who actively plays Draft Fantasy will need to utilize the waiver wire if they want to win their league.