FPL Formations

There is a fixed number of formations available to choose from in FPL. Let's have a look at all of them.

Minimums and maximums

There are lower and upper limits of how many players you have to field in each position:

        Min.   Max.
  GKP    1      1
  DEF    3      5
  MID    2      5
  FWD    1      3

Formations

As with real football we always play one goalkeeper so the formation describes the split of the 10 outfield players, starting with defenders, then midfielders then finally forwards. This means that we can choose from these 8 possible formations:

  5-4-1
  5-3-2
  5-2-3

  4-5-1
  4-4-2
  4-3-3

  3-5-2
  3-4-3

Being aware of restrictions

It's worth noting that these combinations bring certain restrictions. The most obvious one is that you can only play one goalkeeper, unless you're using your Bench Boost chip. So, for example, don't plan for buying 2 with great fixtures in the same gameweeks as you may end up just benching your budget.

You have 8 attacking players in your squad - 5 midfielders and 3 forwards - but you can only ever play 7 of them at once (again, apart from the Bench Boost). So, if you're planning to play an attacking formation you'll have to decide who misses out.

Unlike the other positions you have to play a minimum of 3 defenders. So, if one of your selected 3 does not play for whatever reason, then your first substitute will have to be a defender regardless of the substitute order you've set. So, it makes sense to always make sure you have a 4th choice defender who you are happy to come in.

Midfield offers the most flexibility as you can play anywhere between 2 and 5 midfielders. If you have a more solid and settled defence and forward line you can move your midfielders in and out of your starting 11 to play the fixtures.