Beginners Guide #1 Do your research

So you've made your first deposit, you've tried the demo and you're ready to pile in. But if you go in without doing your research you'll get eaten alive, or maybe just beaten slightly. The best place to start is the team page where you'll find every team that's been involved in a Picklive game.

For an example I'm using Chelsea, useful ahead of the game against Arsenal tomorrow. Their last game was against Marseille. There's usually a group of players that are the main points scorers. So, from this game I would note any player that has scored 50 or more. That gives me Terry/Cech/Mikel/Essien/Anelka/Cole.

I would then look at goals and cards, both of which can skew the points table. Both Terry and Anelka scored so I would drop Anelka off the list as the goal counted for 20 points leaving him on 30 and below my 50 point threshold. Knocking 20 off Terry for his goal leaves him on 51 and so still on the list. Mikel got a yellow card and so would've been on 77 points and top of my list which now looks like this: Mikel/Cech/Essien/Terry/Cole.

Going back for three more games gives me the following lists:
Essien/Malouda/Mikel/Cole/Ivanovic
Essien/Cole/Malouda/Ivanovic/Mikel/Alex
Cole/Terry/Mikel/Essien

Mikel, Essien and Cole are the only three on all 4 lists so they would be my starting 3 in a game I thought Chelsea would dominate. I would then see how the game goes and maybe swap in Malouda, Terry or Ivanovic if necessary.

Repeating the same exercise with the away team would then give me a pool of players to choose from for both the Live and Big games. For the match against Arsenal tomorrow I would probably start with a three of Essien, Cole and Clichy and adapt from there. Those three cover both sides of the pitch and the middle so no matter how the match develops I should have enough points to keep me in contention before I make my first sub.

The weakness of this approach is that it doesn't factor in cards or goals so if you think Essien will get sent off or Drogba will get a hat-trick then you might want to adapt accordingly.