How to Change Formation in FPL (And Which to Pick)

Most managers go looking for a formation dropdown in Fantasy Premier League and never find one. That is not a bug. There is no formation selector, because you do not pick a shape in this game. You pick eleven players, and the shape is whatever those eleven add up to.

Which means the real question is not "3-4-3 or 3-5-2". It is "who is my eleventh best player, and what position is he".

This season the answer to that is unusually one-sided, and it is costing people points in a slot they never think about.

Can you change your formation in FPL?

Yes, but only by changing your team. The rule is that your line-up includes one goalkeeper, at least three defenders, at least two midfielders and at least one forward. Everything else is free.

Your squad holds two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards, so the maximums fall out of the minimums. That leaves exactly eight legal shapes:

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

How to change formation in FPL

Go to your team, pick the bench player you want in, choose the substitute option, then pick the starter he replaces. If the swap leaves you with a legal line-up, the formation updates on its own. If it does not, the game blocks it.

That is the whole mechanic. There is no separate formation step, and nothing to confirm beyond the swap itself.

Two things worth knowing. Your goalkeeper is a straight swap with the other goalkeeper, so it never affects your shape. And your bench order matters independently of your formation, because it decides who comes on when a starter records no minutes. I wrote that up separately in how the FPL bench works.

What is the best formation in FPL?

There is no best formation. There is a best eleventh man, and this is where the season is actually decided.

Here is what our board looks like when you line the three outfield positions up against each other by rank. Each figure is a player's projected points across the next eight gameweeks, as of 29 September.

Read down the columns rather than across the top row. At the very top, forward looks like the strongest position in the game: Haaland (£15.6m, Man City, 73.8% owned) projects 47.6, more than anyone else at any position.

By the fifth name, forward and defence are identical at 31.2. By the tenth, defence is marginally ahead. And then forward simply falls off a cliff that the other two positions do not have. At the fifteenth name the gap to midfield is 9.6 points. At the twenty-fifth it is 11.2.

Midfield is the highest board at every rank from fifth down. That is the finding, and it has a blunt consequence.

The third forward is the slot that costs you

Go through the eight legal shapes and you will notice most of your real flexibility sits in one decision: whether your eleventh man is a fifth midfielder, a fourth or fifth defender, or a third forward.

On these numbers the fifth midfielder wins that argument comfortably, and the third forward loses it badly.

The forwards nobody owns show you why. Emersonn (£5.5m, Ipswich Town, 3.5% owned) projects 22.2. Kostoulas (£5.6m, Brighton, 4.1% owned) projects 21.8 despite 28 points already banked, because his underlying volume is thin at 1.41 xGI in 353 minutes. Gyökeres (£7.1m, Arsenal, 3.1% owned) projects 17.7 on 29 minutes played all season.

Now compare that to a midfielder most managers would call a bench option. Groß (£5.8m, Brighton, 28.8% owned) is 22nd on our midfield board at 28.8, and that still beats the eleventh-best forward in the game. Tavernier (£6.1m, Bournemouth, 6.8% owned) sits twelfth at 32.0 with 31 points and 2.62 xGI in 424 minutes.

The point is not that any one of those midfielders is a must-buy. It is that midfield's replacement level is roughly ten points higher over eight gameweeks than forward's, and playing three forwards forces you to buy at forward's replacement level.

My verdict: 3-5-2 and 4-5-1 are the default shapes this season, and 3-4-3 has to be earned.

When 3-4-3 is right

Earned means your third forward clears roughly 29 over the eight gameweeks, which today means a genuine top-eight forward rather than whoever fits.

The cheapest name that clears it is Barry (£5.7m, Everton, 8.3% owned), who projects 29.2 with 20 points and 3.50 xG from 417 minutes. Above him, Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m, Leeds, 24.8% owned) reads 31.2. Isak (£9.1m, Liverpool, 22.4% owned) reads 37.7, though he carries a thigh problem and the game currently lists him at 75% to play, as it does João Pedro (£7.7m, Chelsea, 65.2% owned) with a knee issue.

If your third forward is one of those, play three. If he is a £4.5m body you bought to balance the squad, he should not be in your eleven at all.

Two honest caveats. A board rank is not a squad: this compares the best available at each position, not the best you can afford after you have spent on a £15.6m striker. And the market already half-knows this, which trims the edge. Forward ownership collapses after two names, with nothing above 18.7% behind Calvert-Lewin, while eleven midfielders sit above 13.7%.

The other thing that moves your shape is fixtures. Gabriel (£8.0m, Arsenal, 22.7% owned) tops the defensive board on 41.4 partly because Arsenal open this run at home to Leeds with a 51.2% chance of a clean sheet, the best in the round. A back five is defensible in a week like that. It is much harder to defend across eight.

FAQ

Does changing formation cost a transfer? No. Substitutions and formation changes are free and unlimited before the deadline. Only buying and selling players uses a transfer.

Can you play 5-2-3 in FPL? Yes. It is legal, since it clears three defenders, two midfielders and one forward. It is also the shape that commits you to both of the weak slots at once, a fifth defender and a third forward, so it needs a strong reason.

What formation should I use with a Bench Boost? Formation stops mattering on a Bench Boost, because all fifteen players score. It matters most in the weeks before, when your bench is being built.

Want to see where your own eleventh man ranks? Every player's projected points for the next eight gameweeks are free and updated daily on our FPL predicted points table, or get a free score on your current squad with Rate My Team. If you want The Algorithm to pick the eleven and the shape for you every gameweek, that is what a plan does.