Steven and Fernando were delighted to learn they’d won the monthly prize. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Squad selection

A manager may enter one squad for Guardian Fantasy Football 2008/09. Multiple squads will be deleted. Squads must consist of 15 players comprising:

2 Goalkeepers5 Defenders2 Defensive Midfielders3 Midfielders3 Forwards

You can select a maximum of 3 players from any one Premier League club for your squad.

Each player has been given a value. The total value of your initial squad must not exceed £100 million.

Formations

From your 15 player-squad you select 11 players to form your starting team. Only starting players will earn points for your team.

There are 10 different team formations to select from. Your team can play in any team formation which includes at least one goalkeeper, three defenders, one defensive midfielder, two midfielders and one forward.

So a 3-1-3-3 formation would consist of three defenders, one defensive midfielder, three midfielders and three strikers. The available formations are:

3-1-3-33-2-2-33-2-3-24-1-2-34-1-3-24-2-2-24-2-3-15-1-2-25-1-3-15-2-2-1

Players can only play in their designated position. For example, you can’t play a defender as a striker.

Any changes you make to your team will become active at the next game week deadline selected, provided you go through the Save Team process. If you don’t save any changes to your team the current team will continue to score points for you.

Substitutions and Transfers

After selecting your squad you can make unlimited substitutions within the squad and up to 5 transfers per calendar month in and out of the squad over the course of the season. Your transfer allowance (5 per month) will be replenished at 00.01 on the first day of every calendar month.

Dropping 1 player from your squad and signing a replacement is considered to be 1 transfer.

There is a transfer amnesty prior to the start of the season to allow you to make transfers without it impacting on your monthly allowance of 5 transfers. The amnesty will expire at midday on August 16th 2008 which is the first day of the new Premier League season.

Any transfers you make will become active at the next game week deadline provided you go through the Save Team process.

During the amnesty, you will only be able to save teams for the first day of the season. When the amnesty ends, you’ll be able to save teams for up to two game week deadlines in advance.

Game Week Deadlines

Game Weeks run from Saturday through Friday and your team selection will be fixed for the full week of Premier League matches ahead.

There is one deadline every week there is a Premier League match. This deadline is always midday on the Saturday at the start of a game week.

Any changes to your team (substitutions, transfers, formations) will come into effect for the game week deadline specified, provided you go through the Save Team process..

See Advance Team Set-Up below or ‘Help’ for further details on deadlines and setting your team up.

Advance Team Set-Up

It is possible to set up different teams for up to 2 game weeks in advance. For example, on a Wednesday afternoon you could set one team for games played between the coming Saturday through Friday, and a different team for games played between Saturday and Friday the following week.

This can be done via the Save Team button on the Pitch View page.

Once you’ve set your teams in advance you’ll only be able to alter the latest team. If you change your mind, you can select the ‘Undo Last Saved Team’ option from the Saved Teams pop-up and edit teams saved previously to this.

For instance, if on the Wednesday you saved different line-ups for the first game week and the second game week, but then wanted to edit the first week’s team, you would have to undo the teams for the second week, edit the first week’s line-up, and then re-save teams for the second week. Only players selected in your starting eleven will score points for your squad.

During the transfer amnesty, you can only save a team for the first day of the season. When this finishes, you will have the option to set your team up to two weeks in advance.

Player values

Player values will fluctuate during the season dependent on the popularity of the player in the transfer market. Player values will not change until four weeks after the season starts.

Any player value gain or loss will impact on your team budget of £100m.

League Tables

The Guardian Fantasy Football incorporates weekly, monthly and season long competitions allowing managers to aim for a manager of the week or month title even when winning the overall league has slipped out of reach.

Your team doesn’t play matches against other teams. Instead, each team scores points based on the performance of players in Premier League matches and competes against other teams in several different leagues:

The overall league involving all registered teams A league for supporters of your region (optional)A league for supporters of your favourite club team (optional) Private leagues with your friends and colleagues (optional)

Need more help? Check out the HELP section which is updated on a regular basis.

About this articleCloseThis article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday July 16 2008. It was last updated at 11:07 on July 16 2008.

guardian.co.uk