Your squad is every real player you own. Your lineup is the 11 (XI) players you've selected to play each matchweek. Only your starting XI score fantasy points for you, so choose carefully.

Your squad has three areas. Your starting XI is always 11 players: one goalkeeper and ten outfield players. Everyone else sits on the bench, ready to be swapped in. And your injured reserve slots are extra spots for injured players, so a long-term absence never clogs up a squad place. In a league with a 20-player squad, for example, that's 11 starters and a bench of 9.

You can't fill your squad with nothing but strikers. Leagues set a minimum for each position, and can set maximums too. Having a good mix of players in different positions can give you more options for your weekly lineup, so try to keep a balanced squad.

You can arrange your starting XI into different formations on the pitch. Formations are written as DEFs-MIDs-FWDs, so a 4-4-2 means 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, and 2 forwards. There are 8 different formations to choose from, so you can set up defensively with 5 at the back, or throw an extra forward on hoping to score that hat trick.

Your lineup doesn't look after itself, so get into the habit of checking it before each matchweek. You can also plan ahead by copying a lineup you've set up to future matchweeks.

Set your lineup early, because it won't stay open for ever. Once a player takes the pitch in a real match, you can't move them. Lineups lock player by player, not all at once, so you can keep making changes for players who haven't come into the game yet.

Players lock based on real life events regardless of if they're in your starting XI, on your bench, or not rostered on a team at all. So plan any roster movements, as well as any adds or drops accordingly.

When a player picks up a knock, you don't have to necessarily take up a roster slot to keep him. Injured reserve (IR) is the place to park an injured player until he's back. A player can only go on IR while he has an injury; a healthy player can't be moved there, and players left there after recovering get flagged as a roster violation.