Your TFL primer, part 3: Rotate the armband

SINGAPORE — There will always be a few TODAY Fantasy League (TFL) managers who will be near the top of the table despite letting their teams run on auto-pilot, checking back only occasionally. They might hand Demba Ba the captain's armband before rolling over and going back to sleep, leaving the boys be, and then wake up to find that they've topped the league that month. Trust me, though, you'll never emerge champion at the season that way. I'm not advocating wholesale chopping and changing of your team each week — especially as the TFL only allows you five transfers a calendar month, and those should be used when a player is sidelined for more than two games — but it costs you nothing to move the armband about before each gameweek begins. Players who are captained earn you double points for that gameweek. You don't want to be the manager who left the armband on a player who was sidelined for a whole month. We've already gone over the importance of scouting the fixtures list in part 1, and how crucial it is to pay attention to who are the designated penalty takers (which can change in the course of the season) in part 2. Now, apply that to who you pick as your captain. Naturally, you're going to be first looking at your players' form, who are the men getting in there and the boys looking forward to going home after the final whistle to a cold shower, and watching video replays of other luckier dudes managing to score. We're still talking about football here, of course ... When Clint Dempsey was still at Fulham two seasons ago, he was on a tear after Christmas and among the top scoring midfielders. Many managers were tempted to keep him as their captain for long stretches, but that was a big mistake. The American international's record at Fulham's Craven Cottage was stunning, but he was hardly scoring in away games. Take note. And then there are players like Gareth Bale, who defy gravity and inspire clubs like Real Madrid to make bids in excess of £80 million (which was what the Spanish club paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo a few years back). Real are expected to bid £100 million this week to pry him away from Tottenham Hotspur — stay tuned to TODAY Sports for the latest on that. So if Bale is on a roll and he's scoring away at the big clubs' grounds, so what if he's heading to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge next and Spurs are the underdogs? Leave the armband on him, unless you have another player like Manchester United striker Robin van Persie who's also walking on air and he's facing Liverpool at Anfield next. If you're a relative newcomer who's still blur about whether Manchester United at home to Cardiff is more like to result in goals for the home team than Chelsea against Stoke, go look up bookmakers' odds. If Singapore Pools hasn't opened their book yet for that gameweek, a good place to start is www.betbrain.com, an aggregator of international bookmakers' odds. More on tapping on bookies' expertise to figure out which teams will most likely deliver a hammering, and the points for your TFL team, in part 4. YOUR TFL PRIMER Part 1: Watch the fixture list — http://tdy.sg/TFLprimer1 Part 2: Spotting the difference — http://tdy.sg/TFLprimer2 Part 3: Rotate the armband — http://tdy.sg/TFLprimer3 Part 4: Help from the bookies — http://tdy.sg/TFLprimer4 Part 5: Musical chairs at the big clubs — http://tdy.sg/TFLprimer5 TFL SCOUT REPORT Part 1: Goalkeepers — http://tdy.sg/TFLscout1 Part 2: Full-backs — http://tdy.sg/TFLscout2 Part 3: Centre-backs — http://tdy.sg/TFLscout3 Part 4: Midfielders — http://tdy.sg/TFLscout4 Part 5: Forwards — http://tdy.sg/TFLscout5 Click here to take part in the TODAY Fantasy League now — Manager of the Season wins US$5,000.