The Best Time to Make Your Predictions
There is a question that every football predictor asks at some point: should I make my predictions early in the week when I am thinking clearly, or wait until just before kickoff when I have the most information? The answer is not as obvious as you might think, and it depends on what kind of predictor you are.
Some people in your prediction league will have their picks locked in by Tuesday. Others will be frantically changing scores five minutes before the deadline. Both approaches have genuine advantages and drawbacks.
The Case for Predicting Early
Making your predictions early in the week - say Monday or Tuesday - has one huge advantage: you are thinking rationally. You are not reacting to the latest injury news, not being swayed by a pundit's opinion, and not second-guessing yourself because you saw a stat on social media.
Early predictions tend to be based on longer-term analysis. You look at the fixture, consider the teams' overall quality, check their form over the last few weeks, and make a considered judgement. This is exactly the kind of thinking that produces good predictions over a full season.
- Less influenced by short-term noise and media narratives
- Based on broader analysis rather than last-minute panic
- No risk of forgetting to submit before the deadline
- Forces you to trust your own judgement rather than following the crowd
The evidence suggests that early predictors often do just as well as last-minute ones over a full season. The information advantage of waiting is smaller than most people assume. If you have already read up on how to read form tables, you have most of what you need by midweek.
The Case for Waiting
The strongest argument for waiting is information. Team news, injury updates, and lineup confirmations all come closer to kickoff. Knowing that a team's star striker is injured or that a key defender has been dropped can legitimately change the most likely scoreline.
This matters most for matches where one or two players have an outsized impact on results. If a team's top scorer is responsible for 40% of their goals and he is suddenly ruled out, that changes everything. It also matters when affect multiple players at once.
