The Community Round Up

Our community writers have been on fine form over the past week, presenting us with one of the busiest periods for articles on record.

Fantasy Premier League Bonus Point changes, squad rotation and goalkeeper selection were among the array of issues assessed. It was also a bumper week for Hot Topics, as we look back on discussions on Fantasy football’s unofficial achievements, the best premium players on offer and also welcome the youngest new recruit to the Fantasy Football Scout family.

The Community Articles

The changes to Fantasy Premier League’s Bonus Point System (BPS) was the subject of The 3^rd Turd’s impressive research this week. Incredibly he has managed to configure next season’s changes to last season’s games to find out just who will be the winners and losers when it comes to bonus allocation.

Another stellar piece of analysis was unveiled by The Shoemaker, newly established as one of the community’s top new contributors. This time he examined the subject of squad rotation, assessing those teams with the most and least settled sides.

Rotation of a different nature was the focus of O’Shaughnessy latest article, in which he considered the best strategy for captains at the start of the season. This was an issue also picked up by Match of the Dan later in the week.  Le Saux Solid Crew’s look at Fantasy Football’s best all round attacking players in recent years proved further, essential reading in the search for the best armband selection.

As Fantasy managers prepare for Gameweek 1, price is always a primary consideration. This week saw a flurry of community articles offering sound advice for those in search of value players.

Kompany man’s focus was the best bang for your buck goalkeepers, while p00sbrown took an in depth look at the budget assets available in Watford’s squad. Chicken Mandy also has an eye on value in his pick of the best Tottenham prospects.

Triggerlips has also been looking at price and the time-honoured tactic of selecting a cheap fifth midfielder to afford the premium captain candidates elsewhere. But, he wonders, is 2015/16 the season to ditch the strategy and splash the cash on all five midfielders? The search for value continued in TM245‘s look at Value Over Replacement Player theory, which considered the best value midfielders as well forwards.

When the FPL player price list was announced there were more than a few surprises, with the majority of the community overestimating many price tags, according to the results from Dat Guy’s Price Prediction Challenge. Congratulations though to the crystal ball gazing skills of Henrzd, who had the best predictions.

The Sky Sports game also launched this week and our resident expert Disable was on hand to offer advice in our dedicated Rate My Team (RMT) article.

Finally, we wanted to hark back beyond the last week to The Sarjeant’s superb analysis of Southampton’s conveyor belt of young talent – a terrific insight into a club that’s been feeding our Fantasy Football squads in recent years and may well do for seasons to come.

Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

The Hottest Topics

Later this month we have big plans regarding the steady stream of “Rate My Team” or “RMT” posts coming in. In the meantime, the community offered their advice on RMT etiquette to ensure that they attract replies.

A number of Hot Topics over the week took a look at some of the key names already featuring in many early Fantasy football draft teams. Branislav Ivanovic has emerged as the most popular premium priced defender, according to our poll. While for Wakey Manchester City’s David Silva is a name that should be top of the list of midfield candidates and Parm took a look at Alexis Sanchez’ Fantasy returns with and without some of Arsenal’s key men on the pitch.

More than half of FPL teams already own Eden Hazard but Rattan64 ponders whether Fantasy managers could be better off with 2.5 million in their pockets by drafting in his cheaper Chelsea team mate Cesc Fabregas instead?

A team with no shortage of choice in midfield is Man United, who this week added Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastien Schweinsteiger to a midfield that already boats Juan Mata and Memphis Depay. Doosra, however, is unimpressed and sparked a lively discussion this week after declaring the Red Devil’s revamped midfield a mess. In contrast, Wild Rover thinks the summer spending spree shows a side mounting a genuine title challenge.

Reacting quickly to the form of players such as United’s new recruits early on in the season is amongst the key advice on offer in Birdman77’s discussion on increasing team value in FPL. Reacting to transfer developments is also important, with Younes Kaboul’s move from Tottenham to Sunderland prompting Fantasy Noob to launch a debate on the most nailed-on Black Cat defenders.

Amongst the toughest players to predict a rise in form from are those from promoted teams. Yu Suk Young took this look back at some of the promoted players that proved a worthy investment. The Puntmaster also provides some useful information about those new to the Premier League with this update on his research into new recruits and promoted teams’ players. While Champs took a look at some of those promoted stars that failed to deliver.

Speaking of delivery, Granville popped by with the happy news that this week Mark welcomed a new addition to the family, with the birth of his daughter Edith. While Edith is the youngest birthday marked, this week also saw our resident Southampton expert Lucy celebrate her birthday, which she shares with former Saints star Gareth Bale.

Finally, one of this week’s most popular posts was Bsloebadger’s discussion on unofficial achievements in FPL, such as the Bench Buster, where your bench outscores your starting 11, and Captain Fantastic, where your armband selection delivers returns for 10 weeks in a row.

The Members Tables

With goalkeepers’ stock rising following a change to the bonus points Davejug1’s table went on the hunt for the most prolific penalty savers on offer.

If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.