The Community Round Up

For those who kept a keen eye on our community submissions and Hot Topics this week, the first Gameweek should be progressing well. The community served up with a wealth of excellent analysis about formations, players and team value from an array of writers and posters. We look back on the best of the last seven days, allowing those who missed out a belated opportunity to pick up some pearls of wisdom from fellow Fantasy managers.

The Community Submissions

In under a week, we’ve seen an impressive 17 articles contributed by community writers, offering some sound advice ahead of Saturday’s kick-off.

Template teams were the focus of Aussie Pundit’s look at the most popular players among Fantasy Football Scout’s veteran managers, while Nisag17 took a look at the template team emerging based on overall ownership.

The game’s heavy-hitting midfielders, such as Eden Hazard and Aaron Ramsey, remained popular targets for veterans and casual Fantasy managers alike. Bowstring the Trout provided this excellent round up of the elite midfield options and Eoin K followed up to cast his eye over these premium options in part 1 and part 2 of his analysis of the Fantasy Premier League’s cast of 9.0 men.

Further up the pitch, Daniel Sturridge was the subject of Jose’s Magic Omelette’s detailed look at how the Liverpool striker will fare without Luis Suarez by his side.

The community were also on hand to help those looking to plunged down the price brackets. The Puntmaster offered up this motley crew of budget punts, Nice to Finally Michu served up this look at FPL’s best 4.5m midfielders and Bowstring the Trout returned to chart his pick of FPL’s differentials with low ownership. On the other side of the fence, Home Run Baker warned against putting too much faith in poorly owned players as he looked to debunk the differential myth.

There are pricing pitfalls to watch for when investing in highly owned players. Anytimescorer’s look at the key groups of players that are likely to suffer early season price falls offered some early food for thought. With this in mind, AZ urged Fantasy Managers to keep their budget allocation flexible in order to react swiftly to a volatile market.

Player prices remained a focus as Rodellegabomb looked at the true value of players, as well as offering an explanation of “Value Over Replacement Player” theory. Another economist in our midst, Nisag17, has developed a theory of player value using incremental gain analysis, which in layman’s terms means getting more bang for your buck.

Premier League players making the transition from La Liga came under analysis in Khaled’s article. Meanwhile, Balotelli’s Bib ran the rule over the the best top flight teenagers and other young starlets.

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

Two major schools of thought emerged on the comment boards during the final week of preparation. While some were stressing the importance of identifying the very best budget options, others were promoting the explosive points potential of the premium players.

Sting was amongst those advocating penny pinching at the back in his excellent look at the the cheapest options, while Athletico Timbo was also on hand to offer his thoughts on the best 4.0 options. Madridista was another urging caution with the cheque book. His analysis of the midfield’s heavy-hitters concludes that Yaya Toure and Alexis Sanchez are simply not worthy of their inflated price tags.

In stark contrast, Absinthe put forward a powerful argument for investing in top-end defenders in order to avoid a repeat of last season’s desperate scramble for the defensive bandwagons as a result of the bonus point re-invention.

Elninorules was another Fantasy manager promoting big investment. He focused on a single midfield target, advocating seeing past Eden Hazard’s 10.0 price tag in order to swoop for a player who could be set for a “breakout” season as a true heavy-hitter.

Elsewhere, The Holy Trinity Freak spent much of the week constructing a team that included not only Wayne Rooney and Daniel Sturridge, but also Chelsea’s Diego Costa. Hellbent on splashing the cash up front, he urged other Fantasy Managers to follow suit.

While many of us will lay down the Wildcard to repair a broken team, few of us contemplate revamping our team names. Your Mum’s Athletic provided some inspiration in this area, presenting the best team names around, with “50 Shades of O’Shea” and “Xavi Got News For You” among his picks.

The Community Tournaments

AZ has set up a new tournament for FPL managers – an early bird cup with 32 teams taking part. The latest standings can be found here.