With just hours to go until the start of the new season, the community has been applying the finishing touches to their teams. We round up the hottest topics from the last week and also catch up with the latest action from your community leagues. If you have a community league that you would like us to include in these weekly round up articles, be sure to email me at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.

Hottest Topics

The fifth midfield slot is often the final decision for Fantasy managers. Luckily, The Puntmaster was on hand for those looking at a rock-bottom priced player to fill that spot with a new section in his evolving spreadsheet comparing the 4.5m midfielders on offer in the Fantasy Premier League game. Other updates include a comparison of Manchester City and Liverpool’s respective luxury midfielders David Silva and Philippe Coutinho. Moidawg has also been helping out those looking for a cheap fifth midfielder by running the rule over those in the 5m bracket.

Another issue to vex our community has been which of the Premier League’s star Belgian strikers, Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku or Aston Villa’s Christain Benteke, to pick for the double Gameweek 1. Among those answering Demi’s discussion topic on this issue were Milanista who plans to opt for just the Chelsea man, while Pepin is taking no chances and wants both.

Moidawg has once again been burning the midnight oil during the deadzone, which takes place during the early hours, to look at the three key emerging template teams. According to his analysis,  ‘go hard’ team manages to squeeze in Robin Van Persie and two other expensive strikers such as Lukaku and Roberto Soldado at the expense of good defence and midfield, while the ‘RVP budget team’ opts for a pricier midfield as well as the Manchester United striker. His final template, the RVP less team, is dripping with talent in every position but crucially lacks last season’s top goal scorer.

With many familiar players already gracing the majority of  teams, SqueakyBumTime has been on the search for some differentials to help the community take an early lead in their mini-leagues. His epic trawl through the unfashionable picks with a low ownership is in three parts, covering strikers, midfielders and defenders.

Fancy a punt on Southampton’s cheap striker Jay Rodriguez, who is priced kindly in the FPL game at 6m? Perhaps you might think again after reading TexanRed‘s thoughts on the matter.

Meanwhile, our resident video expert Brutus619 has been at the pause button again to analyse the skills of some more Premier League imports. This time  he’s been casting his eye over Liverpool’s forward Iago Aspas and Sunderland’s Jozy Altidore. Altidore, in particular, has really impressed him.

With the pre-season matches now wrapped up  ZippyTFPL, with the help of Berbatov, has collected all those useful statistics from the previous weeks’ friendlies, including total goal involvement and minutes played.

Another to provide some useful analysis from the summer’s friendlies has been Couti and the Below5th, who has been assessing who are the likely starters for each team based on their pre season appearances.

Finally, no last minute team change would be complete without at least considering whether Robin Van Persie is really worth his 14m price tag. Reckoner- Ajax Trees Down has been looking at the alternative moneyball tactics on offer for set to shun  the Manchester United striker.

Community Leagues

The second transfer window of FFS Uefa’s transfer window simulation game saw  total of 16 deals made during the week with Arsenal led by Zep, Stoke run by Dynamic and Everton managed by Saniul  particularly active. Some of the highlights of the round included Cristiano Ronaldo moving from Anorak‘s Tottenham to  The Shadow‘s Norwich and Juan Mata moving from Fulham run by Peppie and Felix to Arsenal and later to Stoke. Norwich still lead the game with Fulham, Everton and 4vets‘ Liverpool rounding out the top 4. Bids for defenders and submission of midfield targets must be made by Saturday 23:59 BST.

FFS UEFA’s famed FPL leagues, which are modeled on actual leagues with community members taking real life team names, will resume next week. In addition In Tommy We Trust  will be running a number of leagues and reminds those who have qualified to join their leagues as soon as possible. Similarly, TorresMagic informs us that he is still inviting community members to join his leagues. More details here.