Season planning began in earnest this week after the 2015/16 fixture list was released on Wednesday. The search for teams with the best opening fixtures and potential rotation pairings was understandably the main attraction for Fantasy managers. The UEFA U21 Fantasy game was another key theme of the week, with our community writers and posters on hand to offer advice on the best transfers to make as the tournament progresses. Elsewhere, the community focuses on some of the new faces coming into the Premier League next season, while our Members stats section takes in some of last season’s top performers.
The Community Articles
We know the fixtures now, all we need are the prices to put the finishing touches to our team planning for next season. Dat Guy’s summer price prediction challenge, in which the community attempts to second guess the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price setters, has already generated some interesting figures. Earlier in the week he collated the guesses so far and rolled out an average community predicted price for each of the 50 players in his list.
For those anticipating some budget-friendly prices, The Sarjeant has drafted this handy guide to Members on getting the most out of the season ticker to find the perfect cheap rotation pairs.
Elsewhere, RuthNZ’s summer long Premier League team review series continued this week with Everton and West Ham coming under his microscope.
For those playing the UEFA U21 Fantasy game, Saniul has created these pair of guides looking at the key players to consider drafting in from Group A and Group B.
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
The release of the 2015/16 Premier League fixture list dominated discussion in the community this week, as tickers were hastily constructed and transfer plans were put in place. The first amongst the community to get a working season ticker up and running was The Blue of Leicester.
For those looking to see how the Premier League fixtures dovetail with FA Cup and European competition commitments, Couti and the Below5th was another quick off the mark to make this fully comprehensive fixture calendar. Pasqualinho’s eagle eyes spotted a key part of the calendar for Fantasy managers, when, on the weekend of March 12, the FA Cup quarter finals take place at the same time as Premier League fixtures. This has the potential to create a bumper set of double Gameweeks, he noted.
No release of the fixture list would be complete without discussion around rotation, particularly in defence. Ruth NZ has helped out with his look at the key home and away rotation pairs for the season. Giggs Boson has also been looking at home and away options, to see if teams really do perform better on familiar soil, while blocks of home fixtures were the focus of Portsmouth Bubblejet‘s research.
Jaffalicious, meanwhile, has taken an even more detailed look at rotation options focusing on fixture difficulty to unearth some perfect pairs.
Saniul was among those to point out that Arsenal have a good opening set of fixtures in our discussion on last year’s top Premier League sides start to the season. Meanwhile, Nomar likes the look of Norwich’s defence in our assessment of the promoted sides opening fixtures.
The UEFA Euro U21 Championship game launched this week. For those looking to make changes and prepare for the final stages Roscola was on hand with some advice about budget and mid-price midfielders. There was further discussion courtesy of Saniul regarding the Germany U21 squad here. We also compiled this handy list of Group A’s set piece takers and those on free kicks and corners in Group B during the first set of matches.
One of our busiest discussions was around improvements to Fantasy Football next season. For CPTCrunch11 it was better points for defensive midfielders in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), while for Jafalad the removal of the second wildcard in FPL is an essential change. Jafalad was back later in the week to start an intriguing discussion on the typical profile needed to win FPL, with issues like facial hair, marital status and age amongst key factors listed.
Newcastle are a team in dire need of improvement after a disappointing 2014/15 campaign saw them narrowly avoid relegation. With Steve McClaren at the helm, many are hoping their players can deliver, particularly as they are set to gain kind price tags in 2015/16. In our discussion on the Magpies’ prospects Innsie hopes that QPR’s Charlie Austin joins up at St James’ Park to give Fantasy managers another good striker option. Meanwhile, Pompeyfan will be keeping an eye on Tim Krul and Daryl Janmaat during pre-season, as well as their price tags.
Austin is one of a number of transfer targets to be included in Herzd’s price prediction hot topic looking at how much players would be worth if they move teams before the FPL prices are released.
Among those already on the move is Joselu, who completed his move from Hannover to Stoke this week. Our resident Bundesliga expert Portsmouth Bubblejet was on hand to enlighten us into how the striker will adapt to life with the Potters. If his recent history in Germany is anything to go by he is unlikely to make Doolittle‘s list of the best Premier League goals.
The Members Tables
For those looking to get an attacking defender in next season Bowstring has constructed this table looking at the most threatening backline stars of 2014/15.
Meanwhile Latchmere Wave Machine has been looking at the most successful selfish players, who score the highest number of solo goals.
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.
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