The long wait is now almost over and we are less than 24 hours away from the first kick of the 2015/16 Premier League season. Our community writers and hot topic posters were on hand to offer some last-minute guidance on Fantasy management issues, ranging from saving money and Theo Walcott’s starting prospects, to taking risks and ignoring a certain Belgian. Our Members tables took a look at changes to the Fantasy Premier League’s bonus allocation this season and we also fill you in on the latest community tournaments to take part in.
The Community Articles
Eden Hazard’s huge ownership in Fantasy Premier League highlights the strong hopes many Fantasy managers have for the Belgian. But with Chelsea’s poor early fixtures, in addition to Hazard’s previous slow starts, would it be better to wait to draft him in? Nice to Finally Michu investigates whether the mercurial midfielder is a tortoise or a hare when it comes to campaign kick-offs, to help make your minds up.
Strong starts were also considered by Prepa FC in his analysis of whether promoted teams are buoyed up by top flight football or caught in the headlights in their early fixtures.
Whether Theo Walcott can even make the Arsenal starting XI has been another key issue discussed this week. Dr Agabuse was on hand to examine how and when Walcott is likely to be used this season. The Arsenal midfielder could represent a key differential for his owners this week if named in the first team. Bowstring the Carp took a look at some other low ownership prospects for Gameweek 1, while Crystal Palace’s differentials were considered in Matt’s team analysis.
Player pricing came under the gaze of our community writers this week, with Numb on hand to consider some of FPL’s trickiest valuations, while RuthNZ examined player value.
Triggerlips has also been looking at saving money and how Norwich’s John Ruddy can help with his penny pinching.
Finally, congratulations to The 3rdTurd, who won the Community article for July vote for his excellent analysis of FPL’s bonus changes.
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 emerging Fantasy Football Scout community template came under RuthNZ’s microscope this week as he looked at some of the alternative players we could be considering.
But as our hot topic on FPL’s most owned players showed, the community is already daring to be different, with hardly any of the overall template’s players in their teams. In addition, Diva pointed out later in the week that many of the community’s player picks for the coming season are based on sound logic and should not be dismissed as the product of a herd mentality.
Ludo was another to tackle template issues and also discovered that our community’s popular picks are amongst FPL’s surprise differentials.
Our look at FPL’s differential XI also served up some other low ownership players to consider. Amongst them was Jamie Vardy, a firm favourite of The Fantasy Freak who was surprised not to see the Leicester forward in more draft teams. Meanwhile, The Puntmaster alerted us to the latest update to his new player analysis, which charts those from promoted teams, lower divisions and foreign leagues.
Strategy ahead of the new season was also looked at, with Lanley Staural looking at the best time to use wildcards, with Giggs Boson adding his thoughts on revamping a squad as early as Gameweek 2.
Going without Eden Hazard at the start is another tactic being considered and Badluck Jonathan was on hand to weigh up its pros and cons, while Lucy explored the merits of opting for a strategy of investment in Southampton’s attacking players early on.
A different strategy is needed for many of the weekly games we are focusing on this year. We canvassed your views here on the turn-ons and turn-offs of these emerging addition to the Fantasy Football stable.
Meanwhile, Ricky alerted us to a touching gesture by EA sports in Fifa 16 to honour Simon Humber, the games giant’s creative director and FFScout regular who sadly passed away earlier this year. In memory of Portsmouth fan Simon, the new edition of the game will feature Fratton Park and include a special tribute near the goalmouth.
Finally, If you want to see what the moderators and contributors who have yet to appear on the Scoutcast look like, see here for some pictures from our annual get together last weekend.
The Members Tables
With the changes to the bonus allocation in FPL 3453 has produced this handy table highlighting the defenders who are set to benefit.
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.
The Community Tournaments
Jaffalicious popped by with news of a Champions League themed FPL tournament he is planned using FPL scores. More details can be found here.
Billy Gilmore also brought us news that his Dead Team Challenge is back. For those new to the concept, this involves zero effort across the season, as all you have to do is select a 15-man squad for Gameweek 1, sit back and hope they don’t get injured.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round Ups, please email me a brief summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spread sheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
