The Community Round Up

It’s been four Gameweeks to forget for many Fantasy managers, who have been left shell shocked by failed captaincy choices and reliable home wins drying up. There was plenty of advice on beating the start of the season blues from our community writers and hot topic posters during this international break, with differentials, deadline day recruits and alternative formations all in the frame to turn around our seasons. We also delve into some creative underlying statistics in our Members tables as well as catch up on the latest news from some of our Community tournaments.

The Community Articles

One key tactic to turning around what has been a lacklustre Fantasy campaign for many is to take risks with the captaincy. Jose’s Magic Omelette’s regular alternative captaincy options articles are a good way to assess such punts. His latest piece takes a look ahead to some of Gameweek 5’s armband mavericks and glances back to see how his differentials fared in Gameweek 4.

Another regular community article that offers a different way of selecting captains is Your Mum’s Athletic’s What the Bookies Say series, which uses bookmakers odds to help predict the coming Gameweek’s scorelines. As this recap on his Gameweek 4 predictions shows, the high number of red cards handed out made this a particular difficult set of fixtures to assess.

The international break offers a chance for the community to reflect on their squads and captaincy strategy in great detail. Bowstring the Carp was on hand to look back on what we can learn from August’s fixtures. Meanwhile, Jose’s Magic Omelette was back again to show how the international break can also present a good profit making opportunity, especially for those wildcarding.

With form so far trumping fixtures, Pooodle offers some sound advice on the best times to either stick or twist regarding underperforming stars.

Finally, if you have a spare few minutes please do take some time to cast your vote for your favourite community article during August. The winning writer will receive a £20 Amazon voucher and will be announced in next week’s Community Round Up.

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

There were further tips on turning around the fortunes of Fantasy managers in our hot topics. Those answering our plea for help included Baines on Toast, who urges patience with misfiring heavy hitters such as Alexis Sanchez, while Ryan recommends going five at the back, given the large amount of high scoring defenders this season. As Bowstring the Carp’s latest round up of FPL bonus allocation shows, full backs, in particular, look very attractive as a source of reliable points.

Another set of player that could help the community march up the rankings are those who joined new clubs at the end of the summer transfer window. Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne was among those mentioned in our discussion on how the summer arrivals and those with new clubs may impact on our teams.

There is certainly an appetite for trying something different to achieve Fantasy success, with Weasel Boy amongst those who has had enough of heavy hitters – he even went as far as to say that Sergio Aguero is killing his Fantasy team. He is not alone, with the Manchester City striker also features in Belsunz’s hot topic on the most disappointing players so far list, which also includes Chelsea’s lacklustre defence.

Could our reliance on cheap defenders and players such as Aguero be costing our community vital Fantasy points? Ruth NZ certainly thinks so in his discussion on the how this tried and test rigid team structure is failing so spectacularly this season.

For those who have had a poor start, our latest Rough with the Smooth article will offer some comfort, as it shows that even the number one manager in our Hall of Fame has had a shocker. Despite being another to have a poor start, I find myself in the rare position of not wanting to use either of my two free transfers ahead of Gameweek 5. Our subsequent discussion on the issue revealed that wasting a transfer may even offer a significant, surprise boost in rankings.

In FPL’s sister game Ultimate Fantasy Premier League the transfer window remains open until September 12. To help make the right decisions on who to draft in Andy85wsm offered an invaluable list of those teams playing on Matchday 2 and 3, offering a crucial group of players that increase managers’ chances of correcting first match day blunders.

For those wanting to catch up on how their players are performing while away on international duty Demi has provided this round up of their travels ahead of Gameweek 5.

The Members Tables

Mark has created this handy table looking at the most creative teams each Gameweek. The team topping Gameweek 4’s table will come as some surprise given the scoreline. My goals imminent table has now been updated to show the players that are due a goal or two. This will offer some crumb of comfort to those keeping faith in their heavy hitters. While Jaffalicious has produced a pair of team tables, looking a the best attacks and defences.

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

The results of qualifying round 2 of Jaffalicious’s FFS UEFA Champions League themed tournament are now in, with Lucy, Dogba, Irish Madrista and Rodellegabomb among those to progress.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 29, which saw 165 players depart and 2,427 remain.

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.