The waiting finally came to an end this week as the Fantasy Premier League opened its doors for the new season.
With the full player list revealed, our Hot Topic posters have been eager to pass on their advice on bargain hunting and selecting the premium players.
Over in our community article section, top tips for winning FPL’s new draft game were dished out, as was advice on winning formations for the coming season and analysis on the previously underperforming teams set for a far better 2017/18.
Elsewhere, our Members’ tables focused on the midfielders who are due a goal come August’s kick-off, while we conclude our round-up with a peek at the FPL community competitions up and running just days after the game’s launch.
The Community Articles
FPL’s draft game opens next week and veteran of the format Pav A Nice Day was on hand to offer his top tips for success. Essential reading.
Also new for 2017/18 could be a change of fortunes for a handful of underperforming sides from last season, according to Prokopta’slook at the plexiglas principle and how teams rarely offer the same returns over a number of campaigns. He lists four sides in particular that he believes will convert far more chances over the 2017/18 campaign.
Another new feature for the season ahead could be an end to the popular 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 formations. Firetog’s detailed calculations point to a four, or even five-man defence potentially providing more lucrative options.
Meanwhile, Niemi has dropped by to offer advice on the best players to get in and those to ditch for Gameweek 17 in Fantasy Eliteserien, the last set of fixtures before this Norwegian top-flight game takes a short summer break.
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 launch of FPL on Wednesday unsurprisingly dominated discussions. But before we were able to finally end a summer of waiting and log in, FPL price setters continued their drip-feeding of player valuations to whet our appetite.
A helpful Diesel001 collected all the early price revelations in one place to act as an archive of opinions on the players you felt offered value or were overpriced.
With the full player list to choose from, I noticed a wealth of options in midfield priced at 7.0.
This “Magnificent Seven” group has clearly caught your eye too, according to our discussion on midfield value. Willian is among those with that price tag who many are considering, especially as his Chelsea side have a strong easy opening fixture at home to Burnley and the threat of rotation has lessened due to Eden Hazard’s absence through injury. Ludo has been taking a look at how the Brazilian stacks up against his Spanish team mate Pedro, who costs 1m more.
Then on Saturday, Stilicho chimed in with his hot topic to survey your current midfield configuration. That saw Ronny Hotdog advocate the classic two heavy-hitter/two mid-price set-up, with Willian and Ramsey getting a lot of love throughout the thread.
Meanwhile, the 8.5 price tag for Manchester City winger Leroy Sane attracted the attention of Sleeptalk.
We also asked for your thoughts on bargains across all positions, with Jairzinho particularly keen to discuss Southampton’s Nathan Redmond, who is valued at 6.5.
Firetog’s discussion of the best formation for 2017/18 also spilled out into our Hot Topics, with us asking whether Romelu Lukaku’s (11.5) move to Manchester United, coupled with a high valuation for Spurs’ Harry Kane (12.5), means a strong third striker is a luxury few can afford.
There was further chat about forwards in our discussion on your FPL frontlines, as well as Enzo the Baker’sanalysis of the best attacking options among the top sides.
FPL Virgin wonders whether sacrifices in midfield can also be made to make room for last season’s wing-back and full-back stars who offer the chance of returns at both ends of the pitch.
Among this group of versatile players is James Milner, who has been reclassified from a midfielder to a defender after a season at left-back. The Liverpool penalty taker was among the most eye-catching players mentioned in N3il M3llor’s hot topic on players that have changed classification.
Milner’s successful spot-kick in Liverpool’s 4-0 rout of Tranmere Rovers was among the highlights of this week’s pre-season friendlies and showed that the former England international is still part of Jurgen Klopp’s plans. We asked what other issues you hope the summer schedule may help solve.
Once again the cry of ‘we can’t have them all’ was heard shortly after the community attempted to squeeze all of the players they desired into their 100m-budgeted FPL side. Net Gains is not impressed with some of the player valuations, in particular among the promoted sides, and wonders if the budget could be increased.
FPL also revealed a new Free Hit chip for the coming season. This replaces the much-maligned All Out Attack strategy and offers managers the chance to overhaul their team for one Gameweek. We asked for your ideas for getting the most out of this new addition to the game, with Lateriser12’s suggestion of using it via an expert navigation of the fixture list proving to be among the most intriguing ideas put forward.
Finally, our resident mathematicians have been assessing the optimum underlying statistics to consider when picking players. For Parm expected goals (xG) looks a key indicator of success, and there was further number crunching in Bolivian Seaman’s discussion on statistics that offer genuine value to Fantasy managers.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page.
The Members’ Tables
Giggs Boson has been busy adding further analysis to Prokoptas’ article on teams that are likely to improve next season. He has been taking a look at those midfielders who really should have scored more in 2016/17, as well as those who had unsustainable and sustainable goal conversion rates.
Meanwhile, resident expert D1asable created this essential table which highlighted those players who had gathered 40+ bonus points in the Sky Sports game.
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
QPRUTD has created a special league for the community’s busiest posters during the summer wait for FPL to launch. Full details of the league, which closes for entrants on Monday, can be found here.
Red Lightning also dropped by to tell us that his Top 10K Any Season league (757-400) in FPL is open for those with that high rank at least once in their Fantasy career. He asks for you to list any other leagues for the community to join, which details a Top 100 ID league (97-643) and Torres Magic’s Last Man Standing (44937-13340).
Elsewhere, FPL Kangaroo is looking for people to beat him in his mini-league (487-19440).
In Fantasy Eliteserien Colemans Mustard remain top of the FFScout league, but an impressive Gameweek 16 score of 80 puts Sangomango in second place, just six points behind. On Giant’s Shoulders has taken the lead in this the FFScout H2H league.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
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