With less than a week to go before the Premier League season kicks off, the community has been busy assessing the merits of some of the player list’s priciest options, as well as rifling through its bargain bins. Manchester City’s stars have impressed our community writers, while it’s Liverpool stars and the prospects of a particular Manchester United midfielder that have preoccupied our Hot Topic posters.
Defensive Bonus point magnets are tracked down via our Members table review, while we finish off our catch-up with news of the latest community competitions, for poor performers and cosmopolitan managers alike.
The Community Articles
With three assists to his name, Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne has been among the summer’s best performers.Dr Agabuse has been particularly impressed with the Belgian’s new advanced role, which prompted his detailed analysis of his underlying statistics in an attacking position last season.
This convincing form has certainly been spotted by Fantasy Premier League managers, who have been queuing up to add the Man City schemer to their Gameweek 1 line ups, according to Milvus’ latest update on ownership trends.
Will our hopes for De Bruyne be dashed or can we rely on his strong underlying statistics as a guide to likely returns? Such predictions form the basis of a superb article from Prokoptas which discusses goalscoring potential.
Bournemouth stars such as Josh King and Charlie Daniels proved reliable sources of attacking points last season, but, says Woolfgang, the Cherries are among a number of teams that appear to be unfairly treated in FPL’s fixture difficulty ratings.
Spurs’ Harry Kane was perhaps the most consistent points scorer last season, after claiming the Golden Boot for the second successive campaign. However, Coley’s latest article suggests that he may not be as productive next season, with Spurs effectively facing 38 away games thanks to their relocation to Wembley Stadium.
Kane sits in more than a third of teams and earns another mention in YTFC_Scratch’s article on the prevalence of the herd mentality in Fantasy Football. This compelling piece asks whether our choices are based on logic or the desire to fit in.
There is certainly strong evidence to suggest a group think has taken hold of player selections, according to our first FPL Rate My Team surgery of the season. Analysis by Lyonnais of the teams put forward for scrutiny strongly suggests that a hive mind has helped shape an emerging template.
Elsewhere, Frankie the Gent has resurrected the debate around Fantasy Premier League’s new Free Hit chip, offering further strategies on putting it to use, either to get off to a strong start, or to finish the season with a flourish.
Meanwhile, if trying to construct the perfect FPL team and strategy has got too much for you, Triggerlips dropped by with some advice on coping with the information overload Fantasy managers are facing ahead of Gameweek 1.
Finally, Niemi has heralded the return of Fantasy Eliterserien, following a short summer break, with a team by team analysis of the latest activity in the transfer market in the Norwegian top flight.
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
Among the most discussed theories ahead of the new season is that Manchester United’s Paul Pogba will be reborn, be handed the freedom to roam forward and subsequently score a hatful of goals. That’s all due to United’s recent capture of Nemanja Matic as a defensive shield.
The Fantasy Freak is among those expecting big things from the Frenchman this season, although Berbinho’s Forehead remains sceptical.
Other theories for the new campaign – notably Spurs’ potential Wembley blues – were discussed in this follow-up Hot Topic we posted on Thursday.
While Kevin De Bruyne has impressed the community scribes, our Hot Topic posters have been focusing on Liverpool’s midfield stars.
Rambo Motin is flabbergasted that nine out of ten FPL managers have shunned Reds’ winger Sadio Mane, while admirers of new recruit Mohamed Salah were out in force in our Hot topic on the former Chelsea and Roma player.
Next season will surely be another where we are left proclaiming that “we can’t have them all”, with Fantasy managers struggling to fit the wealth of available attacking talent into their squads. This is particularly the case among striker selections, says Lateriser12, who suggests that the premium forward eco-system has changed markedly for 2017/18, with even more choice available.
Even Kane may struggle to compete, especially with Man City stars looking sharp in pre-season. But as Wakey points out, the Spurs man still has strong captaincy potential in his favour. Cesc’s Old Mullet also considered the England striker’s essential status and whether we dare go without him come the season kick-off.
Competition is also fierce among the community’s backlines. Indeed, Nisag17 suggests ripping up the traditional formation form book and fielding five premium options at the back, due to the raft of tempting defensive options.
Given the performance last season of top priced wing-backs – such as Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso – talk of cheap defensive rotation combinations have been conspicous by their absence this summer. Tears for Fears aimed to address that with a look at the best pairings, while Rupert the Horse pondered the merits of investing in one of West Brom’s towering rearguard.
Further defensive options were also being touted in our Hot Topic on differential gems for the new season.
Meanwhile, our community scouts have been out and about during the pre-season calendar to help uncover some further low-owned options, with Twisted Saltergater picking through Bournemouth’s options, while Andre94PT has been talent spotting among Newcastle United’s ranks.
There will be particular interest in one of the pre-season’s flagship matches this weekend – the Community Shield – with Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez under the microscope, amid ongoing speculation surrounding his future.
To temper enthusiasm in stellar pre-season performances, Abel Xavier delivered some cautionary tales for those who pay too much attention to friendlies. He points out that Ahmed Musa of Leicester City and Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi were among last summer’s stars that ultimately failed to deliver.
Finally, Malcolm Tucker for England has been dusting off his Underworld and Iggy Pop albums to pen a Fantasy Football version of Trainspotting’s memorable Choose Life monologue, which was this week’s most popular post in terms of votes.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page.
The Members Tables
Defenders with potential for strong bonus returns, based on baseline attributes such as passing and tackling, come under scrutiny in McNulty’s latest table, while FPL Virgin has gone back to basics with his table, which focuses purely on appearances, goals and assists.
Elsewhere, players that made the most of limited pitch time last season are the focus of boniouk’s most recent table.
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
Fantasy Football competitions around the world are proving increasingly popular among the community. Already Fantasy Eliterserien has garnered considerable interest and VS10_ is hoping there will be similar enthusiasm for Fantasy Bundesliga, ahead of the start of the German top flight season. He dropped by to tell us more about this game and also details of how to join the FFScout community league he has set up
Only those who have never finished inside the top 10,000 in FPL are invited to join Heels Over Head’s new community competition, which aims to discover the Fantasy Football star managers of the future. The code to join his R U Smarter Than The 10K Club league is 9355-102577.
If you’re running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-ups, please email us summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
