Community

The Community Round Up

The last seven days saw an abundance of submissions from our community’s budding writers, showcasing some excellent analysis and team scouting reports. Judging by your response to our new community section, we’ll have plenty more to come from you in the coming weeks and leading into the new season.

The World Cup has been a key source of inspiration in both your submissions and the Hot Topics on the comments board. Even so, we kept one eye on domestic duties and we’ll look back on discussions on the lessons learned over the previous Fantasy campaign, and the early planning for next season. We also revisit some of the community’s favourite posts over the season, in particular one man’s failed mission to move Rome to France. No, really.

The Community Submissions

The season may be over but our community scribes are already planning for their next push.

Stevie52’s look ahead to key strategies for the coming Fantasy Football season proved to be a must read for aspiring and veteran managers alike. Bowstring the Trout has also been looking ahead with his excellent focus on the players that have been forgotten during the 2013/14 campaign but could be set for an excellent season next time around. Be sure to to check those out. Dino has also been busy preparing for next season and has drafted an epic, three-part look at next season’s Prime Targets. See his first instalment here.

The community submissions area has also proved to be a fertile ground for our internationally focused writers, who have begun a series of reports on the teams taking part in the World Cup.

Edgar Davids reminded us that Switzerland are eighth in the FIFA world rankings on merit, while Somalion has been busy looking out for the key players from Japan’s squad. Elsewhere, FortunesAlwaysHiding was scouting South Korea, Applebonkers was taking the Eurostar over to Belgium and svgcr enlightened us on Costa Rica.

In addition, Baines on Toast offered a handy reminder on some of the talent that are missing out on the summer tournament, potentially leaving them fresh for the season kick-off. Early food for thought.

If you are already getting withdrawal symptoms and are craving some immediate Fantasy action then Thomass was on hand with news of an exciting Fantasy cricket game – developed by the guys behind the Fantasy Premier League (FPL), no less.

There have also been some expert and even poetic analyses of the previous season’s key figures, with The Sarjeant focusing on just how Tony Pulis managed to turn around Crystal Palace’s fortunes. Meanwhile, Applebonkers returned to pen this beautiful love poem to Arsenal’s goalscoring and bonus point-grabbing defender, Laurent Koscielny. Emotional stuff.

Click here to read all the latest work submitted from the community and to put forward your own articles.

The Hottest Topics

World Cup fever is almost upon us, with FIFA’s official game whetting our appetite by opening for registration, but frustrating us by blocking us from picking our squads. Nevertheless, the community had a good look through the rules and key strategies for this game – an invaluable early guide for those gearing up to take part.

There were, however, some concerns raised over the rules so far and whether there may be some amendments on the way. Roscola wonders whether the recovered ball rules may change – his analysis highlighted that, currently, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini is set to bring in at least 15 points a game. I think we should brace ourselves for some tweaks.

As with our community submissions, the hot topics were awash with crystal ball gazing and early planning for next season. Tinkerman invested some time in taking a look at Derby and QPR’s current squads to decipher which of this year’s Championship play-off finalists looks the best from a Fantasy football perspective. Meanwhile, Somalion was pondering whether Theo Walcott, if fit, really deserves to be one of the first names on in our squads.

BONZ braced us for some big managerial changes, assessing how the inevitable managerial merry-go-round, at West Brom, Manchester United, Tottenham and potentially a number of other clubs, will influence our decision making.

The close-season always invites some healthy debate on Fantasy game rule changes and Zep was the latest to pipe up. He would particularly like to see the allocation of points for penalties altered. He’s suggested that points are awarded for earning the penalty, even if the kick is missed.

As our discussion on the key lessons we learned during 2013/14 highlighted, there will be plenty of managers ripping up their rule books ahead of the new season; altering strategies that clearly failed during the past campaign. Aaron Ramessi was pledging not to lose patience with consistent big-hitters, while Innsie vowed to watch more matches in order to improve his first-hand knowledge of player performance.

Super Zlatan was more interested in those who had got their strategies spot on – his call to arms for those with consistent top FPL ranks within the top 10,000 proved a great opportunity to get advice from some of the most successful Fantasy managers in the community, including Hall of Famer Evs.

Like Evs, we are likely to spend a great deal of our time pondering transfers and strategy in renewed tilts for the FPL crown. However, Ludo offered some eye-opening analysis that revealed that winning the FPL game may not be as tough as we think. In his search for the ultimate dead team he found that, by sticking with the same squad and captain from Gameweek 1 onwards, it was possible to still claim top spot. So, who’s up for the “ghostship” strategy next season? Me neither.

Finally, The Missing Link was among those who did exceptionally well with his 2013/14 campaign, with a rank of 644. But, despite his prowess at Fantasy Football, he won our attention for a very different reason last season. When Innsie asked the community for their favourite Fantasy Football Scout moment, the clear winner was the Missing Link’s detailed analysis of Erik Lamela that was sadly based on the mistaken idea that Rome was in France. At the last count this had registered 122 up votes.

The Community Tournaments

Whitman2013 spent this week creating a new Gameweek 39 competition, with community members invited to select a team based on those playing in this weekend’s FA Cup final and La Liga title decider. Beavis emerged victorious with his total score of  58, just one point more than second placed Wilshire Knowledge.

J0E Podcaster and writer. Tweets stats and stuff via @FFScout_Joe Follow them on Twitter

676 Comments Post a Comment
  1. rnrd001
    • 10 Years
    9 years, 10 months ago

    FFS is writing about a world cup game but I can't find any link about it. I might be stupid..
    Can anyone help?

    thanks !

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    1. Dino
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      9 years, 10 months ago

      google macdonalds fantasy world cup game. It is not open yet and FFS will probably be posting official links and stuff once it does.

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    2. TorresMagic™
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      9 years, 10 months ago

      Main game on here

      http://en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com/

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  2. Zombie
    • 11 Years
    9 years, 10 months ago

    http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/18/tim-sherwood-tottenham-manager-role

    "If I could go back I would not take Tottenham job"

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    1. pompeyfan
      • 14 Years
      9 years, 10 months ago

      he's worked for Levy for quite a while, he should've expected this. No sympathy

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      1. Colonel Shoe 肝池
        • 12 Years
        9 years, 10 months ago

        a tad myopic yes, but i have every sympathy for any manager working with levy

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      2. Dino
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        9 years, 10 months ago

        Fully agree. These ex footballers in the background at clubs telling the chairman everything that is wrong with the team and the manager and how easy it would be to fix it annoy the hell out of me.

        Get your badges, do a decent amount of years coaching and managing and then you might be qualified to criticize other managers.

        These players think they now it all when in fact most of them find out how little they know when they actually take up management. It was not their knowledge of the game that got to them where they were in football, it was mostly luck and physical prowess in most cases.

        Even Gareth Bale was almost cut from Southampton's academy when he was 15, almost sold to forest after a couple of season at Spurs but for an injury crisis at left back, how different would his and any top footballers career be but for different circumstances when they were coming through.

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        1. Colonel Shoe 肝池
          • 12 Years
          9 years, 10 months ago

          bet it happens all the time........how many lost bales are there out there

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          1. Dino
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 14 Years
            9 years, 10 months ago

            Are you talking agricultural or football talent wise?

            Yeah it really is a cut throat world at youth level. I saw the european U17 semi final between Scotland and Netherlands last night and the starting central midfielder for Scotland has been cut from Celtics academy as they don't see enough potential in him.

            I hope this kid finds another club as to be among the best 11 players in your age group for your country you must have talent and hopefully Celtic will live to regret it (from a Celtic fan) as I think the system where the top clubs hoover up the top talent without ever giving them a chance to make it is very wrong.

            I have two boys and I know if they had a choice between Man Utd or Wigan I would be advising them to go to Wigan where they might have a chance of getting a game and actually making it.

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            1. Colonel Shoe 肝池
              • 12 Years
              9 years, 10 months ago

              not much a of a choice that 😉

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              1. Dino
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 14 Years
                9 years, 10 months ago

                True lol

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            2. Marknlard
              • 14 Years
              9 years, 10 months ago

              A friend works at Swansea - he says that at the start of the season Audi turned up and handed out keys to all the youth team. They're getting free cars even before they've got near the first team.

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              1. Dino
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 14 Years
                9 years, 10 months ago

                That is absolutely ridiculous tbh

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                1. Marknlard
                  • 14 Years
                  9 years, 10 months ago

                  As Madrista says, it's all about getting them while they're young.

                  Audi also did the first team - but the first teamers weren't gonna drive the same cars as the kids so some more exclusive car company stepped in.

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              2. Irish Madridista ⭐
                • 13 Years
                9 years, 10 months ago

                Get em while they're young and all that jazz.

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  3. JT's Dog
      9 years, 10 months ago

      clocking in

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      1. Colonel Shoe 肝池
        • 12 Years
        9 years, 10 months ago

        get out

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    • New Article Posted
    • Whattheheck!
      • 10 Years
      9 years, 10 months ago

      Midfield Breakout players 2013/2014:

      There were a few young midfielders who really broke onto the scene last season, showing huge potential, while at times frustrating. The main ones I was thinking of were:
      - Barkley
      - Januzaj
      - Sterling

      To differing extents, they all shared certain characteristics:

      - They were all given significantly more playing time this season in attacking roles.
      - They all started of as being very cheap.
      - They all produced significant attacking returns
      - Playing time was often in doubt, not because of injuries but rather protection/rotation given their relatively young ages.

      How do you rate each of these players as prospects next season?
      Presumably, they will all have significant price hikes (£6.5m-£7.5m maybe?)
      Do you think they will receive significant playing time next year.

      I think Barkley is perhaps the best option. I think he will be more or less nailed next season. I think Januzaj may still be heavily rotated given the attacking option at united. Sterling is of course explosive but may suffer rotation with Coutinho if Lallana is brought in.

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      1. Marknlard
        • 14 Years
        9 years, 10 months ago

        Can see them being 7-8, probably the higher end. Ramsey will no doubt be somewhere around 9.

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