Steem Fantasy Premier League - General Preview & League is now open to join

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Here is a preview of the Fantasy Premier League of 18/19 written by @matinho! Follow him for more Football posts!

Fantasy premier league 18/19 preview Part 1 out of 3

After a World Cup summer full of football it feels a little bit strange that the Premier League season is only one week away. That also means that it´s time for us Fantasy Premier League managers to do our work and try to find the best possible squad for the start of FPL season.

At the moment over 2 million players have already made a provisional team but for sure there will be 5-6 million players when it´s Gameweek 1 deadline 1900 (uk time) at August 10.

For those who haven’t played FPL before there are some rules you should know about before starting to play the game and the easiest way to find these rules is to follow this link:
https://fantasy.premierleague.com/a/help

For this years FPL there isn´t any big news or changes in rules compared to last season. The chips are the same, scoring points are the same and so on. One thing that changes in Premier League this season is the summer transfer market. I previous seasons all clubs in Europe have been able to strengthen their squads until the last of August. However, Premier League clubs have now voted to close their own window at 5pm on Thursday August 9, a day before the first match of the 2018/19 season.

Another thing you may have to take into consideration when you make your team is that some big players may not be ready for the start of the season due to holiday after the World cup.

As follow i will shortly present every team and list the new players (with fantasy price) in each team. I will also give some advice for which players you could consider having in your team.

Arsenal

Arenal ended up 6th last season and Wenger said goodbye after 22 years in charge. Maybe a few years too late if you ask me, and for sure a lot of Arsenal supporters agree. Itś been some years now since the “Invincibles” won the title in 2003/2004 season and with the new manager Unai Emery Arsenal will get some kind of a new start. The first goal should be to get a top 4 finish. In the summer they have strengthen their team with Lucas Torreira (£5.0m), Matteo Guendouzi‘s (£4.5m), Bernd Leno (£5.0m), Stephan Lichtsteiner(£5.0m), Sokratis Papastathopoulos (£5.0m).

They got a bunch of interesting fantasy assets but their opening to the season with matches against Manchester City and Chelsea in the first two gameweeks make me think I should just wait and watch these games to get an insight in how the team plays under their new manager.

For sure players like Aubameyang (£11.0), Mkhitaryan (£7.0m) and Bellerín (£5.5m) will be in many fantasy managers teams. Personally I’m tempted to go with Lacazette (£9.5m) who has scored a total of six goals in pre season (two matches against “shit” teams) but because he’s not granted a starting role I can’t convince myself to have him in my team right now.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth finished 12th last season but only five points off 8th place. They had a really bad record against the top six clubs when they lost 10 of their 12 league matches against these teams. Their manager Eddie Howe is now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League. Howe likes his team to play an attacking football and last season he played both a traditional back four and a three-man defence. Defensively they were quite poor throughout the season and managed to keep just six clean sheets.

This season they’ve got quite favourable fixtures for start of the season. In their first ten fixtures they’ve got only one match against a “top-six” club and for example a good priced Charlie Daniels (£4.5m) who may play as a left-wingback postion could become good. He’s also their most selected player but not granted a starting place anymore with their new signing Diego Rico (£4.5m) trying to take his place. Other players to consider are their forwards King (£6.5m) and Wilson (6.0m). Both have an eye for goals but may not be starting matches together upfront.

New players in:David Brooks (£5.0m) and Diego Rico (£4.5m)

Brigthon & Hove Albion

Brighton managed to stay up in their first season in the Premier League with a 15th place, seven points above the bottom three. There’s isn’t big marginals and hopefully they can avoid second-season syndrome. The club’s main priority this year must be to establish themselves in the Premier League. They will hope that last years fantasy bargain Pascal Gross (£7.0m) will be as effective and that the 34 year old Glenn Murray (£6.5m) with 12 goals last season will keep scoring. In the summer transfermarket they have been quite active. New players in are: Leon Balogun ( £4.5m), Florin Andone (£5.0m), Bernardo Fernandes da Silva Junior (£4.5m), Yves Bissouma (£5.0m), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (£7.0m).

With matches against Man Utd (H), Liverpool (A), Spurs (H) and Man City (A) int their first seven gameweeks I can’t see much value in spending money in this squad from the start of the season.

Burnley

“It might be, we don’t know yet,” was Sean Dyche’s response to the question of whether last season’s seventh place might be the best Burnley could realistically achieve. “Seventh isn’t the highest possible, but it might be the highest probable”.

Burnley had a fantastic 17/18 season with 7th place and Europa League qualifications as a bonus. This season there will be big expectations on the team but If they really get out playing in Europe on Thursday evenings I can see a relegation battle in the horizon for this team. I’m not sure that they can handle both Premier League and Europa League with their squad. Though they have quite good opening fixtures (1-8) so it could be good to invest in their defenders: Ward, Lowton, Mee or Trakowski all priced at £5.0. Their quite popular goalkeepers Pope (£5.0m) and Heaton (£5.0m) from previous seasons are both out with injuries so their third goalkeeper Lindegard (£4.5m) could get his chance between the sticks.

New players in: (none in fantasy what I can find)

Cardiff City

One of three promoted teams this year and also the bookies favourite to be relegated. Cardiff ended up second in last year’s EFL Championship table. With only 39 goals conceded in 46 games Cardiff had the best defensive record in the league. If they don’t want to end up being relegated in their first season in the top flight they will have to continue in the same way with their watertight backline. For the Manger, Neil Warnock, this was the eighth promotion as manager to the Premier League.

Contrary to the two other promoted teams Cardiff hasn’t spent all of their televisionm oney on new players this summer. Fantasy wise all of Cardiff’s players are priced at £5.5 ore below so there could be some bargains int their squad if you find the right ones. At the moment the most selected player from the Cardiff team is Lee Peltier (£4.0m) with 2% ownership. Another player to look at could be midfielder Joe Ralls (£5.0m). He was Cardiff’s main playmaker last season and managed 7 goals and 4 assists. He’s also the main set piece taker in the team. By Neil Warnock he has been named as their team’s “Ralls Royce”.

Chelsea

This Sarri-ball team could have some good fantasy assets if Mr. smoking Maurizio got the boys playing his way. Last season 5th place (that means thursday evenings also for Chelsea) wasn’t good enough for a title hunting Abramovich and Conte got sacked after two years in charge with one Premier League title and one Fa Cup title. The Sarri-style of football that Napoli played in Serie A and Champions League season has got big praise and has been likened to Guardiola’s football. At least this should mean that new era with happy football at Stamford Bridge will begin. Chelsea will play a 4-3-3 and for sure they will score some goals which could be good in a fantasy perspective. At the moment the starting 11 isn’t really settled so it could be wise to wait and watch their starting eleven against Man city in the community Shield on Sunday August 5.

And...watch out for Hazard (£10.5m). I could see this guy flourishing under his new manager, scoring far beyond 200 points and becoming Premier League player of the season.

New players in: Jorginho (£5.0m).

Crystal Palace

Much of Palace’s hope of a successful season lies in the hands (feet) of their main attacking treath Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m). If they manage to keep him until the end of the transfer market they will have a real fear factor in their team. Though he’s now listed as a forward he could easily be in my team for the start of the season.The start of last season wasn’t the best one for the Eagles. After five games (0 points) and 77 days in charge Frank de Boer got sacked as Crystal Palace manager and the former England boss Roy Hodgson took over. He managed to improve the team and the end to last season was quite impressive. The ended up 11th in the table and for sure they will try to do even better this season. Crystal Palace have favourable fixtures in the first nine Gameweeks and for me that means there are viable options to consider in defence, attack and why not also in midfield? Expect from Zaha I’m also looking at their defenders, for example Tomkins (£4.5m) and Van Anholt (£5.5m).

Players in: Vicente Guaita (£4.5m), Cheikhou Kouyate (£5.0m) Max Meyer (£6.0m)

Make sure to do your research, Managers and Good Luck!