Who's hot in the Fantasy Premier League season 2011?

8 days and counting until the new season of Fantasy Premier League is upon us. So it's good time look at the trends people have set while choosing their teams. It is a well known fact that  usually you do need to have players in your team that have a high "Teams selected by %", because they usually do pretty good. Of course you also need some "black horses" to get you ahead of the pack.

But let's start reviewing which players have been extra hot in the Fantasy Premier League transfer market. Ok, starting with goalkeepers we see that the number 1 goalie is Tottenhams Gomes, who's been chosen in over 20% of all barclay's fantasy football teams. With a pricetag of £5.5M he isn't nor the most expensive nor the cheapest goalkeeper but a good buy anyway. Gomes had a nice season 2009/2010 collecting 148 points and hopes are high that he can top that this year. My first pick for a goalkeeper is Birmingham-transfer Foster, who is finally in a team where he get's to open games regulary. This English national team keeper is a true bargain with a £4.5M price which is about rise pretty fast.

There's a tough battle going on for the spot of the number one defender as three players stand at 24%. Dawson, again from Tottenham, Stoke Citys Shawcross and Chelsea's John Terry have been extremely popular with Fantasy Premier League contenders. Cheapest of the bunch is Shawcross, whose £5M price is extremely affordable for a defenceman of this caliber. My underdog tip in the defence category goes to Christopher Samba from Blackburn. Samba scored 4 goals last season and collected 12 bonus points, very good score for a defender. Price £5M, this Blackburn player will surely feature my team.

In the midfield-section, Fantasy Premier League players are not afraid of Frank Lampard's £13M pricetag as he is the player selected by most teams with 31%. Frankie's start in the last premier league season wasn't too flattering, but end of the season he proved he's very cabable of gathering points and ended up with a record breaking 284 points. If he can keep up with that form, no team can succeed without this Chelsea midfielder. A mighty surprise in the top of midfielder list is Birminghams Barry Ferguson, selected by 26% of all fantasy premier league teams. That of course is because of his very decent £4.5M price and impressive 31 bonus points gathered last season.

The most selected forwards list was suppose be the battle of two players. ManU's Rooney and Chelsea's Drogba dominated last season, but Drogba's "will he play or won't he play the first match"-dilemma has left him in "only" 17% of the teams. Wayne Rooney is the most selected player in all fantasy premier league with an astonishing 37 procent. If you are on the other hand looking for a little cheaper option, I would recommed Wolverhamptons Kevin Doyle. Doyle costs mearly £5.5M and with 9 goals scored last season that is truly a bargain price. At the moment of writing Doyle features in only 9% of all fantasy premier league teams.

So who do you think is the biggest surprise in the most selected list?

Player Tips Season 2010/2011 - First Thoughts

With unlimited transfers available before the whistle blows for the first match in English Premier League it's a good time to start tinkering with your Fantasy Premier League team. As always, every contender starts with £100M and his or her imagination when starting to collect player for their respectable teams. We're also again faced with same choices of strategies one can use in Fantasy Premier League.

It's up to you to choose which strategy might be the most advantageous, but when it comes to picking your players, there are always those cornerstone players who you want to build your team upon. First tough choise we face is the goalkeeper.

You want to have one goalkeeper, who you know you can count on to play practically every match. Chances are this goalkeeper will come from the TOP 3 - priced goalies Cech, Reina, Van der Sar. Out of those three my tip would be to go with Van der Sar from ManU. ManU starts the season with 3 relative easy looking matches against Newcastle, Fulham and West Ham. Van der Sar is also a goalkeepers who will start virtually every match.

In the defence my hint for the start of the season 10/11 would be Everton's Leighton Baines. Baines gathered impressive 138 points last season in fantasy soccer and is a great bet this season too. This assist-machine has made 16 assists in the last 2 season of Fantasy Premier League and with Everton's high hopes I think will only improve his perfomance.

Midfield has almost every season been the deciding factor when looking at the winners and losers in FPL. And one player you simple always should have in your team plays in midfield, that is of course Frank Lampard from Chelsea. Last season it took him a while to get in the form, but after that he excelled as the BEST player in English Premier League. His price is £13M but it might as well be £20M and he'd still probably be in half the teams. Except no substitutes...

Strikers. What can I say about them. They have always been my achille's heel in Premier Fantasy League. But there is one forward who will surely be in my FPL team. Manchester City's Carlos Tevez. Tevez also took a while to get his groove on last season, but with 210 points collected, ended up as the 3rd highest pointstack. I predict this season of Fantasy Premier League he will seriously compete for the number 1 spot.