The Community Round Up

Once again the fixture list dominated discussion within the Fantasy Football Scout community, with an array of blanks and a cavalcade of double Gameweeks on the horizon to plan for. Brain cells have been engaged and stretched but, luckily, a cast of community contributors have been on hand to offer opinion and guidance.

Sunday evening finds us revisiting some of the very best community conversations of the past seven days, including a con-flab on the demise of Manchester United as a Fantasy Football force. As usual, we also take this opportunity to catch up with all the ups and downs in the tournaments taking place amongst the community.

The Hottest Topics

Do we hold onto City assets over their double Gameweek blank? It’s been a key discussion this week, with Business Dog raising the issue of retaining Yaya Toure – a subject all the more significant following the Ivorian’s stunning goal at Wembley this afternoon. Wings Fan seemed more than happy to wave goodbye to the top ranking midfielder, while Ajay_kl pointed out that there were likely to be more pressing issues soaking up our transfers – in his case the continuing frustration of Christian Eriksen, no doubt compounded by today’s absence with a back problem.

Marco_atk85 was also having issues with Eriksen and dedicated his hot topic to outlining an exit strategy for the the Dane’s disgruntled owners. Norwich’s Robert Snodgrass and Stoke’s Charlie Adam were discussed as would-be replacements – although, it has to be said, neither have since covered themselves in Gameweek 28 glory. Both Snodgrass and Adam do play in Gameweek 29, however, and have good short-term fixtures. Nozerino in his Adam v Snodgrass Hot Topic, offered further insight on the mid-price pairing.

Believe it or not, some of you appear to have clung to your precious Wildcards and can therefore gleefully flutter them in the direction of the forthcoming blanks and doubles. Granville’s post and discussion offered some key advice to those still with their wildcard on the best time to bring this precious commodity into play.

Elsewhere, The Casual’s post looking at key players from Gameweek 30 proved to be essential reading for managers with or without a Wildcard. He looked at the number of games left for each side as well as their points per game so far to assess the best options on the menu. Meanwhile, only this evening, Nate asked just how many of the “big five” players, you’ll be happy to miss out on ahead of the Gameweek 31 doubles.

While Juan Mata was included in Nate’s list, surprisingly it appears that many of you remain steadfast when it comes to your avoidance of Man United’s assets, this despite their forthcoming double. RoysCallerAnne’s excellent post on the demise of United as a footballing force promoted us to spark a discussion on the Red Devils’ fall from grace as a Fantasy Football asset. Among those to chip in was Zep who points out that Moyes’s coyness with the media in terms of injury news is yet another factor in United’s decline in our affections.

With Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie seemingly off the boil, United fans must be looking on with envy at Liverpool’s in-form “SAS” pairing. Ryan took a look at Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez and wondered why those who owned both continued to hand the armband to the Uruguayan rather than the more prolific Sturridge in recent weeks. Fear of a Suarez explosion was at the heart of it, something that was borne out by yesterday’s haul at St Mary’s. So where does the armband go now? We discussed this in our Hot Topic only this morning.

Finally, with so many in-form players and a new bonus points system that hands out a flood of points, are we looking at potentially the highest scoring Fantasy Premier League season in history? That was the question supplied by Phil_Fox85, as he pondered whether it’s too easy to score heavily this season. Strangely, Mark remained absent from this particular discussion.

The Community Tournaments

The Happy One was the winner of Gameweek 27’s inaugural Scout Picks Challenge. This intriguing game loosely based on our very own Scout Picks has been created by @ocprodigy. More information about the rules and points scoring can be found here.

Ahead of Gameweek 28 the Fantasy Football Scout’s Moderators and Contributors league had a new leader, with Gaz Downright marching to the top by a clear 11 points.

The Iron Man competition for those taking part in multiple games saw no changes at the top with Gigging Order and In Like Flynn continuing to top the competition’s Sky and Metro leagues respectively and Jonty retaining the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) lead.

DonThe Special One, who is third in our Live Hall of Fame following its latest update, continues to lead the PuffinBoy Memorial Cup for veterans of Fantasy Football Scout, which is named after one of our first posters.

The leaders in In Tommy We Trust’s All Things leagues are ENR, Bootsy, Jonty, Billy Ketsu, Jambo17 and Koneheads.

AZ has come up with a new tournament especially for the unfortunate Fantasy managers who didn’t secure a place in one of our Paddy Power cups. There are more details about his competition here.

Gameweek 27 saw the completion of matchday four of FFS UEFA’s Champions League and Europa League competitions. In the Champions League game, Torres Magic, ENR and The Shadow were the only managers who had won all four games so far and secured a spot in the knockout stages. The most one-sided clash of the round saw The Shadow’s VfB Stuttgart beat Just A Hat’s FC Basel by an incredible 101 to 51. FuzzyWarbles, Sporting and Facer were all yet to record a win.

Meanwhile in the Europa League, Ak, Neil and Captain Shirokov have all qualified for the knockout stages. Matt, Potatoace and Eboue Skill School are all without a win and unable to progress. The biggest victory this week was Captain Shirokov’s 85-44 demolition of Pompeyfan’s Real Valladolid.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing League, 23 were knocked out in Gameweek 27, with 115 left. Fresco topped his Millionaire Club and Myo Min Thant leads the seeding for his FPL Open, where entries close at GW29s deadline. More details of his leagues can be found here.