Sky Sports Focus – Gameweek 37

There’s a double Gameweek to prepare for in the Sky Sports game, with plenty of opportunitIES to pick up points and rise in ranking. As always, we assess the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends, the Watchlist and take a look at the Scout team and our future plans.

Gameweek 36 Man of the Match Awards

Listed below are the players that caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters from last weekend’s fixtures achieving the Man of the Match award (worth an additional five points).

Sergio Aguero and Eden Hazard were the two most highly owned players to make a significant impact and they were also the route most took in navigating captains over the weekend. Hazard now has 12 MoTM awards, which is five more than any other player – essential!

Marc Albrighton is also worth a mention as he hits form before a Leicester double fixture – at just 4.9m, he could be cheeky differential.

Gameweek 36 Bonus Points

Three goalkeepers managed to pick up saves bonus this week – Tom Heaton, Tim Krul and Kasper Schmeichel were the top shot stoppers earning an extra two points for their troubles. Overall, QPR’s Robert Green is the busiest keeper in the league having racked up 28 bonus points over the season.

In defence, 11 players grabbed bonus, ten for tackles and two for passes completed. Chris Smalling was the man to pick up both and gains four additional points – Pablo Zabaleta is still leading the way for defenders with 24 bonus points.

In midfield, there were 18 beneficiaries in total: nine for tackling and nine for passes. Box to box midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin was the closest to earning both, missing out by just six completed passes. Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic is the games overall highest bonus earner with 46 extra points to his name.

Wayne Rooney also picked up passing bonus this week as he dropped into the centre of midfield for Louis Van Gaal’s men.

Fantasy Football Scout members can access all information regarding bonus points using player stats and clicking the Sky Sports tab.

The Transfer Trends

Top Transfers Out

Diego Costa continues to be shipped out, with his fitness in question, whilst Neil Taylor serves the final match of his suspension this week. Fraser Forster is out injured for the season, whilst David Silva is expected to recover in time to feature this week. Olivier Giroud’s lack of a fixture last week seems the likeliest reason for his transfers out, though he should be back in action against Chelsea this weekend ahead of a kind run of matches.

Top Transfers In

In-form Sergio Aguero is the top target this week ahead of a home match against Aston Villa. Yannick Bolasie has been drafted in by an additional 6.3%, whilst familiar names Harry Kane, Ryan Bertrand and Eden Hazard make up the top five.

We have some important transfer data to keep an eye on as the season comes to an end. Currently the average amount of transfers remaining in the top 1000 players is 3.396, whilst the top 100 have 3.33 and finally the top 10 just 3.2.

Top Five Captains Picked

With only 8.7% captaining Sergio Aguero for Saturday, significant moves up the leaderboard look possible if the little Argentine can put in another performance. The other four players all feature on Sunday, with perhaps Diego Costa the only likely absentee through injury.

Watchlist

Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with below 6% ownership that I think could be good options for the run-in to climb the rankings. These will be looked at across three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget, with the names evolving due to form and fixtures.

My Team

Fabianski
Lescott Bertrand Dawson
Hazard© Silva Sigurdsson Fabregas Mane
Aguero Kane

ITB: 1.0m
Transfers remaining: 7/40
Last week’s points: 73
Overall points: 1979
Rank: 134

Notes
Thank goodness for double captains. Without Eden Hazard and Sergio Aguero both returning 24 points, I would have had a terrible week, with only Joleon Lescott managing to score any other significant points. I got majorly unlucky with Craig Dawson being subbed on 71 minutes, when you need 75 minutes in Sky for a clean sheet. Despite that, my two captains made sure I earned a respectable 73 points and moved up to 134th overall.

In regards to the week ahead, I’m going to ditch my double WBA defence and look at Kieran Trippier, Aaron Cresswell and Jeffrey Schlupp – I’m still undecided which two I will bring in. I’m also looking at transferring out Cesc Fabregas for a Liverpool midfielder, as I’ll detail below.

Captain Plan
On Saturday, I’m locked into Sergio Aguero for his home tie against Aston Villa – hopefully Villa’s FA Cup exploits will take their eyes off the ball in this one and Aguero can pick up yet more points.

For Sunday, I’ll be taking a bit of a risk by not going with Eden Hazard and instead turning to his team-mate Cesc Fabregas. Hopefully he will be playing in the number ten role and have a point to prove against his old team, though in reality it’s because I want to transfer him out and gain three captains and I don’t want to remove Hazard.

For Tuesday, I’ll have one of Jordan Henderson or Philippe Coutinho as my skipper in order to have three captains. Crucially, this sets me up for the next Gameweek, when Liverpool play QPR on the Saturday.

There is also a Wednesday night match and the option for four captains if you are truly flush with transfers.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and are currently topping the Private League rankings. With a £1,000 prize to the winner, you’d be mad not to get involved. To join, visit Sky Sports Fantasy Football and key in League Name: FFScout, League Code: 8009000.

The Fantasy Football Club

This Friday The Fantasy Football Club show, where you can catch Fenners and Merse at 18:30 SkySports One HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football in their own unique style.