Sky Sports Focus – Gameweek 31

It’s time for our Sky Sports Focus article this Friday afternoon. As always, we take a look back at the previous action before preparing you for the incoming Gameweek by bringing you the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, bonus point beneficiaries, the transfer trends and our Watchlist before casting an eye over the Scout team and our future plans.

Double Gameweek 30 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).

Two goalkeepers, a couple of defenders, 11 midfielders and three forwards grabbed the awards last week. Eden Hazard was the only player with over 10% ownership (18.1%) to pick up the gong, whilst a special mention to Michail Antonio for being the only player to earn the accolade twice. Our former Watchlist target continues to offer great value at just 5.5m.

Gameweek 30 Bonus Points

Amazingly only one goalkeeper picked up bonus over the double. Former Sky Fantasy cult hero Lukasz Fabianski was the man in question – he managed to rack up a total of 16 saves, ten more than the next best keeper. Petr Cech is the game’s leading keeper with 16.

In defence, 13 players grabbed bonus, nine for tackles and four for passes completed. Gabriel Paulista was the only player to pick up bonus twice after racking up an impressive 148 passes, 43 more than the next best effort from Cesar Azpilicueta. Full-back Erik Pieters leads the way for defenders with 22 bonus points.

In midfield there were 24 beneficiaries in total: 18 for tackling and eight for passes. Two players managed to earn six bonus points, with Villa’s Idrissa Gueye the slight surprise inclusion alongside the predictable Cesc Fabregas. The Spaniard is cleaning up every week in this department with 52 points overall from passing and tackling – that’s the equivalent of ten goals.

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

As see from both sets of numbers, Fantasy managers are starting to reshuffle their options up front. Four of the top five most transferred in players are strikers, while four of the top five most transferred out also ply their trade up top – indeed, both Sergio Aguero and Romelu Lukaku appear in both tables.

West Ham’s Dimitri Payet continues to prove a popular option – thus leaving team-mate Antonio as a very favourable differential – whilst United’s Chris Smalling was sent packing from many sides due to injury concerns.

Top Transfers In

The average amount of transfers remaining amongst the top 10 Sky managers is just 3.5, whilst the top 100 average is 5.49, the top 1,000 is 6.13 and the top 5,000 is 6.78.

Top Five Captains Picked

Watchlist

Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership that I think could be good options in the coming weeks to help you climb the rankings. These will be looked at in three specific price brackets to cater for our available budget. These names evolve with fixtures and form and offer Fantasy managers a nudge in hopefully the right direction.

My Team

Cech
Cathcart Dawson Dier
Alli Fabregas Mahrez Payet
Kane Vardy Sanchez©

ITB: 2.9m
Transfers remaining: 10/40
Last week’s points: 74
Overall points: 1595
Rank: 1,471

Notes
The fairly poor returns continue for my team with a lowly 74 points this week. Despite that score, I continue to steadily climb the rankings as those above me presumably struggle with a lack of transfers to fix their partially broken teams.

Last week I again messed up by forgetting to change my captain on Thursday night and therefore went into the Gameweek with the armband on Sergio Aguero, who had no game in the first round of fixtures. Due to this my hand was forced a little and I brought in Jamie Vardy for Aguero in order to have three skippers. This move hardly pulled up trees but I did manage to bank two captain assists out of Vardy and Alexis Sanchez as a result.

Moving forward, my Arsenal assets continue to cause me most grief. I subbed out Heurelho Gomes a few weeks back and brought in Petr Cech and since that point Gomes has continued to pick up the odd clean sheet and MoTM award, whereas Cech is now injured for up to four weeks. Sanchez, meanwhile, is offering little to justify his 9.7m price tag.

The obvious move for me now is to bring back in Aguero for Sanchez in order to have him as captain, as detailed below. After bringing in Aguero again I’ll likely hold off any other transfers until around Gameweek 34.

Captain Plan
Despite Man City being so inconsistent, the prospect of a home tie against relegation fodder Aston Villa is too big an opportunity to turn away from Sergio Aguero, who I’m sure will be most active managers’ skipper this week.

For Sunday’s fixtures, I won’t have a captain due to not owning any notable players from the four teams that feature. Instead I’ll go into Gameweek 32 with Aguero still firmly gripping onto the armband.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

Once again, we’re running our own Fantasy Football Scout League this season and are sitting in first place in the rankings at present. With a £1000 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 new host Max Rushden and Paul Merson at 18:30 SkySports 1 HD where they will be discussing the upcoming week’s Fantasy Football, asking former Premier League managers Garry Monk and Harry Redknapp for their #One2Eleven.