The Scout Squad – Gameweek 5

We head into the early hours by looking ahead to Gameweek 5, revealing our initial Scout Picks thinking.

This article has been revamped for 2016/17 to offer you a greater insight into the decision making process behind each Friday’s selection and the scuffles that go on to get there.

Each midweek Mark, Paul and myself will list the 18 players we think have the best chance of success across the four positions, listing them in rank order.

This article will then highlight some of the likely discussions and disagreements that will take place behind the scenes, as the Scouts look to back their players for the final Scout Picks, as well as our Spot the Differential article.

Finally, we will also reveal the Champion selected by our lottery to represent the community and be in with a chance of winning a £100 Amazon voucher.

Goalkeepers

Across our total of nine goalkeeper spaces, just four names dominate, indicating there should be little need to resort to fisticuffs and/or harsh language for our selection here.

All three of us are backing 11.8% owned Kasper Schmeichel (5.0) to deliver a clean sheet, which is hardly surprising given that Leicester host a Burnley side that has the lowest shot tally in the league.

Steve Mandanda is another popular selection.

Backed by Paul and Mark, they believe the Crystal Palace stopper is another strong bet for a clean sheet when he travels to a Stoke outfit that has just two goals this term, the joint lowest along with West Brom. Mandanda’s budget price of 4.4 may well earn him the nod.

Meanwhile, Paul and I also like the look of Everton’s Maarten Stekelenburg (5.0), at home to a Middlesbrough side in the bottom four in terms of goal attempts.

Defenders

Similar thinking surrounding shot-shy opposition has also driven our defender selection.

Leighton Baines (5.5) gets a vote from all three of us against Middlesbrough, on the back of a two clean sheets, an assist and two bonus points in the last two matches.

The 10% owned left back’s dominance of the Fantasy Premier League’s bonus point system in Gameweek 4’s victory away to Sunderland is particularly eye catching. This was achieved through high BPS scores for tackling, passing and creating chances.

Scott Dann (5.5) against a sorry Stoke City also appeals to Mark and I, particularly as the Palace centre back has a keen eye for goal at set pieces; no side has conceded more goal attempts in the box than the Potters.

With two assists this season, Spurs’ Kyle Walker (5.7) is another to earn a unanimous vote.

His ability to set up chances will be needed – a clean sheet against Sunderland will be at risk should the Black Cats’ away day specialist Jermain Defoe don his shooting boots.

Only Harry Kane and Riyad Mahrez scored more goals on the road than the veteran striker last season. It is worth noting that, with 114,646 new owners, Walker is the most popular defensive target so far heading into Friday’s 7pm deadline.

An area of contention could centre around two 5.0 defenders who are yet to pick up a clean sheet.

Paul and Mark are convinced that Manchester City’s John Stones can at last deliver a shut-out for the patient 30.8% of FPL managers that own him, at home to Bournemouth.

I’ve turned to my trusted combination of underlying statistics and the fixture list for my moneyball selection, Southampton’s Cedric Soares.

The right-back is currently joint top in terms of shots on target among defenders and second only to Manchester United’s 13.2% owned Antonio Valencia (5.6), in terms of crosses among defenders.

Midfielders

Manchester looks to be the stage of another battle in this week’s selection, when the three of us attempt to choose a City midfielder for the mouth watering visit of Bournemouth, a team that, along with Swansea, has conceded the most big chances this season.

Mark is likely to arm himself with memories of Raheem Sterling (8.3)’s 16-point FPL haul in his last league home game for City. Whilst Paul and I will be unleashing a raft of statistical torpedoes in support of Kevin De Bruyne (10.5), who outclasses Sterling more than three to one in terms of chance creation and has racked up almost double the number of goal attempts.

“I hear the noise of support for De Bruyne and I don’t dispute his talent as a Fantasy option but Sterling is all about value and potential. Can he step up to keep pace with a 10.5 option? I’m uncertain. But, in a season where every 0.1 counts, Sterling has to get the nod in his current form. Leroy Sane is a threat from the bench but, if anything, that might drive Sterling to great things rather than limit his output.” – Mark

Elsewhere among our picks, Paul and I favour attacking returns from the Spurs midfield for Sunderland’s visit.

Both Paul’s choice of the 7% owned Dele Alli (8.3) and my pick of Christian Eriksen (8.4), who is in 7.9% of teams, have merit. The England man tops Spurs’ shots in the box table, while the Dane is the London side’s chief creator.

Mark will be trying to persuade us to instead opt for Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez (9.4). Although with no attacking returns since Gameweek 1, the 20.2% owned midfielder could be on his final warning in terms of Scout Picks selection should he blank against Burnley.

Mark’s second midfield curveball is Dusan Tadic (7.3), another player that has failed to turn strong pre-season form into Fantasy returns. This may be his final appearance for a while in the Scout Squad should he blank in this weekend’s favourable home tie against Swansea. Already Tadic’s ownership has slumped to just 3%.

Paul believes Liverpool are more than capable of scoring away to Chelsea on Friday, with Roberto Firmino’s (8.4) impressive brace at home to Leicester pushing his cause for selection.

“Liverpool stuck four past Arsenal and Leicester in the first four and could be set to face David Luiz on Friday night. Jurgen Klopp’s side won 3-1 at the Bridge last year and Firmino is in the form to punish them again.” – Paul

Yannick Bolasie is another to impress in recent Gameweeks and, at just 6.0, looks a great enabler as well as a source of points in this week’s Scout Picks. Over the last two Gameweeks, no other Everton player has fired in more crosses or created more chances than the 11% owned former Palace winger.

“Bolasie is intriguing and might just make the task of waving goodbye to Lukaku that much easier. If he can hint that he can improve on his Palace output, then Bolasie can offer us cover of a much improved Everton attack and sweeten the pill of the striker’s departure” – Mark

Forwards

Grapple fans will be disappointed with the lack of disagreement regarding our forward selection.

With the form strikers all treated to a good fixture, we have a wealth of options to choose from. My selection of Christian Benteke (7.5) and Paul’s pick of Diego Costa (9.9) are the only major points of difference.

The rank order of our choices is therefore set to come into play, with Romelu Lukaku (9.1) a likely shoo-in after topping Mark’s list and coming second in Paul and my choices. The Everton striker’s hat-trick on Monday has already attracted 93,144 new FPL owners.

FPL’s most popular player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (11.9), looks another certainty.

The Manchester United forward features in all of our top three choices and sits in 63.3% of teams. With four goals and six FPL bonus points this season, he looks immovable in our Picks for the time being.

The search for value may drive our third selection, with Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho (7.0) on hand should funds get tight. The 3.5% owned striker, who looks set to start while Sergio Aguero serves out his three match suspension, features in all five of our picks with Paul his biggest fan.

“For City, I feel the De Bruyne linked up particularly well with Iheanacho in the Manchester derby and the youngster looks set for another start until Sergio Aguero returns next week.” – Paul

My top choice, Harry Kane (10.9) looks set to benefit from the return of Mousa Dembele from suspension and fetched his first goal of the season away to Stoke last weekend. He is another with universal support, who could get the nod if we manage to stretch our 83 million budget accordingly.

Community Champion

Representing the Community against the Scout Picks in Gameweek 5 will be TokyoRisingSun. This is his second season after finishing 2015/16 in 850,016^th place overall.

Last week’s champion Grand Thibauto became the first to beat us this season, winning 53 to 52.

The community champion who has the best lead over the Scouts during 2016/17 will win a £100 Amazon voucher (currently we can only offer Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com vouchers).