The Community Round Up

The impending blank fixtures continue to dominate the community’s thoughts as we begin to consider ditching some underperforming high profile names, to draft in some exciting differentials. Our community articles take a look at some of the best low-owned prospects, while our hot topic posters focus on the changing Premier League calendar and one of this season’s most expensive flops.

Elsewhere, our Members tables take a look at the blue half of Merseyside, while our community league round-up looks at those who are all set with their season ticker to ensure that they retain their place at the top.

The Community Articles

Differential Jack has been taking a look at three low-owned players to help those stuck in the mini-league doldrums to climb up the ranks. One of his trio picked up attacking points just days after this was published earlier in the week.

The Hall of Fame top five also have differentials on their mind in a bid to retain their label as Fantasy Football Scout’s best ever FPL managers, according to TopMarx‘s latest article on this elite group of veterans.

Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

The Hottest Topics

Impending blank fixtures, due to domestic cup commitments, present experienced Fantasy managers with a gilt-edged opportunity to exploit hours of planning into a boost in rank.

But, according to Applebonkers, they can also prove frustrating, denying those who study the fixtures from investing in more interesting players who suffer falling stock as a result of their limited pitch-time.

The FA Cup’s impact on the Premier League calendar was also examined at in our hot topic which assessed the competition’s declining reputation, with many teams fielding second-string line-ups. Various solutions were raised, including Bakayoko’s call to hand a Champions League place to the eventual winner.

Manchester City are among those teams missing Gameweek 26, with their opponents Manchester United involved in the EFL Cup Final that weekend.

This further damages the appeal of City striker Sergio Aguero, whose season has been ravaged by suspension, injury and rotation. Jogasemmedo canvassed the Argentine’s long suffering owners to see if they are opting to stick with him, or decide to call time on the striker.

This was followed by Pirlo Pen lamenting the demise of Aguero as a Fantasy legend: an asset that has scored us more than 20 goals in three of his previous five Premier League campaigns.

There were other high-profile Gameweek 23 flops receiving community bashings in this week’s Rough with the Smooth, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Olivier Giroud following their midweek failings.

In the week that Frank Lampard announced his retirement, it is only fitting that Lawro asked for you to list your all-time favourite players. The former Chelsea legend and Fantasy Football stalwart scored an incredible 177 goals and amassed 102 assists in 609 Premier League appearances.

The Members Tables

With a guaranteed game in Gameweek 28 and strong fixtures for the rest of the month, my table on the best Everton assets may come in useful over the coming Gameweeks.

If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.

The Community Tournaments

In Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league, Raul Seleccion continues at the top, while Ogie Nolan retains the lead in his January to May league, as well as the FFScout Members league.

The leader of the FFScout main league, Arutla Jatin, is still in second place in the overall rankings and managed to reduce leader Knut Hebaek’s lead to 47 points in Gameweek 23. Arutla, unlike Knut, has his bench boost and triple captaincy chips intact.

FFS Moderators and Contributors league leader TorresMagic dropped by tell us that the safety score in his Last Man Standing contest in Gameweek 23 was 27. This week  77 players departed to leave 622.

There’s no change at the top of my Millionaires Club, where Gilles Wanlin continues to dominate proceedings. He is now on the edge of the top 50,000, after qualifying for this competition with a Gameweek 12 rank above the million mark.

This weekend sees the exciting climax to the Fantasy Chili Bowl group tournament. Jarvish was on hand this week to profile the two finalists.

Finally, Hutch_James reminds those keen to take part in the Fantasy Six Nations competition to confirm their squads and line ups ahead of tomorrow’s kick-offs.

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round Ups, please email me a brief summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.