Sky Sports Focus – Gameweek 4

Time for our weekly Sky Sports Focus article, where we take a look back at the most recent action before preparing you for the incoming Gameweek.

We’ll examine the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, the bonus point beneficiaries and transfer trends before moving on to the Scout team and our future plans.

Gameweek 3 Man of the Match Awards

These were the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters and earned an extra five points as a result.

One goalkeeper, two defenders, five midfielders and two forwards picked up the awards this week, a return to the common spread from seasons past.

Patience with Gabriel Jesus finally paid off after a disappointing first couple of games. Fielded as a lone forward by Pep Guardiola, he looks a different beast and surely a strong candidate for our post-overhaul teams if that continues.

Our pre-overhaul picks Matt Ritchie and Tommy Smith finally came good right at the death. To be fair, Smith had already done very well, but his owners would have felt hard done by him having been subbed early in Gameweek 1, meaning he missed out on a clean sheet. At least he rectified that here.

Mo Salah was another of our pre-overhaul picks, due to his incredibly low pricing. He’s now the highest scoring player in the game, with 36 points, after earning his second MoTM in three weeks.

Gameweek 3 Bonus Points

Let’s take a look at any player to earn three points or more in bonus.

Some familiar centre-midfielders here from previous weeks, as you would expect, but perhaps the most interesting inclusion is full-back Alberto Moreno. Five points worth of bonus and a price coming in at just 7.2m does make him very appealing. But his likely rotation with Andrew Robertson takes some of the shine off, although he’s certainly one to monitor.

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

The Transfer Trends

For this week we are looking at the most transferred-in, and out, options going on behind the scenes while the overhaul is in play.

Top Transfers Out

Top Transfers In

Top Five Captains Picked

My Team

Forster
Naughton S Ward Suttner
Matic Pogba Knockaert Salah
Lukaku Kane Abraham

ITB: 3.4
Transfers remaining: 39/40
Last week’s points: 67
Overall points: 228
Rank: 13,046

Notes

It feels like pre-season again – a whole new team.

Armed with three weeks worth of information, it’s certainly helped me make some decisions. Ad yet I feel like I just need to know more.

Jack Stephens (6.5) and Ahmed Hegazi (6.2) are giving me sleepless nights – who would have thought? I wasn’t aware of either player six months ago.

A word of warning – the team above is not set in stone, there is still time to panic. Nailed-on, though, are the big two up front because I simply can’t look past them, and neither can 40%+ of Sky Sports managers.

Safety in numbers has never been my style, but joining them will be the heavily-owned Mo Salah and Paul Pogba.

Salah’s price makes him irresistible in my opinion and, barring injury, I see him as a mainstay.

Pogba also has the Sky Sports world at his feet, given he’s the only player who regularly returns bonus while also looking like he has attacking points in him. I’m happy to change him if that’s not the case, with Sadio Mane (11.0) and Philippe Coutinho (11.3) waiting in the wings should he fail to produce.

Nemajna Matic is my bonus player of choice, given his low price, while Anthony Knockaert is simply there for captain cover.

Speaking of which, my plan this season is to try and rotate my captains around one position if I can.

Tammy Abraham is in for Sunday’s game and will become Javier Hernandez or Michael Antonio for Monday. With the 3.4m in the kitty, I can use that position to bring in any heavy hitter up to 12m and therefore hopefully have one of the best attacking options as my captain on most match days.

The armband has a huge influence in Sky and I want to give myself the best chance where I can with the precious C.

With a second overhaul in February, I’m less worried about burning transfers right now and will not hesitate to use quite a few in the coming weeks.

In goal I have gone for Fraser Forster. I feel the return of Virgil van Dijk will strengthen an already pretty solid looking unit and, as mentioned above, I just can’t be sure on Jack Stephens for cover right now.

Also heavily considered were Jordan Pickford 6.7 and the dirt cheap Jonas Lossl 5.7. The latter could come back to haunt me, seeing as he has been sensational so far, but I just can’t see the honeymoon period lasting for Huddersfield.

Moving on to the defence, I feel Markus Suttner is an obvious selection.

The tried and tested method of cheap at the back has served me well in the past, but pinching pennies often carries with it rotation risks. Brighton’s left-back looks to be immune from that, so is a welcome solution.

Kyle Naughton is in due to Swansea’s good upcoming run and a possible wing-back role. In truth, I probably prefer Alfie Mawson (7.3) for goals and MoTM potential, but can’t quite justify the extra 0.6 outlay.

I do think Phil Jones (7.5) and Harry Maguire (7.4), along with Mawson, offer a nice three around that price, and may upgrade at some point.

My last defender is the one I’m least sure about and the one that’s changed the most throughout the two weeks.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah (5.7), Kiko Femenia (5.7), Christopher Schindler (6.0) and Ahemd Hegazi (6.2) have all had periods warming that spot, but right now I’m on the extremely dull pick of Stephen Ward (6.2).

I’m not sure that will last, so please let me know in the comments who you think will be a decent pick at the back – I could do with all the help I can get!

See you on the other side, folks…

Captain Plan

Sat 9th – Kane (eve)
Sun 10th – Abraham (NEW)
Mon 11th – Hernandez (HUD)

Weekly Articles and Podcast

As well as the weekly Focus article, I’ll be talking through the week’s action and upcoming plans with FFS posters Buffrey and Lewis on our regular podcast, this week it’s overhaul chat, of course. The latest episode can be found here.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

We’ve already set up our Fantasy Football Scout League and, after winning the League of Leagues for each of the last four seasons, we’re looking to defend our crown in 2017/18.

Get your teams in – the name is FFScout and the pin number to join is 8300422.