So, after eight rounds, the Fantasy Football Scout Cup II, sponsored by Paddy Power, is at it’s final stage. IMWORTHIT and Jonty will go head-to-head, with the winner taking his place alongside donnellyc in our hall of fame. A £200 prize and a free £25 bet also awaits our champion. A handsome consolation prize of £100 will be the runner-up’s only comfort. To see which direction the money (and the pride) might be heading, here is a little preview to the grand final…
First thing to keep in mind is IMWORTHIT’s superior overall rank. This effectively gives IMWORTHIT a half-point lead before a ball has been kicked.
Now on to the players that have a place in both our finalists’ squads. Somewhat inevitably, it’s quite a lengthy list;
- Heurelho Gomes
- Joe Hart
- Leighton Baines
- Patrice Evra
- Gareth Bale
- Frank Lampard
- Matthew Etherington
- Darren Bent
- Jermaine Defoe
- Carlos Tevez
This leaves an incredibly low tally of five ‘differentials’ that could arguably be reduced to four, given that IMWORTHIT’s Richard Dunne is likely to score the same as Jonty’s James Collins. Furthermore, the final defensive battle sees the unlikely-to-play Abdoulaye Faye pitted against the ruled-out Scott Dann.
In addition to Dann’s absence, Jonty has major injury doubts for two of his final three players, in Jimmy Bullard and Steven Pienaar. Luckily James Milner looks like he could be a key, desirable (see the Scout Squad) differential.
If he takes a safety-first approach, you would have to assume that Jonty will look to transfer out one of the three doubtful squad members. And I think I can safely say Dann will remain sitting on the bench using up as little of Jonty’s precious millions as possible. Without knowing how much money Jonty had, I’d hazard a guess that Nani will come in for Bullard.
Looking at IMWORTHIT’s squad, he has Mikel Arteta, Clint Dempsey and Matthew Taylor, two of which also made the Scout Squad. If I had to guess, I’d say Dempsey will make way for Nani.
It’ll be tight, but I’m inclined to make IMWORTHIT a heavy-ish favourite, but it will come down to transferred in player(s).
Who are you picking? Either way, I’m sure you’ll all join me in wishing our two finalists the best of luck.
Elsewhere, Buggu and Louie will square-up in gameweek 38, with a £50 prize for the winner, so good luck to the both of them also.