Dropping into a new Sunday evening time slot to leave tomorrow’s Scout Notes to analyse the day’s events, we take time to settle the nerves, clasp some hot milk and leaf through all the best community discussions of the last seven days.
Amongst the highlights on offer, we find the Aaron Ramsey “have” and “have nots” doing battle, whilst a double-dose of falling stars earmarks some overlooked assets that may just help break our template teams. As ever, we also catch up with the latest movement in the community tournaments.
The Hottest Topics
The new time slot for our sift through the community affords us opportunity to squeeze in two of Wakey’s excellent falling stars posts. These are dedicated to those players who offer potential, despite their Fantasy Premier League price being in decline. While his Gameweek 10 selection saw Robin Van Persie deliver, in Gameweek 11 Wakey tipped Southampton’s Rickie Lambert, as well as West Brom’s Stephane Sessegnon who duly delivered.
With a whopping 35 votes at the time of writing Smarty Pants’ regular look at the top 1,000 Fantasy Premier League players is proving one of the most popular regular community posts. In his latest despatch he reveals that more than half of this elite group captained Luis Suarez in Gameweek 11 and eight out of ten own Sergio Aguero. Eye opening stuff.
Being able to spot targets that are genuinely due a goal or a monster points haul is crucial to Fantasy Football management, but which players are likely to offer a solid return on their promise over the coming weeks, asked Simsey. Yohan Cabaye, Leighton Baines and Jordan Henderson were among the names being bandied about.
Those who have failed to jump on the huge points hauls from the likes of Aaron Ramsey are likely to be desperately trying to claw back the deficit. There was plenty of support on offer for that particular minority as Liastro 3109’s called for Ramsey-less community members to raise their hands proudly, with the likes of Declan, Hyndman and Adam Le Fondle amongst those owning up. For some guidance on bridging the gap, TM245 asked what catch-up strategies are likely to be the most effective as Ryan urged caution in backing differentials, favouring the “if you can’t beat them join them” strategy.
Elsewhere, Fantasy Football’s magic moments came under focus. Who can forget the chaos of joy that followed Stephane Sessegnon’s 90th minute goal against Reading during a double Gameweek in the 2012/13 season? While that’s my personal favourite, there were plenty more offered up, including Aguero’s Premier League winning goal against QPR courtesy of Jack(Off) Attack.
With the Christmas fixture congestion looming, Keith was on hand to offer analysis and sew some seeds of doubt in the minds of Sergio Aguero owners, in particular. Looking ahead to the busy Premier League winter schedule he envisages considerable rotation on the horizon, suggesting that City’s Argentine is almost certain to be rested during December as matches arrive thick and fast.
Is the “casual” moniker being thrown far too freely at those who have had the foresight to draft in the likes of Ramsey and Yaya Toure? Our daily hot topic during the week on the issue sparked an interesting debate, with many still adamant that Fantasy managers with such players have benefited more from fortune than their own knowledge and cunning.
Nobody could accuse Evs of being casual, either in attire or in Fantasy Football habits. The original Welsh wonder was on hand this week to canvas the community on just how much time they spend tinkering with their lineups. The feedback ranged from Jordan and his hourly price checks, to the other extreme as the likes of United Nations confessed to Saturday morning captain crunches.
And finally Granville reared his cheeky chops to remind us how far Fantasy Football Scout and its community have come over the last six years. His link back to the site in 2007 reveals that the community was debating among other things the potential of Jason Koumas – even back then Mark loved his midfield differentials.
Community Leagues
Fifa Las Vegas’s tournament reaches Quarter final stage over Gameweeks 11 and 12. Somebody’s Gonna Get Lit Up will take on In Tommy We Trust, while Woeisme will square up to MB10. Epicfail and Champ received a bye into the semi-finals having come first and second in the league.
The leaders in Tommy We Trust’s All Things Leagues following Gameweek 10 are  Evs, Chilin Dude, Athletico Timbo, Crouch Potato, Chazza and Koneheads.  The second round draw of his cup competition is also live. Notable ties are HVT against Supersonic and Triggerlips against Accounting on Chris.
In HeelsOverHeads’s Worst To First – 2 Million + Club, for those with an overall rank below 2,00,000 in the first five game weeks, there are seven managers in the top 500,000. First place is currently occupied by Gokyo Locos, who has an overall rank of 204,508.
In Thomas’ and Peppie&Felix’s Friends Life competition Palace Ash and Peppie&Felix join Thomass, Daniel, Beric, Al Pacino and Koing Luther into the next round.
In Torres Magic’s Last Man Standing competition 42 were knocked out, leaving 618 survivors. To find TM’s other league codes click here.
Meanwhile, The FFS UEFA FA Cup reached the First Round Proper this weekend. Going into Gameweek 11 just 11 teams from the first round had survived all five rounds. The biggest victory of the Fourth Round Qualifying came when aflickering‘s Concord Rangers beat Rukawa‘s Braintree Town by a margin of 98-41. The full fixtures can be found here.
Finally, a reminder that entry to the new Paddy Power Cup is still open and completely free. Click here to enter or check this article for more details.
