Injuries have ripped apart the “template” teams in the last week or so, creating a variety of discussions in the community, which chew over potential replacements. With the January wildcard beckoning, our focus on the week’s hot topics revisit chat on the options in midfield and goalkeeper rotation pairings. In addition, a late entry from today’s activity took a wry look at the some of the characters that make up the Fantasy Football Scout community. As usual, we round things off with a check on the latest from our community leagues, congratulating an FA Cup winner along the way.

The Hottest Topics

Aaron Ramsey’s injury at Upton Park looks to have put the Welsh wonder out of the picture, causing much consternation and deliberation amongst his army of owners. From the community reaction it’s clear that some will gamble on clinging on to avoid the cash loss, but for others the setback meant he was shown the door. Among those on hand to offer advice on a sensible Ramsey exit strategy was @ocprodigy with the in-form Theo Walcott and Yohan Cabaye cited as ready-made replacments.

Even before Ramsey’s injury, the community was considering a dramatic ditching of his services. Earlier in the week TW asked whether now was the best time for Fantasy managers to cash in on Ramsey’s price rise and look elsewhere.

Those considering a downgrade to liberate funds could find some timely advice via a consideration of budget midfield options with Floydy_Floyd tipping Liverpool starlet Raheem Sterling to prosper in 2014. PTC meanwhile has his eye on the assist potential of Barry Bannan as the Pulis-inspired Palace revival goes through the gears.

It wasn’t just gaps in midfield that were opening up over Christmas. Romelu Lukaku may have finally broken out of his dry spell with the winner over Southampton today but, having gone five starts without a goal before today’s fixture, there was plenty of fidgeting amongst his owners in the community. In the Lukaku debate , Marr pointed to form over fixtures, while SkyCell, perhaps wisely, gave the Belgian the next three outings to prove his worth. Maybe today’s goal has changed the landscape, although almost 100,000 shed his services before yesterday’s deadline.

Elsewhere, Nice to Finally Michu gazed into 2014 to assess the best goalkeeper pairings on offer. His excellent post looks at the best placed pairs over the next ten Gameweeks, with Sunderland’s Vito Mannone and the Gunners Wojciech Szczesny among the standout options on offer.

Finally, JDoyles profiling of some of the FFS community “characters” hoovered up votes and raised smiles aplenty as Gameweek 19 drew to a close. Are you amongst the poster personality types in his breakdown?

The Community Tournaments

FFS UEFA’s FA Cup competition has been one of the community’s largest to date. Finally a winner has emerged with Fantasy Football Scout community moderator Ryan’s Tranmere Rovers beating Fantasy Kid’s Luton Town in a nail-biting conclusion. There was further joy amongst our moderator team, with Evs being crowned champion in FFS UEFA’s Premier League H2H competition.

HeelsOverHead’s Worst to First 2 Million Club, for teams with an overall rank below 2,000,000 in the first five game weeks, now has 19 teams within a rank of one million and seven in the top 250,000. With an overall rank of 70,106 Teltzham Hotspurs is in the lead.