Some of the Fantasy Football Scout community around the globe were suffering from bleary eyes this week, as they looked to eek out an advantage from the early teamsheet announcements ahead of Gameweek 23. We look back on the barmy events from Tuesday night, along with recent discussions on replacement strikers in the light of Aguero’s hamstring twang, and the chatter on shedding the big-money stoppers and freshening up our defences with some budget buys. As always, we also reserve time to call in on the latest community tournaments.
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Sergio Aguero’s injury during City’s victory at Spurs left many Wildcard teams in tatters as the community hurriedly looked to assess alternative striking options. Christina in his Kunundrum post believes that, with a key Champions League clash with Barcelona and FA Cup tie with Chelsea on the horizon, Aguero looks unlikely to be risked for the forthcoming league outings with Norwich, Sunderland and Stoke. Team-mate, Edin Dzeko was among the options canvassed as a replacement, with Wild Demel, in particular, cheerleading for the Bosnian. Evs, meanwhile, was contemplating a dramatic points hit to bring in Robin van Persie and Jay Rodriguez for his crocked strike pairing of Aguero and Romelu Lukaku.
In the light of this debate, we enquired whether you considered van Persie’s £13.6m price-tag as less of an obstacle with Aguero off the scene.
While attacking options dominated our thinking, we also dedicated some quality time to sprucing up our defences. Intransigent2 asked whether expensive defenders really are worth their hefty price tag. Amongst the arguments presented, he put forward the theory that Laurent Koscielny and Bacary Sagna provided far greater value than their premium-priced colleague, Per Mertesacker.
On a similar theme, Dino argued that the woeful defensive away form of teams offering the high-roller defenders makes it unviable to invest in the likes of John Terry, Vincent Kompany and Per Mertesacker. He points to Arsenal’s record, with just three of their 11 clean sheets away from home, as a prime example of how they can fail us.
Reckoner led the charge to find a cheap replacements at the back. He suggested that the returning West Ham centre back Winston Reid has all the ingredients to warrant our attention. West Ham’s kind run of fixtures has to be a factor. The appropriately named Guy Demel’s Shaved Head offered a nuts and bolts guide to West Ham’s key assets. Reid also tops his shopping list, as does the midfield pair of Mark Noble and Kevin Nolan. Given the latter’s returns on Saturday, we should perhaps pay attention.
Gameweek 23’s deadline was unique in that we had a view on half the teamsheets. This presented some of our overseas community members with the tough task of having to stay awake or set the alarm for the 6:45pm GMT team sheet announcements. We surveyed those looking to hit the caffeine, with Torres Magic setting his alarm for 5:45am at his Sydney, Australia, home. Meanwhile, it was a late night for India-based Siva Mohan, as the teamsheets emerged at 12:15am his time.
The Community Tournaments
OliDooley was top following Gameweek 23 in In Torres Magic’s Last Man Standing league, with 20 managers knocked out and 206 now remaining. Triggerlips and Cheeseoid are in the lead in the “Millionaire Club”, where currently 160 live to fight on. Qubit (The Irregular) leads the “After Xmas League” and Unbelievable Tek-kers leads the seeding (49th overall) for both “FPL Open” and “Elite 64”, with Koneheads in hot pursuit. For more details about Torres Magic’s leagues click here.
Going into Gameweek 24, that chap Jonty managed the triple whammy of securing top spot in the FFS “Old Farts Club league”, the FFS Moderators and Contributors league and one of In Tommy We Trust’s All Things FPL Leagues. Other league leaders in Tommy’s competition are Evs, Bootsy, Billy Ketsu, Jambo16 and Koneheads.
Meanwhile, DonTheSpecial One continued to lead the “Puffinboy Memorial Cup”, named after one of this website’s first and much-missed community posters.
In the Iron Man competition, for those taking part in multiple games, there has been little change, I’ve clung to the lead in the Fantasy Premier League part of the competition, while Gigging Order and In Like Flynn continue to top the competition’s Sky Sports and Metro leagues respectively.
In HeelsOverHead’s Worst To First – 2 Million + Club, for teams with an overall rank below 2,000,000 in the first five game weeks, Teltzham Hotspurs continued in first place going into Gameweek 24 with an incredible rank of 12,195. Five teams are now in the top 100,000 places.
The FFS UEFA group are back with a new competition for the second half of the season, featuring the top managers from their European leagues, which ran during the first half of the season. Their Champions League-style tournament gets under way this weekend and features their FA Cup winner Ryan and last season’s Champions League victor MJ6987.
Also, a reminder that another popular competition organiser, The Long and Winding Road, begin their epic 128 player FA Cup (of Tea) in Gameweek 25. Among key clashes will be Doosra against Giggs Boson and Kings of Lyon versus The Tinkerman. The full fixture list can be found here.
