The holy grail of a speedy rankings boost continues to evade the community this week. Our hot topic posters mull over the strategies for success as the campaign enters its final third, while our community writers look ahead to this weekend’s fixtures and assess how Leicester’s strong form can help kickstart a revival. The Foxes’ sensational season continues to also be a hot source of statistical debate, while our Members tables offer further number-based musings, this week on transfer targets, top crossers, Southampton defenders and West Ham’s best players. We also look back at who is leading our community tournaments in their quest for success in this trickiest of seasons.
The Community Articles
Leicester’s supporters are in fine fettle, reckons Bolivian Seaman in his analysis of what the fans are saying ahead of the forthcoming Premier League fixtures. According to The Sarjeant’s look ahead to Gameweek 26 based on team form, the Foxes have good reason to be licking their lips at the prospect of victory in their top of the table clash with Arsenal this weekend.
Although Jamie Vardy looks set to prove a lucrative Fantasy asset in the coming weeks due to Leicester’s fine form and fixtures, early investment cost many of the Fantasy Premier League veterans, being tracked by Kavali, dearly in Gameweek 25. His latest update on their progress looks back at the last two Gameweeks and the range of reasons why this band of Fantasy stalwarts have slipped down the rankings.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
The Hottest Topics
A key topic on this week’s Scoutcast was how, with just 13 Gameweeks to go, many of the community can hastily climb the rankings. We followed this up with this hot topic asking for the community’s top strategies.
One path some are considering is to opt for differential strikers, with Christina amongst those wondering whether Chelsea’s Diego Costa could be the best man for the job.
Being brave with the armband was another idea mooted for an instant rankings boost and there were plenty of Mesut Ozil and Roberto Firmino captainers in our Rough with the Smooth round up of your Gameweek 25 moves who can testify to this strategy’s success.
Correctly navigating the impending blank fixtures is another key way to rise up the rankings. Balders was on hand to show the latest odds on teams missing out in Gameweek 30, when FA Cup fixture congestion strikes.
Elsewhere, DGWjegy looked back at why this season has been so tough for many of the community, while RustyBZ carried on the hand wringing by asking for the community to name their biggest burdens this season, with Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno and Southampton’s Sadio Mane amongst the ball and chains mentioned.
Leicester’ incredible season so far has remained a popular source of debate this week. Doosra’s assertion that Leicester’s poor passing will cost them the Premier League title has emerged as one of the week’s most commented on hot topics, amassing around 250 comments as the community wrangled over which statistics to trust when it comes to this season’s surprise package.
Doosra was back again later in the week to provoke further debate in his look at Leicester’s main creators, while Team Cruel cooled things down with a look at some other long shots to rival Leicester’s 5000/1 odds of winning the Premier League at the start of the season.
The Leicester love-in continued with Balders wondering whether Riyad Mahrez could become one of Fantasy football’s all time greats to rival the likes of Christiano Ronaldo and Frank Lampard.
Meanwhile, there is concern that West Ham’s midfielder Dimitri Payet may never reach those heights, after blanking in the last four Gameweeks. Can he emerge once again as a key FPL asset or is Payet just a pretty passer, pondered Trigg.
Finally, the search is on for a new quote at the bottom of our home page that best sums up either being a Fantasy manager or the troubles 2015/16 has presented.
The Members Tables
For a closer look at how Payet compares with his team-mates, Doosra has created this table entitled Happy Hammers.
Meanwhile, Andy85wsm has been examining the attacking prowess of Southampton’s in-form defenders and 57853‘s latest table reveals who the best crossers are.
If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.
The Community Tournaments
Cheeseoid’s latest update on the Fiffsa 5-a-side tournament looks back on the final group stage matches and ahead to the last 16 matches.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 49 in Gameweek 25, which saw 52 players depart and 460 remain.
It was all change at the top of Red Lightning’s Top 10K Any Season league with Ralf Buckenmaier regaining the lead. Meanwhile in another of Red Lightning’s leagues Nial Akata continues to lead the January to May competition.
Evs has narrowed the gap near the summit of the FFScout moderators and contributors league. He is now just 11 points away from Andy, who has led the league for much of the season.
The Puffinboy Memorial Cup, which is dedicated to one of this site’s first posters, has a new leader. Keith Simpson is now first, with Conor Quinlan and Back on the Horse in hot pursuit in second and third.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round Ups please email me a brief summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spread sheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
