Events in Gameweek 33 conspired to make a laughing stock of many of the community’s best-laid plans. With popular captaincy selection Romelu Lukaku failing to score and rotation hitting the Manchester City and Liverpool team sheets hard, a good Gameweek 34 score has become a necessity for many. Our community writers reveal how even the most experienced managers are struggling to get to grips with the new Fantasy Premier League chips, while our hot topic posters offer a raft of sensible advice to ensure the next set of fixtures is one to enjoy. Our Members tables look at the current best and worst attacking sides, while in our community leagues those who kept faith in single Gameweek players have plenty to chuckle about.
The Community Articles
The FPL veterans certainly had a double Gameweek 33 to forget, according to Kavali’s look at their Wildcard moves. With more double fixtures ahead in Gameweek 34, however, they could once again be on the march again up the rankings.
To give the community some insight into the best players to draft in and stick with, Bolivian Seaman dropped by to deliver his latest assessment of what the fans are saying.
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
Before preparing for the double Gameweek there was still plenty of handwringing to be done as the community looked back on the missed opportunities of Gameweek 33.
As well as offering a Wildcard time machine, so that those who used this chip could go back to the past to rectify their mistakes, we also asked what lessons we’ve learned so far about the best way to combine Wildcards with other chips.
There was further contemplation on how we can use the experience of the second Wildcard to best survive the run in, as well as some fascinating research by Balders into the new template for the FFScout Hall of Fame’s top managers.
Those that have used their wildcard will certainly be hoping it brings more joy in Gameweek 34’s bumper schedule. Across the 15 matches, Irish Maverick offered up his top three captaincy options, while Giggs Boson also discussed those vying for the armband. Elsewhere, Jazz, believes Chris Smalling may be the best player to trust with the captaincy, particularly as goal shy Aston Villa and Crystal Palace are Old Trafford’s visitors over the double Gameweek.
Chip strategy also came under the spotlight, with mounting injuries making a bench boost seem less appealing this Gameweek.
Meanwhile, for those looking to rise up the rankings in Sky Fantasy Football, our resident expert D1sable has unearthed some interesting ownership statistics among the top 1,000 managers. This could prove vital for those on the look out for differentials.
The Members Tables
As mentioned on this week’s Scoutcast, I have constructed a table of the best and worst attacking sides. This is particularly handy for showing the teams that have upped their game in front of goal recently.
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.
In addition, with blanks and double Gameweeks now upon us, it is wise to sort by matches – rather than Gameweeks – to give a fairer gauge of form.
The Community Tournaments
Kings of Lyon’s Going Out With a Bang league was set up in Gamweek 32 to gather data on how well our end of season chips perform, as well as give the community something to play for during the run-in. With a Gameweek 33 score of 93, Enter Shaqiri is at the summit of this 287-strong league. He still has his second wildcard, triple captaincy and bench boost still to play and was the only top 10 player not to use at least one chip in Gameweek 33.
Seven of the “Going out with a Bang” top ten triple-captained Lukaku, one wildcarded and one, Hala Madrid, used a bench boost, which proved a disappointment. While Robles earned Hala Madrid 14 points, his three subs could only muster two points between them.
Among the top 50 of the “Going Out with a Bang” league, the average points tally was 79.5, with 96% captaining Lukaku, 28% transferring out the free-scoring Jamie Vardy, 38% transferring in the non-playing Philippe Coutinho and 4% captaining Yannick Bolasie.
The Gameweek 36 semi-finals of Jarvish’s Frequent Posters Cup will see Ayew Serious face Sepp Blattered, while Feed Feo takes on Spectrum.
Andy has reclaimed top spot from Evs in the FFScout moderators and contributors league. In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition, just 50 managers remain after the Gameweek 33 safety score was set at 62.
Elsewhere, in Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season league James Ollerenshaw continues to lead. While his triple captaincy of Romelu Lukaku failed, he scored an impressive 79 points thanks to double clean sheet points from Wayne Hennessey and Scott Dann. He is now up to 58th in the overall standings. Nial Akata still leads Red Lightning’s January to May League.
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.
