Formations and strategies were being hastily redrafted this week as the community sought to deal with a new batch of emerging midfield maestros.
Our hot topic posters took a look at the merits of a five-man midfield and the sacrifices that may be needed to fit in the increasing number of expensive assets in the centre of the park. There’s further advice on the best players to draft in from our community scribes, who have been consulting, fans, bookies, form and fixtures for inspiration.
There’s controversy in our Members Table caused by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s woes in front of goal and we finish off by looking at those who are topping our community leagues, largely thanks to avoiding the big Swede and paying close attention to their midfield .
The Community Articles
Alexis Sanchez’s brace against Sunderland last weekend means thta YMA has a 100% success rate in using a combination of bookies’ odds, form and fixture to predict each Gameweek’s best captain. The results of his latest calculations can be found here.
Bolivian Seaman’s regular trawl through the supporters’ forums has also proved fruitful in recent weeks in gauging the best armband options. This week’s edition sees Bournemouth and Manchester City fans among the most optimistic regarding their sides’ chances of success ahead of Gameweek 11.
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
Midfielders dominated discussion this week as the community looked to find room for premium picks such as Eden Hazard, who is flourishing in Chelsea’s 3-4-3 formation, as well as budget gems like Stoke’s Joe Allen, who earned his third double-digit FPL haul of the season at home to Swansea City on Monday.
Their emergence has prompted some to seriously consider opting for a 3-5-2 strategy, with a cheap, non-playing forward on the bench most weeks. Our discussion on this formation found that some have already jumped on board with a good degrees of success.
As well as Allen, Manchester City’s 5.6 priced midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is another enticing budget prospect that looks a gift to the 3-5-2 setup. The German has scored four goals in the last seven days, including a brace against Barcelona in the Champions League.
Scotty B believes Gundogan could now be nailed on for starts and on current form, may even be “essential”.
Meanwhile, Lakhanee has taken an in depth look at Gundogan and Allen’s underlying statistics for those having deliberating between the pair.
Whatever strategy you adopt, securing the services of Hazard is proving a tricky task, according to our hot topic on the Belgian – it seems that sacrifices are required to shoehorn the schemer into our squads.
Piecing together a robust defence, with so much of our funds pumped into midfield, is also a challenge that many in the community are facing.
Some are considering taking advantage of some tricky fixtures for Tottenham and Arsenal to ditch pricey prospects such as Kyle Walker and Hector Bellerin to free up funds.
But Ktk_interista says that, despite poor short-term fixtures, these premium priced defenders are still worth keeping.
Elsewhere, Southampton’s roster is attracting further interest, with a kind fixture run that includes match-ups against Hull City, Crystal Palace, Stoke and Bournemouth over the next seven. JonJo Shall We puts forward the case for doubling up on Saints’ attacking assets, with Charlie Austin and Nathan Redmond topping his shopping list.
Meanwhile, the fixtures are turning sour for West Ham and Middlesbrough, prompting interest in their players to dip markedly.
However, even though the Hammers face Spurs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool over their next five fixtures, Differentiator warns those who own Dimitri Payet that they turn their back on the West Ham set-piece specialist at their peril.
Up the Boro is less enthusiastic about keeping hold of Middlesbrough players over their tricky run that has them face Manchester City, Chelsea and Leicester next.
Nevertheless, his latest update on his team’s recent showings is full of optimism for the long-term future, particularly their increasingly resilient defence.
Boro certainly have a tricky task maintaining this form at the Etihad this weekend, with Sergio Aguero seemingly back to his best following his twin blast at West Brom.
In our Rough with the Smooth round up, we discovered that his 16-point haul proved difficult to stomach for those who had ushered him out following his three successive blanks.
On Halloween, we took the opportunity to find out some of your other horror stories from the season so far.
But not all those who ditched Sergio Aguero were left desolate.
Barilete Cosmico has decided to ignore the expensive City striker as part of a cunning plan that involves spreading his 13.1m price tag across his team. So far, it is paying off, with new recruits Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard also contributing double-digit scores to his Gameweek 10 tally.
The Members Tables
For those looking for a greater insight into Manchester City’s midfield options, Papilo has created this table.
My goals imminent table went under the knife this week to take into account Ibrahimovic’s failure to convert any of the four big chances over the last four Gameweeks. As an experiment this week, I’ve added a ‘miss four big chances and you’re out’ rule to see if fluffing so many good opportunities is a permanent worry or temporary blip. JCW1989 has cheekily created this table in response to my new rule.
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
In TorresMagic‘s Last Man Standing competition, Samaael hit the top score in Gameweek 10 with 113. There are now 1990 teams qualified after 154 were eliminated when the safety score was set at 61.
Meanwhile, it was a good week for TorresMagic in the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league after his FPL score of 90 saw him rise to second place. The league continues to be lead by Facer, who is up to 229th overall on the back of a 98 point Gameweek 10 haul.
Sahil Sud has regained the lead in Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season league. His score of 94 has taken him to 144th in the overall standings.
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, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
