Manchester United’s busy schedule and growing injury list, Middlesbrough’s awful form and Crystal Palace’s tough matches mean that the community’s interest in the trio of double Gameweek 34 sides has been slowly ebbing away this week.
Our hot topic posters are struggling to find good double players to invest in and are considering turning to more reliable single Gameweek stars instead.
Meanwhile, our community scribes have been considering whether mid-table teams are also best avoided if their players focus on holiday brochures rather than remaining matches.
Our Members tables round-up focuses on goalkeepers and the key stats in the Eagles’ camp, while we finish off with a look at those who will be hoping their blend of double and single Gameweek players keeps them on top of our community leagues.
The Community Articles
Without the threat of relegation or the promise of a place among Europe’s elite, mid-table sides can struggle for motivation during the run-in. Kryten has taken a look at how these mediocre teams have fared over the last two seasons to find out if they really are already on their holidays with matches still to play.
Elsewhere, the prospects for double Gameweek players as captaincy options come under scrutiny in YMA’s latest look at what the fixture and form data has to say about the next set of matches. Among those likely to back this article’s top choice are the top five of the Career Hall of Fame, according to TopMarx’s latest look at their strategies.
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
As discussed on this week’s extra long Scoutcast, double Gameweeks can be a source of frustration when teams involved are bogged down by issues around rotation, tough matches and poor form.
As our look at the best defenders and goalkeepers for Gameweek 34 showed, this is particularly the case for Middlesbrough’s rearguard. They have strong fixtures, away to Bournemouth and home to Sunderland, but are in dire form and deep in the relegation mire
There are also reservations surrounding investment in Manchester United’s midfielders as the Red Devils’ two Gameweek 34 fixtures come amid a hectic fixture schedule that has them playing four times in ten days. Many of those responding to our hot topic on centre of the park options are turning to the far more secure Crystal Palace options, most notably Wilfried Zaha, despite the Eagles’ tough games next week (Liv, TOT).
Among striker options for the double, our community’s Teesside correspondent Up the Boro says that Alvaro Negredo is worth considering, although he warns that confidence among Steve Agnew’s charges is nearing rock bottom.
The Spaniard has also caught the attention of those voting in our revamped Captain Poll, which had to be relaunched following Thursday’s injury to runaway leader Zlatan Ibrahimovic during United’s defeat of Anderlecht in the Europa Cup.
Andy85wsm was on hand to gather your thoughts just after the big Swede hobbled off the pitch. This morning we followed up by asking how Negredo stacks up as an option compared to Palace’s Christian Benteke and Marcus Rashford, who scored the winner for Mourinho’s troops.
Could single Gameweek forwards provide the solution to those in search of a strong captaincy pick? Tambourineman certainly thinks Everton’s Romelu Lukaku could outscore those with two fixtures, given his match is away to West Ham: he’s scored in each and every one of his nine encounters against the Hammers since he’s been at Everton.
While the Red Devils’ fixture run leaves them with barely any time to catch breath, Ramboros has been looking at teams that will benefit from plenty of rest over the next two Gameweeks. He dropped by again later in the week to take a look at the best chip deployment for those with their second Wildcard, Bench Boost and Triple Captaincy still to play.
Smurf has also been looking ahead to the double Gameweeks 36 and 37 to find out the best five-man midfield for this potentially lucrative part of the campaign.
As our Gameweek 33 Rough with the Smooth article found out, Gylfi Sigurdsson once again failed to convince his owners to keep him for the season run-in.
Finally, Disable has unearthed the latest average transfers remaining among those playing Sky Sports Fantasy Football.
To view all our discussions, please visit our Hot Topics page. We are also still keen to hear from you about how this can be further developed.
The Members Tables
Goalkeepers with a strong prospect of save points come under the watchful eye of Bad-Kompany in his latest table.
Elsewhere, I’ve taken a look at the best Crystal Palace assets to consider ahead of their two fixtures this coming Gameweek.
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
Kings of Lyon has launched a season run-in league (82-1008408) for those who no longer have their Triple Captain in hand. This aims to give a greater insight into the best use of chips over this campaign.
Following the events of Gameweek 33, HuttonDressedAsLahm has regained the lead in Red Lightning’s Top 10K Any Season and is now up to 29th in the overall rankings.
It’s as you were in his January to May league, which Aneesh Kamat continues to dominate.
Ben Pearson is that guy who comes into a league late to steal the lead. He joins the FFS Members league in first place. Ranked 15th in the world, he has enjoyed a spell at second in the overall rankings already this season.
In the FFScout main league Mohammad Bahnassy still leads and is now up to third overall, 21 points behind world number one Uwais Ahmed.
Elsewhere, Mark’s lead over second-placed Torres Magic in the closely-fought FFScout Moderators and Contributors fell from ten to six points.
Just a week after regaining top spot in my Millionaires Club, long time leader Giles Wanlin has once again lost out to Oli Ottey GM. Only 11 points separate this pair of phoenixes in the league for those on the wrong side of the top one million mark in Gameweek 12.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 55, which saw 38 players depart and 57 remain.
Coldplay has won the FA Cup of Tea, which is run by Ginkapo and Doosra.
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.
