This Sunday’s final set of fixtures will be crucial to deciding mini-leagues and overall rankings.
Our Hot Topic posters are full of advice on why Fantasy managers should target attacking players at home, as well as providing some differential armband options for an 11th hour rankings boost.
The community also offers a helping hand to a blunderous colleague and some number crunching on strikers who revel in scoring on familiar turf before we round off with a look at the key battles at the top of our community competitions.
The Community Articles
The Premier League may be coming to an end, but the Norwegian Elitserien is just getting into its stride. Niemi was on hand earlier this week to run through the best players to consider, and those to avoid.
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 those who owned Zlatan Ibrahimovic during his statistic-defying goal drought earlier this season will testify, this season has certainly had its fair share of unpleasant surprises.
But if there is one thing Fantasy managers can rely on, it is that the final fixture of the season will be full of goals. Abel Xavier has been looking at previous seasons to uncover a raft of eye-popping scoring feats in Gameweek 38 to warrant investment in attackers.
As my research highlighted, home sides particularly prosper as the season draws to a close, meaning those looking to impress their own fans for the final time in 2016/17 should be particular targets.
Title winners Chelsea are among those playing at home, but as we saw with their much-changed team sheet against Watford on Monday, the community is readying itself for further tinkering. This particularly applies to Eden Hazard’s minutes on Sunday, which may be curtailed, according to Pieterke30, after the Belgian schemer played the full 90 against the Hornets.
As we revealed on last week’s Scoutcast and Community Round Up, our moderator Spencer spectacularly messed up his Wildcard ahead of Gameweek 36 by forgetting to press the button to confirm activation.
But while accidentally captaining Anichebe and netting a 40-point hit would have stung at the time, at least he has his Wildcard intact for a final Gameweek 38 flourish. To help him out, and also to give some tips to those with just free transfers remaining, we asked for your views on the perfect final fixture Wildcard side.
There was further advice on ensuring the season ends on a high in our discussion on Gameweek 38’s best differential captain options.
Those who entrusted their Triple Captain chip to Alexis Sanchez or Harry Kane were in jubilant mood in our Rough with the smooth round-up of your latest Gameweek. However, many who used their Bench Boost were less than pleased with their returns from a set of fixtures beset with rotation and low-scoring budget players. That led us to ponder whether it would be better to use this chip earlier in the season when team sheets are less prone to change.
TM 245 also dropped by with some further discussion on Bench Boosting and how we measure its success.
The handwringing over this season’s missed opportunities has already begun, according to The Skibbereen Eagle’s hot topic on your key lessons learnt from 2016/17.
Finally, you can tell the summer break is almost here when a discussion appears on whether central and defensive midfielders should be better rewarded in FPL. This long-running debate, kick-started by Crystal Ball this week, looks set to run across the summer months as Fantasy managers dream of strong returns for this forgotten group of incisive interceptors and precision passers.
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
To add to my research on home attackers enjoying the final fixture more than most, I’ve created this table looking at the sharpest shooters in front of their own fans.
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
The race to win one of the community’s toughest head-to-head leagues, Gnu’s Wigan to me, will go right to the wire. Kings of Lyon and Royscalleranne are jostling for top spot going into the final fixture – just one point separates this high-flying pair.
Jon Vetle Vamraak is the new leader of Red Lightning’s Top 10K Any Season, while Ruth NZ continues to lead his January to May league going into the final fixture.
In the FFS Members league Billy Ketsu sits in the lead, but is second to Mervyn Glasgow in the FFScout main league.
TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing has been won by Hakchak, who emerged victorious after seeing off 3,385 others.
At the summit of the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league, Mark has an 18-point lead over TorresMagic going into Sunday’s climax.
And in my Millionaires Club, for those with a rank the wrong side of one million at the Gameweek 12 mark, Gilles Wanlin goes into the final round with a 14-point lead over Dave Rud.
If you are running a community tournament and would like your final day scores included in the next Community Round-Up, 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.
