Friday afternoon has us switch focus to the Sky Sports game to look back at the previous Gameweek, before helping prepare your squads for the forthcoming matches.

We’ll examine the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, the bonus point beneficiaries, transfer trends and present our Watchlist of players, before moving on to the Scout team and our future plans.

Gameweek 2 Man of the Match Awards

These were the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters and earned an extra five points last time out.

The debuts and defenders theme continues from Gameweek 1, with four men from the back continuing to mix it with the more attacking players.

Pre-overhaul picks of Ahmed Hegazi and Aaron Mooy both came good at the budget-friendly end of the scale, while Richarlison, classified as a midfielder at 7.6m, is also an obvious one to watch. The Brazilian was top for touches in the opponents’ box, shots in the box and shots on target among midfielders this week – impressive stuff.

Honourable mentions go to Wayne Rooney and Hegazi as the only two players to earn the award in both fixtures so far – Rooney has been a MoTM magnet in the past having topped the charts with nine awards twice while at Manchester United.

Everton’s fixtures are initially very tricky indeed (che, TOT, mun), but then take a promising turn (BOU, BUR, bha), so Rooney can perhaps compete with the more expensive forwards if he continues to couple goals with the accolade.

Gameweek 2 Bonus Points

Let’s take a look at any player to earn three points or more in bonus.

Midfield dynamos Aaron Ramsey, Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante all earned five bonus to lead the way, while last season’s bonus king Jordan Henderson got off the mark with four points.

Christopher Schindler continues to delight his lowly 2.3% of owners. He’s now earned 20 points in his two matches through back-to-back clean sheets and six additional bonus.

Wayne Hennessey is the only goalkeeper to feature, after racking up an incredible 12 saves against Liverpool.

Fantasy Football Scout members can access all information regarding bonus points using player stats and clicking the Sky Sports tab.

The Transfer Trends

Top Transfers Out

Wilfried Zaha’s injury makes him the top target out, while Kyle Walker getting himself sent off means he also features.

Mo Salah’s cameo at the weekend isn’t enough to save him from the chop for 1.5%, although he also features in the top transfers-in below.

Harry Kane features again. The most expensive player in the game can’t afford another blank or post-overhaul squads may begin to look elsewhere. Alexandre Lacazette was also shipped by 2.3%, possibly as part of a captain swap strategy as he played on the Saturday.

Top Transfers In

Ahmed Hegazi is the top scoring player in the game at the moment and no longer a differential pick as the Egyptian is now owned by 10% of players.

As mentioned above, Salah is being swapped in and out of squads at present, while the remaining three places are taken up by Man United’s in-form trio.

Currently, the average amount of transfers used across the whole game is 2.8. Bear in mind these numbers factor in those going for weekly/monthly prizes, but they should offer some comfort for those of you who have used a few prior to overhaul.

Top Five Captains Picked

Romelu Lukaku was unsurprisingly the most captained player on Saturday, followed by Harry Kane on Sunday. A trio of Man City players made up the final three positions, probably due to them playing on the Monday night.

Watchlist

Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership who I think could be good options for one week, prior to overhaul.

Three specific price brackets will be used to cater for our available budgets.

The players will evolve with fixtures and form to offer Fantasy managers a nudge in (hopefully) the right direction.

My Team

Forster
Stones Stephens Goldson Hegazi
de Bruyne Xhaka Salah
Lukaku Kane Jesus

ITB: 0.7
Transfers remaining: 39/40
Last week’s points: 50
Overall points: 161
Rank: 20,397

Notes

After a very solid Gameweek 1, there is nothing quite like a slap in the face to bring you back to reality, with the 50 points earned this week was less than half that of Gameweek 1.

Romelu Lukaku was my only captain to return any points after Harry Kane and Gabriel Jesus both blanked again. Thankfully, most other Fantasy managers also backed Kane and a Man City asset as skipper, so no real ground was lost there.

I used up one swap to take out Wilfried Zaha for John Stones, which also backfired.

I went with Stones because he recorded 96 passes in Gameweek 1 – and therefore three bonus points –  which was more than any other defender. My thoughts involved a clean sheet would net him 10 points, and if they did concede one, he’d still get five points. So, a worthwhile gamble.

I also thought he had MoTM potential, given that he was playing against his former club. As it turned out, Man City conceded, had a man sent off and then Stones was subbed early for City to chase the game and before he could register bonus.

All the best laid plans.

With just one more Gameweek before overhaul, I won’t look to make any more subs and will just hope to ride it out.

My biggest regret so far is not backing the cheap Huddersfield backline, who have now picked up two clean sheets out of two.  Those who have doubled, or even tripled, up in this area are the real winners of the pre-overhaul period so far.

Captain Plan

Sat 26th – Lukaku (LEI)
Sun 27th – Kane (BUR)

Weekly Articles and Podcast

As well as the weekly Focus article, I’ll be talking through the week’s action and upcoming plans with FFS posters Buffrey and Lewis on our regular podcast – the latest episode can be found here.

The Fantasy Football Scout League

We’ve already set up our Fantasy Football Scout League and, after winning the League of Leagues for each of the last four seasons, we’re looking to defend our crown in 2017/18.

Get your teams in – the name is FFScout and the pin number to join is 8300422.