Friday afternoon finds us revisit Sky Sports Fantasy Football, as we take a look back at the previous Gameweek before preparing managers for the incoming fixtures.
As always, we’ll examine the recent run of Man of the Match (MoTM) awards, the bonus point beneficiaries, transfer trends and Watchlist, before moving on to the Scout team and our future plans.
Gameweek 12 Man of the Match Awards
These were the players who caught the eye of the Sky Sports reporters and earned an extra five points as a result.
| Fixture | MoTM |
| Man United vs Tottenham | Nemanja Matic |
| West Brom vs Man City | Fernandinho |
| Arsenal vs Swansea | Sead Kolasinac |
| Crystal Palace vs West Ham | Joe Hart |
| Watford vs Stoke | Ryan Shawcross |
| Liverpool vs Huddersfield | James Milner |
| Bournemouth vs Chelsea | Eden Hazard |
| Brighton vs Southampton | Pascal Gross |
| Leicester vs Everton | Demarai Gray |
| Burnley vs Newcastle | Jack Cork |
Nemanja Matic (23.8%) was the only player with significant ownership to earn the award, his second of the season.
Pascal Gross also picked up his second MoTM of the campaign and continues to look great value at just 7.3, while Eden Hazard grabbed his first gong and looks a great explosive differential for the coming weeks.
Owned by just 3.9%, the Belgian has picked up returns in back-to-back fixtures ahead of a huge home tie against Man United.
Gameweek 12 Bonus Points
The table below shows those players to have earned 11 points or more in bonus for the season so far.
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
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Kane | Tottenham | 12.9 | 35.2% |
| Jesus | Man City | 12.1 | 3.3% |
| Hegazi | West Brom | 6.2 | 3.1% |
| Mkhitaryan | Man United | 10 | 2.7% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 2.6% |
A massive 35.2% of transfers involved Harry Kane being moved out after his absence against Man United.
But, of course, he looks almost certain to start against Crystal Palace this weekend after featuring in the midweek mauling of Real Madrid.
Top Transfers In
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 21.6% |
| Morata | Chelsea | 12.2 | 6.3% |
| de Bruyne | Man City | 11.5 | 4.2% |
| Sane | Man City | 10.3 | 3.3% |
| Vardy | Leicester | 11.2 | 3.2% |
Some 21.6% opted for Sergio Aguero as their Kane replacement, only to be treated to zero points as the Argentine remained on the bench at The Hawthorns.
Average Transfers Remaining
Top 10 – 10.1
Top 100 – 16.51
Top 1,000 – 20.14
Top 5,000 – 21.96
Top Five Captains Picked
| Name | Team | Value | % of Managers |
| Kane | Tottenham Hotspur | 12.9 | 24.4% |
| Lukaku | Man United | 12.4 | 18.7% |
| Aguero | Man City | 12.8 | 6.7% |
| Salah | Liverpool | 9.4 | 5.2% |
| Lacazette | Arsenal | 11.8 | 3.9% |
Watchlist
Here I aim to highlight a few differential players with low ownership who I think could be good options for the coming six weeks.
Three specific price brackets will be used to cater for our available budgets.
The players will evolve with fixtures and form to hopefully offer Fantasy managers a nudge in the right direction.
| Budget | Mid-Price | Premium | |
| Defender | Joel Ward 6.0 3.3% | Charlie Daniels 7.5 4.6% | John Stones 8.9 4.8% |
| Midfielder | Pascal Gross 7.3 6.3% | Wilfried Zaha 9.3 3.6% | Riyad Mahrez 10.5 1.6% |
| Forward | Tammy Abraham 8.6 6.1% | Josh King 10.3 1.6% | Daniel Sturridge 11.1 0.4% |
My Team
Pope
Stones Otamendi Femenia Jorgensen
Hazard De Bruyne Salah Richarlison
Lukaku Vardy
ITB: 1.7
Transfers remaining: 26/40
Last week’s points: 79
Overall points: 762
Rank: 2,161
Notes
I enjoyed a jump in rank by around 2,000 places thanks mainly to a spree of five transfers.
I had planned to strategically work Man City players into my line-up, but with injuries to Kane and then Philippe Coutinho breaking late in the week, I ripped up my plans and went on a rage-induced mini-overhaul – a rare thing for me as I’m usually very patient (often to my detriment).
While John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi failed to bring home a clean sheet, they did pick up tier two passing bonus as usual, and I’m very happy to finally be on board to ride their constant stream of points.
I watched both players score against Napoli in midweek, which was painful, but I guess it highlights that they can offer significant goal threat on the end of set-pieces to add to their appeal.
Nick Pope, my Monday night captain, was an inspired swap as he returned 22 points. At 5.5 he looks a real steal.
I now have the funds for Jamie Vardy to Harry Kane and will likely do that swap on Sunday.
Luckily, Spurs have the early kick-off, so I can see for sure if Kane is in the line-up.
Part of me wants to wait on Kane, as Vardy has a Friday night fixture at the end of November when I’ll have no other captain opportunity.
But going without Kane (CRY ars) until that point is a scary prospect, and therefore I’m unlikely to risk it.
Captain Plan
Sat 4th – Salah (whm)
Sun 5th – Kane (CRY)
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.
