The community has been busy preparing for one of the most frantic periods of the season, with three Gameweeks played out over the next ten days.
The latest clues from Pep Guardiola regarding Manchester City’s probable line-up and the most secure premium defenders to acquire are among the issues dissected.
Continuing frustrations regarding Harry Kane’s failure to score when heavily backed are also aired, while our community writers bid farewell to this year’s surprise Fantasy sensation.
Those who are due a goal, and the teams set to concede headed goals, are featured in our Members’ table round-up, and we finish with a look at the Fantasy managers who are riding high at the top of our community competitions.
The Community Articles
The ‘crowd’, which is being tracked by Hutch_James, believes the two Manchester sides will be the biggest goal scorers in Gameweek 13. However, they are less optimistic regarding Spurs’ attacking potential.
This weekend sees the final set of fixtures in the Norwegian top-flight game Fantasy Eliteserien. Mr Klin of Norway dropped by to look at which teams still have something to play for and the players to target.
Finally, Top Marx was also on hand to bring his latest instalment of the Hall of Fame top five analysis. This article tracks the managers currently occupying the top placings in our FPL manager rankings, assessing their transfer decisions, the captaincy choice and their chosen formations.
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
Tonight’s deadline marks the beginning of one of this season’s most hectic schedules as three Gameweeks take place over the next ten days.
We canvassed your views on how you are coping with this testing time, while Twisted Saltergater also dropped by to issue a warning that further congestion is on its way over December.
For some, this means being more selective with Manchester City assets, who have already been prone to rotation. Kuntheman fired up this Hot Topic on Pep Guardiola’s latest insight on how he plans to set up his side in the coming Gameweeks.
Sergio Aguero was omitted from Pep’s line-up away to Leicester City in Gameweek 12. However, that proved a blessing in disguise for many of his owners with strong benches according to the sample in our “rough with the smooth” round-up of your Gameweek scores.
Also claiming bragging rights were early adopters of Paul Pogba, who returned from a seven-Gameweek absence to score and assist for Manchester United against Newcastle at Old Trafford.
The midfielder adds to the wealth of centre of the park options available and to the case for switching to a 3-5-2 formation, according to our look at the key lessons learned from Gameweek 12. Meanwhile, TorresMagic offered an insight into why the Red Devils star appears to be immune to a price rise this week, despite attracting around a third of a million new owners since his 12-point tally.
Among the most sold players this week is Harry Kane, who has been shown the exit by more than 66,000 FPL managers after recording his seventh blank in 11 matches in Spurs’ 2-0 loss away to Arsenal. We asked whether the 12.8m striker is playing for his future when West Brom drop by Wembley on Saturday, given his failure to impress against similarly ‘easy’ opposition this season.
The community is already looking elsewhere for the captaincy, according We Will Klopp You’s Hot Topic on whether Manchester City winger Leroy Sane is a better recipient of the armband this weekend. Meanwhile, Chapelle has been seeing how well Lukaku’s captaincy credentials compare to the Spurs marksman. There was further discussion on the Gameweek 13 captaincy this morning.
Freeing up funds from Kane’s hefty price tag is certainly a tempting proposition for those looking to tap into Chelsea’s extremely favourable set of fixtures from Gamweek 14 onwards.
This is particularly the case for those opting for one of the Blues’ expensive defenders – Cesar Azpilicueta (6.8), who is FPL’s highest point scoring rearguard asset, and Marcos Alonso (6.9), who has scored three times this season. Pumpkinhead is among those wondering which of this duo to draft in, while Jesus’ Eyebrows wonders whether the cheaper Andreas Christensen or goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (both 5.4) can provide adequate Chelsea rearguard ‘cover’.
Many of those clinging to Phil Jones are already considering upgrading to a Chelsea defender, according to our Hot Topic on the Manchester United centre-back.
Recruiting Blues midfielder Eden Hazard (10.6) also represents a hefty investment, which has prompted Hurrikane to ponder whether Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho (8.8), who is in similarly impressive form, could be a strong cut-price alternative to Chelsea’s Belgian.
That spare change is essential for those who have so far overlooked Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah or City star Sane, according to Football Rambler. The Egyptian’s price has risen 0.6 over the season, while the German winger’s has now been hiked by 0.5.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page.
The Members’ Tables
With so many attacking players delivering on their fine underlying statistics, my goals imminent table only features a select quartet of players who have been unable to score more than once from at least 10 attempts over their last four matches.
Elsewhere, Cholevas has been looking at teams that are failing to cope with aerial threat.
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
FFScout league leader Damir TeNay gained 92 points in Gameweek 12 to take him to number one spot in the overall rankings. With all his chips to play, including his first Wildcard, he will be in confident mood going into the busy festive schedule.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition, Paulio hit the top score in Gameweek 12 with 110. There are over 2,100 teams left after 173 were eliminated when the safety score was set at 50.
Stewart Latham has extended his lead at the top of Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league with an 86-point haul that also takes him up to 50th overall.
A similarly impressive score of 89 sees Az take the lead in the FFScout Moderators and Contributors league, while Konrad Struski is the new leader of the Fantasy Football Scout Members League after playing his Wildcard in Gameweek 12.
Trevor Smith claims bragging rights at the top of the Old Farts Club league, for our community’s oldest and wisest members, closely followed by Mick Harris, who is equal on points with Trevor but second on transfers-made.
Elsewhere, Zoumas Bloomers retains the lead in the QPR Utd’s Frequent Summer Posters league.
Matchweek 7 in the Community Watch tournament gets underway tonight. According to Speedyboyzzz latest update from the organising committee, the last set of fixtures has certainly set the bar high in terms of close encounters and high scores.
There’s also time to submit a team in @ocprodigy‘s Scout Picks Challenge for Gameweek 13.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
