Bernardo- keep or sell and if sell whom would you replace with?

Who is Salah?

How do you make your own luck. As many top managers repeat high ranks every year and no two season are the same how much time do top managers put into FPL (stats, watching football, forums, social media)? Same question to each Scout? My HoF rating is 90.7 and I spend 4-6 hours per week.

Teams with good upcoming fixtures:
1. Do Arsenal count with their defence a no go? Is Auba worth it?
2. Thoughts on Ederson + Mendy double up?

When is the best time to WC (obviously for ppl with WC).. is it gw7-8 or when it is most needed?

Do you think kane will be essential at any stage this season..looking at upcoming gw/ fixtures/ nailed on ness..

I have a question is a decent overall squad of 13 players (without Salah) a good idea?
You then rotate all these players (based on form/fixtures) and suffer occasional points on the bench.
Does the scout-cast think that is a viable strategy where a manager trusts thier own judgement on who to start and who to bench?
A bench headache should be a good problem rather then a bad one?

How come the fact that Mane has a 40% ownership now and is as capable as Salah to destroy rank if not owned is neglected by most here? Same thing for Aguero with 50% ownership. Yet still only Salah is dubbed as the only "essential rank destroyer" even though he is not proving to be good value for money. Now we also know he is probably 100% off penalties after missing 2 with Egypt in the same game.

Mkhitaryan - Keep and hope he starts? Or sell for Maddison/Lingard/Fraser?

Thoughts on Liverpool defenders?
Mane and salah getting a lot of attention but, with a tough run coming up, should we be looking to move on our Reds defenders?

With Bournemouth top of the season ticker, which of their assets are you considering? Particularly in defence, is the panel willing to take a risk on Rico? (as a Cherries fan myself I am seriously considering and think he's first choice ahead of Daniels)

Also stick or twist on Robertson?

A complete no show from a 'nailed on' player resulting in a off the bench haul.

Unlucky events are mainly early injuries, losing assists from shanks or missed pens, OGs and someone touching a ball to take away a goal/assist.

The Ox/Gibbs mistaken identity, McCauley hair assist and Lukaku phantom assist when at Everton are classic luck/unlucky events

-Ederson assist (or any keeper attacking returns) must be classed as luck.
- Missed penalties are unlucky imo, as most pen takers score most of the time
- 55-59 minute sub offs unlucky in generel - especially for defenders when not having conceded.
- Getting points off the Bench CAN be lucky depending on tbe circumstances - as can Getting a huge VC score when cap not playing (can be good management as well).
- Injuries generally unlucky as well.

1) Is indecision and procrastination ruining Andy's season?

2) Why does Joe refuse to accept Boly's points?

3) Will the Holy Trinity make the game boring?

Lucky events:
A differential working
Getting a haul for a trip captain.
Having points on the bench and they come on
This game is like poker. For sure people who study it will have an edge but any poker player will tell you, getting continuous bad hands will hurt you.

Bernardo Silva, Pedro and Mkhitaryan have all been rotated already this season, and they have also all scored points. Is it worth getting these players that play for top6 clubs that are cheap compared to their team-mates, yet rotation risks? Should we instead opt for midpriced players who are nailed to start every game, Maddison for example?

With injuries, suspension and rotation hitting us hard (Scouts struggling to get 11 players on the pitch) has the tactic of a non playing or poor bench been found out ?

Is Kane dead to us? 12.5 for a player who hardly gets assists and cant do much more than scoring 30 goals a season. Neither him nor Spurs up to full speed.

I always felt that this HT, along with Rough with the Smooth, was just a way to justify a pre-written script. What do you mean by:

"Especially looking for questions on

- Mo or No Salah
- Teams with good upcoming fixtures "

You just want me to say the words "Mo or No Salah?" so you can pretend you are responding to popular demand? Or literally ask, "which teams have good fixtures?"?

I remember asking a ton or really well thought-out questions approximately a year ago, and I got a bollocking for actually taking the thread seriously. I've barely responded to this HT since, because I realised then that you're looking for buzzwords rather than genuine points of enquiry.

Please take this as feedback: This segment of the Scoutcast, to me, doesn't feel genuine. It feels like an excuse to talk about whatever you want, which you legitimise by briefly citing the first person to fulfil the role of buzzword dropper.

It's not even subtle anymore. The questions are written in the HT, so I don't feel like I have a chance of asking a question which will get any amount of thought from the Scoutcast panel. I appreciate that answering specific, interesting questions, in depth requires more work and research, and in a short space of time, but that's whta this segment promises to me. And such is life, you're now competing with a host of other hosts, who are willing to put that work in.

Again, please take this as genuine feedback. Not intended to be an angry rant. Just thought I'd take the opportunity to express my view once rather than comment negatively every week, as I'd rather not comment here at all than be disruptive every week.

Still looking forward to the Scoutcast. Hope you have fun making it. Cheers

Luck vs skill

The only skill in FPL is watching games and having the eye to pick out a player. That's it imo. If this game was a lot of skill then we would have people making a living out of the daily fantasy games

No skill in picking numbers out a table that OPTA have produced. . You can be boring and take no hits and play the game like Ville Ronke so I guess there is a slight skill in composing yourself. To do well a lot of luck is needed. Without luck you finish no where

The ESPN Luck Index shows that Liverpool were the unluckiest team in the Premier League last season, and United were the luckiest.
In a table adjusted for luck, Liverpool should have finished 2nd, United 4th and Huddersfield should have been relegated instead of Stoke.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/11464137/liverpool-unluckiest-team-in-premier-league-last-season-according-to-espn-luck-index

Is it worth WCing just for the sake of saving TV?

Personally I've got a team that covers the big names Aguero, Salah, Hazard, Alonso, Mendy and even budget wonder Holebas.
But also got the likes of King and Jota from the beginning.
I opted not to WC because I feel the team is good enough.

Bournemouth have a stellar run of fixtures upto and including gameweek 10. Is it madness to triple up on Cherries players?

I currently have Steve Cook and Callum Wilson. I'm considering a mini wildcard and taking a 4 point hit by downgrading Alisson to Patricio and Mkhitaryan to Fraser. This would allow me to transfer out Kamara for Zaha.

Opinions on Kanye now?

How long do you foresee Mitrovic staying one of the top three point scoring strikers? Who do you see as potentially surpassing him in the 7m or less bracket over the next 4 or 8 game weeks?

A lot is made of Liverpool’s “tough” upcoming fixtures. But with CL starting, and LFC having an ok group, I would argue now is the time that Liverpool assets are relatively rotation proof that except for the SOU game. Surely you keep the likes of Robertson and Mane if you have had them since GW1 and have cash tied up in them?

As bench players looking likely for a run out this weekend, what criteria [in order of importance] do you guys use to get those three slots in the correct order?

Necessity not withstanding, if you can hold onto your WC until GW6, is it worth it? After this week it looks like there’s a fixture swing for Spurs who go from mid table to near the top, Fulham who go from near the bottom to third (so Arnie to Mitro?) and Leicester who according to the ticker, have the best games of all (for the next 5).