“Indecision is final” Alan Hansen would proclaim on Match of The Day as he chastised another hapless defender for a costly moment’s hesitation. It rather neatly sums up how many Fantasy managers are feeling about their teams at the moment.
It’s all Raheem Sterling’s fault, the England starlet announced himself as a serious contender for our teams with a 21-point haul against Southampton. In his members article, David asked the inevitable question – Aguero or Sterling? and with both showing promising underlying stats it could well be that the answer is both.
If that’s the case we have a problem. Rotation’s Alter Ego articulated it perfectly in a Hot Topic this week – “How does Sterling come into these teams already loaded with premium players?”
This week it’s Liverpool’s turn to have a go at taking on a team of whipping boys in the shape of Fulham. Once again it’s a question of which premium asset to own – Salah or Mané or Both?
Our Scout Squad decided that the answer was both, as the two players were included in the latest Scout Picks.
Gameweek 12 Scout Picks – Double coverage for Liverpool midfield
Compared to the Aguero or Sterling dilemma this question is slightly different because, as RNRD pointed out in his Hot Topic, there’s a significant price difference (£3.2m) to take into account. Salah has undoubtedly underperformed so far this season and while it might not be a case of the last chance saloon, owners patience will be stretched to the limit if he fails to deliver. A switch from Salah to Mané releases a lot of cash into our squads.
Yet it could well be that the answer to ‘Salah or Mané or Both?’ is neither. Bat Man began a discussion about Liverpool as an attacking force this season, could Gregin be right that “after 8 games against bottom half teams, 19 goals simply is not good enough”?
The Captain Sensible article this week examines Salah and Liverpool’s credentials, and provides alternative options should you feel Liverpool’s form is too underwhelming.
One manager who will be hoping Liverpool run up a cricket score this Sunday lunchtime is Kenneth Tang. Arguably the best FPL manager of all time has both Mané and Salah in his side as he looks to climb back up the overall standings.
He joined Joe for another insightful installment of his ‘Meet the Manager’ series. Intriguingly we learned that Kenneth doesn’t care about formation. The question he asks himself is – is a player value for money? FPL is a game with a limited budget therefore he concentrates on making his team value for money as soon as possible. The formation will take care of itself.
The question of premium assets also played on the minds of our Scoutcasters this week. When it came to City duo Aguero and Sterling, Joe and David advised sticking with the one you have rather than twisting. While Luke highlighted Sterling’s relatively poor record against the top teams.
Az meanwhile is considering breaking his ARM (aka Alonso, Robertson, and Mendy) in order to fund a premium heavy attack.
Looking enviously perhaps at Mark’s success in jumping on Sterling early, as Greyhead highlighted in his article on The Great and the Good this week, Az is hoping to find a way to follow him up the ranks.
If Az is going to accommodate all these premium assets he needs to find some decent budget options to fill in the gaps.
Gregor thinks West Ham may be a good place to look. His ‘Eye Test’ Hot Topic turned the spotlight on £4.5m midfielder Grady Diangana.
To my eye – I was at the London Stadium to witness Diangana’s last three appearances – I agree that Diangana could represent excellent value. Although the quality of opposition should be taken into account, as both Gregor and Kenneth have highlighted this week.
Diangana played a much more disciplined role on the right flank in both matches against Spurs. He was afforded more freedom against Burnley. However with a kind fixture schedule for the Hammers hopefully that’s good news for Diangana’s prospects.
There have also been a number of Members’ tables this week to help us identify budget options. FPL Virgin took a look at sub-£4.5m defenders with goal threat, and a few budget options crop up in his ‘Defenders who take corners’ table. The Wilmslow-Wizard turned his attention to budget midfielders under £5.5m in his ‘Chirpy Cheap Cheap’ table. A table which takes on even greater significance with the news that Maddison will miss out this weekend.
Joe has also been busy perusing the stats as he attempts to unearth the best replacement for the Leicester man. His perfectly titled ‘Maddison replacement’ table contains fully flexible filters so members can sort candidates by their prefered attribute.
Joe’s work didn’t stop there – he’s been in action in the edit suite again recording a new video with Neale, in which they will discuss Maddison replacements.
COMMUNITY TABLES
As complement to Joe’s famous Goals Imminent table, I would like to introduce a table of my own – The Next TopMarx Men. The main difference with my table is that it focuses on goal conversion and shooting accuracy, rather than goals scored. Members might find it interesting to compare the two tables and make a note of players who appear in both.
In his ‘Meet the Manger’ video last month, Adam Hopcroft (aka Choppers13) provided some excellent advice on how to use stats effectively. For instance rather than just compare one player to another, also compare individual players to their performances in previous seasons, especially their purple patches.
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.
COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 50, which saw 188 players depart and over 2,250 remain.
Mike Davis and Guy Guy are the new joint leaders of our main FFS League, joint 8th overall and one point ahead of previous leader and world number one Brayden McCullough who had a bad week. This is Mike’s 7th season, and his previous highest finish was 18,399 but this season he started with 101 points in Gameweek 1 and has only had one red arrow since. Guy is in his second season, started with 108 in Gameweek 1 and has had two red arrows, but has not yet played his wildcard.
Luke Aiello still leads both our FFS Members League and RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league and is now 13th overall, only 3 points behind Mike and Guy.
Chris Atkinson (aka RMT’s Professor) still leads the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league, having taken the lead in Gameweek 10. Chris created our RMT tool and the Hall of Fame, and his 4 top 6,000 finishes include one top one hundred finish – 61st in 2010/11. … A possible candidate for Joe’s Meet the Manager?’
Organised by Darth_Krid, Lawro, Speedyboyzzzz, Toblerone52, Mr. Hindsight, Rhinos, Boris Bodega, FC Lackless, and Professor B, the FFS Manager Melee Community Tournament has entered the recruitment phase. We will be keeping you up-to-date as the tournament develops.
And it’s not too late to take part in the FFS Charity Cup on Saturday 17 November. Organised by former Career Hall of Fame number one Peter Kouwenberg, this year’s tournament takes place at the Thomas Parmiter Sports Centre in north Watford.
We are raising money for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. To donate directly please do so via our JustGiving page.
If you would like to take part all you need to do is email peter.kouwenberg76@gmail.com as soon as possible to confirm your interest. Please provide your contact details, at which point you’ll be added to the relevant WhatsApp group unless you would prefer to be kept informed by email or text instead.
Alternatively feel free just to turn up and meet fellow members of FFS. At the previous event we spent considerably more time socialising in the pub afterwards than actually playing football. Given my atrocious levels of fitness, I don’t imagine things will be any different this time. I hope to meet a few of you there.
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 geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk
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