It seems time and tide wait for no manager. The news that Harry Kane will be out of action until March has already seen 715,000+ FPL managers take swift action and remove the Tottenham striker from their teams.
For managers still owning the England captain, and there are well over a million of you, David has outlined the candidates to replace him as well as examining the implications for Spurs assets. As the most expensive forward in the game, there is no lack of options.
Perhaps one simple answer is to turn to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who, at £11.3m, is the next most expensive forward player. Ajax Hamsterdam points out that the Gabonese presents an excellent captain option for Gameweek 27 for those looking to plan ahead.
Captain Sensible – Gameweek 23 a one-sided affair after Kane injury
The League Cup final takes place that weekend which means that one of Chelsea or Tottenham will join Manchester City in having a fixture blank. With Manchester United taking on Liverpool, Arsenal’s home fixture against Southampton stands out. Even Championship side Derby County triumphed over the Saints in midweek.
That result in the FA Cup third round replay had significant ramifications for FPL – it ensured that Liverpool will not have a Double Gameweek this season. This will shape the thinking of managers as they begin to draw up plans on how best to deploy their chips.
Perchinho, better known to you all as Ben Crellin, establishes the lay of the land in the first of his articles this week on Blank and Double Gameweeks. Strategies to navigate them are explored in his second article. While Deulofail proposed his own strategy in what proved to be a popular hot topic.
As if that wasn’t enough to occupy us this week, we’ve also had to deal with an injury to Trent Alexander-Arnold, which took another twist on Friday, the departure of Heung-Min Son to the Asia Cup, and assess the impact David Wagners’ sacking at Huddersfield.
Both Eat my goal! and SADIO SANÉ anticipate that Wagners’ exit could spell good news for City who take on the Terriers this weekend. City are predicted to be the Gameweek’s highest scorers according to Hutch_James in his weekly Wisdom of The Crowd article.
However in another hot topic on the subject, Maximus Bonimus Pointimus thinks we may be best advised to stay away from City assets altogether. He arrived at this conclusion using a perceptive mathematical equation.
So for those not considering City players, could Alli be about take center stage for Spurs in the absence of Kane and Son? It’s certainly a train of thought that Awesom-o subscribes to. While J0E was equally effervescent in signing Alli’s praises on this week’s Scoutcast, comparing him to Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, before Neale sung his praises in the latest Spot the Differential article.
With many managers considering taking hits to deal with all these injuries and departures, the aptly named MINUS FOUR was on hand to offer some reassurance. Currently an impressive 35th overall and, unlike many managers in the upper echelons of FPL, he’s not afraid to take a hit or 12.
Yes, so far this season FPL’s answer to James Bond has made 12 hits costing him a total of 48 points. While that might leave most managers shaken and stirred, consider that he’s also succeeded in amassing 178 immediate transfer points, proving that making the right transfers can be yield big rewards.
He highlights that fortune can favour the brave, particularly in a season with so many premium assets delivering returns. If nothing else at least his article will make you feel better if you are on a -8.
On the subject of premium assets, our FPL Question time this week focused on what to do with Chelsea’s pricey duo Hazard and Alonso. Although he understood why owners are concerned, Chief FPL Manager thinks now is not the right time to sell Hazard:
“In his next two games [Hazard] will face Arsenal and Bournemouth. He’s registered 12 aggregate attacking returns against both teams in 20 league outings, which once again validates his threat levels.”
Salah is without doubt considered the most reliable premium asset at the moment. To add to his appeal, in Gameweek 22 he collected all three bonus points from only a single attacking return. This is a fairly unusual event in the FPL career of Merseyside’s favourite Egyptian, as David examined in a members’ article this week.
However Salah wasn’t alone in attracting attention for collecting all three bonus points last Gameweek. Aaron Wan-Bissaka did the same despite being part of a Crystal Palace side that lost 2-1 to Watford. To think he started the season valued at £4.0m.
Finally, if this article hasn’t already overwhelmed you with players to consider, Gregor was on hand to offer up a couple of names for our watchlists in his eye test. And no Gameweek guide would be complete without G-Whizz bringing us the fixture and clean sheet odds for the upcoming fixtures.
To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
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 the last sixteen of the FFS Cup Tibbles overcame the highest ranked manager in the competition Chewibb (277 OR) to book his place in the quarter finals. Tibbles, who knocked out former champion donnellyc in round 3, was also part of the winning ‘Scout B’ team in the FFS Charity Cup back in November. Could he complete a cup double this year?
Meanwhile Mark’s conqueror GARTHATRON crashed out to 218,790 ranked Man-Chest-Heir F.C. The highest ranked manager now left in the competition is Get It Inter Ya at 834 overall.
In the FFS Members Cup the highest ranked manager left is Jambo17 at 203 overall. He overcame RoysCallerAnne in the last sixteen. Heading into the quarter finals Fine_Skyline is the lowest ranked manager left, he’s currently 205,160 overall.
The quarter-finals of the FFS Manager Melee Community Tournament have taken place with dramatic results as group winners Big Bang Thierry and When ‘Arry Met Sarri both exited the tournament. Darth_Krid brought us a review of the match-ups as well as a look ahead to this week’s semi-finals in his report. Good luck to the four remaining teams!
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score in Gameweek 22 was 51, this saw 101 managers depart. Entries for the competition are now closed, which this season has seen 4,614 managers take part. 883 of those now remain to battle it out over the last 15 Gameweeks. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.
Miroslav Pujic clings onto top spot in our main FFS League despite having his lead cut to 13 points. He is still third overall. His Gameweek 22 team featured Spurs duo Kane and Son, as well as Trent Alexander-Arnold. Ahead of the Gameweek 23 deadline Miroslav has taken a hit making two transfers. My guess would be that Pogba and Rashford are the two players who have come in.
Tore Bjørheim holds onto his lead at the top of the FFS Members League, and is steady at number 15 in the overall rankings. Tore has also made two transfers this week, although both for free – has Pogba joined his team too? This is only Tore’s third season playing FPL and easily his finest.
Sean Tobin is the new leader of the FFS Live Hall of Fame. The Manchester United fan has been playing FPL since 2010/11 and has an impressive five top 10,000 finishes. This season he finds himself in 14th place overall.
Another manager to own Harry Kane, Sean knew who he wanted to replace him with as soon as he saw him limp off. Firmino (£9.3m) had been on his radar for a few weeks thanks to a combination of eye test and fixtures. The Brazilian now joins Rashford and Aubameyang as part of a front three.
Current Live HoF number 3 Aleksander Våge Nilsen, was headline news in his local paper when he led the Hall of Fame in Gameweek 18. Haugesunds Avis published the article on 21 December, the Sports Editor Terje Flateby is a very decent fantasy manager in his own right boasting a best finish of 451 OR in 2014/15.
In the article, 30 year-old Aleksander gives some insights into how he plays the game. Firstly he spends a lot of time watching Premier League matches:
“It is important to see the players in action, as well as using statistics. I’m keen to make my own choices and assessments, not just listen to advice from others.”
He uses his own spreadsheet to plan his transfers long term, normally five or six Gameweeks ahead. One of his strategies is to look at fixtures:
“It’s often the case that form comes when the fixtures are good.”
However adaptability is key.
“There are often changes (to the plan), but it’s important to have a plan.”
While Aleksander excels in Fantasy Football, his brother excels at real football: Joakim Våge Nilsen is a defensive midfielder in the Eliteserien, the top division in Norway. A rather more average Fantasy player, Joakim has never managed to beat his brother in their sibling mini-league. He grudgingly concedes:
“I always thought it was luck, but I just have to admit that he is skilled.”
Thank you to Niɇmi for the research and translation.
David is the new leader in the FFS Mods & Cons. Helped by a surprise 9 point return from Fabianski, his score of 80 points in Gameweek 22 sees him take a 7 point lead. Aside from crediting Mark with giving him the job of FFS Editor, he is delighted a move from Alonso to David Luiz in Gameweek 20 has paid off. Luiz is top for through balls this season by some margin with 31, Jorginho is second with 14 and Felipe Anderson third with 13.
For further insights into David’s excellent Gameweek have a read of Greyhead’s latest round-up of The Great and The Good. It’s now six red arrows in a row for Ville Rönkä, the Finnish Enigma has slipped from 817 overall to 8,386 over that period. Meanwhile FPL Transfer Spy is predicting with 100% confidence that TorresMagic has made this week’s popular move of Rashford in, Kane out.
Elsewhere Luke Aiello increased his lead to 18 points at the top of RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season although he’s slipped to 50th in the overall standings. It looks as if Luke is another manager to have made the Kane to Rashford transfer. He currently has £5.3m in the bank and will have two free transfers next Gameweek.
In RedLightning’s January to May League, which started in Gameweek 21, Andrew Fu is the current leader following an impressive 147 points over the two Gameweeks. Andrew is reaping the benefits of a successful Gameweek 20 Wildcard. This is Andrew’s 9th FPL season, his best finish of 4,034th came in 2014/15.
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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