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The Complete Guide to our FPL Gameweek 30 tips and advice

It’s been a cut-throat week on Fantasy Football Scout and you would be forgiven for thinking that the football had been ditched in favour of Dungeons & Dragons. Talk of swords and shields dominated Tuesday’s Scoutcast. The analogy, picked up on by J0E, originated from FPL Reuser who described highly-owned players as “shields” because they can protect your rank, and differential players as “swords” because they can boost your rank.

To help arm your FPL troops with the best swords and shields on offer, the Gameweek Guide provides the latest cutting-edge statistics, a battalion of experts, and a blast of opinion.

After Make Arrows Green Again began a popular hot topic on captain choices over the season, what better place to start than with this week’s armband dilemma. Two highly-owned shields are the main captaincy contenders in the shape of Salah (45.7%) and Agüero (40.8%). If a shield is captained does he get turned into a sword?

Philosophical questions aside, the pair are proving almost impossible to separate in this week’s captain poll – the City forward currently holds a narrow lead by 29.4% to 27.35%.

Is this significant? According to ritzyd, who analysed how the captain poll choices have performed this season, it might actually be a bad sign:

Where the top captain is backed by less than a third (33%) of managers they averaged only 4.11 pts per week (and this included Agüero’s 17pt week!) with 6 blank (3pt or worse) weeks.

If only Agüero wasn’t the exception. We need the help of a man who has amassed a whopping 506 captain points this season, a staggering 28.56% of his total score, Mr David Munday.

In his Captain Sensible article, David breaks down not only Salah and Agüero’s recent performances but also the strength of Liverpool and City’s next opponents – Burnley and Watford are plum home fixtures. Earlier in the week David shared his thoughts with J0E in the Captaincy video. J0E revealed that he is going to captain Agüero while David was torn between Liverpool duo Mané and Salah.

Manchester City and Liverpool account for five of our Scout Picks ahead of the deadline. Understandably both sides are predicted to bounce back from their slightly disappointing results in Gameweek 29 – Liverpool drew a blank in the Merseyside derby while City scored only once away to Bournemouth.

Outside of the top two in the Premier League there are a handful of teams to consider. With a home fixture against an obliging Fulham defence Jamie Vardy is tipped to do well – he was selected by all four panelists in the Scout Squad. New Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has been speaking highly of his team’s centre-forward:

He’s a player I’ve always loved, we’ve seen in the last number of years, he’s a born goalscorer, but he is perfect for us in the intensity in which he presses and his running ability.

The other attraction with Jamie Vardy is that, unlike Agüero for instance, he has guaranteed fixtures in both Gameweeks 31 and 33. Preparing for the reduced fixture list in Gameweek 31 was the topic of our FPL Question Time. Offering their insights were Always Cheating‘s Josh and Brandon, together with the husband and wife team of Lee and Sam from FPL Family. Brandon explained why:

In FPL, there is a school of thought that says a -4 points hit in a Blank Gameweek is only a -2 points hit.


With that in mind, G-Whizz continued the Blank Gameweek planning by asking what forwards will you have or looking at having for Gameweek 31?

In addition to Leicester players, Bournemouth assets are under consideration. For those opting to play their Free Hit chip in Gameweek 32 and Wildcard in Gameweek 34, their next three fixtures read – Huddersfield away, Newcastle home, Burnley home. A decent trio of fixtures.

The Scoutcast discussed their potential in depth and, despite their recent results, the FPL General feels Bournemouth players could help managers make up lost ground. In the search for a good ‘sword’, joeydelucchi thinks we could be overlooking Ryan Fraser, while Rotation’s Alter Ego has been ‘cherry’ picking his favourites.

Chelsea can also offer a decent sword for consideration. Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) highlighted a 4.4%-owned Blue in his Differentials article:

Higuain has scored three goals in his last four league matches and has recorded more shots in that quartet of games than any other FPL forward when they are filtered by the same criteria.

Elsewhere on the site this week we’ve been treated to a sandwich and serenaded with a reworded karaoke classic. The sandwich analogy was introduced during a discussion on team value. MINUS FOUR argues that with only nine Gameweeks to go it’s time to live and let live, and that we shouldn’t be thinking about saving team value.

It’s a line of thought that Adam Hopcroft articulated very well back in December.

It can put you in a position of weakness when you have a lot of value tied up in a player.

Meanwhile Celt Abroad’s only aim is to ‘survive’.

The week’s team news has been sifted through by Neale and put together in his normal round up. Rotation’s Alter Ego has once again prepared a more concise version of the headlines, with J0E and Neale appearing in a 21 min video covering all the latest press conferences.

In G-Whizz’s regular DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds, it’s no surprise to find that Liverpool and Manchester City are predicted to have exceptional Gameweeks. Tottenham and Leicester also feature highly with scores above 300 DS – an indication they too should have good gameweeks.

Also this week, David announced a new article to Fantasy Football Scout called Think Tank. The aim is to help collect the community’s thoughts on the biggest talking points in Fantasy Premier League. Then each week we will create a Google Form for you to submit a poll and some options for fellow Fantasy Football Scout users to vote on.

Finally, for those already dreading the end of the season, the Norwegian Fantasy Eliteserien is now open! Please visit https://en.fantasy.eliteserien.no to sign up.

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

512 managers took part in the first round of the latest Fantasy Football Scout Cup. There were one or two surprises as Get It Inter Ya, who reached the final of the last tournament, fell at the first hurdle to GRO1994, and four previous winners – MCH, Gribude, A Manager Has No Name, and J0E – all exited the tournament. In my first round tie I lost narrowly to FFS regular G-Whizz, if only my captain Pogba hadn’t picked up that silly yellow card!

256 managers go through to round 2 which takes place this week. The final is scheduled for Gameweek 37.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition the safety score in Gameweek 29 was 38, this saw 77 managers eliminated. 301 teams are through to Gameweek 30, when the threshold for elimination moves up to 20%, a minimum of 61 managers will depart. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.

Still in the Last Man Standing competition, holding onto top spot in both our main FFS League and our FFS Members League, and the new number one in the world is Adam Levy. Adam is the first manager to reach the milestone of 2,000 points this season and has a 25-point lead over world number two Hossam CheLSawy.

The current record points total for an FPL winner is 2,668 by Jon Reeson set way back in the 2009/10 season. With nine Gameweeks to go including the big blanks and doubles, can Adam beat that total? He needs to average 75 points per Gameweek to do it, and he still has his Wildcard, Free Hit, and Bench Boost chips available.

Mark has increased his lead to 54 points in the FFS Mods & Cons as Chris Atkinson (aka RMT’s Professor) moves into second place. Last week Chris made a double transfer selling Son and Aubameyang for Mané and Vardy. His new signings are third and fourth respectively in the RMT for Gameweek 30.

James Wells is still top of RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league. This is his twelfth Gameweek in the overall top hundred, he peaked at eight in Gameweek 24 but is now down to 83rd overall. He holds a 21-point lead over second placed Andy Sullivan.

JOZ V has regained the lead in RedLightning’s January to May League and has an 11-point advantage over Vimal Krishnan. Five green arrows in the last six Gameweeks have seen him rise from 110k to 5,664 overall. JOZ V and Vimal, like the top two in the world, both triple captained Agüero in Gameweek 25.

Finally, Adam Lobatto and Jay Placey are the joint leaders in RedLightning’s The Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league, the pair managed 66 points in the first week of scoring. Surprisingly neither of them captained Pogba.

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


TopMarx Fan of Fantasy Football and Monty Python. "Archimedes out to Socrates, Socrates back to Archimedes, Archimedes out to Heraclitus, he beats Hegel. Heraclitus a little flick, here he comes on the far post, Socrates is there, Socrates heads it in! Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad, the Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. Follow them on Twitter

1,873 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Ginkapo FPL
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    First

    1. Make Arrows Green Again
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      Fist

    2. Les Bleus
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      Yawn

      1. Ginkapo FPL
        • 12 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Jealousy is not a good look

        1. Les Bleus
          • 12 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Don’t think this is jealousy 😉

    3. FPL price manipulators are …
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      .. the worst. Second the best. Third the one with the hairy chest

      1. Ginkapo FPL
        • 12 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        At least I am still a somebody, cause I used to be the heavy weight champion of the world.

        1. Mambino
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 10 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          that's good

  2. n14mul
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    2nd

  3. Make Arrows Green Again
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    Third

    1. Make Arrows Green Again
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      I actually do have a hairy chest. I'm so virile.

  4. n14mul
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    3rd

  5. SAINTS
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    Playing in a Sky Sports money league and need to make up some ground. Planning for next GW I've got a choice to make:

    A) Rice

    or

    2) Barnes (Lei)

    I'm thinking 2, although I do already have Maddison.

    1. Where has all the rum gone?
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      More convince with A. But hammers are more looking to play Sunday football.

  6. n14mul
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    Damm

  7. Champions united
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 21 days ago

    Chasing
    Who should be my Captain
    Sterling or salah

    Going with Sterling
    Is it a good decision?

    1. Werkself
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      That's the chasing pick.

    2. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      Sterling

    3. Party time
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Sterling is a good pick

      • Mambino
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        yes it is - see the article on analysis of top captain picks

    4. Fc Fosse
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 21 days ago

      Is it wise to cpt mane?

      1. Miguel Sanchez
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Depends on alternatives but look good

      2. Mambino
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        yes

      3. Party time
          5 years, 21 days ago

          His last 5 home fixtures should convince you. Mané in form so Yes

      4. Gruu
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Who to play?

        A. Doherty (che)
        B. Hayden (EVE)
        C. JSimpson (hud)

        1. Sotamendi84
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Simpson

        2. Miguel Sanchez
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          A

        3. BobbyDoesNotLook
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 6 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          C

        4. norwegian-forest-cats
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          C

      5. Sotamendi84
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Pogbs + jim > brooks + vardy?
        Especially looking at 30,31,33 combined?

      6. Miguel Sanchez
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        BB active - wish me luck!

        Fabianski
        Robbo TAA AWB
        Salah Sterling Pogba Brooks
        Aguero (c) King Rondon

        Etheridge H.Barnes Lascelles Doherty

        Second WC used a few weeks ago so this means it would probably cost too much in hits to match those WC 34 BB 35.

        1. norwegian-forest-cats
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Errrr goodluck

        2. DandyDon
          • 5 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Interesting. Same boat used WC recently. Think I’ll go for 35 with some hits though. My bench today Boruc, Kola, Kante and could transfer Bennett with rice or someone. Probably be a better time for BB for me. Good luck

          1. Miguel Sanchez
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 7 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Don't think Kola or Kante add much this week. Best of luck for your BB plans.

      7. el polako
        • 6 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        All the Pogab (-1) captainers and Sane dgw TC'ers - I wish you nailed high scoring captain choices this weekend !
        May the gods of fantasy football be with you !!

      8. Lumberjack
        • 8 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Panicking about no MCI now...Son to Sterling (-4) for one week only?

        A - yes
        B - no

        1. BobbyDoesNotLook
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 6 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          B

          1. Mambino
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 10 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            if you captain him then yes

            1. Lumberjack
              • 8 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Happy with Salah C I think. Thanks

        2. Miguel Sanchez
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          B

        3. Lumberjack
          • 8 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Thought not. Thanks both.

        4. Eskimo Brother
          • 5 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          If captaining, yes.

      9. FPL price manipulators are …
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        Chilwell or Periera? Money no issue

        1. Miguel Sanchez
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Maguire but maybe hold off on the Leicester defense

          1. FPL price manipulators are …
            • 10 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Thanks. I can't resist Fulham

      10. Donster
        • 7 Years
        5 years, 21 days ago

        GTG?

        Fabianski
        Robbo, AWB, Kean
        Sterling, Mane, Salah(C), Pogba,Brooks
        Higuain, Rondon

        Bench: Jimenez, lindelöf, Bennett

        1. Miguel Sanchez
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Gtg

        2. Party time
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Yes

        3. Fantasy Gold
          • 9 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Lanzini or Brooks?

          1. Miguel Sanchez
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 7 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Brooks

          2. Tommo1888
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 14 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Brooks for me , more proven this season I think

            1. Fantasy Gold
              • 9 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Thanks guys

        4. Tommo1888
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 14 Years
          5 years, 21 days ago

          Anyone think salah could be rested this GW ?? no rest since GW 15 !!

          1. Mambino
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 10 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            No chance

            1. Party time
                5 years, 21 days ago

                This

            2. norwegian-forest-cats
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Chasing leaders for cup ? No way hosey.

            3. Miguel Sanchez
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Zero chance

          2. Halftime
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 12 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Laca to Vardy for a -4? Would be useful for the next GW too i'm thinking.

          3. jomikijiq
            • 8 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            play:
            A) Diop
            B) Jimenez

            1. DandyDon
              • 5 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              A

          4. Blue Gaffer
            • 14 Years
            5 years, 21 days ago

            Captain Aguero, Mane or Salah?

            1. Visionaries
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Aguero for me

            2. Miguel Sanchez
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Aguero - big City win this evening

              1. Party time
                  5 years, 21 days ago

                  This

              2. DandyDon
                • 5 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                Yes think I’ve decided on Aguero because of the Friday night factor. Fancy a big performance from city

                1. Cruz88
                  • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                  • 8 Years
                  5 years, 21 days ago

                  Except it's Saturday night 🙂

                  1. ‘Tis the Season
                    • 5 Years
                    5 years, 21 days ago

                    lol

            3. FredrikH
              • 11 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              When using the FH after GW31 how do you plan to approach GW32? Im thinking moneywise, just bring inn whoever is rising and deside closer to the deadline?

              1. tucaoneo
                • 5 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                Just don't miss out while the essentials rise.

            4. Optic1
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              How's she looking for this week lads? Bench right?

              Fabianski
              Luiz Robertson Digne Doherty
              Sterling Salah(c) Son Pogba Brooks
              Firmino

              Button A.Barnes Success Bennett* 1.9itb

              -8 next week to bring in Hazard, Azpi & H.Barnes/Maddison to field 11.

              Any fb appreciated, Cheers

              1. Mambino
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 10 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                yes it looks right

                1. Optic1
                  • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                  • 7 Years
                  5 years, 21 days ago

                  Cheers

            5. Black Panther
              • 9 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Who would you play between Camarasa and Richarlison?

              1. Geordie19
                • 7 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                Camarasa but I’m
                Not sure if he’s in team after injury

            6. Tomas Brolin ate all Depays
              • 11 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Can anyone explain who might have a DGW in week 32 other than Man/Wol ? Also who might have a blank that week ?

            7. JCrosbie
              • 13 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Chances of Aguero not starting?

              I don't have him as I'm set up for next GW.

              1. Mambino
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 10 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                slim

              2. Miguel Sanchez
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 7 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                City strongest XI tonight

            8. UnitednationsXI
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
              • 12 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Just looking for some confirmation, bit of a no-brainer to do Doherty >> TAA?

              - Doherty will miss gw30,31,33
              - I can get Doherty on FH32 and will def bring him back on WC34
              - the ONLY downside is the value lost. i can currently sell him for 5m so will lose 0.4m on him which is decent chunk.
              - I am hoping that he will be 5.3 by gw32 if (most probably yes) i want to bring him in FH32. so yeah, could an extra 0.3m be helpful in a FH team, definitely i say but that's assuming i will 100% want him for dgw32.
              - If i opt not to get doherty in FH32, he wont play for me till gw34 by which time i think he will have dropped to to 5.2m so thats not a big loss i think

              1. Mambino
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 10 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                it is a no-brainer

              2. Optic1
                • Fantasy Football Scout Member
                • 7 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                Yes. Value fairly irrelevant at this point imo. You've worked on team value to allow this situation.

            9. Ginkapo FPL
              • 12 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Captain Marvel?

            10. Tomas Brolin ate all Depays
              • 11 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Anyone else out there think there wk 31 team looks ok for wk 32 !? Therefore maybe use free hit another week eg 33 before WC weeek 34 ? Or am I missing something ??

            11. Geordie19
              • 7 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Morning, start Rondon or Fanderson? Leaning towards Salomon, thank you!

              1. Tsparkes10
                • 5 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                Fanderson

              2. tucaoneo
                • 5 Years
                5 years, 21 days ago

                On Rondon.

            12. Crouching Tiger
              • 11 Years
              5 years, 21 days ago

              Free hit it is next week then...