For many FPL managers playing their second Wildcard this week, this feels like the last big opportunity of the season. There is very real pressure to get it right, especially for those who experienced problems with both their Triple Captain and Free Hit chips.
Double Gameweek plans were thrown into disarray on Tuesday when Harry Kane limped off against Manchester City in the Champions League. The news today from Pochettino is hardly encouraging for Spurs assets:
We need to help the team to put the right players with fresh legs in. We have a strong squad and I think we need to rotate…
What does this mean for the prospects of Son and Eriksen in our teams as the Friday evening deadline – 19:00 UK Time – approaches?
The first port of call as we check on the health of our squad of 15 players is Neale’s team news round-up. We also have Rotation’s Alter Ego to thank for his team news summary.
In his members only article, David assessed the midfield options for those Wildcarding, given the extra funds likely to be available following Kane’s injury. He noted that:
The good news for Fantasy managers is that Spurs assets still look viable for the coming weeks in spite of that potentially season-ending injury to Kane.
The article offers some encouragement to owners of the midfield duo long term, despite those recent comments from Pochettino. Indeed both players make the Scout Picks:
Injuries to Harry Kane have historically improved the prospects of his colleagues.
Moving away from Spurs, Brighton have been the subject of much debate this week.
Mat Ryan and Shane Duffy make the Scout Picks – the merits of owning Mat Ryan were discussed in another members article looking at the best goalkeepers for the second Wildcard – and Duffy is even seriously considered in the captaincy debate. Brighton have back-to-back Double Gameweeks, and as David mentioned in the captaincy video:
Shane Duffy has everything: he’s got goal threat and he’s got clean sheet potential, and he’s got two matches both at home … in the last four home matches for Brighton nobody has had more shots in the box than Duffy.
For a complete rundown on all the armband contenders, David has put together his regular Captain Sensible article.
Many are considering the ‘Brighton Block’ with Ryan and Duffy joined by their defensive colleague Lewis Dunk. However, as Az cautioned on the Scoutcast, he got the most own goals last season. Neale took an in-depth look at Brighton in another members only article this week, assessing their players, their opponents, and potential rotation risks.
Planning further ahead on the Wildcard, Liverpool’s fixture at home to Huddersfield stands out in Gameweek 36. Firmino continued in his central striker role in the Champions League win over Porto and is benefiting as a result. This has meant a shift back to the right wing for Salah, which has impacted the quality of his chances – his expected goal numbers are down – despite an increase in shot numbers. Plenty to ponder both now and ahead of Gameweek 36.
Manchester City players remain an attractive proposition, although Simon March summed up the situation neatly in FPL Question Time:
Essentially; City’s players have arguably the highest points ceiling of any FPL players yet, due to squad depth and rotation, they simultaneously have the highest chance of blanking.
With injury problems for Crystal Palace, City certainly have an opportunity to reward owners this week. And frustrate those who picked the wrong players. According to G-Whizz, City are second only to Spurs in his DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds. In the Wisdom of the Crowd article they are predicted to score an average of 2.41 goals and circusmonkey’s trip to the bookies reveals that Aguero leads the anytime goalscorer odds for forwards at 55%.
Other contributions from our community this week included a very useful team-by-team guide to the Double Gameweeks from site regular FPL Virgin. Now ranked 86 overall, Grey Head brought us the latest on The Great and The Good. It was green arrows across the board in Gameweek 33.
Finally Meltens previews Gameweek 3 in Fantasy Allsvenskan.
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
We are down to the last 16 in the Fantasy Football Scout Cup. The fifth round ties saw G-Whizz and three other managers currently in the top 10,000 bow out of the competition. David brought us all the latest in his cup round-up. There’s a real mix to round six as it features four teams outside the top 100k along with six teams in the top 10,000. The final is scheduled for Gameweek 37.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition the safety score in Gameweek 33 was 67, this saw 43 managers eliminated. 76 teams are through to Gameweek 34, when the threshold for elimination moves up to 42%, a minimum of 32 managers will depart. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.
Adam Levy remains top of both our main FFS League and our FFS Members League, and for the fifth Gameweek in a row is number one in the world as he extended his lead to 50 points.
Adam needs 395 points to beat the record points total set by FFS member Jon Reeson (aka Westfield Irons) in the 2009/10 season. That’s an average of 79 points per Gameweek. He still has his Wildcard and Bench Boost chips available.
Mark’s lead over Rotation’s Alter Ego is down to 11 points in the FFS Mods & Cons. Both managers gained 32 points from their captains – Vardy and Hazard – and both managers sold Pogba but the decision to bring in Maddison proved more successful for Rotation’s Alter Ego than Mark’s decision to sign Sigurdsson.
Andy Sullivan held onto his lead in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league and is up to 41st overall. Grey Head is now in second place and 86th overall, 18 points behind Andy.
Brandon Walsh moved to the top of RedLightning’s January to May League. This is Brandon’s sixth FPL season, and by far his best. 11 green arrows in the past 12 Gameweeks have taken him from 658k in Gameweek 21 to 33k now.
Rotation’s Alter Ego moved level on points with Karen Goh in RedLightning’s The Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league. Karen retains the lead, however, because she’s made less transfers this season – 29 compared to 37 for Rotation’s Alter Ego.
All five of these mini-league leaders played their Free Hit chip in Gameweek 32, and none of them have played their Bench Boost yet. Karen has already played her Second Wildcard (in Gameweek 29), and the others are expected to play theirs this week.
Adam, Andy and Brandon played their Triple Captain chips in Gameweek 25, while Karen played hers back in Gameweek 4. Mark is yet to play his.
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.
