The Fantasy Football Scout World Cup of FPL has now entered the knockout stages – and you can vote accordingly.
After voting concluded on the group stages last week, we now have 16 players ready for one-on-one ties to decide the title.
There have already been some shocks and surprises along the way with Steven Gerrard, Eden Hazard, Raheem Sterling and Clint Dempsey among the big names eliminated in the first round.
However, the following options made it through from the eight different groups.
- Group A: Frank Lampard, Robin van Persie
- Group B: Thierry Henry, Gareth Bale
- Group C: Harry Kane, Didier Drogba
- Group D: Cristiano Ronaldo, Trent Alexander-Arnold
- Group E: Wayne Rooney, Marcos Alonso
- Group F: Luis Suárez, John Terry
- Group G: Kevin De Bruyne, Leighton Baines
- Group H: Sergio Aguero, Mohamed Salah
Here’s the bracket these players will have to overcome if they want to earn the title of best FPL asset of all-time.
The voting for the first two match-ups begins today, so make sure you cast yours either below or in the sidebar of our website.
LAMPARD VS BALE
The first knockout match pits Group A winner Frank Lampard against Group B’s runner-up Gareth Bale.
The Chelsea man was the dominant force in the opening vote of the tournament, scoring 51.1% compared to his Group A competitors.
With more Dream Team appearances than any other player in FPL history (seven), Lampard strung five together five in a row between 2002 and 2007.
After 22 goals and 14 assists in the 2009/10 campaign, Lampard netted at least 10 times per season between then and 2013.
His second-round opponent Gareth Bale was no slouch either.
The Welshman began his career as a young left-back and set-piece taker at Southampton, providing excellent value as a £5.0m option at Spurs.
One of the earliest marauding wing-backs of Fantasy history, Bale was still an explosive option when he was converted to a midfielder.
He produced a 195-point haul in 2011/12 and broke that personal-best record the following year by scoring 249.
His exploits earned him the runners-up place in Group B, behind Thierry Henry.
Crucially, Bale managed to attract enough votes in the first round to knock out both Carlos Tevez and Liverpool legend Gerrard – so he is not to be underestimated.
KANE VS ALEXANDER-ARNOLD
Our second knockout match looks set to be an interesting one as it features to current assets at opposite ends of the Fantasy spectrum.
Harry Kane started life as a budget forward, whose breakout 2014/15 campaign saw him register 28 attacking returns.
Since 2015/16, the Spurs man has not been priced up below £9.5m but has spent large spells as a must-have premium forward.
Kane has won two Golden Boot awards in that time and netted 20+ goals per season in four of the last five, close to 30 in two of them.
By comparison, Trent Alexander-Arnold is the new kid on the block, only bursting onto the Fantasy scene as recently as 2018/19.
A large portion of his points in that short time have come from Liverpool’s clean sheet potential, Alexander-Arnold benefitting from 27 of those since the start of 2018/19.
If Kane has been a master goal-scorer in recent years, the last season-and-a-half has shown Alexander-Arnold’s domination of assists.
Despite only earning a regular starting berth at Anfield after 2018/19 had got underway, the right-back finished it with more assists than any other defender (13) and after 29 Gameweeks of 2019/20, Alexander-Arnold has already registered 14.
Since the start of 2018/19, he has a total of 30 attacking returns. A great start to his Fantasy career, but has he been around long enough to be considered greater than Kane? We shall see.
