Portuguese pair Bruno Fernandes (£10.8m) and Diogo Jota (£6.7m) were the featured players in two of our Community articles ahead of Gameweek 10, while Greyhead noted the former’s popularity among The Great and The Good.
Here we bring to your attention some of the best articles submitted through our Community Trials initiative, which is part of our ongoing mission to support budding contributors and creators. This piece will also feature the latest in the Community mini-leagues and competitions, as compiled by RedLightning last week.
Kroos Kontrol looked in-depth at both Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. What confounds many managers is the disparity between Fernandes’s expected goals (xG) and non-penalty expected goals (NPxG): 0.56 xG per 90 versus 0.14 NPxG per 90.
The 26-year-old doesn’t get into the box often, and consequently doesn’t take many shots in the box from open play, but he is posting very strong underlying stats when it comes to assists. All three of which have come via counter attacks this season, but he’s been unlucky not to record more given that no player has created more chances.
By including an analysis of Manchester United’s safety-first playing style and thoughts on how they might improve, Kroos Kontrol gives us a complete picture of the dilemma facing FPL managers when it comes to the Portuguese.
Will he regress given how unreliable penalties tend to be, or will they stay as they have done over the last two-and-a-half years? Because even 10 more weeks of someone who’s output resembles prime Frank Lampard could be season defining.
– Kroos Kontrol
Last week TM370 was spot on in his assessment of Richarlison (£7.8m), highlighting his ability to defend from the front as well as being one of the league’s best all-round attacking players.
This week Diogo Jota came under the microscope. The in-form Liverpool midfielder has been posting eye-catching stats, as we’ve heard about elsewhere on site, but what TM370 does really well is to succinctly set out his prospects long term:
Klopp’s readiness to start Jota away to Manchester City and Atalanta suggests he trusts the Portuguese attacker in the big games. It’s simply not something Klopp has done with any other attacker outside his favoured three during the past two seasons.
It’s also probable that Jota’s presence will allow Klopp to rotate Salah, Mane, and Firmino more often. This will be particularly important in a truncated season, with Klopp criticising Liverpool’s hectic schedule earlier this week. In a season of likely unparalleled rotation, Jota seems a risk worth taking. And if one of Liverpool’s big three were to get injured, Jota would become practically essential.
– TM370
Diogo Jota has yet to make it into the template for The Great and The Good – although Fábio Borges has transferred in his compatriot for Gameweek 10 – but Greyhead expressed surprise at the omission of a certain Leicester City forward:
Worth noting that no one has Vardy in their squads, he is second only to Bamford in terms of xG over the last six and has a very obliging Fulham defence up next.
– Greyhead
Scott Parker’s team have just a 16 per cent chance of a clean sheet according to the odds supplied via G-Whizz. Will Greyhead or The Great and The Good be proven correct in Gameweek 10?
Fantasy Football Scout Mini-Leagues
League code: 5u05vz
Eligibility: Open to all
There are currently 48,603 people participating in the open-to-all Fantasy Football Scout mini-league.
Da Hao Huang made it two weeks at No 1 and moved up to 48th overall after scoring 71 points. He has been in the top thousand since Gameweek 3 after Wildcarding in Gameweek 2.
Fantasy Football Scout Community Members
League code: Available on Members page and the Scout Leagues widget when signed in.
Eligibility: Open to all those who have a registered Fantasy Football Scout account – paid or free.
Arya Kothari has regained the lead in our Fantasy Football Scout Community Members mini-league after Wildcarding in Gameweek 9 and is now up to 81st overall.
Like Da Hao Huang, he’s also been in the top thousand since Gameweek 3 and previously led this mini-league after Gameweek 6. Zou Hir, who led in the previous two Gameweeks, dropped to third.
We’re dishing out £2,500-worth of giveaways throughout the season, however only those who have registered a Fantasy Football Scout account (paid or free) will be able to claim a prize. Also, managers must be registered one month in advance of the awarding of a specific prize to be eligible.
The Manager of the Month for November will be announced after Gameweek 10.
Head-to-Head Leagues
In League 1, Ville Tuominen (aka Santigold) racked up another win to make it 24 points out of a possible 27 after a narrow victory over former Meet the Manager guest Aleksander Våge Nilsen (aka AleksanderVN).
And Tim Hill moved clear in second following a win over the lowest-scoring manager this Gameweek Cam Black, who only mustered 31 points.
David Stanton (aka Captain Wales), Nigel Kendall and Muhammad Faris all suffered their first defeats of the season, which leaves Anoop K in League 5 Division 4 and Filipe Loureiro in League 6 Division 16 as the only managers in the top six Leagues to have won all nine of their matches so far.
Shahen Withana is the only manager taking part in the Head-to-Head Leagues currently in the top 1,000 overall. But despite an impressive rank of 570th, the high-flying manager has lost three times in the opening nine rounds and sits third in Division 14 of League 8.
A fixtures table can be found in the Scout’s Guide to Gameweek 10, while the main Head-to-Head page should answer any question you have about the competition.
Last Man Standing
League code: 48n69x
Deadline: Open now until Gameweek 18*
*entrants must pass all previous safety scores to qualify
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score for Gameweek 9 was 46 points. This saw a total of 192 managers eliminated.
The threshold for elimination remains at 7% for Gameweek 10.
4,393 managers have entered the competition to date and it is possible to join up until Gameweek 18 – although you must pass all previous safety scores to qualify.
Aside from bragging rights, the winner will receive a free Fantasy Football Scout Membership for the 2021/22 season.
You are able to keep tabs on the action throughout the season via Ragabolly’s website Live FPL.
Elite Community Mini-Leagues
Alaa Khaled Mokhtar immediately regained the lead in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league (league code 8kcvzq) following an impressive 82 points as last week’s leader Dan Robertson dropped to ninth. Alaa moved up to 1,578th overall.
Sven Ove Berg takes over at top of PDM‘s Top 1k ANY season mini-league (league code 2agvvx) after Wildcarding in Gameweek 8. Rich Booth, who led after Gameweeks 6 and 7, is level with him on points but has made more transfers. Last week’s leader Killingholme Clay drops to eleventh.
Sven is in his 11th season and has had five top 6,000 finishes, the best of which was 340th in 2014/15. Sven moved up to 6,311th after Gameweek 9.
Benjamin Teo’s four-week reign in Chaballer’s Hall of Fame >Top 1k< (league code mr8dyh) came to an end after he was replaced by Mike Varcoe. Mike has been playing since at least 2006/07 and is 357th in the Career Hall of Fame. He has an impressive eight top 10,000 finishes, three of them in the top thousand, the best of which was 200th in 2013/14.
Greg Winski is the new leader of RedLightning’s Multiple Top 10k Finishes mini-league (league code 8t42p6) Elias Kharma (aka @FPLMason), who led after Gameweeks 6 and 7, is level with him on points after Wildcarding last time out. He takes second having made more transfers. Last week’s leader Linda Parkes drops to fourth.
Greg is in his sixth FPL season, finishing 1,272nd in 2016/17 and 8,797th in 2017/18.
2017/18 FPL winner Yusuf Sheikh was another to Wildcard in Gameweek 9 and his impressive 86 points saw him extend his lead to 40 in the exclusive FPL Champions League. Yusuf has topped the mini-league since Gameweek 2.
Pros and Cons
The Fantasy Football Scout Network mini-league is for the Scout Network and includes most of the Pro Pundits.
Fantasy Football Scout developer Joe Collett is the new leader despite owning Tariq Lamptey (£4.8m) for his sending off and minus one point. Joe is up 87,433rd overall, six points ahead of last week’s leader Beraht Thapa (aka Americans Talk FPL).
This is Joe’s seventh season playing FPL, his best previous finish was last year when he came 154k.
Fábio Borges remains the highest-ranked Pro Pundit after his 92 points (less a four-point hit) took him up to 29,903rd overall.
The rivalry between Mat Williams (aka Matzi11a) and Lee Cowen (aka Granville) continues in the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league. Mat, who previously led after Gameweeks 6 and 7, is back on top after Wildcarding in Gameweek 8. He moved up to 36,399th overall and has established a ten point lead over Granville.
Elsewhere, Andy Short became the new leader of Skooldaze’s FPL Vets 2006 or before mini-league. Andy is nine points ahead of unbeaten Head-to-Head participant Anoop K and a further nine points ahead of Sng Jungyang, who had led since Gameweek 4. Andy’s best previous finish was 3,328th in 2018/19.
And in Greyhead’s The Next Great and The Good mini-league Stephen Kearney remains in pole position despite his first red arrow of the season.
Will Love conquer all?
We’re down to the final two Gameweeks in Fantasy Allsvenskan, and sadly it seems that love won’t conquer all.
The leader of the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league Love Hallersby dropped down to sixth overall following a disappointing 33 points. His vice-captain Jonathan Levi only delivered four points after both Stefano Vecchia and Jo Inge Berget missed out completely. The title now looks out of reach for Love, who is trailing the overall leader by 70 points.
Second-placed Niklas Tysander made up ground in the mini-league. His 52 points in large part thanks to 20 points from Sead Haksabanovic. Currently 18th overall, Niklas is now just 22 points behind Love ahead of the finale.
Jonathan Fletcher retains third place and is 25th overall. Like Niklas he also got 52 points but captained Johan Larsson who returned eight points, keeping the gap between him and Niklas at just seven.
Thank you to Meltens for the update.
Get involved
To join a featured mini-league that you are eligible for, simply enter the League code in the ‘Join private league‘ section on the FPL site. Any questions relating to community competitions please email geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk or comment below this article.
Thank you very much to RedLightning for his contribution to this article.