With premium Fantasy Premier League assets continuing to return points for their owners this weekend it is becoming increasingly important to make sure we are invested in the right cheaper.
Balancing a squad of 15 players is challenging at the best of times but even harder when we start having to chop and change, especially when we need our value options to deliver too.
We asked the Scout Network who of the under 10m FPL players they think is the bets option ahead of the Gameweek 12 deadline.
El Statto graphic highlighting the case for Son
I think there is one obvious stand out under £10.0m who has both form and fixture going into GW12 and that’s Son Heung-Min (9.5m).
He has already returned 59pts from five away games this season (with three hauls and two blanks) and goes into the game with Palace with a record of five goals in eight games against them.
Son is up against a Palace side who while don’t concede many at home but have already lost to Everton and Newcastle. The fact that Palace don’t control possession in home games (av 42% =20th) will invite Spurs onto them and as they showed against Arsenal they can hit teams on the break.
Everything attacking wise currently has been going through Kane or/and Son so I think if they can score within the first 20mins they should go on to get two or three.
El Statto
Giroud celebrates scoring for Chelsea during project restart
Adam: Most of us spent the build-up to Gameweek 11’s deadline trying to shoehorn Kevin De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes and Mohamed Salah into our teams, whilst completely ignoring the top scoring midfielder in the game, Son Heung-min. He’s the obvious pick this week given the season he’s having. He’s the obvious pick, because when Harry Kane drops deep, the first man he’s looking for is Son. Their eyes meet across a crowded pitch and magic happens. It’s a beautiful love story for FPL managers, with the unlikeliest of matchmakers in José Mourinho.
Nick: A safe bet for fantasy managers is to target West Brom’s defence. They’ve conceded the most shots in the box in the last four weeks (56), that’s 15 more than any other side! If their game against Newcastle goes ahead, Callum Wilson looks well set to take advantage – 17 of his 18 shots this season have been in the box. His seven goals against West Ham, Tottenham, Burnley, Everton and Palace make him the second highest scoring forward under £7.0m…and it’s West Brom!
Greg: Gameweek 12 offers up some nice picks from an attacking perspective, none more so than man of the moment Giroudinho (or Giroud to everyone else, bar Patrice Evra). With five goals in his last two games, Giroud is slap bang in the middle of a purple patch. If you haven’t already, you could do a lot worse than investing in the Frenchman for this Gameweek. He’s been banging on Frank Lampard’s door recently and when given the opportunity he didn’t disappoint. He scored ‘perfect’ hat trick in The Champions League, against a very good Sevilla side, followed by a poachers finish at Leeds. He could have had more save for Timo Werner doing his best opposition defender impersonation.
Giroud plays Everton, who have been so porous of late, most recently conceding to shot-shy Burnley. They’ve failed to keep a clean sheet for the past 13 games. Without Digne and Coleman, that should continue in Gameweek 12. Giroud also scored in their last encounter back in March; a 4-0 win for Frank Lampard’s side.
FPL Experiment
Danny Ings celebrates scoring for Southampton vs Aston Villa
Provided he trains well over the next week and is match fit, Danny Ings will be raring to come back into the fray and continue doing what he does best at St. Mary’s against a shaky Sheffield United side.
Prior to his injury Ings had returned FPL points for his Managers in five out of the seven matches he has played this season, including two double digit hauls. Even after missing three games through injury he is still eighth for influence among the FPL forwards.
Mini League Mate
Soucek celebrates scoring for West Ham
West Ham’s Tomas Soucek (4.9m) looks like an excellent under 10m option ahead of Gameweek 12
We looked at Soucek in depth prior to Gameweek 11, however he continued to impress in the last Gameweek with a goal against Manchester United. Soucek is always a threat upfront during set-pieces and having already scored five goals in his 24 appearances for the club and we think he can continue to maintain that goals per game ratio.In Gameweek 12, Soucek is up against Leeds, who have the second worst expected goals against (xGA) in the league (21.05) and therefore Soucek could be a great option in terms of both points returns and of course he is very budget friendly too!
FF Titan
Ted Talks FPL Graphic for Timo Werner
Timo Werner (9.5m) is third for number of big chances in the last six gameweeks with seven, behind on only Patrick Bamford (6.1m) with ten and Jamie Vardy (10.3m) with eight. Two of those big chances came against Leeds at the weekend but he missed both opportunities including the nightmareish goal line miss. Werner will be looking to put those squandered chances behind him in the next run of games.
For FPL managers, the main thing is that he is getting in the right positions, being afforded these chances; the purple patch of conversion will come soon. Werner’s Chelsea play Everton in Gameweek 12 who have conceded 11 goals in their last six games and failed to keep a clean sheet since Gameweek 1. They are second worst for number of big chances conceded in the last six (17) with only Leeds affording more to their opposition (21).
Everton are also missing key defenders, Seamus Coleman (4.8m) & Luca Digne (6.1m) while Fabian Delph’s (4.9m) injury at the weekend also added him to the list of absentees. This is a promising sign for Werner’s Gameweek 12 chances, as he seems to be just as capable of delivering assists, four so far, as scoring goals. As we saw in the Bundesliga, Werner can be a streaky player and there’s no reason why the start of a run of form can’t begin at Everton.
Ted Talks FPL
Leeds United’s Patrick Bamford celebrates his hat-trick
There are two players under £10.0m that are worth some consideration this week and over the festive period based on form and fixtures:
Patrick Bamford is now the fourth-highest scoring forward in the game with 70 points, only eight points behind Dominic Calvert-Lewin (8.0m) in second place. Bamford has eight goals and two assists this season and with Leeds looking like a team that will always attack a fixture no matter whom they face, his chances will be bountiful.Bamford faces West Ham in Gameweek 12, a team Leeds have beaten 14 times out of 20 meetings. Whilst West Ham have looked better at the back this season, when faced with attacking opponents such as Manchester United, Spurs and Liverpool they have conceded at least two goals, shows they aren’t rock solid against an attacking team. Leeds have scored eight goals against West Ham in their past three meetings during the 2002-03 season, Leeds may just have the Hammers number.
Callum Wilson in action for Newcastle
Callum Wilson (6.6m) missed out in gameweek 11 due to a fixture postponement, and we will need to wait on news to make sure that this doesn’t have a knock-on effect ahead of gameweek 12. However, should the Newcastle v West Brom fixture go ahead as planned, then Wilson is worth looking at, especially with West Brom low in confidence after a 5 -1 defeat to Crystal Palace in Gameweek 11 as well as Matheus Pereira facing a ban for his red card in the match. Wilson is the talisman of the Newcastle team this season, racking up seven goals and three assists. With three great fixtures ahead in West Bromwich Albion (home), Leeds (away) and Fulham (home), plus a double gameweek to be rescheduled, he’s slipped under the radar compared to Bamford, and could be a great differential.
FPL Nymfria
What’s happening in the Scout Network?
This week we are excited to welcome Adam, Greg and Nick from the FPL Experiment podcast to the Scout Network as well as FPL Side Net to the Scout Academy.
FPL Family
Lee and Sam appeared on the Official FPL Show last week discussing all things Gameweek 11, while Lee was also on the Official FPL Podcast. The FPL Family also ticked over 15,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel (thanks so much for all your support!) as well as 37,000 followers on Twitter.
Ted Talks FPL
Last week, on top of recoring his weekly video, which was on the best forwards under 8m, Ted also hosted his first live stream, answering questions using this player tool and other graphics from his website. Ted is hoping to make it a weekly addition to his FPL content schedule.
Ted also completed Scout Notes videos on Chelsea vs Leeds and Spurs vs Arsenal which can be found on the Scout Notes articles as well as on the FFS Instagram channel.
FPL Nymfria
FPL Nymfria took a look back on benching Callum Wilson ahead of Gameweek 10 for his brace, as well as debating how to manage Man City ahead of that Gameweek 11 fixture and her thoughts on going City-less and whether that was a good idea!
Nymfria and the FPL Wildcats also took a look at how best to navigate Gameweek 11 with a community Q&A and guests including Migtavius (Planet Pod- Crystal Palace correspondent) and fellow Scout Network member FPL Poet.
Derek of ‘FPL Rebel’ joined FPL Nymfria on her weekly Dream Team Stream ahead of Gameweek 11. This week she will be joined by the Founder of Fantasy Football Scout – Mark Sutherns.
Last week Nymfria also ticked over 11 thousand followers on Twitter!
Mini League Mate
The guys at Mini League Mate have now introduced both a Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame in our Dossiers. The aim of this section is to further develop and highlight the awards section of the Mini League Mate product and fuel those WhatsApp groups with more ammunition!
FF Titans
This week the FF Titan’ will be focusing on Match Day 6 of the UCL Fantasy, where 13 teams have technically nothing to play for. Several top teams are expected to make wholesale changes so the FF Titans assess how to make sure your UCL Fantasy team still returns points when there could be a lot of rotation.
The FF also previewing one of newest FPL Live Table web apps and this week they will be sharing another article on mental health and FPL.
3 years, 4 months agoSalah to blank at the weekend!
I think it will happen and Mané will haul.