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Podcast December 17

Scoutcast: How to tackle the Covid chaos in FPL

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Joe and Seb help Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers prepare for a decimated Gameweek 18.

The Covid pandemic has wreaked havoc with the Premier League schedule already in Gameweek 17, with six teams missing out due to the spread of the infection.

Gameweek 18 looks similarly chaotic, with half the matches postponed. At the time of writing it is still unclear whether any of the weekend’s fixtures will take place.

READ MORE: Covid watch: The club-by-club latest and how it affects FPL

Amid the confusion, Joe and Seb try to make sense of it all and offer their top tips for tackling Covid chaos in FPL.

They reveal their plans based on every eventuality, from a limited Gameweek 18 to a circuit breaker for a few weeks.

For Joe, goalkeepers and a better midfield look to be his top priorities, while a freshly Wildcarded Seb ponders his options.

Manchester City’s assets already featured on the Christmas shopping lists of many FPL managers. Their 7-0 thrashing of Leeds in Gameweek 17 ensured they became a top priority.

Armed with a plethora of heatmaps and statistics, Seb offers an extensive guide to the best options to consider and the influence that a returning Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) may have on Pep Guardiola’s side for their next matches.

Goals imminent, worst defences and best expected statistics stars are also covered, as is the progress of the show’s community team. There’s also a frisk of the next four fixtures, whenever they may be scheduled.

Due to the tight turnaround of games, and a family trip to the cinema to see the new Spiderman film for Joe, this week’s show took place late afternoon on Thursday 16 December. This sadly counted Andy out of proceedings due to work commitments.

Be sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel to get notified of future live episodes. It is also available as a podcast.

J0E Podcaster and writer. Tweets stats and stuff via @FFScout_Joe Follow them on Twitter

607 Comments Post a Comment
  1. DayOldBlues
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Anyone taking a free hit this week?

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    1. el polako
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Madness to use a chip when games can be called off as late as few hours before kick off.

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    2. g40steve
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      No, the chaos has only just started

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    3. Gizzachance
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      save for the dgw that will have to take place at some point

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      1. Iceball
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        This, or a bigger blank gameweek

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    4. Danstoke82
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Yes thinking about it but waiting until the very last minute incase of anymore postponements

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  2. Your Man With The Hair
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Any reason why the Wolves - Chelsea game is on at the same time as City - Newcastle and not being televised on Sunday?
    Seems very odd.

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    1. Reacher
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      is there always 2 that kick off around 2pm on a Sunday?

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    2. g40steve
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Sky only showing one at a time, FPL site shows who has the games

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  3. Botman and Robben
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    GTG fellas?

    Ramsdale
    TAA James Cancelo Alonso White
    Salah Jota Bilva ESR
    Watkins

    Carson Antonio Gallagher Dennis

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    1. Iceball
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Sure, nice, what was you free transfer?

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      1. Botman and Robben
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        Wilson -> Watkins

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        1. TheAbear53
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          2 years, 4 months ago

          Very vanilla, little behind the curve on that too

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  4. FULLSERVICECOVER
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    5 already gone,probably more to come. Dont even look at your teams and wait till last moments tomorrow imo, actually see all the games getting chopped.

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    1. denial
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      You're right, but maybe not absolute last minute. The FPL website is capable of crashing.

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    2. Sun Jihai
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Annoyingly Watkins going to rise tonight probably, pricing me out of the Antonio = Watkins switch
      Wish they'd freeze the price changes lol

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      1. FULLSERVICECOVER
        • 9 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        yeh not last minute but there abouts,we should know enough a few hours before deadline.. mulling over your teams is bad news for your mind with all this lurking over our heads. i wouldnt be fussed about watkins,burnley solid atb and then chelsea. before norwich was the time imo, just super annoying whu ain't playing. sit tight or take the risk your call,good luck.

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  5. winchester
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    have 2ft and 6.7m itb. Can field about 9 players with many having yellow flag.. cheers.

    ramsdale
    taa - james - reguilon* - cancelo
    salah - bernardo* - jota
    hwang*

    (foster - antonio - bowen - livra - dennis - gilmour)

    a) hwang -> watkins
    b) bowen or gilmour -> son/foden/esr/mount
    c) combo of a+b
    d) something else?

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  6. Reacher
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    I think the main question for FPL managers all this week will be to hit or not to hit!

    I think most will take a hit and I may end up joining them myself, I am just trying to weigh up the risk v reward

    (obviously I will wait until last min before deciding)

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    1. Your Man With The Hair
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      I'm going to take a hit and finally sort out my GK. Already half pays for itself. Kinda.

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    2. denial
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      I think there are fixtures to attack. Arsenal and City players could certainly pay back on hits.

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      1. denial
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        (that's if these fixtures go ahead obviously)

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        1. Reacher
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 4 months ago

          That's the million dollar question, imaging a -8 only for them two fixtures to go 2 hours before KO

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    3. RandomSauce42
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Youre taking a hit when there is still a chance whoever you bring in doesnt play, either through game cancellation or them getting Covid

      Plus youre taking out someone who will have a double coming up

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    4. PascalCygan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      Yeah, it's tricky. There's the eternal question about taking a hit for a defensive asset... then to consider those who have been affected by postponements differently. I'll probably take a -4... for the fifth time this season!

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      1. Reacher
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 4 months ago

        I think ill be -4 too

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  7. PascalCygan
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Can't believe going Antonio over Watkins and Bernardo over Foden went quite so badly... And that's before we take the covid chaos into consideration

    Anyway, take a -4 to get a theoretical full XI out? I'll leave this until as close to tomorrow's deadline as possible.

    A) DDG + Street > Ramsdale + Watkins (-4)
    B) Something else?

    1FT 3.7ITB
    -
    TAA Cancelo Rudiger James
    Salah Jota Bernardo Gundogan ESR
    -

    No games: DDG, Steele, Livramento, Antonio, King, Street

    Cheers!

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  8. Rupert The Horse
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    NEW ARTICLE POSTED

    https://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/2021/12/17/the-best-fantasy-bundesliga-players-for-matchday-17/

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  9. WhatWouldYourZlatanSay
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Team as it stands…

    Ramsdale

    TAA-Cancelo-James-Tomiyasu
    Salah-Foden-Jota-Bernardo
    Watkins

    Out- Sanchez, King, Maupay, Livra.

    Got 1ft and 0.2 and assuming I’d want to go last minute to a Saturday player to minimise risk…

    A. Livra> Lowton
    B. Gallagher> ESR
    C. Gallagher > McGinn (B and C lose a bit of value on Gal)
    D. Suck it up, roll the FT, could be useful etc

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  10. CRAZY TRAIN
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Thinking captain and vc strategy is all about putting the vc on a Saturday game player this gw (for those of us cap'ing Salah in the Sunday game).

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  11. BobB
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    There is no point thinking about transfers today. Review at 10am tomorrow.

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    1. Reacher
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 4 months ago

      This^^

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  12. The Reptile
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Bachmann* - Suarez*
    Johnson* Ait Nouri* - R James - Cancelo - TAA

    Bernardo* – Salah – Jota – ESR
    Watkins –

    Ronaldo – Dennis - -Gallagher- Johnson*

    0 ITB 2FT

    9 (hopefully) playing
    Should I sell CR7 and invest in another Fwd and replace Johnson for free?

    Thinking maybe Lacazette
    Could then get CR7 back in a week or 2

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  13. BHA_Seagull
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Looking at investing in the Arsenal midfield.
    Seem great value on current form , Odegaard , ESR or Saka.
    Swinging towards Saka

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  14. The Mighty Hippo
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    The next couple of weeks will provide an interesting dilemma for FPL. If the Premier League decide to have a 'circuit breaker' period and suspend all games for a fixed duration then it's fairly straightforward. However, if the league decides to continue playing whichever games are safe to proceed then FPL will have to define a strategy that keeps the game consistent and fair.

    You could argue that we've always had to deal with blank gameweeks, but it will likely cause a lot of unrest and the game could see a lot of active players losing interest. Equally, taking measures to appease disaffected players by introducing extra wildcards, additional free hits, retrospective gameweek point adjustments etc. could also start to become pretty complicated and also frustrate a number of players.

    On a personal level, I find it quite interesting to see how I might navigate a few consecutive BGWs while minimising the potential impact. The options for playing strategically in multiple future DGW / TGWs are also quite exiting things to consider and I wouldn't mind seeing how the season develops out if the game is simply allowed to play out in that manner. If the Premier League doesn't fully suspend all games I'd prefer to see FPL continue under its normal rules with no real changes or adjustments.

    I realise that many people will have differing opinions on this and I'm curious to hear what people think should be done to best address the situation.

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  15. Sun God Nika
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Vardy, livramento and sanchez out to Watkins, cash and ramsdale?

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  16. Wensink
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 4 months ago

    Looking for some confirmation. I should NOT succumb to the itch to take a -4 for Davies > Cash/Targett/Mings.

    Without Davies I still have 10 players going this GW, while my Cup opponent has only 7.

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