We’ve put together our Scout Picks ‘bus team’ ahead of Double Gameweek 26 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
This is a new feature we first rolled out earlier in February and it’s essentially a first draft of our regular XI, partly in response to feedback from some users who wanted certain articles to be available sooner in the week.
The Scout Picks widget on the home page is generally only in use for a very short space of time (one or two days a week, at most) and becomes largely redundant once the deadline passes, so this new article strand will also hopefully give it a bit more shelf-life.
The pre-deadline picks will stay as they are and cement our weekly selection based on the Scout Squad long-list entries, midweek European action/minutes and fresh injury updates but this ‘bus team’ – a rather macabre term coined by the Always Cheating boys, as it’s the XI you set at the start of the week in case you get hit by a bus before the deadline – will discuss the players who are likely to be in the running.
Here it is, then: our early, rambling thoughts on the runners and riders up for selection in Gameweek 26, followed by the preliminary picks themselves.
THE LIKELY LADS
The Scout Picks is, in essence, a ‘Free Hit’ XI for the upcoming Gameweek and there’s a touch of irony in that six of our bus team are all names who would be jettisoned on an actual Free Hit team in Gameweek 27.
Yes, we’re talking about players from Arsenal and Liverpool, who have two fixtures in Gameweek 26 before blanking the following weekend.
Both teams play twice at home in Gameweek 26 and the matches themselves are the best of the lot from the eight teams who double, so there is a reasonable shout for triple-ups on both sides.
We’ll not waste time on explaining why Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) or Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m) feature; only a midweek injury will likely persuade us to reconsider.
Who takes the coveted third Liverpool slot is another topic altogether, with the in-form Andrew Robertson (£7.1m) averaging 7.9 points per match over his last 10 appearances and Diogo Jota (£8.5m) bagging 15 attacking returns in 19 starts this season. “Starts” is an important word there, however: with Jurgen Klopp having a fully fit squad at his disposal, and with a Champions League tie and an EFL Cup final sandwiching Double Gameweek 26, it wouldn’t be a shock to see a degree of rotation from the Reds’ boss against Norwich and/or Leeds. Virgil van Dijk (£6.7m), then, might be worth consideration given that he hasn’t had a single Premier League benching in any of the last four seasons.
As for the Gunners, the initial thought is towards a defensive double-up: Brentford have scored just five goals in their last nine matches, while Wolves have the division’s third-lowest goals tally – although they have perked up recently with eight goals in their last five fixtures.
Kieran Tierney’s (£5.1m) points-per-match (PPM) average is one of the best among FPL defenders this season (5.5), while no first-choice Premier League goalkeeper can better Aaron Ramsdale‘s (£5.1m) own PPM. Ramsdale is probably the stand-out goalkeeper choice in isolation but competition is fierce between the sticks this week, with the likes of Nick Pope (£5.4m) and Jose Sa (£5.2m) very much in the running.
Wolves have the second-best defensive record in the division this season, while Burnley have conceded just three goals in Pope’s last seven matches between the posts.
IN CONTENTION
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2 years, 4 months agoWhat level of hits are people on/planning this week? Loads seem to be flying.