Upcoming finals for Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Crystal Palace and Manchester City affect our thinking in our penultimate Scout Picks of 2024/25.
We deliberated over the Scout Squad submissions made by Neale, Tom, Sam and Marc before coming up with our final team.
As ever, we are limited by certain restrictions:
- An £83.0m budget for our starting XI
- An overall squad limit of £100.0m
- No more than three players per team
GAMEWEEK 37 SCOUT PICKS
GOALKEEPER
The first of three Aston Villa assets to earn selection is Emiliano Martinez (£5.0m). The Villans have been in decent defensive form in recent fixtures, with five clean sheets in eight, and welcome a Tottenham side with one eye firmly on Wednesday’s UEFA Europa League final. Over the last four away matches, Spurs are also bottom for goal attempts, shots in the box and efforts on target.
DEFENDERS
Josko Gvardiol (£6.5m) and Man City have been racking up the defensive returns in recent weeks, with five clean sheets in their last seven matches. Bournemouth visit the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, just three days after the FA Cup final, but provided he isn’t injured at Wembley, Gvardiol should be assured of a start, as Pep Guardiola’s side look to get their UEFA Champions League push back on track. Encouragingly, the Croatian was deployed at left-back in Gameweek 36.
Marc Cucurella (£5.4m) gets back into the Scout Picks with a chance of returns at both ends of the pitch on Friday. Man City are the only team with more clean sheets than Chelsea over the last 10 Gameweeks, while Cucurella himself is joint-fourth among defenders for shots in that time.
Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.4m) is our chosen representative from the Everton defence in Gameweek 37. With David Moyes likely to adopt a more attacking approach against Southampton, the 25-year-old’s raiding runs down the left could come to the fore as he looks to replicate last week’s goal at Craven Cottage. Furthermore, Saints are joint-bottom for chances conceded from their right flank over the last six Gameweeks.
Above: Southampton’s chances created conceded heatmap over the last six Gameweeks
MIDFIELDERS
Two of our Scout Squad pundits selected Cole Palmer (£10.5m) as their top midfielder for Gameweek 37. That’s understandable considering his importance to Chelsea, as they push to finish in the top five. Furthermore, opponents Man Utd could potentially be distracted by their looming trip to Bilbao. In the last six home matches, no player has more shots than Palmer.
Above: Players sorted by shots – last six home matches
We’re willing to take a gamble on Kevin De Bruyne’s (£9.5m) minutes for Man City’s home clash against Bournemouth. The game with the Cherries will, of course, be the playmaker’s final match at the Etihad Stadium before his summer departure. City’s trip to Wembley precedes it, which is far from ideal, but De Bruyne was benched in the semi-final and will surely get minutes of some variety for his big send-off. The Belgian racked up five shots and four chances created last time out.
Bryan Mbeumo (£8.3m) was the most popular midfielder among the Scout Squad panel this week, with Neale, Tom, Sam and Marc all including him in their submissions ahead of Brentford’s home clash with Fulham. Marco Silva’s side have kept just one clean sheet in 14 matches, while Mbeumo is averaging 6.8 points per start on home turf in 2024/25. He’ll fancy his chances from dead-ball situations, too.
With one goal and five assists in his last seven appearances, Morgan Rogers (£5.7m) has sparked into life recently. Aston Villa’s final home match of the season sees Tottenham roll up to B6, and with Spurs fragile at the back and susceptible to counter-attacks, Rogers looks superb value as Unai Emery’s side try to keep their push for a top-five finish on track.
FORWARDS
Leader of this week’s Captain Poll, Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), was always nailed-on for our Scout Picks. That’s because the England international has produced three goals and one assist in his last five matches. Positional rival Marcus Rashford (£6.6m) is still out injured, too, suggesting Watkins could reap further rewards against Tottenham.
From Gameweek 26 onwards, Yoane Wissa (£6.8m) has racked up seven goals and two assists in 11 appearances and has the highest non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI) figure in the whole of the Premier League. Fulham are the next visitors to the Gtech Community Stadium, fresh from last week’s 3-1 home defeat to Everton.
Jamie Vardy (£5.3m) could be set to put on a memorable display in his final match for Leicester City. Opponents Ipswich Town have conceded 202 shots in the box since the turn of the year, the most of any top-flight side except Southampton, and have averaged 2.37 goals against across their last eight outings. It gives Vardy the perfect opportunity to score his 200th goal for the Foxes.
SUBSTITUTES
- Jordan Pickford (£5.1m): Everton host the division’s worst attack on Sunday. The clash against Southampton is, of course, set to be the last men’s game at Goodison Park.
- Daniel Munoz (£5.2m): The attack-minded wing-back has never been benched by Oliver Glasner in any competitive match, raising hopes of another start against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday.
- Sepp van den Berg (£4.1m): Four of the last five goals that Fulham have conceded have been from set plays, so the Brentford centre-half could prosper at both ends of the pitch in Gameweek 37.
- Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m): The West Ham United talisman has three goals, two assists and zero blanks across his last four appearances.
THE CAPTAIN
We chose the Scout Picks captain using a vote between our Scout Squad panel.
We’re handing Ollie Watkins the armband this week, with Cole Palmer named as the vice-captain.
COMMUNITY CHAMPION
A Fantasy Football Scout community member takes on the Scout Picks each week.
The community member who beats our team by the largest margin will win a £100 Amazon voucher. They’ll also get a place in our Moderators and Contributors League for the following season.
Boleyn Boy’s 80-44 victory in Gameweek 6 gave them the biggest win (36-point difference) of 2024/25 so far.
Our champion this week will be announced in due course.
The Scout Picks are 21-12 up on the community this season.
FOLLOW THE SCOUT’S WEEKLY TRANSFER PLANS
We’re running a Scout FPL community team this season, with regulars like TopMarx, Tom Freeman, Marc Jobling and more contributing to the weekly decisions.
And we’re not just looking one week ahead like we are with the Scout Picks but instead planning in advance for the weeks and months to come.
You can follow our team via the Premier Fantasy Tools Pro Planner, which you can read more about here.
