Injuries, babies and even a Fantasy Football version of an Ian Dury and the Blockheads hit single dominated our hot topics this week. Over in our community article section, our scribes were busy offering advice ahead of Gameweek 6 on the potential pitfalls ahead as well as key players to turn to for help. Our Members statistics take a look at Manchester City’s best options while our community tournament news keeps you up to date with those who have plenty of reasons to be cheerful.
The Community Articles
Our community writers were out in full force this week to offer some top tips on getting the most out of Gameweek 6 from transfer decisions to captaincy calls.
Your Mum’s Athletic dropped by with his latest bookie based predictions on this weekend’s matches, while Rodellegabomb has been analysing the prospects of three of the week’s biggest bandwagons.
Elsewhere, Jose’s Magic Omelette has a trio of alternative captains for those who have had enough of being let down by heavy hitters and The Sarjeant offers some learned advice on likely clean sheets and a key player to consider based on latest team form.
Woeisme has warned against dismissing those Fantasy managers who are doing well, while seemingly spending less time tinkering with their teams, as ‘casuals’. His look at the concept of being casual in Fantasy Football proved to be one of our most talked-about articles of the week.
Don’t forget, if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.
The Hottest Topics
Another week where heavy hitters like Alexis Sanchez and Sergio Aguero let down their backers has led to some serious soul searching as to how to finally turn this season around. One of the busiest discussions on this issues was our look at which of form, fixtures and underlying statistics will be the best guide on our rocky road up the rankings.
Some such as Andy85wsm are considering ditching their high profile heavy hitters altogether. But, he asks, who is reliable enough to step into their shoes?
The handringing continued in Disable’s Clint Eastwood themed post about the good, bad and downright ugly decisions we’ve made so far.
There was more tales of good fortune and poor luck in our regular Rough with the Smooth round up of the community’s best and worst decisions during the previous Gameweek.
There is hope on the horizon for those languishing at the foot of their mini-leagues. Bowstring the Carp has spotted that home sides fared much better in Gameweek 5 and is optimistic that more predictable scorelines are just around the corner.
Ludo also offered some crumbs of comfort, pointing out that the top players over a season historically start slowly.
Even Arsenal’s striker rotation is becoming clearer, according to Seaman, who thinks he’s just about cracked the formula of when Theo Walcott or Olivier Giroud will start.
Less predictable is West Ham’s form. Away against tough sides they have been shining, while at home their form has been patchy. Can they upset the books again on the road this weekend when they travel to the Etihad? Hammers fan Doosra certainly hopes so and has conjured up the words of the late Ian Dury to help describe how Dimitri Payet and company will have to play to get one over on Manchester City.
For those keeping faith in underlying statistics to predict results The 3rd Turd is able to shed more light on the players that are likely to up their game over the coming weeks, with an update on his impressive radar and bubble charts.
This week saw a particularly nasty injury to Manchester United’s Luke Shaw, who is set for a lengthy stay on the sidelines. In addition, Chelsea’s Pedro remains an injury doubt for the weekend, prompted a further rethink in many midfield plans.
Rodellegabomb offered this list of replacements for those with Shaw in their side, while Arsenal’s Number 19. Santi Cazorla started this discussion on the best Watford defenders, for those looking at budget options at the back.
Meanwhile, Flynny’s hot topic looks at potential Pedro replacements and Kemosabe1 takes a look at Crystal Palace’s midfielders as further options.
While transfer tips are amongst most talked about hot topics, Portsmouth Bubblejet provided the week’s most popular post with his alternative glossary of well known Fantasy Football forum terms.
Finally, congratulations to Siva Mohan who dropped by with news of the birth of his baby girl. Sometimes there really are more important things in life than Fantasy football.
The Members Tables
For those looking tO ramp up their Manchester City coverage or make sure they have the right players in place, I’ve created this table looking at their key performers and sorted by shots in the box.
If you’re a member and are yet to get to grips with the custom statistics tables, you can view this movie for an explanation of how they work. Also, remember to tag them so that people can find the tables with ease.
The Community Tournaments
Craig McGorum has regained the lead in Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league after playing his wildcard in Gameweek 5.
Hutch_James is launching a FFScout league in this Rugby World Cup game for those Fantasy managers able to cope with more than one sport.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 32, which saw 136 players depart and 2,314 remain.
Andy continues to top the FFScout moderators and contributors league thanks once again to his regular captain Riyad Mahrez. He has a commanding 33-point lead over second placed Applebonkers.
In AZ’s cash league, Ajax Treesdown managed by Colin Bothwell is top of the standings with an overall score of 257 and a rank of 55,748. He leads second place waytooaddicted, managed by Kieran Walsh, by 9 points.
Finally, good luck to those taking part in the FFS UEFA Champions League tournament. Full details of the group stage fixtures can be found in our community articles section.
If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round Ups please email me a brief summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spread sheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
