As the season template starts to break up, our hot topic posters were full of useful advice on the players to wave goodbye to and those we should welcome into our 2016 squads. Our Members tables add further evidence of why we may be best to show some once-prized assets the door. Amongst our community writers, disciplinary issues took centre stage as the effect of referee selection on our points tallies was examined. We finish the round up with a look at our community leagues, where bragging rights have been claimed by those already reacting to emerging form.
The Community Articles
With a brace and an assist in Gameweek 22 it’s no wonder that around 130,000 Fantasy Premier League managers have drafted in Sergio Aguero during the week. The FPL veterans being tracked by Kavali were already ahead of the curve, as his latest update on their mission to climb the rankings revealed. In contrast, 53,000 Fantasy managers have ditched Aguero’s team-mate Kevin de Bruyne this week. However, members are advised to read Jaffalicious‘ latest community article on his toils on the road before pressing the transfer button.
The Sarjeant’s look at team form head of Gameweek 23 adds further evidence to the attacking prowess of Manchester City in recent weeks. Another to look at form is Rakkhi, who has been investigating how underlying statistics, such as shots on target, stack up against simply looking to see who has scored the most goals in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Bowstring the Carp thinks Fantasy managers ought to be paying closer attention to who is refereeing matches. He outlines the men in black most likely to award penalties and has kindly cross-referenced them against the error-prone teams that have conceded the most spot-kicks.
Bolivian Seaman has also been looking ahead to Gameweek 23 with his regular look at what the fans’ forums are saying about the fixtures.
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
The upturn in form of premium strikers such as Aguero has coincided with a slump in the fortunes of this season’s once-reliable budget options. Amongst the biggest let downs in 2016 so far has been Watford’s assets.
The Hertfordshire side have failed to register a clean sheet in the last four Gameweeks, while conceding seven times and scoring just twice. Hornet’s fan Applebonkers dropped by to give this terrace eye view on their New Year malaise.
Leicester attackers have also been a let down, as our latest Rough with the Smooth round up of your Gameweek 22 decisions, showed. This is particularly the case for the many Fantasy managers with Riyad Mahrez in their team, who in Every Dog Has It’s Day’s hot topic aired their views on the midfielder being stripped of spot kicks after another miss.
For those looking to offload their Watford and Leicester assets, Red Devil started a discussion on the players that could be set to have a far better second half of the season, with Leighton Baines, David Silva and Alexis Sanchez amongst those mentioned.
Charlie Daniels, Bournemouth’s penalty taking, budget defender has started 2016 in style, with a goal, assist and two clean sheets already this month. Balders is another to focus on referee selection and believes that the appointment of whistler Roger East for the Cherries’ Gameweek 23 encounter with Sunderland could see more points come Daniels’ way.
Is investment in budget players to shoe-horn Aguero into our squads the best use of our budgets, though? This was the question posed by Mark on this week’s Scoutcast as he revealed he is going to attempt to resist the allure of the Manchester City striker this season. The Aguero-ed and the Aguero-less alike put forward their cases in our follow up discussion on the issue.
There was still a degree of New Year handwringing going on this week as many in the community sought to investigate why they are experiencing one of their worst FPL campaigns on record. As Pazx888’s hot topic on this season’s biggest mistakes shows poor captaincy decisions in particular have proved costly.
For those with bench boost and triple captaincy chips intact, the double Gameweeks, caused by Cup congestion, can’t come soon enough. Jarvish urges patience with transfers until we know more about the first potential set of double fixtures caused by the Capital One Cup final later next month.
The Members Tables
While Applebonkers offered his terrace eye view on Watford’s slump in form, Jaffalicious has been consulting the statistics to find out more about their problems. His tables are not pretty viewing for those still with the likes of Ighalo in their teams.
Everton’s assets could provide a great alternative as they entertain Swansea then Newcastle in two enticing home fixtures this month. Here’s my table on the best Toffees players to consider drafting in.
Finally, Balders has been busy updating his tables for those looking to tear up the first half of the season template. This includes his look at the most attacking defenders, monsters of the midfield and hot-shot strikers.
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
The qualifying stages of the Fiffsa 5-a-side tournament finished last week, according to Diva’s latest update, which also previews the forthcoming finals.
Congratulations to Jawain, MrFlibbles and Hooky, who have all secured quarter-final berths in Balders’ Grand Playoffs tournament.
Another with a spring in his step is James Ollerenshaw, who has doubled his lead in Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league and is now up to 139th overall as well as topping the FFSscout Members League.
Meanwhile, Sam Isaacs is the new leader of Red Lightning’s January to May League
In the FFScout moderators and contributors league Greenwindmill, with a little help from his captaincy of Aguero, has leapfrogged Evs to take the role of second fiddle to league leader Andy.
Jjbish01 continues to top our ESPN league while in the race to win £1,000 in Ultimate Fantasy Premier League’s latest monthly competition JohnBhoys leads The FFS £1K Heist league.
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.
