Fantasy Football Scout Review – Gameweek 1

Welcome to the first in a weekly series of articles dedicated to reviewing the week that’s gone on Fantasy Football Scout. In this article I’ll be looking at Captain Sensible, Spot the Differential, the Scout Picks as well as tracking the results of Fantasy Island Risks and Clean Sheet predictions from the Scoutcast.

Captain Sensible

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rate my Team made Sergio Aguero the stand out option for the captaincy this week. Everyone’s favourite Argentinian delivered with a penalty in the first five minutes against Sunderland, following Raheem Sterling being brought down in the box. After securing maximum Fantasy Premier League bonus points, Aguero finished on nine points for the week.

Second on the list was Riyad Mahrez who had a superior RMT score to teammate Jamie Vardy. Similarly to Aguero, Mahrez got his goal from the penalty spot against Hull. With no other returns, Mahrez finished on a respectable eight FPL points.  A solid start for Captain Sensible.

To try and track how well the Captain Sensible article does I will award 1 point whenever the highest rated player gets any kind of return including a penalty save, clean sheet, assist or goal. This means there’s a total of 38 points up for grabs over the course of the season.

• Current score – 1 point

Spot the differential

The first Spot the Differential article of the season starred three value midfielders in the form of Oscar (7.5), Nathan Redmond (6.0), and Gastón Ramírez (5.5).

Oscar started ahead of Cesc Fabregas in Chelsea’s first game of the season against West Ham but unfortunately wasn’t able to get in the points during the 2-1 victory. After taking a penalty in pre-season there were hopes for owners that he’d be the main man for the season to come. Unfortunately when Chelsea did get a penalty it was Eden Hazard that stepped up to convert and that may convince Oscar owners to look towards another investment for their 7.5.

Nathan Redmond had been somewhat of a Fantasy Football Scout bandwagon before the start of the season. With manager Puel talking up his role as a striker, and a favourable fixture against Watford at home he was always likely to make the differential article. After a goal and maximum bonus points, Redmond was one of the top scorers of the first game week with 10 FPL points.

After seven goals and an assist in 18 appearances for Middlesbrough last season, Fantasy managers looked towards Gastón Ramírez to provide points at a bargain price. The Scouts had faith in the Uruguayan and were rewarded with four FPL points after Ramírez got an assist for Negredo’s goal, although he also picked up a yellow card. With three chances created and an assist to his name already, Ramírez looks set for further investment with Sunderland, West Brom and Crystal Palace up next.

Similarly to Captain Sensible I want to track how well the differential options do over the course of the season. One point will be awarded for any of these returns; penalty save, clean sheet, assist or goal. With three differentials picked every week there’s a total of 114 points available for the season.

• Current score – 2 points

Scout picks

This week it was a tale of penalties for the Scout Picks. Mahrez, Hazard and Aguero were all able to get attacking returns from the spot. Elsewhere Heaton showed the value of a bargain goalkeeper racking up seven saves and finishing on four FPL points after conceding a single goal to Swansea.

With nine goals in preseason there were high hopes for Andre Gray against a Swansea side who had just lost club captain Ashley Williams from the heart of their defence. Unfortunately he was unable to get on the scoresheet and with no other notable points scorers the Scout Picks finished on 42, with a total of 51 when you factor in Aguero as captain (chosen based on top choice in Captain Sensible article).

• Highest score: GW1 – 42 (51)
• Average score: 42 (51)

Scoutcast – Clean Sheets

Our first attempt at predicting clean sheets for the season was reminiscent of a presenter calling out Great Britain’s scores at the Eurovision – “nul points”.

With only two clean sheets across 10 games it was a tough week to be predicting, and the Scoutcasters will be hoping for better next week.

Jonty – Leicester – Total points 0

Mark – Crystal Palace – Total points 0

Andy – Southampton – Total points 0

Granville – Middlesbrough – Total points 0

(1 point awarded per correct clean sheet prediction).

Scoutcast – Fantasy Island Risk

There’s certainly work to be done when it comes to picking our Fantasy Island risk. My choice of Raheem Sterling topped the billing with five points after the Englishman was brought down in the box for the penalty that was put away by Aguero. Otherwise there were no scores of note and we’ll be searching for that diamond in the rough for Gameweek 2.

Jonty – Puncheon (2) – Total points 2

Mark – Wickham (2) – Total points 2

Andy – Sterling (5) – Total points 5

Granville – Khazri (1) – Total points 1