The increasing wealth of options in attack and the decreasing pool of talent in midfield dominate the thoughts of our hot topic posters this week.
A long-term injury to Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho was a particular concern, as the community mulls over his replacements.
Squeezing so many strongly performing, expensive strikers into a three-man frontline is another worry raised in our discussions, which this week also considers whether transfer decisions can ever be summed up with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Meanwhile, our Members table round-up looks at some of the league’s worst defences and we conclude with a scan of those at the top of our community competitions, who are clearly coping well with this season’s wide array of choice.
The Community Articles
Harry Kane has emerged as a key captaincy option for Gameweek 14, when the Tottenham striker takes on the weak Swansea City defence at White Hart Lane. Both Bolivian Seaman‘s weekly latest analysis of fans forums and YMA‘s look at form, fixtures and bookies odds present a strong case to draft in and place the armband on the England international.
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
Philippe Coutinho was the Fantasy Premier League’s most popular player going into the last weekend’s home tie with Sunderland, which saw him pick up an ankle injury that is set to sideline him until the New Year.
Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson has emerged as a key candidate to replace him, according to our hot topic on coping with the loss of the Liverpool schemer. With a goal and assist last weekend and returns in each of his previous three matches, the Icelander certainly has strong form on his side.
For some though even more ambitious alternatives are being considered to step into the Coutinho shaped midfield void, with Jafooli asking for your views on which of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez or Chelsea’s Eden Hazard offered the best option.
To afford these premium picks, the search for bargain basement enablers has ramped up, with The Differentiator nominating Sigurdsson’s 5.0 team mate Leroy Fer, who has scored six goals this season.
Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has emerged as another replacement for Coutinho and, according to Chicken Mandy’s number crunching, a money saving alternative to his Chilean team-mate.
The pros and cons of Walcott were also discussed on this week’s Scoutcast, which prompted FPL Virgin to urge Mark, Granville, Andy and I to be more assertive in our decisions around players. But, as many in the community pointed out in this hot topic, a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response is hard to muster in a season with so many variables to consider.
If all Fantasy Football questions could be so simply and accurately answered in one word then arguably there would be no hard luck stories in our regular Rough with the Smooth look back at your Gameweeks.
My woeful season is presenting this round-up of weekly stories with a steady supply of tearjerkers, as well as the inspiration for Tamagotchi Massacre‘s latest hot topic looking at hit-taking, rank-chasing and Fantasy Football motivation.
Among the most heart-warming stories to emerge from this week’s collection surrounded Giggs Boson, who sadly was taken ill and has been unable to manage his FPL side since Gameweek 7. Lateriser dropped by with the good news that the popular, community regular is on the mend and how his friends have rallied around to keep his team going and remarkably shave one million off its overall rank since then.
The wealth of expensive options in attack also leapt up the agenda this week, with Chelsea’s Diego Costa, Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Kane all putting forward a strong case for inclusion due to form and fixtures.
The last week has also seen Zlatan Ibrahimovic join this elite group after scoring on three occasions in the last seven days, in the Premier League and League Cup. We asked whether you have been put off by his six-game barren run earlier this season, or have been charmed by his strong recent form.
For many Manchester United fans, club loyalty may influence their decision on whether to draft in the big Swede, as our discussion on how Fantasy Football managers who are supporters of Premier League clubs cope with their dual passions.
Finally, for many a Bench Boost chip is something to be saved for a double Gameweek in the second half of the season. But for others it can be a useful way of stealing a pre-Christmas march on rivals when they have a strong set of substitutes at hand. Wild Rover’s discussion on this FPL chip canvassed your views on when is the best time to put it to use.
The Members Tables
Teams that are letting down the fans by conceding the most chances at home are examined in Wakey’s latest table.
With 16 goals conceded at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea figure highly on this list. But for my latest table, I’m more interested in the Welsh side’s sharpest shooters, who between them have racked up eight goals in their last four matches.
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 Fantasy Chili Bowl team competition reaches its third stage in Gameweek 14. Adam West dropped by to deliver an update on the previous round’s encounters and a look ahead to the weekend’s ties.
Sahil Sud stays at the summit of Red Lightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league, although his lead has been cut to just three points.
There’s also no change at the top of the FFS Moderators and Contributors league either, with Facer continuing to lead.
In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score was 38, which saw 171 players depart and 1637 remain.
In my Millionaires Club, for those with a rank below the one million mark in Gameweek 12, Arne Pieters is the first leader. His captaincy of Sergio Aguero helped him rise to 857,850 in the overall rankings
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, spreadsheet or head to head competition, at jonty@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk.
