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The Complete Guide to our FPL Gameweek 26 tips and advice

The Gameweek 26 deadline approaches after the most tumultuous Gameweek in recent memory. For those who Triple Captained Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero it brought 57 points and unbridled joy, for others, despair – Leroy Sané’s solitary point was way below expectations. You thought triple captaining Andy Carroll was a disaster.

The bad news is that, for those who suffered, it could get worse.

This week’s Meet the Manager guest, former FPL winner Simon March, a recent graduate in behavioural economics, cautioned that managers who lost out in Gameweek 25 could fall victim to the “What the heck? Effect” – where we are more likely to take risks following a loss.

Simon’s advice is to try to be objective about risk and reward values. If you are wondering how to do that then fear not, help is at hand. The writers, contributors, and posters here at Fantasy Football Scout have been busily sorting the wheat from the chaff.

The first step is to clear your head, and what better place to start than last week’s cathartic episode of the Scoutcast. In an open and revealing discussion, J0E, Az and David talked about how a bad gameweek can affect your mental health. This lead to a hot topic on the subject in which FFS members including SuperMane Returns and Pep Pig shared stories about their personal struggles with addiction.

Having put things in perspective, let’s take a look at this week’s opportunities.

Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) has perused the upcoming fixtures to determine which teams are best placed to take advantage. According to Hutch_James, a number of teams are predicted to do well in Gameweek 26 as he revealed in his Wisdom of the Crowd article. Although for G-Whizz Liverpool are the standout option in the latest DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds.

David’s Captain Sensible article makes for fascinating reading as ever. After back-to-back blanks, are there serious contenders to take the armband away from Mohamed Salah?

A lot of the discussion this week has centered around what to do with our City players. The FPL General, a victim of Pep’s unpredictable whims, collected his thoughts ahead of Gameweek 26. While Geoff started a conversation about Sané replacements.

If you noticed, during this tempestuous week, the strange sight of a man being pursued by a bear, it was probably old Greyhead. Our community writer’s regular examination of The Great and The Good took on Shakespearean proportions. Mark and Niemi aside, the rest suffered “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, for Ville it’s now nine red arrows in a row.

The irony is that this season, it is The Great and The Good who should be pursuing Greyhead. He’s doing superbly well and is currently ranked 549 overall. According to FPL Transfer Spy, the high-flying scribe has sold the Belgian Wizard Eden Hazard for the free-scoring South Korean Son Heung-min ahead of the transfer deadline.

The picture ahead of Blank Gameweek 31 became a little clearer with Brighton’s progress in the FA cup. For those planning ahead, Liverpool appear an attractive proposition as they don’t have any Blank Gameweeks this season. It wasn’t so long ago that many managers were considering a defensive double-up, however the Reds have struggled for clean sheets recently. Neale’s looked into what is behind their recent defensive woes.

One reason is perhaps the injuries they’ve had, but could Trent Alexander-Arnold be ready to return to the fold?

Find out in the team news rounded-up in full by Neale, together with a handy hot topic from Rotation’s Alter Ego.

Finally, for players of the Sky Sports game, Luke (aka disable) brought us a breakdown on player ownership for the top 1,000 managers.

To view all our discussions please visit our Hot Topics page, and if you’ve got some analysis, scout reports or features brewing, be sure to visit our community section to submit your article.

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.

COMMUNITY TOURNAMENTS

The finals of the two FFS cup competitions take place this gameweek.

In the semi-finals of the FFS Members Cup Jambo17 was the outstanding performer – a whopping 114 points was easily enough to see off his rival AKÉ MEYER DANN U. Jambo17 had the optimal City combination of Agüero, Sterling, and Laporte, and he used his Triple Captain chip on Sterling. He moves into the top 100 overall and must start as favourite in the final.

Does his opponent stand a chance?

Jay # scraped through his semi-final against Eedee by 62 points to 56 and is ranked 59,782 overall, so on the surface you would say probably not. However, he looks well positioned to have a good gameweek with Arsenal’s Aubameyang and Kolasinac already in place along with Jiménez up front. He’s also helped by the fact his opponent has already taken a hit. So an upset isn’t out of the question.

In the semi-finals of the FFS Cup Get It Inter Ya overcame Justmatt, and Man-Chest-Heir F.C. saw off the challenge of Tibbles.

Get It Inter Ya did very well to score 75 points despite captaining Sané, double digit returns from De Gea and Chelsea pair David Luiz and Eden Hazard bailed him out. He remains in the top 1,000 overall. Heading into the final, he owns Kolasinac although not his teammate Aubameyang. Instead he has a cheap front line, but with two free transfers available we could see funds shifted forward to buy the Gabonese international.

Man-Chest-Heir F.C had Laporte to thank for his semi-final victory as he was another to captain Sané. The lowest ranked of the finalists at 124,414 overall, he has one free transfer and £2.4m in the bank to bolster his squad. With a cheap front line, including Josh King away to Liverpool, and an injured David Brooks, he has an important decision to make on how to invest those funds.

In the final of the FFS Manager Melee Community Tournament American Dycho have triumphed over The Godfather: Pardew with a 7-2 victory. An official match report will follow shortly.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing the safety score in Gameweek 25 was 49, this saw 70 managers eliminated. 616 managers are through to Gameweek 26, when the threshold for elimination increases to 12%. The final will take place in Gameweek 37.

It’s all change at the top of the featured mini-leagues after the divisive double gameweek.

There’s a new leader in our main FFS League with Omer Weisberg taking top spot as Miroslav Pujic drops to eighth after only managing 52 points. Omer ignored the clamour to captain a City player and plumped instead for Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. The diminutive Belgian, along with Laporte and Higuain, helped Omer to a gameweek score of 100. He is now sixth overall in only his second FPL season.

Tore Bjørheim has lost his 15 point lead at the head of the FFS Members League as Adam Levy surged past him. Adam triple captained Agüero for a gameweek score of 126 and moves up to 17th overall. This is his sixth season, his best finish of 10,847 came last year.

David’s reign atop the FFS Mods & Cons is at an end. Overthrown by his boss, Mark stormed past David with a stupendous 102 points to leave his employee floundering in his wake. Am I making this sound more dramatic than it actually is? Possibly. Mark had a decent gameweek with Sterling, Hazard, and Laporte contributing to his total. I’m sure David will bounce back.

Mark moves up to second in the FFS Live Hall of Fame behind Sean Tobin. Sean managed an impressive 93 points in Gameweek 25 and now finds himself in the top 10 overall. Yet to make a transfer this week, Sean could be doing the Auba to Agüero hokey-cokey. Sean featured recently in one of J0E’s Meet the Manager videos.

James Wells is the new leader in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league, as long-time leader Luke Aiello drops to third. James is a new entry to this mini-league and is perhaps lucky to be top after triple captaining Sané. He dropped from eighth to 39th overall. This is his 13th FPL season, he has two previous top 10,000 finishes, the highest one being 2,330 back in 2006/07.

JOZ V moves into first place in RedLightning’s January to May League as previous leader Lesego Maforah drops out of the top ten. JOZ V triple captained Agüero on his way to a mighty 125 points. This is his sixth FPL season, his best finish being 2,799 in 2014/15.

Finally, some managers may have noticed a new mini-league appear – RedLightning has reactivated and renamed his Doubles Blanks & Chips mini-league from last season to Last Ten GWs. The code for others who may like to join is 1637-1351886. The league will begin scoring in Gameweek 29.

The reason for the name change is that having just had a pivotal double gameweek, the January to May League is a perhaps a better way of seeing which chip strategies are proving to be the most effective in dealing with this season’s Double and Blank gameweeks.

If you are running a community tournament and would like the latest scores included in future Community Round-Ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition at geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk


TopMarx Fan of Fantasy Football and Monty Python. "Archimedes out to Socrates, Socrates back to Archimedes, Archimedes out to Heraclitus, he beats Hegel. Heraclitus a little flick, here he comes on the far post, Socrates is there, Socrates heads it in! Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad, the Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. Follow them on Twitter

2,132 Comments Post a Comment
  1. manu4life99
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    To help me decide on transfer who scores more across gw26/27:

    A) Mane(BOU), Mane(mun), Arny/Anderson(FUL)

    B) Haz(mcy), Fraser(BOU), Aub(SOT)

  2. Oggle22
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    G2G
    Allison
    Kolasinac Doherty Bednerak
    Salah(C) Son Pogba Mane
    Jiminez Aguero Rashford

    Foster Valery Dendoncker AWB

    Cheers

  3. Jafooli
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Play

    A. Foster or Guaita

    B. Digne or Bennett (have Doherty)

    1. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Fos-Dig

  4. Holmes
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Finally getting Salah back, sigh...

    1. Jafooli
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Blank incoming....

    2. Ajax Hamsterdam
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      About time 🙂

    3. ⭐ Bemba_Da ⭐
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Potentially at the wrong time, he's gone off the boil

      If he blanks today.....

      1. Holmes
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        lack of options is the reason, things were fine till last week

    4. VanDijksToWatchOutFor
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Keep the lack of faith!

    5. Amey
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Great gw to do that Holmes.

  5. waldo666
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Kun to Laca for free or hold FT?

    1. Kell_oggs
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Hold then Kun - Auba

      1. waldo666
        • 13 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        I think you're right.

  6. el polako
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Prematch preamble should be called "New hope" today, thats if we were still getting one.

  7. Shiva_Destroyer
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    What’s latest on auba?

  8. Jafooli
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Sane looking lively....

    1. Eat my goal!
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Ready to burn sellers

      1. Amey
        • 5 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        I bet he can't do worse than what Happened last week 😀

        1. Eat my goal!
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 5 Years
          5 years, 1 month ago

          Yep so far Hazard killed me twice and sane last GW

          Actually Hazard burnt me 3 times since I took him out for Sterling which wasn’t a complete disaster but if I hadn’t done that it was going to be Rich to Son!!!

          Never mind, looking forward to another GW!

          1. Amey
            • 5 Years
            5 years, 1 month ago

            Same here
            GL Buddy 🙂

    2. Weilong7
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      confident he will start?

      1. Jafooli
        • 12 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Nope 😛

  9. farmerfat
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Bottomed...
    Is there breakfast club this morning ?

  10. Tmel
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Bench one of each:

    1) Ederson (CHE)
    2) Guaita (WHU)

    a) Robbo (BOU)
    b) TAA (BOU)
    c) Doherty (NEW)
    d) Jonny (NEW)
    e) AWB (WHU)

    1. Boss Hogg
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      2e

  11. waltzingmatildas
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Play one of
    A) awb
    B) digne
    C) bamba

    1. Donblaster
      • 10 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      B

  12. Football Heaven
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    A. C Salah
    B. C Pogba
    C. TC Salah
    D. TC Pogba

    1. Kell_oggs
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A

    2. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      D

      1. SB8
        • 5 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        And then "Pogba is benched" news...

    3. Bobby_Baggio
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A

  13. Jonty Rhodes
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    -4 Mane for Sigurdsson (-0.1 loss on price too - My bad missing out last night):

    A) Yay
    B) Nay

    Other team is:
    Lloris (Button)
    Doherty, Robertson, Saiss (Bednarek, Kiko)
    Salah (c), Pogba (vc), Son, Sigurdson (Camarasa)
    Aguero, Rashford, Jimenez
    0 FT. 2.8 in Bank

    1. Kell_oggs
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A - 50/50 but probs works out over next few games

  14. Snapes on a Plane
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Who to bench?
    A) Bednarek (car)
    B) AWB (whu)
    C) Digne (wat)

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      C

    2. RamaJama
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A

  15. olly:)
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    “Think there’s a chance Mata, Lukaku and Dalot could start against Fulham today. Makes sense to give Rashford a rest before PSG on Tuesday.“

    Rob Dawson on twitter, ManUtd correspondent for ESPN

    1. ⭐ Bemba_Da ⭐
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Rashford fail

    2. Ask Yourself
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Wew

    3. fr3d
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Pogba taken off early too probably

    4. Mo Mané Mo Problems
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      This was my thinking. Would’ve done Rash to Auba if He wasn’t sick.

    5. RamaJama
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Doesn’t it require more than a tweet from a nobody to start this kneejerk quire week after week?

    6. jason_ni
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      These journos are giving an informed decision.. but it's still guess work.
      Everyone owns him anyways, just wouldn't be putting c on him

  16. DantheManinaPan
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Salah or Son for the captaincy. Hmmmmm

    One of them is definitely one better form, but the other is more consistently reliable...

    1. SB8
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Do you think Son has chances to score a hat-trick? I believe Salah has.

  17. ViperStripes
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    What bench order:
    Taylor vs BHA(A)
    Digne vs WAT(A)
    Hojbjerg vs CAR(H)

  18. ⭐ Bemba_Da ⭐
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Watford are going to smash Everton aren't they?

    Do we think Richarlison starts? They seemed to look better without him in the team v city

    1. Flynny
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I think he starts

    2. Kellz86
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      This is my question too. I've found myself trying to decide between which 2 of 4 to start: Digne/AWB or Richarlson/FAnderson.

    3. child of God
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I think with everyone writing them off they'll win it 4-2. Richi with a brace and assist

  19. Boss Hogg
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    1 to play from each list:

    a. Duffy
    b. Holebas

    1. Sane
    2. Richarlison
    3. FAnderson

    ???

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A1

    2. Kellz86
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Holebas then I'm also in the FAnderson/Richarlson dilema. I'm currently leaning FAnderson due to set pieces if that helps.

  20. Ask Yourself
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Was going to ask someone to start a rumour for this week and here we have it. Rashford owners quaking in their boots.

    1. Make Arrows Green Again
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      *in possession of a bench.

  21. Forza Papac
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    'Think there’s a chance Mata, Lukaku and Dalot could start against Fulham today. Makes sense to give Rashford a rest before PSG on Tuesday.'

    -Rob Dawson, Man Utd correspondent ESPN.

    1. Forza Papac
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Samuel Luckhurst reporting the same.

    2. Amey
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I'd be surprised if Pogba & Rash, martial,lingard don't start the match.

    3. Ginkapo FPL
      • 12 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      He doesnt actually say anything....

      Theres a chance Wan Bissaka gets rested too

  22. Jimmy Boy
    • 7 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Captain?
    A) Salah (BOU)
    B) Mane (BOU)
    C) Pogba (ful)
    D) Rashford (ful)
    E) Son (LEI)

    1. Ask Yourself
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Not Rashford

    2. Boss Hogg
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      A

    3. Kellz86
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Salah

  23. ⭐ Bemba_Da ⭐
    • 13 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    With rashford likely rested and Liverpool up next would you do rashford to laca for free?

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      No hold FT it's gold next week

    2. Hazz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Likely, no. Potentially, yes. Wouldn't do it unless 100% confirmed, so keep tabs on team news.

    3. jason_ni
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      The rumour is not validated, he may be, but May not be, I wouldn't be doing transfers based on opinions of correspondents who give there thoughts and don't need fact to back it up

      1. Camp No No
        • 10 Years
        5 years, 1 month ago

        Yeh but bad facts are accumulating: he's been rotated anyway since Lukaku returned, and when they play together, most of the time Rash is on flank. He's good there, but for his FPL potential it is not good. Then ManU's fixtures turn worse after this GW. And United's been far from convincing against good sides. All this undermines Rash's FPL potential in near future.

        1. jason_ni
          • 8 Years
          5 years, 1 month ago

          I could be wrong, but off the top of my head rashford has started every pl game upfront, except for Burnley, and utd really struggled that match, So he's not really been rotated to this point.
          Not saying he won't be rested, May well be, but it's speculation

    4. grumpyman
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      I'll be moving on either Firmino or Rashford for Auba next week. One week's additional information needed for this decision I feel.

  24. ididnt
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Play two of:

    A: D Luiz
    B: Bennett
    C: Rondon
    D: Rich

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Ad

    2. Kellz86
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Rich/Bennett

  25. Bobby_Baggio
    • 12 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Morning oh wise ones. Start two please?

    A) AWB
    B) Bennett
    C) Pereira
    D) Digne

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Ac

    2. RamaJama
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      AD

  26. Donblaster
    • 10 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Pickford
    Doherty Jonny Kola
    Salah Mane Sterling Pogba
    Ageuro Rashford Llorente

    Boruc Bednarek AWB Puncheon

    G2G or anything worth a hit?

    1. ViperStripes
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      G2g

    2. AgentFern
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      G2g

  27. AgentFern
    • 6 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Start 2....
    1 AWB (WHU)
    2 Bednarek (CAR)
    3 Bennett (NEW)
    4 Richarlison (wat)

    I'm on 1&2 at the moment

  28. King Megnus
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Would you play Sané (CHE) or Mitrovic (MUN)?
    I'm afraid of Sané getting 1 point 🙁

    1. AgentFern
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Sane

  29. Amey
    • 5 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Is that news about Rash true ?? 😛

    1. Mo Mané Mo Problems
      • 9 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      It’s not news. It’s a lazy journalist looking at the fixtures and seeing they have PSG on Tuesday.

      I pointed it out ages ago.

    2. AuFeld
      • 7 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Speculation.

    3. Dr.Oftaw
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Not news, reporters opinions,

    4. RamaJama
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Speculations from A nobody again this week, and hundreds will bite the bait this week too. Gold fish society never learn 🙂

    5. Amey
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      Cheers.
      He should start IMO as team struggle with Lukaku

  30. YouReds
    • 9 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Who scores more this week?

    A) Sterling, Rich
    B) Pogba, Mane, -4

    1. AgentFern
      • 6 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      B