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The Complete Guide to our FPL Gameweek 38 tips and advice

And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain

It’s Gameweek 38 and the curtain is about to fall on another Premier League season. But before we dive headlong into an existential crisis and wonder what the heck are we going to do with our lives next week?! Let’s enjoy, if we can, our final fix of FPL for 2018/19. It’s been emotional.

The big news from Gameweek 37 was the dismissal of Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son. The South Korean was sent off for only the second time in his career against Bournemouth. Owned by 77% of the top 10,000 managers, many are now wondering who to replace him with.

David, Az, and Andy debated the options on this week’s Scoutcast, opinions were divided with Az calling Pogba the sensible choice but Andy wondering how Manchester United will pick themselves up after being “so bad” against Huddersfield. Instead, Andy fancies the Crystal Palace v Bournemouth match to offer up some goals.

Brandon from the Always Cheating Podcast agrees:

All signs point toward a buccaneering shootout. The Palace midfielder of choice is Milivojevic, who is essentially Zaha’s shooting boots—the Palace forward loves to go down for penalty calls, leaving Milivojevic to sweep the goals home. On the other side would be Ryan Fraser, who is second only to Eden Hazard this season for assists (13).

Who to get to replace Son? was only one of the questions tackled by our FPL Question Time Panel. With Wolves facing a testing encounter away to Liverpool, other pressing concerns included “Who to replace Jiménez with?” FFS moderator Gregor, an FPL manager with an excellent track record of three top 1,000 finishes in the last five seasons, points out that after recovering from a shoulder injury, Rashford could be an excellent pick:

I don’t think there is any doubt that he’s one of the players Solskjær is depending on for next season and I think local boy Rashford will be keen to end the season on a high against the creaky Cardiff defence.

However if selling Jiménez means taking a hit, former FPL winner Simon March offered some cautionary words:

Generally speaking, a hit for the final Gameweek of the season is risky due to the fact that you obviously only have the one chance for it to pay off. Even a couple of points at this stage of the season can have huge implications for ranks and mini leagues so sacrificing them isn’t something we should take lightly.

Our Scoutcasters agreed. It’s also worth noting for those FPL managers in and around the top 10,000 that Jiménez had a 91% ownership in Gameweek 37.

Continuing with the all-important team news – and thank you to both Neale and Rotation’s Alter Ego for patiently sifting through the 18 press conferences we had on Friday – Andrew Robertson “should be fine” after he picked up a knock in Liverpool’s epic comeback against Barcelona, the same goes for Jordan Henderson, while Mohamed Salah has been training and is expected to return.

Not such good news for Roberto Firmino however, who will miss the final game of the season.

The latest from Manchester City is that Kevin De Bruyne could be involved this afternoon, having taken part in training in the last two days. However, Fernandinho is out.

Outside of the top two, there was some noteworthy defensive news: reinforcing Andy and Brandon’s view that there could be goals in the Crystal Palace v Bournemouth match, Palace – already without James Tomkins and Mamadou Sakhocould also be without Scott Dann; And elsewhere, goalkeeper Joel Coleman will make his Huddersfield debut away to Southampton – can he possibly be as good as Mark Travers was on his debut for Bournemouth last week?

Owners of Southampton players, in particular their attacking assets, will be buoyed by the news. Recently crowned Southampton ‘Player of the Year’, Nathan Redmond has the underlying statistics to take full advantage. Not only is he selected for the Scout Picks but his captain credentials were even the subject of a members-only article. It makes for very impressive reading with perhaps only a low goal conversion rate letting him down.

Speaking of captain credentials, David’s Captain Sensible piece considers a number of armband candidates noting that:

There is a strong chance that Gameweek 38’s top points-scorer will come outside of the two Premier League title-related games.

Following Chelsea’s exertions on Thursday evening as their Europa League tie went to penalties, Leicester’s Jamie Vardy is attracting interest. No team has had more Shots on Target than Leicester’s 29 over the last four home gameweeks.

However, rather than in-form Leicester, it’s the somewhat out-of-sorts Manchester United who are predicted to do well in G-Whizz’s final DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds. A DS for United of 466 is enough to put them in third place behind only Liverpool (609DS) and neighbours Manchester City (595DS).

This is a prediction mirrored by Hutch_James in the Wisdom of the Crowd.

Finally, on the Scoutcast, Andy offered some wise words – and this applies to your captain pick as well:

If you’re ever going to wait to make your transfers, make it this week… every team is going to have to put their line-ups in at 2 o’clock, and we’ve had plenty of news in past seasons so wait wait wait.

No doubt he remembers that on the final day of the 2016/17 season Josh King famously posted on Instagram that he was missing out.

Grey Head opened his regular examination of The Great and The Good with a marginally less clichéd song lyric than I used at the outset of this article – The Final Countdown v My Way. Don’t let anyone accuse us of lacking in originality.

It was a surprise to discover that Mark, the highest ranked of The Great and The Good, has not owned Robertson all season. Remarkably, the first defender to score over 200 points in a single season never once graced his side. Although currently ranked inside the top 1,000 I doubt it’s a decision Mark regrets.

A man with a few regrets, and certainly enough to mention, is the FPL General. He’s had a season reminiscent of the well-known Eric Morecambe quote: “I’m playing all the right notes. But not necessarily in the right order.” Reflecting upon his season, the General observed:

With all the great content available to fantasy managers nowadays, the biggest challenge is managing yourself. Playing your own game has never been harder.

It’s a sentiment that was echoed by Jon Reeson, the record points-scorer in FPL:

My performance often seems to be hindered by worries about ownership and missing out, rather than going with a hunch, like I might have when I won.

Speaking of regrets I’ve had a few of my own this past week. The Dutch footballer and outstanding FPL manager, Jordie van der Laan – the subject of a recent FFS Community article – was featured on the BBC after he was sacked by his club for attending the Spurs v Ajax Champions League first leg in London without permission. The phrase “Well that escalated quickly” has rarely felt more apt.

Having arranged the match ticket for him, and then attracting the TV camera’s attention by making a VAR sign, I do feel a modicum of responsibility. Jordie responded to the situation with his usual good humour by requesting a ticket to the second leg reasoning that he is, after all, now free. It worked. Following his appearance on Dutch television, a journalist offered him a ticket.

What next for Jordie? Well I can exclusively reveal that he has been asked to take part in the Dutch version of Love Island! Not exactly the career move he is looking for. Quite how this has gone from FPL to Love Island is mind-boggling.

Anyway, in an effort to get Jordie’s football career back on track I would like to share his showreel. There’s an obvious comparison to Peter Crouch given his height, skill, and passion for FPL. Who knows? Maybe Burnley will have a vacancy to fill this summer and Jordie could be the perfect fit. After the events of the past week, nothing would surprise me.

Lastly, for those craving a summer fix of Fantasy Football, Meltens previewed Gameweek 8 in Fantasy Allsvenskan, while TallestJohn looked ahead to Gameweek 6 in the Eliteserien Fantasy.

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

Congratulations to LOKOMOTIV who lifted the Fantasy Football Scout Cup following a narrow 6-point victory over FFS moderator Rotation’s Alter Ego. As Neale revealed in midweek, the final proved to be a tight affair going down to the last match on Monday evening, where a goal from Agüero – captained by Rotation’s Alter Ego – could well have swung the tie in his favour. In the end LOKOMOTIV’s decision to captain Aubameyang proved decisive.

In our third-place play-off, Skogen89 claimed the £50 Amazon voucher as he defeated Ibra-gum 55-43. Well done to all four managers for making it to the final Gameweek of the competition.

In TorresMagic’s Last Man Standing competition, Alan Robertson (aka Villaweeal) emerged triumphant. In a cagey final round which saw all four finalists suffer captain blanks, Alan had 12-point contributions from defenders Laporte and Doherty, together with a goal from Salah, to thank for this 3-point victory. He becomes the sixth winner of the competition, congratulations to him and the other three finalists.

Adam Levy (aka Elvy) the leader of both our main FFS League and our FFS Members League, has now been world number one for the past nine Gameweeks. His closest rival Falah Allawati took a 4-point hit and Triple Captained Agüero, however a rare home blank from the Argentine means Adam still has a substantial 60-point lead going into the final Gameweek.

Yesterday morning, David took at look at how the top two teams compare in the FPL title race – could Salah prove to be the ultimate differential?

A community article from RedLightning examines Adam’s tremendous season. It includes a look at his chip usage and hits, and highlights just how well he’s done since the start of 2019.

Going into the final Gameweek, Adam has a chance to beat the record FPL points total set by FFS member Jon Reeson (aka Westfield Irons) in the 2009/10 season. In a separate community article this week, Jon was kind enough to answer my questions about his record points season.

Mark has increased his lead in the FFS Mods & Cons to 27 points, and moves up to 552nd overall. Rotation’s Alter Ego still occupies second spot with G-Whizz some way behind in third.

Craig Till Reumert is the new leader in RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league following an impressive Gameweek score of 71 (-4). He’s up to 72nd overall. This is Craig’s 12th FPL season, and he’s had four previous top 10,000 finishes. He was 109th in our Live Hall of Fame after Gameweek 36 and is most likely even higher now. Andy Sullivan drops to second.

Andrew Hughes takes over at the top of RedLightning’s January to May League, although the previous leader, Vimal Krishnan, is level with him on points. This is Andrew’s sixth FPL season, and at 322nd overall he will easily eclipse his best finish of 7,772 from 2015/16. He’s had 7 green arrows in the past 9 Gameweeks, rising nearly 19,000 places since Gameweek 28.

Ted Maw (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego) increased his lead in RedLightning’s The Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league to 18 points. 8 green arrows in the past 10 Gameweeks have taken him from 46k in Gameweek 27 to 1,405 now.

Andrew Hughes has scored 706 points since Gameweek 29 compared to Ted’s 686, so if Andrew had entered The Last Ten Gameweeks mini-league then he would be leading that too.

Finally, it was announced back in January that the 2019/20 season will see the return of the FFS Head-to-Head leagues. This week Mir, who will be running the leagues, gave us an update – the entry details are as follows:

When FPL opens for the 2019-2020 season a league code will be created on FPL called ‘FFS Head-To-Head League’, which will act as the entry form. We will then take those entries and associate HOF rankings with them, to start putting people into Divisions and Leagues. Right now, entry will close with the start of GW1.

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

4,621 Comments Post a Comment
  1. SPorting
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Jota -> Babel worth a -4?

    If not it means benching Jota and playing Llorente.

    1. SPorting
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Or Llorente -> Origi (-4)?

      1. La Roja
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Both not worth -4

      2. Ginkapo FPL
        • 12 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        or both?

    2. Jonny HOW SON?
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      do it

    3. Ginkapo FPL
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      might actually be

  2. Clintymints
    • 14 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Which combo do you prefer

    A. Hazard + Pogba

    B. Salah + Fraser -4

    C. Salah + Redmon -4

    1. RomeluAndJuliet
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      B

    2. Volley127
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      C

    3. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Sneaky Redmond punt seems the order of the day

  3. Jonny HOW SON?
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Looking at a fun captain option, who would you go for?

    A) Laporte
    B) Deulofeu
    C) Redmond
    D) Wilson

    1. RomeluAndJuliet
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      D

    2. Gooner Kebab
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Gotta Wilson imo

    3. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      D all day

  4. Tshelby
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Anyone prefers Sterling over Salah as captain?

    1. SPorting
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Someone probably

    2. Gooner Kebab
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      gone for Kun

    3. EMBOLOFAN
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      theres a captain poll ffs

    4. kalmoffit
      • 10 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Of course

    5. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      It's between those two for me atm. Thinking Salah as home game but who knows

      tough calls this week

  5. Gooner Kebab
    • 11 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    First time on Vardy's party this season. Can't wait.

    1. EMBOLOFAN
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      welcome

  6. 1912 F.A Cup Winners
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Last time to make final decision lads....
    Play..
    A- Holberg
    B- Jimmy

    Captain..
    1- Mané
    2- Aguero
    Cheers fellas and best of luck to everyone!!!

    1. Gooner Kebab
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Jim Kun

    2. Belli2007
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      If you have pool defence then I would plat Holberg

      I have atmband on Kun with VC on Mane

      1. 1912 F.A Cup Winners
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Cheers mate yeah have Robbo mad TAA just switched to Aguero captain from Mané

  7. LLoris
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Anything on Laca

    1. fr3d
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Is he a doubt?

      1. LLoris
        • 5 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        kindeve

    2. EMBOLOFAN
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      lol

  8. Belli2007
    • 13 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    23pt lead over ML rival. Pretty sure both did Son>Bilva with our 1FT

    Should I

    A - play JWP (Jimi on bench) - no hit?
    B - take a 4pt hit bringing in Rondon for Jimi (rival has) and play him with JWP benched reducing differentials?

    1. Epic Fail
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Copy your rival.

    2. Kiwivillan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Play JWP

  9. Richd
    • 11 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Hovering over the button

    Son and Llorente to Redmond and Vardy for a -4

    Scared the website could crash before 2pm 😉

    1. Gooner Kebab
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Join the party!

      1. Richd
        • 11 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Would be first time for me this year too!

        1. Fpl Richie
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 8 Years
          4 years, 10 months ago

          Captaining him?

          1. Richd
            • 11 Years
            4 years, 10 months ago

            Nah im sticking with Raheem for sure!

    2. Fpl Richie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      I like that move Flap

    3. EMBOLOFAN
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      not worth hit llorente will prob start

      1. The Ejiptian King
        • 5 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        You don't think Vardy will score?

      2. Richd
        • 11 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Yeah I think i'm doing it more for fun than anything. Prob a bit silly but GW38 should be fun and my ML's are locked up

      3. Richd
        • 11 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Also the 'prob start' worries me. There is Lamela and Moura

    4. The Ejiptian King
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Already done Son > Redmond, should we have a party?

      1. Richd
        • 11 Years
        4 years, 10 months ago

        Lets do it! 🙂

    5. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Just got Redmond in and it feels dirty

  10. Yeboah Power XI
    • 14 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Bottomed:
    Please help, chasing 15 points with Salah, Shaw, Eriksen and Zaha the differences.

    Foster
    TAA- Shaw - Valery
    Salah - Eriksen - Jota - Son
    Agüero - Jimi - Zaha

    Son to :-
    A: Mane
    B: Pogba
    C: Redmond
    D: other?

    1. SPorting
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Mané

  11. Dannyb
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Btmd
    Play Leno or Foster?

    1. ChipsnGravy
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Same dilemma. I’m on foster

    2. Laurel and Vardy
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Same here. Starting Foster, as Burnley will probably bang a couple goals against tired Arsenal.

  12. Differentiator
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Playing VVD and TAA and Jimenez

    Benching Jota

    Feeling dirty

  13. ChipsnGravy
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Current front line,
    Mane, Redmond, Sterling, Eriksen, Deulo,
    Kun, Zaha, Jimi

    Options:
    A) Leave alone and play 3-5-2 (Jimi on bench)
    B) Eriksen to Pogba and play 3-5-2 (Jimi on bench)
    C) Jimi to Rash or Wilson and play 3-4-3 (bench Deulo)
    D) Jimi/Eriksen to Vardy/Fraser or Wilson/Pogba and play 3-4-3 (bench
    (Bench Deulo)

    D takes a -4 hit

    Help?!?!?!

  14. New Post
  15. Nas
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Current back three robbo Shaw and valery with doherty and Duffy on bench.
    Worth taking a hit to replace Duffy with Laporte with all the rumors about Shaw and questions about robbo?
    And if I get Laporte who do I bench?

    Rest of team
    Sterling jwp Redmond mane
    Aguero vardy jimenez

    1. buzdo
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Personally I'd bench JWP in that case

  16. ★Kuntheman★
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Worth doing Hazard>Pogba for a hit?

    1. Kiwivillan
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      I'm doing Hazard>Salah for hit. Hoping Pogba blanks for ML purposes

  17. Lignja
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    A. Pogba and Mitro
    B. B Silva and Rash

  18. Atwood
    • 13 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Any Shaw owners gonna keep him and just pray he starts?

    1. The Ejiptian King
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      I'm keeping because I can't get rid, don't care if he starts really, I hate him.

    2. Epic Fail
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Yeah.

  19. Baked baines
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Jimi - Rashford/Zaha and play Doherty

    Or

    Duffy - TAA and play Jimi

  20. Lukakuna
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Repost:

    A) Fraser Wilson Jota
    B) Fraser Moura Jimenez

    Cheers

    1. LLoris
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      A

  21. LLoris
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Which option is better? down by 35pts in my ML

    A) Son Lacazette for Salah Long
    B) Son Gray for Wilson Fraser

    1. Lukakuna
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      A and Cap Salah

  22. The Alli Way
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    ML rival is 30 points behind me.

    He has Sterling and I have Aguero, he will captain Sterling (C).

    Should I take a -8 to bring in Sterling (Son > Sterling, Jota > 4.1 and Jimenez > Rondon) to cover this and make sure I win the ML?

    1. Lukakuna
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      No, unless your teams are identical otherwise

    2. Gentle_Turks
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Not sure about that -8. If it was JImenez to Wilson then it might pay off, but I'd still be very wary of such a hit.

      Please help below thanks.

    3. Klein
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Nope. Cap kun. Just jimi or jota to someone you feel good about and you are good.

  23. Gentle_Turks
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Cocked up my last question.

    BENCH one

    A) Jota
    B) Bednarek
    C) Jimenez

    1. Ratatouille
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      C

  24. Ratatouille
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Last for the road..

    A- Son to Pogba
    B- Jiménez to Wilson

    Thanks

  25. Ange Ball
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Cap pick

    A) Aguero
    B) Sterling
    C) Lucas

  26. Roy Rovers
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Surely someone has some Hazard news!!!

  27. qazsed321
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    £2.4m in the bank

    A) Son --> hazard
    B) Son & zaha --> Babel & aguero (-4)
    C) Robertson & Son --> TAA/laporte & hazard (-4)

    I don't know if I should priorities getting in hazard or ageuro??

  28. Londongeezaa
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Hazard to Babel a crazy move?

  29. Wolfman180
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    How late is everyone leaving it to hit that button if they are making transfers?

    1. LLoris
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      8 mins before

    2. Corgz Dark side of the Loon
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Cos no Robbo and Shaw is causing last minute re think.....which pretty much sums up this year.....

    3. Klein
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 10 months ago

      Before the site crashes

  30. Klodder
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 10 months ago

    Wilson for Jimenez or Fraser for Son? Don't want to take a hit