Eight gameweek’s later and here we are, the final of the Fantasy Football Scout Cup III, sponsored by Paddy Power. From over 1300 entrants just two remain, with “tippman” and “gooner dave” hoping to follow the likes of donnellyc and Jonty into our Hall of Fame.
Let’s take a look at the fantasy squads at the disposal of both our finalists going into the weekend…
tippman – Overall Rank: 4,759th, Squad Value: £102.6M
As is stands, tippman has nine of his squad playing away from home this weekend, and one major injury doubt in Rafael Van der Vaart. It looks likely therefore that selection and transfer decisions will be pivotal to his success this week.
gooner dave – Overall Rank: 2,516th, Squad Value: £104.9M
As for gooner dave, he has just six playing away from home, as well as Rafael Van der Vaart. But when you consider three of those six face West Brom, it perhaps isn’t too big a worry.
The main sources of talking points are when you compare both teams. Looking at the goalkeeping situation, it’s probably gooner dave that has a slight advantage. Both managers have Ben Foster playing at home, but gooner dave has the strong(er?) option of Paul Robinson playing at home to Wolves. Seeing as tippman could well double up on Birmingham clean sheets, gooner dave may well choose the safer option of covering that slightly by playing the former Manchester United keeper.
Moving on to defence and, somewhat surprisingly, Paul Konchesky is the only common player. Alex and Ashley Cole perhaps cancel each other out, but one could quite easily outscore the other by a margin. For me, it’s tippman that has the bigger selection dilemmas this weekend. There must be a temptation to play Gary Cahill in the hope of another bore draw, but that’s a bit of a long-shot to say the least. If last week is anything to go by though, defence isn’t where this contest will be won or lost.
So, onto the front eight. As I mentioned, both have the impressive Dutchman at Spurs’ a likely absentee, and other than that only Nani and Tim Cahill cancel each other out. When you consider both their cheap options have away trips, it looks like the key to victory will be how their respective expensive players perform. For tippman, that’s Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka at home to Everton, and Dimitar Berbatov in Blackpool. For gooner dave, that’s Carlos Tevez and an out-of-sorts Didier Drogba. One final thing to note is gooner dave’s trio of Newcastle players, compared to tippman’s zero. How Newcastle perform looks likely to shape how this final plays out.
Let’s not forget our 3rd place play-off also taking place this week, as DRP and The Von battle it out for a free £50 bet courtesy of Paddy Power.
I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing both our finalists the best of luck this weekend, as they attempt to write themselves into the Fantasy Football Scout history books, as well as earn an early Christmas bonus. I’ll bring you news of how the final played out next week.
