Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice for FPL Gameweek 20

Don’t move from the sofa! Before the dust has had a chance to settle on Gameweek 19, Gameweek 20 is upon us. And with most teams having less than 48-hours rest between matches, Fantasy Premier League managers prepare themselves for rotation and unfamiliar starting XIs. 

Gameweek 20 also marks the halfway point in the season. And in what has been a topsy-turvy year for many, ranks remain tightly packed – less than a hundred points separates the top 100k from the top million, and there’s 135 points between the top 1million and the top 10,000. With 19 Gameweeks to go there’s all to play for. 

The tight turnaround presents an opportunity for FPL bosses. Predicted Line-Ups will be of particular interest, while Fantasy Football Scout’s Captain Sensible and Scout Picks will help with the all-important armband and transfer decisions.

What’s more, managers have just been handed their first Double Gameweek of the season. Liverpool and West Ham’s postponed Gameweek 18 encounter has been rearranged for Gameweek 24, giving both teams two matches instead of one in that particular round of fixtures. 

Typing faster than a seven-year-old unwraps Christmas presents, Neale examined the implications for Fantasy bosses. He noted that it’s the first-ever Double Gameweek for Mohamed Salah and perhaps an opportunity to deploy the Triple Captain chip. That 135-point gap will be bridged in no time.

The Egypt international currently leads the captain poll for Gameweek 20. Ahead of Sunday’s match at Anfield, Liverpool have been afforded 24 hours more rest than their opponents Wolves. And how will last night’s dramatic second-half comeback against Manchester City affect Nuno Espírito Santo’s men?

Earlier this month the Wolves boss described his team’s schedule as “crazy”, “absurd” and “not human”. So despite very little rotation so far, changes would seem likely. Meanwhile counterpart Jurgen Klopp had this to say following his side’s comprehensive win over Leicester City:

Fresh legs always helped us now since we changed a little bit more frequently. Like in the Everton game in the league, for example, we made five changes and they were absolutely necessary on one side but really impressive performance-wise. So, we will do that as well now, of course, we have to and we will. That’s how it is. We have four more adult players [to rotate]… for the others it will still take a while, so that’s our squad and we have to deal with it as good as possible.

– Jurgen Klopp

The good news for Salah owners is that he was withdrawn early on Thursday and could therefore be less at risk of rotation. The Egyptian was also very unlucky to blank at the King Power.

A combined Captain Sensible and Scout Picks article this week highlights his potential. Man City players also standout with Raheem Sterling topping the points predictions on this site’s Rate My Team.

Kevin De Bruyne performs well in a number of categories and, like Salah, was withdrawn early in Gameweek 19. With Guardiola confirming after the game that his substitution was made with Gameweek 20 in mind. Manchester City top the latest DS stats, fixtures and clean sheet odds provided by G-Whizz.

As Andy noted in his Gameweek 20 Q&A video, players rested in Gameweek 19 would seem more assured of a start this weekend. Danny Ings is one such player, and the in-form Southampton forward is expected to return to the starting XI for this afternoon’s match against Crystal Palace.

He also fancies Christian Pulisic to return to the Chelsea side and urges managers to keep faith with Tammy Abraham. He reasons that new Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta won’t have had enough time to improve their defence significantly. Only three teams this season have conceded more goals at home than the Gunners. 

Manchester United fan Andy offered his thoughts on Paul Pogba. An injury to Scott McTominay could see the Frenchman occupy a deeper role and with Marcus Rashford seemingly on penalties, Andy feels Anthony Martial is the midfielder of choice.

Elsewhere an injury concern for Dele Alli means the Spurs midfielder is a doubt for the trip to Norwich. He’s not included in Neale’s predicted line-up and is replaced by Lucas Moura in the Scout Picks.

Jamie Vardy does, however, make the Scout selection despite not being included in the predicted starting XI. He has form and an enticing fixture in his favour although, as Pro Pundit Holly points out in her hot topic, manager Brendan Rodgers confirmed there will be rotation for West Ham.

Finally, following his impressive 24-point haul in Gameweek 19, Andy asked whether we should bring Trent Alexander-Arnold straight back in. However the Liverpool full-back is still at risk of suspension – currently on four yellow cards, a booking against Wolves would see him miss Gameweek 21.

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.

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Best of luck for Gameweek 20!

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

2,278 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Think
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Scout is on watch for Bournemouth players for nice upcoming games.

    1. FDMS All Starz
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Would love for Josh King to hit some form

      1. Think
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        Looking @ Harry wilson

        1. Mo Salah No Mane
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 3 months ago

          Was tempted on wc but just too much rotation to worry about with him.

          1. Nightf0x
            • 8 Years
            4 years, 3 months ago

            Same

  2. Garfield1001
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Do we think Cantwell starts today? Cheers

    1. Think
      • 9 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Definitely

  3. Tshelby
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Did Pope to Guaita don’t know if it was a smart move.. double palace defense now

    1. Mo Salah No Mane
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Only double defence worth owning is TAA and Robbo period.

      1. Tshelby
        • 9 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        Yeah sure not that I’m happy that I have double palace defense..

        1. Mo Salah No Mane
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 3 months ago

          Lol

      2. AuFeld
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        4th fewest goals allowed at a bargain. Smart move imo.

  4. KDB4PREZ
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Missed my alarm and the deadline! Can’t rem who my captain is from last night lol sacarey times

    1. Muchentuchel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      hope you're not the guy who capped Lundstram 😀

      1. g40steve
        • 6 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        That was last week 🙂

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

    Kelly -> Webster did not go to plan 🙁

  6. FDMS All Starz
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Does Charlie Taylor start for Burnley? Nailed or not?

    1. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Start yes, nailed no

  7. Kaiser123
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    I had Mane as captain and Tammy as vice. Hoping to get lucky as no thought whatsoever this GW.

    1. Fpl Richie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Bloody hell. Good luck

  8. Nightf0x
    • 8 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Last min. WC move, i did grealish kely to traore sidibe ? Good or bad ?

    1. Do I Not Like Orange
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Not sure, Kelly > Sidibe is good but not sure if Traore will be rested or if it's too early to lose Grealish.

  9. james 101
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Vardy cap?

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

    Who's on set-pieces? Rico? Stanislas indirect, H Wilson direct? Oh well

  11. FER FUSCH AKE
    • 7 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    I'm of the opinion that FPL is much more fun when you are chasing as opposed to when you are leading. Green arrows are easy to come by at a shite OR and ranks are very volatile( 1 extra point can give you a 20k OR rise). Furthermore, one is more brave to jump in early on bandwagons and take maverick punts taking full advantage of players' purple patches. This is because ( what is there to lose any way?). Lastly, the success stories reminiscing how a particular player was able to move from the highs of 7- figure digit rank to a respectable top 1% finish are interesting to read about or experience first hand.

    As may as are for that opinion say I?
    As many as are for a contrary opinion say nay? ( with a counter argument).

    1. Fitzy.
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      But you've only seen it from one angle... 😉

      1. FER FUSCH AKE
        • 7 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        The contrary is that it is much more fun to play when chasing. Or any other argument that any poster may raise.

        1. FER FUSCH AKE
          • 7 Years
          4 years, 3 months ago

          when leading*******

    2. Dont give a fuchs
      • 10 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      I agree. Been in 7 digit rank since start but its challenging to try to reach top 10k or 100k

    3. Amey
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Completely agree with you

  12. tisza
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    anyone help me with GW19 top10k average please?

  13. g40steve
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Updated

  14. FFS league is #1 (and other mini-league news)!
    TopMarx
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 11 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Ahead of Gameweek 20, the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league was sitting proudly atop the Best Leagues in FPL!

    The leader of our mini-league, Theodor Eek-Bakke, has risen to fifth overall and has a three-point lead over Gary Tokatlian. Gary moved up to second place after captaining Martial for a 97-point Gameweek. Theodor is now first in Norway overtaking World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has totalled just 65 points over Gameweeks 18 and 19.

    Steve Hall is the new number one in our FFS Members mini-league, one point ahead of previous leader Martin Dixon. Steve is 190th overall. This is his tenth FPL season and he has had three top 10,000 finishes, the best of which was 4,536th in 2016/17.

    However Martin Dixon does still lead RedLightning's Top 10k Any Season mini-league. Martin is 214th overall. In Gameweek 19 he extended his lead over Rok Krasna to 11 points.

    A full round-up article will appear after Gameweek 20. Good luck to everyone this weekend!

    1. doy
      • 6 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      Yay, way to go FFS!

    2. RedLightning
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 13 Years
      4 years, 3 months ago

      More GW19 mini-league news:

      The 30 managers in our FFS Mods & Cons mini-league selected 11 different captains between them, but none of them captained TAA. In fact, TAA was such an outsider that he wasn't even an option in our Captain Poll, so well done anyone who did actually captain him! Neale Rigg (Skonto Rigga) still leads, has expended his lead over Chris James (El Fozzie) in Mods & Cons to 27 points and is up 10k places to 6,366th overall.

      My January to May League (league code aafkpq) will start scoring in GW21. Over 260 teams have already entered.

      Craig Johnson (Bouncebackability) was beaten 41-64 by Owen Walker (Zan Scott Talent) in League 1 of the FFS Head-to-Head leagues, so his lead over Aleksander Vage Nilsen (AleksanderVN), who beat olavi oja 71-62, is now only 3 points.

      In League 8 Division 77, Vladimir Stojiljkovic suffered a narrow defeat (67-68) by korede jacob, his second loss in a row. He now has 51 points out of 57 and is now only the joint highest scoring manager in our Head-to-Head Leagues, as Abdullah Tamim in League 8 Division 1 and Ammar Mirza in League 8 Division 26 also have 51 out of 57.

      G-Whizz, the last member of the scout team still in the FFS Cup, was beaten 62-68 by stamfordbridge in round 5, but the highest ranked manager (Teddy Brewski, 620th) is safely through after beating Jeanz 70-39. There won't be any FFS Cup matches in GW20, so the next round will be in GW21.

      TorresMagic is now the only member of the scout team through to the 5th round of the FFS Members Cup after a 61-45 win over Albany City. Paul, the only other scout team member through to round 4, was beaten 55-87 by Jiguain. The highest ranked manager (frankiem, 16th), won 66-64 against sandgrounder. Next round in GW21.

      World chess champion Magnus Carlsen has now dropped from 3rd to 64th overall in 2 game-weeks. Selling TAA and Mane in GW18 instead of just benching them did not work out well!

      Sam Bonfield (FPL Family) played her Wildcard for a game-score of 61 and is now into the top 10k at 7,998th overall. She is still the highest ranked Pro Pundit, but Lateriser is now her closest rival, only 11 points behind, after captaining Martial for a game-week score of 93.

      1. RedLightning
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 13 Years
        4 years, 3 months ago

        *extended, not expended.

  15. chriscosta
    • 13 Years
    4 years, 3 months ago

    Any update on last man standing league ?