Scout Notes

What to do with Man United’s FPL assets after laboured West Ham draw

Man United 1-1 West Ham

  • Goals: Mason Greenwood (£4.8m) | Michail Antonio (£7.1m)
  • Assists: Anthony Martial (£8.5m) | Declan Rice (£4.7m)
  • Bonus Points: Greenwood x3, Antonio x2, Rice x1, Mark Noble x1 (£4.9m)

Fantasy managers wielding the all-powerful Free Hit chip in Gameweek 38+ may have an easier time shedding their Manchester United players after Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

The Red Devils are set for a crucial Champions League clash at Leicester on the last day of the season, where they will face an injury-hit backline. Such a fixture had largely kept a number of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men in consideration for Gameweek 38+ squads, but two below-par performances, first in the FA Cup and then against West Ham, could reduce reliance on them for Sunday’s showdown.

In light of Wednesday’s tired display, the 30% ownership of Bruno Fernandes (£9.1m) may well be eyeing up midfield options at Manchester City or the funds to sign Harry Kane (£10.9m) this weekend. The Portuguese international put on one of his most anonymous performances since arriving in Manchester and, despite coming into Gameweek 37+ as the top 10k’s most popular captain choice, never really looked like getting an attacking return.

It is clear Fernandes is starting to suffer from Manchester United’s lack of rotation over the Project Restart period, his outing against West Ham showing just how exhausted he is physically and mentally. The evening could have gone differently for the former Sporting man as Marcus Rashford (£8.9m) curled an excellent ball into the box to match his early advanced run. However, just yards away from the West Ham goal he failed to control the inch-perfect pass and, from then on, it was all down hill for him. In the end, Fernandes’ frustrations boiled over in the second half when he was booked for going forehead-to-forehead with Arthur Masuaku (£4.1m). 

Was that enough to warrant selling him for Gameweek 38+ though? Looking at his 106 points in 13 Premier League matches for Manchester United, we know Fernandes is capable of delivering, especially on the road. In away matches since the Premier League restart, Fernandes has averaged 11 points per game and let’s not forget he hit the post at Crystal Palace too, so that total could have been even higher. Either way, his owners will need significant improvement from him at Leicester if he is to hold his own in a Gameweek 38+ squad.

The same could arguably be said for owners of Anthony Martial (£8.5m), although to slightly less of an extent considering a moment of nice link-up with Mason Greenwood (£4.8m) for the equaliser. Apart from that, the Frenchman was industrious if unspectacular with his efforts on goal but never really looked like scoring. Not only could he have provided more penetrative runs, Martial certainly suffered from the lack of creativity behind him. If United were to put on a similarly fatigued performance at the King Power Stadium, that would surely affect Martial as well.

His case for Gameweek 38+ is not particularly mitigated in the same way as Fernandes, considering he has been less profitable on the road recently. Despite averaging 13.3 points per game at Old Trafford since the Premier League return, but has scored just 4.8 per match away from it.

Rashford has a similar issue ahead of travelling to Leicester on the final weekend. He may have notched a 12-point haul at Crystal Palace but the FPL forward has blanked in every other away match since Gameweek 30+. Typically more reliable at Old Trafford, Rashford was the shadow of his usual energetic self against West Ham, another asset seemingly suffering from physical and mental exhaustion.

He tested Lukasz Fabianski (£4.9m) with an excellent speculative knuckle-ball strike from distance early on, but outside of that could not trouble the goalkeeper and lacked his usual creativity in advanced areas too. Is that enough to warrant transferring him out to make room for some of the more in-demand Gameweek 38+ forward such as Kane or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m)? Perhaps.

As already mentioned, United do look as if they are limping over the Premier League line this season, but the biggest problem against West Ham was the lack of any creative spark, usually stemming from Fernandes and Paul Pogba (£8.3m). Neither one of them impressed at all on Wednesday evening, the latter especially. Not only did he have little to no impact going forward, he lost possession in the middle of the pitch often and it was his mindless lift of the hands towards Declan Rice’s (£4.7m) shot that conceded the penalty that cost United the win.

That goal afforded West Ham the confidence to press their illustrious hosts in all areas of the pitch, ask questions going forward and have the opposite impact on United’s attack. Therefore, it almost goes without saying that Fantasy managers will have a dilemma over Manchester United attacking assets over the next few days. In order for them to appeal to their owners against Leicester, they will have to make improvements in the coming days, even if the Foxes have defensive issues of their own.

Owners of Michail Antonio (£7.1m) are probably experiencing the opposite reaction to the United attackers. Aston Villa’s defensive showing against Arsenal had initially sowed seeds of doubt among the Fantasy community, but his latest display showed once again just how good his form is.

Not only did he cause Manchester United plenty of problems, helping the Hammers achieve a higher expected goals (xG) than their hosts, Antonio appears to have wrestled penalties away from Mark Noble (£4.9m) as it was the out-of-position midfielder who netted the first-half spot-kick. That goal took his total since the restart to eight, making him even harder to ditch for Aston Villa’s visit to the London Stadium.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£5.5m) are likely to be in two minds ahead of Gameweek 38+. While he missed out on a start for the first time since the restart, the right-back does not look particularly under threat from the man who replaced him in the XI initially. Timothy Fosu-Mensah (£4.5m) began the game in Wan-Bissaka’s place, but was ineffectual in the final third, and gave away the free-kick which led to the penalty. No wonder he went three years without playing for United and got relegated with Fulham last season.

Manchester United XI (4-2-3-1): De Gea; B Williams, Maguire, Lindelöf, Fosu-Mensah (Wan-Bissaka 46’); Matić, Pogba; Rashford (Ighalo 85’), B Fernandes, Greenwood; Martial.

West Ham United XI (4-5-1): Fabianski; Cresswell (Masuaku 75’), Ogbonna, Diop, Johnson; Fornals, Rice, Noble, Soucek, Bowen (Yarmolenko 90+1’); Antonio (Haller 78’).

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FPL Lessons Learned From Gameweek 37+

2,921 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Stoic
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    TSA Fantasy Legend

    1. Stoic
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      What a fail

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

        Being a stoic you shouldn’t care...

    2. Dthinger
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      how many sold him?

  2. HTL
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Sell.

  3. Amey
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Sell and regret

  4. Syd.
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Pulisic came on and scored points

    Fantastic big bolloxes

  5. FPLMarc
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    The GW32 Wildcard effectively ended my season and the drops have been huge.

    - WRONG MAN UTD THREE: De Gea, Martial, Rashford. It meant no Greenwood and missing Bruno's hauls, buying him just in time for the poor returns. Like tonight.

    - NO INGS: Until he'd scored a few.

    - BURNLEY BAD LUCK: Went with Charlie Taylor and benched him for both clean sheets.

    - FAITH IN DCL AND SARR: 6 blanks later, Calvert-Lewin is still in there. What a troll.

    - NECO WILLIAMS PLAN BACKFIRED: Had him and Trent. Neco hauled but stayed on bench as Trent unexpectedly made a cameo.

    So there's been too many fires to put out, not enough transfers to jump on Antonio, Greenwood etc. Can't wait for Sunday night and for it all to be over.

    1. Postman Ty
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      DDG over Pope has to be the stupidest decision I made all season. It was largely based off having Aurier as well, but he's been mediocre. Should have just had Pope and Aurier but thought surely a Man U defender was as safe as anything with their run-in.

    2. Pompel
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Made the same errors on wc with DDG vs Pope, DCL vs Ings and Rashford vs Martial. Been downhill since then

  6. TomSaints
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    I’ve lost 84 points from transferred players scoring post restart.

    Rest of the season? 11

  7. Coys96
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Keep attackers

  8. BobB
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    United dropped their only reliable defender tonight and paid the price.

    1. Now I'm Panicking
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Some dude earlier said they should have played some never played before 17/18 year old at RB ahead of FM and AWB. The complacency and arrogance of most Man U fans is staggering.

  9. EL tridente
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    That was it... going from leading my ML by 14 points and now trailing by 17...

    1. HTL
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      You can easily make that back with one player

      1. EL tridente
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        Already did ngs, KDB and Saka to Kane, Silva and Grealish for -8 to get some other players than him, so actually I'm 25 points behind now

  10. Greek Freak
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    This was the first time I watched a full Liverpool match this season - has Salah normally been lacking composure this much? Snatching at everything, missing 1-on-1 with Kepa by more than the width of the goal - surely he's been better than that?

    1. Long ago I drew a walrus
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      I've watched both their home games after winning the league, against Villa and Burnley. They were terrible in both. Scoring 5 today really shows how bad the Chelsea back line is.

      1. Greek Freak
        • 8 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        I'm pretty sure I've now made up my mind to not get Salah - might just keep Mane though, I really like him.

        1. Long ago I drew a walrus
          • 13 Years
          3 years, 8 months ago

          I've been saying for days now, Salah's away record is rubbish so not sure why people think he'll suddenly turn it on. Turns out it didn't even work out at home

          1. Greek Freak
            • 8 Years
            3 years, 8 months ago

            I had a discussion about this yesterday. I really don't know whether there's actual causation there or just a weird statistical aberration. In any case, he doesn't look great so I'll probably avoid.

    2. Brosstan
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      hes always like this

  11. RAFA THE GAFFA
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    What is a decent lead before the final GW?

    1. Greek Freak
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Depends on chips etc. but I'd feel pretty safe with anything over 30.

    2. dark91
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      >30 points

    3. Fishy
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      30 if no chips involved

    4. FPL Daniel
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      30

    5. RAFA THE GAFFA
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Thanks all

  12. Fishy
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Keep utd players, Leicester have to win so will attack and that will only suit utd

  13. Long ago I drew a walrus
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Never would have expected Pulisic to double Salah's score

    1. Van der Faart
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Me either. Benched Puli and captained Salah. Joke.

  14. Mr. Chimes
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Keep Greenwood, sell Bruno/Martial/Rashford

    1. FPL Daniel
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      i am pondering the same

      1. Mr. Chimes
        • 4 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        Well for me I want Dilva and Sterling. Not sure if I want to sell Salah, so was thinking Bruno could go. Still no idea tho

    2. matiakez
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Pondering Bruno out but on a rotten run of players i sell returning..

  15. Qaiss
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Everyone saying sell United assets. Earlier today everyone said keep because Leicester will go on the attack and be open.

    If man united had got a last min penalty today with a Martial A and Bruno G, people would be saying keep.

    Lol.

    1. Greek Freak
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      I'm in two minds - probably only keeping Martial on my free hit.

    2. Long ago I drew a walrus
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Don't underestimate pens though, shows they're getting into those positions and drawing the fouls. United today were passing it around the back at 93 mins. Don't think there was a SOT after Greenwood's goal. That's the worry, not the lack of returns

    3. Bubz
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      They've looked so bad last 2 games

      1. Qaiss
        • 8 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        I know, that's why I didn't captain and won't own on my FH probably, but people are so knee-jerky in these parts.

    4. The Ejiptian King
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      That's FPL though, everything changes week to week and people have short memories, Bruno was getting a load of abuse earlier after two bad games, plenty already forgetting he's racked up an insane score since joining.

    5. Puncheon Guly
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      They look poor and don't need to take risks. Think Bruno is worth it cos he's on everything and has a good away record, but I'll not have Martial on FH and Greenwood first sub due to his value

  16. Wally711
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Rival in ML gets 90 something points and I get 46. He got way too lucky, case and point the sterling penalty save then him scoring. He has foster and sterling captain. And he has a TC left.

    1. Wally711
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      and I wont be able to bring in sterling next week either.

  17. IN SANE IN DE BRUYNE
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Option A:
    Fernandes, Foden -> Sterling(C), McCarthy -4?
    Would give me this

    Pope
    TAA Doherty Pieters
    Salah Sterling KDB Martial
    Jesus Vardy Greenwood

    Option B:
    Foden -> Dilva for free, bench Greenwood.

    ML rival will play FH

  18. Silecro
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Rival had BB+ TC before this week and 17pts ahead. Managed to survive his BB chip and entering final week 16 pts behind.
    Do I have a chance with Free Hit -16pts versus his Triple cap?

    1. Sargasso C
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Yes...absolutely

  19. Duke Silver ☑
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Chelsea fans, do you reckon Alonso will start against Wolves?

    1. FPL Daniel
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      35% chance

      1. Duke Silver ☑
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        Hmm, I'm leaning towards starting him.

    2. Miguel Sanchez
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      No he is awful

  20. Ange Ball
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    You really cannot write fantasy. Been behind my rival since GW25 now ahead of him by 10pts took out Pulisic and Giroud for Martial and Wood this week -4 Well happy tho I'm ahead now. Those of you experience with the game should I make minus 8 bring in Sterling as he has him and Antonio/DSilva possible Son.

    Just play my own game keep the points hope I outscore him

    1. Greek Freak
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      If you're ahead by 10 points I don't think you want to give him 8 points for free.

  21. FPL Daniel
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    restart the captain poll scouts. please

  22. as33
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Kane or Jesus?

    1. Duke Silver ☑
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Kane.

    2. Bagheri Arce
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      I'm on Kane

      I would love to pick Jesus too but nervous he gets benched after two X 90 mins

  23. Bagheri Arce
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    8 goals from 12 shots on target. Wow

  24. Muller Reus Corner
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Want Sterling TC, which moves for a -4? Mane and Doherty to Robbo and Sterling or Pulisic/Antonio and Bruno to Sterling and 4.5m midfielder?

    1. Duke Silver ☑
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Robbo out celebrating tonight. We know how that worked out last time 😉

  25. The-Red-1
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    So I've been round in circles with my FH chip this week and knocked a huge hole in my TV and ended up with this mess - help please

    Ryan
    TAA Laporte Pieters
    Salah Sterling Silva Antonio Son
    Kane Ings

    There's something about it that doesn't feel quite right (no United or Chelsea?)

  26. EL tridente
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Crazy transfers?
    Ings, KDB and Saka to Kane, Silva and Grealish for -8
    Need some differentials is I am trailing by 17 points

    1. Pukki Party
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Don't sell Ings

  27. R.C
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Just 29 points on the bench, anyone else better?

    1. R.C
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Oh and sold Pulisic for a hit

      1. R.C
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        85(-8) and a green arrow though

  28. Long ago I drew a walrus
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Are BAPs final? 0 for Pulisic seems harsh

  29. Pukki Party
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    Bench one:

    A) Foden (NOR)
    B) Greenwood (lei)

    1. Zen_Master
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Foden

  30. Sun Jihai
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 8 months ago

    End up level with rival on points heading into GW38
    Need a miracle with them having FH and me not - not sure what to do!

    1. Pukki Party
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 8 months ago

      Hope for them to ruin their teams

      1. Sun Jihai
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 8 months ago

        Yeah, need a Kane blank and Rashford to get a hattrick or something