Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice for FPL Gameweek 2

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Gameweek 2, don’t forget the new normal deadline of 11:00 BST – half an hour earlier than last season.

Captain set? Transfers made?

Before delving into the nitty-gritty of the best advice for the next round of matches, we received a welcome reminder this week on how to enjoy FPL.

If you find yourself clicking a little too often on transfers page, Community Member and Mindfulness trainer DomWatts23 explained why:

We get a dopamine hit released in our brain every time we look at our team and remember that we might be rewarded in the future for those players doing well this weekend.

– Dom Watts

Which is of course exactly what we want but, realistically, doesn’t always happen.

Dom’s thoughtful article is full of tips that help put FPL in perspective, and could possibly improve your decision-making process. 

And remember, even the best can have a bad Gameweek, as three-time top-200 finisher Lateriser proved with a below-average 43 points. Well, he wouldn’t be called ‘Late Riser’ if he didn’t start slowly. Reflecting on his pre-season decisions, the Pro Pundit considered:

Being stubborn will not make you a good FPL player. You have to respond to what you see on that television screen.

– Lateriser

It’s an exciting Gameweek with both Manchester clubs returning to action following their opening blank, and let’s not forget Aston Villa and Burnley too. Man United-fan Lateriser is sensing an opportunity to give Anthony Martial (£9.0m) the armband.

Although writing in Captain Sensible, Jan Sienkiewicz identified a weakness on Crystal Palace’s right flank that could be exploited by Marcus Rashford (£9.5m).

Encouragingly for Man United backers, the latest clean sheets odds provided by G-Whizz reveal that the Eagles are the team most likely to concede in Gameweek 2.

However, double-points king Jan notes that the safe captain pick is the popular Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£12.0m):

We can trust Aubameyang, who has been in fantastic goalscoring form over recent months and does have the underlying statistics, as well as penalties, to back it up.

– Jan

Arsenal entertain West Ham this weekend and, reflecting on the Hammers’ home defeat to Newcastle, David struck an ominous tone in the Best Captain video:

It’s quite rare to see a team get – I don’t want to say played off the park – but Newcastle were in full control of that game and I can’t remember the last time I really saw Newcastle be in control of a game and be on the front foot.

– David

One person who no doubt enjoyed that win was Neale. This week, our resident Geordie cast his eye over the statistics from Gameweek 1 in his latest Big Numbers offering. Among the many pearls highlighted was the frailty of the newly-promoted defences:

2.83 expected goals conceded (xGC) by West Bromwich Albion in Gameweek 1, the worst total in the division. In fact, the three newly promoted clubs had the worst xGC tallies in the first round of 2020/21 matches, with Leeds United (2.76) and Fulham (1.97) not far behind.

– Neale

That could be good news for owners of Everton players, with the Baggies visiting Goodison Park in the early kickoff.

The Toffees topped Pro Pundit Andy’s Gameweek 1 take-aways: underestimated following a series of sub-par performances during Project Restart, Andy noted how the arrival of midfield trio Allan (£5.5m), Abdoulaye Doucouré (£5.5m) and James Rodríguez (£7.5m) transformed their attack. 

Calvert-Lewin will get the plaudits for the goal (and what a header it was), but Richarlison (£8.0m) was brilliant. He managed seven shots, with five of them in the box and his non-penalty expected goals (nPxG) was 0.74, not a bad start. He’ll be a hard sell because of the extra £1m he costs over Calvert-Lewin, but he could be a shrewd pick for the next three fixtures.

– Andy on Everton

Although investing heavily in Carlo Ancelotti’s troops might be tricky without a Wildcard, especially with the Manchester clubs back on the menu. Pro Pundit Zophar weighed up the Pros and Cons of making wholesale changes to your squad this early in the season. 

Depending on the make-up of your team, you may want to act fast to take advantage of low-owned players from Manchester City as well capitalising on the appealing fixtures for Everton and Manchester United. Although, typically cautious in nature, Zophar ultimately prefers to wait until he has a little more data to go on and the transfer window is closed.

However, rumour has it that his fellow member of the FPL Wire, BigManBakar, has pushed the button ahead of Gameweek 2. Does this mean he’s sold Salah? His latest Gameweek review suggests he might have:

I would be more tempted to sell Salah however, if I was on a wildcard because that would have meant that I could have upgraded elsewhere easily. And I think that might be a smart strategy, because this is where the concept of VORP (value over replacement player) comes into play and if you are unlikely to captain Salah in the next four (che ARS avl eve) that ploy might be fruitful.

– BigManBakar

If you are looking for further encouragement to play the early Wildcard, Pro Pundit Tom Freeman was on hand with a selection of enticing differentials. Raheem Sterling led the way with nine goals during Project Restart:

Five of his nine double-digit hauls arrived following the resumption, which ensured he outscored teammate Kevin De Bruyne (£11.5m) by 86 FPL points to 73.

– Tom on Raheem Sterling

And a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers is not necessarily such a bad fixture for the Englishman, argues Tom:

Sterling also thrived on his travels – 70% of his league goals arrived during away games, while his 26 big chances in such matches was comfortably more than any other player.

– Tom on Raheem Sterling

The Aston Villa fan also ran the rule over the Villans’ new striker Ollie Watkins (£6.0m):

Amazingly, every single one of [his] 26 goals came from open play and, when you exclude penalties, Watkins scored more league goals than any other player in English football last season.

– Tom on Ollie Watkins

A partnership with Jack Grealish could bear fruit, and Tom suggests the time to invest might be Gameweek 6 when the fixture ticker turns blue for Dean Smith’s men.

This week’s Scoutcast featured former FPL winner and Pro Pundit Simon March. Despite concerns about their defence, one player who caught the eye of the Chelsea fan was Reece James (£5.0):

We saw the goal last night, I watched that back without the crowd noise and just the sound it makes when it leaves his boot – it was like a sonic boom! Just an absolute pile driver of a shot.

– Simon on Reece James

With new signings like Timo Werner (£9.5m) and Kai Havertz (£8.5m) to get on the end of his deliveries, Simon feels that £5.0m could be a steal. And, excluding his goal, Neale pointed out that the 20-year-old could benefit from the bonus points system:

20 baseline bonus points (BBPS) registered by Reece James on Monday night, the joint-highest total in Gameweek 1. Baseline BPS is simply a player’s BPS score with all the appearances, goals, assists and clean sheets stripped away.

– Neale on Reece James

Another defender who posed a goal-threat on the opening weekend was Matt Doherty (£6.0m). Spurs were rightly criticised for their defeat to Everton but the former Wolves player made a couple of encouraging “underlapping” runs into the box: the best resulting in a glorious chance from six yards out that Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) blocked with his legs.

Final Checks

Before making any final decisions ahead of Gameweek 2 be sure to check up on the latest team news and the predicted line-ups.

Pep Guardiola has revealed that Sergio Aguero and Aymeric Laporte will miss out this weekend:

Meanwhile Frank Lampard has confirmed that Timo Werner is fit to face the reigning Champions.

Community Competitions

The Head-to-Head leagues are back! The Gameweek 1 results and tables are currently showing on the main Head-to-Head page.

The fixtures for Gameweek 2 are below:

This is your last opportunity to join The Great and The Good mini-league, the entry code is jxisbl.

And Greyhead is also recruiting for a Community Team to take on the established glitterati. Put your name forward in this Hot Topic if you are interested in taking part.

For an update on all featured FFS Mini-Leagues and Community Competitions, please click here to read the latest round-up.

Finally, Pro Pundit Sam brought us the latest on the Scout Network, a new initiative this season, highlighting both new and established voices in the FPL Community.

Enjoy Gameweek 2 and may your arrows be green!

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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

2,956 Comments Post a Comment
  1. jimmyabs1987
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Pens down finally

  2. chocolove
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Quick, hit that free WC button!

    1. toerag
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      that was weird

  3. Eleven Hag
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    closed

  4. BenDavies
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    OK now its pens down

  5. Puntillimon
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    So is this a glitch? Or divine intervention to rectify your captain picks? >.

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

    The lock on the window's broken. Anyone got any sticky tape? 😀

  7. Siva Mohan
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    The game is being updated.
    Please try again later when the updated scores / teams will be available.

  8. Pep Roulette
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Locked

  9. Lecky Legs FC
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Game is updating just got it on mine now

  10. The Red Devil
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    & it's over

  11. R.C
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Wow 10 mins late!

  12. Gobigorgohome
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    updating

  13. It’s gonna Ben Mee
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Haha imagine the amount of panic phone calls, Slack messages and email this must have set off

  14. g40steve
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    AMETEURS

  15. FOO FIGHTER
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Game updating!

  16. Piggs Boson
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    So the deadline isn't automated, it's literally someone manually pushing a button every week. What is this, the dark ages?!

    1. Zimo
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Haha hilarious they do that

    2. Brosstan
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      They probably just coded it wrong so it was only set up to update 1.5 hours before in gw1 instead of every gw. But then they also have an option to do it manually

      1. Piggs Boson
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Maybe. Weird that they would hard code a time for GW1 though, not taking future GWs into consideration.

    3. Kabayan
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      TM's script/bot is much better

    4. Fitzy.
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      This may be the guy?

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/feelingmyage/41118673530

    5. Bartowski
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Not necessarily, the system might just have crashed when the command was going through.

      1. Piggs Boson
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Probably 🙂

  17. Khark
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Surely, Surely, Surely they have to give us a free Wildcard next week now.

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

    ****... thought it was a joke so changed my captain to Tariq Lamptey. Should I be scared?

    1. Puntillimon
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Might be a real differentiator

    2. Kabayan
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Hattrick incoming

    3. BERGKOP
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      No you didn't

      1. Epic Fail
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Why would he lie?

        Reported

        1. BERGKOP
          • 12 Years
          3 years, 6 months ago

          There's no way to know either way (no linked team). Calm down.

    4. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Genius

  19. nelluckram
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    I feel extremely sorry for anyone who hit WC thinking they had until 11:30. Funny though...

  20. g40steve
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    So those who hit WC @ 11, were you still in GW2?

  21. The Polymath
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    WE DEMAND AN EXPLANATION!

    Was someone at FPL Towers making last minute changes to their team?

    1. Party time
        3 years, 6 months ago

        We don’t need any explanation. All I want is their teams deleted ASAP! Total nonsense from fpl tower

    2. The Mighty Hippo
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      For those bringing in a City midfielder this week (which for clarity means gw3 given the current confusion) who are you going with?

      A). KDB
      B). Sterling

      1. Ze_Austin
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Mahrez

      2. Gunners in Haaland
        • 4 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        B

      3. Andy_Social
        • 11 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Shall we watch the game first?

      4. Shark Team
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Sterl

      5. TheBrazilianRonaldo
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        KDB. On pens. Is the best midfielder in the world. Is a joy to watch and captain. Watching Sterling miss and worrying whether Mahrez will start not for me. Other City to get Jesus and Foden and Laporte

      6. Mambino
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 10 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Tat's what I'm trying decide - probably Sterling

        1. Mambino
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 10 Years
          3 years, 6 months ago

          that's

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

      (11:0)8 is just above (11:0)0 on a phone dial.

      Fat fingers.

    4. Clintymints
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      A Free Wc would be nice for this

      Just saying

    5. Klopp's Kids
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      McCarthy
      TAA Davies Justin
      Aubameyang (C) Salah Son ASM
      Werner Wilson Adams

      Bench: Button, Taylor, Stephens, Mitchell

      Got 1.0 ITB. Which one? =)

      1) Save FT
      2) TAA>Dallas, ASM>Rashford [-4]
      3) TAA>Digne, ASM>Rodriguez [-4]

      1. Magic Zico
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        A tiny bit late

        1. Klopp's Kids
          • 10 Years
          3 years, 6 months ago

          just saw! damn haha

          thought it was 3:30 am my time

    6. Pacer.
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      why did I choose Seamus coleman

      1. VAR United
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Genius move

      2. The Polymath
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Nostalgia from the days your father worked as a miner?

      3. wulfrunian
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Why?

      4. Piggs Boson
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        I ended up with him too... Got Digne, Coleman, DCL triple up.

        Lots of crosses hopefully...

      5. BERGKOP
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Good option. Fixtures look solid.

    7. Shark Team
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      As a Robbo TAA and Havertz owner I don't know what should I hope for from this game... Three 2 pointers incoming...

      1. Zimo
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Liverpool clean sheet

      2. LSK
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Clean sheet for Liverpool and attacking returns from Robertson

    8. toerag
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      WTAF
      doing WC and see its 11:04
      swear a lot, i mean a lot
      check
      still not updating
      check
      still not updating
      press WC
      now its updating!!!
      OMG what just happened?

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

        Ironically now you need to use a WC. 😀

        1. toerag
          • 13 Years
          3 years, 6 months ago

          😆

      2. Kobayashi
        • 4 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Did you mean to play your WC for GW2, or 3?

        1. toerag
          • 13 Years
          3 years, 6 months ago

          2 but i dont think it happened

    9. L'Aeroplanino
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Unlimited FT for everyone next GW?

    10. Sim Simma
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Scenes when that 10 minutes lapse by FPL is the decider between the top 2 teams at the end of the season.

      1. toerag
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        😆

      2. Party time
          3 years, 6 months ago

          Haha