Double Gameweek 19 Scout Picks built on key FPL assets at Man City and West Ham

The Double Gameweek 19 Scout Picks feature an entire host of assets who play twice over the next few days.

Manchester City and West Ham players form the spine of the squad, with three players from each team making the first XI.

We line up in a 4-4-2 formation this time, which comes in bang on the budget of £83.0m.

Goalkeeper

Sam Johnstone (£4.5m) comes with the chance of scoring clean sheet and bonus save points. West Bromwich Albion line-up against West Ham and Wolves in the Double Gameweek, two teams in the bottom half for goals scored this season with 24 and 19. Johnstone has also made the most saves of any keeper this season with 74, six more than nearest rival Illan Meslier.

Defenders

Joao Cancelo (£5.8m) makes his second consecutive appearance in the Scout Picks, following Manchester City’s clean sheet against Brighton. The full-back has been unlucky to only record one attacking return this season, with the second-highest amount of key passes and third highest number of big chances created from defenders in the league. Pep Guardiola previously praised Cancelo’s ability to play a game every three days, so he could even be immune to Pep’s rotation.

Joining Cancelo from the rock-solid City defence is John Stones (£5.0m). With games against a shot-shy Crystal Palace and a covid-hit Villa side, City are predicted to add to their eight clean sheets. With Nathan Ake (£5.4m) and Aymeric Laporte (£6.0m) remaining on the treatment table, expect Stones to retain his place in the league’s best defence.

The Premier League’s highest-scoring defender Kurt Zouma (£5.8m) returns to the Scout Picks. With set-piece specialist Hakim Ziyech returning to the Chelsea line-up, Zouma has every chance of adding to his four goals this season.

Rounding out the defence is West Ham full-back Vladimir Coufal (£4.7m). In Gameweek 19, the Hammers face two of the three lowest scorers in the Premier League in Burnley and West Brom. Coufal’s attacking potential will also be boosted by the return of West Ham’s talismanic forward (below).

Midfielders

We’re backing the misfiring Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) to get back to his best in Gameweek 19. Despite hitting a bit of a dry spell, Salah has still had the highest number of shots in the box, above second-placed Sadio Mané, and has received the second-highest amount of big chances. All this points to the Egyptian rediscovering his form, and he has two games to do it in.

Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) appears to be loving life as a false nine, and we’re backing him to add goals to his impressive performances. In what has been a frustrating season for De Bruyne, the City captain recorded five shots on goal and created three chances against Brighton. Had it not been for some resolute defending and a penalty Raheem Sterling will quickly want to forget, De Bruyne would have easily recorded a second double-digit haul in a row from his new striking position.

December’s Player of the Month and Scout Pick regular Bruno Fernandes (£11.3m) makes the team again, despite blanking against Burnley. This was Fernandes’ first ever FPL blank in an away game, and with two trips on the road for Manchester United, their Portuguese playmaker is expected to get back to his best.

Tomas Soucek (£5.3m) is the Scout Picks’ second West Ham player to make the team with two appetising fixtures on the horizon. The big Czech has scored the most headed goals of all midfielders in the league and lines-up against a West Brom team who have conceded the most headed attempts.

Forwards

The evergreen Jamie Vardy (£10.1m) leads the line for the Scout Picks, and will be hoping to catch up with Salah and Son Heung-min (£9.8m) at the top of the goalscoring charts. Vardy and Leicester’s pressing and frenetic style could well lead to problems for opponents Chelsea, whose six defensive errors have led to goals, the most in the league.

Partnering Vardy is West Ham’s powerhouse striker Michail Antonio (£6.2m), returning from injury. After spending most of the season on the treatment table, Antonio has shown glimpses of what he can do this season, including his stunning overhead kick against Man City. If he can return to the player he was last season, when he had a expected goals rating than Harry Kane (£11.1m) and Anthony Martial (£8.8m), then he will be a handful for any defence in the league.

Substitutes

• Edouard Mendy (£5.1m)
• James Justin (£5.0m)
• Ademola Lookman (£5.0m)
• Ollie Watkins (£6.1m)

THE CAPTAIN

We choose the Scout Picks captain using a four-way vote between our Scout Squad pundits.

Because we use Fantasy Football Scout data so heavily in this process, the skipper we choose each Gameweek is known only to those with a valid Fantasy Football Scout subscription and revealed to the public only when the deadline has passed.

Here’s how we voted for Double Gameweek 19: