Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice for Double Gameweek 19

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Double Gameweek 19 ahead of today’s 11:00 GMT deadline.

The fixture schedule has shifted once again. Like a surreal game of Grandmother’s Footsteps, it’s moved every time you turn to look at it. 

Aston Villa lost and regained their Double Gameweek in a matter of hours, although they now face Newcastle United instead of Everton in addition to Manchester City. But the clever fixture juggling did not extend to Leeds United and Southampton, with their upcoming midweek game postponed to accommodate Southampton’s rescheduled FA Cup tie.

During these testing times, we can expect further changes with little warning.

In a letter sent last week, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters alerted clubs that they should plan for more matches being postponed or rearranged at short notice. And a joint statement from the Premier League, FA and EFL, restated the desire to complete the season in May.

So, who knows what twists and turns await? Could we yet see Leeds vs Southampton rearranged for Gameweek 19?

Shrewsbury, already without their manager Steve Cotterill for Tuesday’s tie, may suffer more ill-effects from coronavirus (COVID-19), or, by some miracle, could the Shrews beat Southampton on Tuesday? However unlikely, Leeds and Southampton would then both have a free weekend slot.

But that might be taking ‘Fantasy’ football a step too far. Sticking with what we know, here’s Legomané’s updated fixture ticker:

‘TBA’ fixtures Possible Gameweek Slots
Aston Villa v Everton24-to-28, 30-to-34, 37
Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur 26, 32, 37
Burnley v Fulham24-to-28, 30-to-34, 37
Everton v Manchester City24, 26, 27, 32, 37
Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur26, 32, 37
Leeds United v Southampton24-to-28, 30-to-34, 37
Manchester City v Southampton24, 26, 27, 32, 37

Triple Gameweek Scenario

Future Double Gameweeks, and possibly Triple Gameweeks, await Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.

The two sides contest the EFL Cup final (coinciding with Gameweek 33), and are both still in the FA Cup and European competitions: should they progress to the latter stages, Spurs will potentially have to squeeze five matches into three available Gameweek slots, and Man City would have to fit five games into five free slots.

So no COVID-19 leeway and additional fixture shenanigans could lie ahead.

To Bench Boost or not to Bench Boost?

After the latest changes, a question facing many managers – and one tackled by our Scoutcast trio of Joe, Seb, and Karam – is now that Leeds and Southampton don’t have two matches in Gameweek 19, is it still worth using the Bench Boost?

The thing is, if you already Wildcarded in Gameweek 16, and you set up your team to Bench Boost, you need something bigger than this to back out from it. Because it’s one of the chips that if you don’t do it now, you will wait for another chance [and] you might have a lot of funds remain on your bench.

– Karam

Leeds-fan Seb added:

Ideally I want to be Bench Boosting all 15 players for double, unless someone crazy has got a great fixture, [but] often they might be more expensive, so typically you’re going to have medium to cheap assets on the bench, that’s the goal … On Leeds, so I think if you’ve been forced into this a little bit and you still want to use that Bench Boost, it’s not terrible. They’re playing Brighton at home … if you’ve got Bamford, Dallas, and Raphina on your bench maybe that is a Bench Boost – Bamford could score three!

However not all managers feel the same. Pro Pundit Az has been reduced to eight Double Gameweek players, scuppering any hopes he had for using the chip.

So, with fixture rescheduling putting any plans I had for a Bench Boost on hold, I am considering which chip I should use if any.

Instead the co-host of FPL BlackBox is contemplating using his Triple Captain. But Manchester United go to Liverpool with Bruno Fernandes (£11.3m) a booking away from a one-match ban, and Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) is out of form. Although both sides have favourable second fixtures against Fulham and Burnley respectively.

Buying Manchester City Players

The other challenge facing Az and those like Pro Pundit Darren Wiles, who used their first Wildcard late to set up a Gameweek 19 Bench Boost, is how to accommodate Manchester City players?

The Citizens didn’t feature in Darren’s original plans, given that they had just a single Gameweek before their fixture with Aston Villa was rearranged.

But they’ve since come into form with an eye-catching 3-1 win away to Chelsea, and Pep Guardiola’s side have now kept six clean sheets in their last eight matches, giving them the best defensive record in the league.

Ahead of enticing homes matches against Crystal Palace and West Brom, Jan Sienkiewicz sides with the captain poll in backing De Bruyne with the armband:

De Bruyne is a truly world class player and it should be only a matter of time before he matches his outstanding underlying statistics. With two home games against non-top-six sides, Manchester City should continue their winning run and De Bruyne is expected to be at the heart of the action.

All this leads Darren, in his latest article, to contemplate a minus 12 to bring in Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m), Rúben Dias (£5.8m), John Stones (£5.0m) and Michail Antonio (£6.2m) for Harry Kane (£11.1m), Marcus Rashford (£9.6m), Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.8m) and Fabián Balbuena (£4.4m).

I am not rushing into any decisions but I feel multiple hits could be on the cards in order to get two or three Manchester City players in prior to the Double Gameweek and as part of my long term thinking.

– Darren

But the Live Hall of Fame No 2 remains undecided on whether to use the Bench Boost as it would include players like Che Adams (£6.0m), who is available for selection after recovering from concussion.

Tasty Transfers

In direct contrast to Darren’s multiple hit, Former FPL Champion Simon March used Marshmallows to demonstrate that patience is a virtue.

A graduate in behavioural economics, Simon referred to the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment in which children were given the choice of eating a marshmallow now or instead being given a second marshmallow in 15 minutes.

When they followed up 10 years later, the scientists found that the children who delayed gratification and waited for the second marshmallow, had scored better in their SATs, performed better in school generally and even had healthier BMIs.

Pro Pundit Simon likened this to wise FPL managers who save their chips for later in the season (traditionally the better time to play them), and the benefits of rolling a transfer.

Aside from giving you more flexibility in who you can sign, potentially shifting funds to different areas of your team, it also buys you an extra Gameweek of information and more thinking time.

Fantasy Favourite

A player both Darren and Az are tempted by is Michail Antonio. West Ham enjoy an appealing pair of fixtures in Gameweek 19, at home to Burnley and West Brom, but the question mark, as ever, is over Antonio’s fitness.

Ted Talks FPL offered some encouragement, observing that:

With Haller joining Ajax, West Ham must be confident that 1.9% owned Antonio must be back to full fitness, certainly in the short-term. He looks to be an excellent pick for Double Gameweek 19.

Pro Pundits Tom and Andy agreed, giving the Hammers striker the nod:

Michail Antonio is a bit of a favourite of mine and now he’s fit and got through 90 minutes I can’t leave him out. He’s averaging 0.47xG per 90 minutes so far this season. It’s down on 2019/20, but still excellent given his price. – Andy

I’m also backing Michail Antonio. Though he looks short of match fitness, he needs games, and as West Ham United’s only recognised striker, should see enough minutes across the two fixtures. – Tom

While Big Man Bakar, who was looking dashing in pink on the latest installment of The FPL Wire, reminded us of Antonio’s excellent early season form, despite the tricky start.

But is it too soon to take the plunge?

Team News

Frustratingly, as Colm Hayes noted in his press conference round-up, David Moyes did not provide a specific update on his injury-prone centre-forward, leaving Fantasy bosses wondering what to do.

In other news, Anthony Martial (£8.8m) and Pedro Neto (£6.0m) are doubts after suffering knocks in Gameweek 17. But both may still feature this weekend.

And Joel Matip (£5.4m) could return to Liverpool’s backline depending on how well he does in the next two training sessions.

Finally, new Fantasy Football Scout writer Jamie, ran the rule over Manchester United’s latest signing Amad Diallo and assessed the impact Robert Snodgrass (£5.7m) could make under Sam Allardyce at West Brom.

Community Competitions and Head-to-Head Fixtures

RedLightning rounded-up the latest Community mini-leagues and competitions in a hot topic yesterday.

The January to May League, which started scoring in Gameweek 17, remains open for those who want to track their progress until the end of the season. The code to join is h62bh1. The current leader is Denville Tyrell, who has risen from 29,903rd to 5,121st in the last two Gameweeks.

For those interested in the Head-to-Head Leagues, the main page can be linked to here. The fixtures for Gameweek 19 can be found below:

Use the drop-down menus to show your league and division. To find out which league and division you are in, follow the instructions on the main Head-to-Head page.

Once the Gameweek starts, if you click on your opponent’s name you will be linked to their team on the FPL website.

May your arrows be green!

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

5,142 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Grealish
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Salah, Mane or KDB captain ?

    1. KAALI_DAAL
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Captain poll mate

    2. geoffrolph
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Salah note rest, KDB better games... It's tight

      1. geoffrolph
        • 12 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        More*

  2. 'Broadsword Calling Da…
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Love this game, can't wait to see all my competitors teams in an hour(ish). Come on the green arrow!

  3. KAALI_DAAL
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Raph to Soucek for a hit?

    1. Sean
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Nah relax

  4. Ninja Škrtel
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    SOUCEK CAPTAIN AND THE HELL WITH EVERYTHING.

    1. mezza
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Love it

    2. AC Yew
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      So tempted considering it!!

    3. Pedersen
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Antonio back. Soucek points always goes down as antonio is target man when he plays

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

        Antonio is a short dude, hes not a target man at all

        1. Pedersen
          • 5 Years
          3 years, 2 months ago

          They don't play as much in the height when he is on the pitch. More lower balls for him to kick (from my own observation)

  5. geoffrolph
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    KDB or Salah CAP?

    1. waldo666
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      KDB

    2. g40steve
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Going Salah

    3. Muchentuchel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      if you want to use dgw cap salah

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

    Aurier to Dias for a - 4 and bench Raphinha
    Or play Raphinha

  7. Paddy Gooner
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    bottomed:

    Play A: Alioski in a 5-3-2
    Or B: Anguissa in a 4-4-2

    ???

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

    A. Mendy>Foden -4 Y/N (bench Dallas)
    B. Dallas>Cancelo

    1. waldo666
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      B

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

    Play Dallas or Lowton??

    1. waldo666
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Dallas

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

    GTG?
    Martinez,
    Zouma, Cresswell, Konsa
    Fernandes, Salah, Son, Grealish
    Antonio, Vardy, Bamford
    Bench: Forster, Allioski, Taylor, Bissouma

  11. Sean
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    It’s amazing how Villa haven’t leaked some of their covid list yet, How inconsiderate of them

    1. g40steve
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Don’t play till mid week, ham will of played two by then!

  12. Oggle22
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Slah or stones captain?

    1. OptimusBlack
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Mo

    2. geoffrolph
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Salah

    3. Sean
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Captain Holgate

  13. Atimis
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    No BB or TC, should 10 DGWs and 1 SGW be enough?

    1. Gobigorgohome
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      nooo

    2. Johnny 8
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Yes

  14. Gobigorgohome
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Villa city 100 percent onnnnn???????
    this decide kdb or salah c

  15. JAYPEE
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Phillips to Coufal for -8??

  16. EffPeeEll
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    So who did the scoutcast select as Captain.

    Had to be KDB, shirley?

  17. DARK SIDE OF THE LOON
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    After 10 stratight greens I can the see a red incoming!

  18. Nespinha
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    KDB TC

    Yes or NO

    1. Big boy Bowen
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      If in doubt, no

      1. DARK SIDE OF THE LOON
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        Salah C?

    2. Pedersen
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Might come a tgw this season. So no

      1. Muchentuchel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        no player will feature 3x90 minutes in a tgw.
        TC now or never

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

      Yes

  19. DAZZ
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Horrible situation. Bamford benched for me! Come on Antonio and Watkins

    1. HollywoodXI
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Bamford benched??

    2. WVA
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Rumours that he is sick circulating so you may be very lucky

      1. g40steve
        • 6 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        BS, twitter

        1. Men in green tights
          • 5 Years
          3 years, 2 months ago

          Same every game week now, has become the normal just sit back and watch him play and get a brace.
          Lots of luck

  20. threeputt
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    I KdB a sensible tc option ?

    1. tractorjess
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      I had said yes but we will all regret it if theres a triple week

      1. Muchentuchel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        no player will feature 3x90 mins in a tgw

        1. WVA
          • 7 Years
          3 years, 2 months ago

          No but they might feature 200 plus which is still better

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

      I just cancelled mine at the last moment. The sound of a possible Triple game week made me reconsider. KDB with 2 blanks will be sore, but TC 2 blanks will put me in a bad mood for the whole week.

  21. RAFA THE GAFFA
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Raphina or Dallas first sub?

    1. Luton_Fan
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Raph

    2. Buck The Trent
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      R

    3. ZLATAN'S PONYTAIL
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Dallas

    4. chriscosta
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      R

  22. Bobby Digital
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    I like the look of 352... Let's goo! Good luck everyone!

  23. Gobigorgohome
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    ohh ffs salah or kdb c

    1. Bobby Digital
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Bruyne

    2. Luton_Fan
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Bruyne

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

      KDB for me. Utd and Burnley won't let lots of goals in

      1. Muchentuchel
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 5 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        lol

  24. Sid07
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Bench boost this?
    Meslier taylor Dallas Bamford

  25. FPL Bargain
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Would you BB?

    Mc Carthy Dallas Raphinia Adams

  26. Nightf0x
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Sais to coufal for -8 ? Y or doesnt worth it

    1. Luton_Fan
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      N

    2. Art Vandelay
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Its a 4 not an 8 point hit...

    3. Stockport Hatter
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      It’s for -4 and yes

  27. 03farmboy
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Salah or De Bruyne Captain?

    I feel Salah is more likely the player to score a hatrick and De Bruyne might not start both anyone else agree

    1. Luton_Fan
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Kdb gets his rest in fa cup game

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

    Is there any chance Bruno has less than 100% EO this week?

    1. Buck The Trent
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Probably

    2. elwardio
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Yes likely IMO

    3. Bobby Digital
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Doubt it

  29. C'mon the Fylde
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Amid GTG?
    BB activated

    Martinez
    Dias Cresswell Coufal
    KDB Son Bruno Gundogan Soucek
    Watkins Kane

    Messier, Bamford, Bednarek Dallas

  30. Return of the FF
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Anyone TC'ing?

    1. Muchentuchel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      yep went with salah