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. Puyol Pants Up
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Bench boost off to an awful start.

    Johnstone on the bench

    1. Penang Sandman
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      not even in squad bud

      1. Puyol Pants Up
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        On my bench buddy.

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

      Not in squad

    3. Weak Become Heros
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Ffs cant make it up.

    4. Free Hat
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Unlucky.

  2. The Train Driver
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    As I suspected, BB failed. A little earlier than I suspected 😀

  3. BenDavies
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Well, if he's not even in the squad then he likely doesn't play on Tuesday either. Meslier on the bench at least.

  4. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Think Sam is trying to look like some sort of genius with the keeper switch

    1. FPL.team
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Johnstone has covid.

  5. Baines on Toast...
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Wolves are a great team for a keeper to play against as well. Loads of potshots and Few clear chances.

    1. Mr. O'Connell
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      No podence to hit 20 yard feather shots to really rack up the saves though

  6. ⭐ Bemba_Da ⭐
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    could have benched boosted with button 🙁

  7. fc_skrald
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Wow, Button to join my team if Martínez got the virus

  8. Tsparkes10
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    At this point I don’t even care, it’s funny 🙂 can only be upwards from here hahaha. Goodluck all and don’t feel too depressed this he

  9. diesel001
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Big Sam trying to work out who he can rely on for the run of fixtures between GW21 and GW28. Play all of their relegation rivals in that period. Has to know who is in his best team by then.

  10. R.C
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Apparently Johnstone has Covid but lets wait for news

    Covid at it again!!

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

      Thank god I didn’t do rash BB -8/-12 hit including Johnstone. Seems doing nothing is right thing

  11. Gudjohnsen
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    First goal of gw19 belongs to Fabio Silva.
    Read it here first.

  12. Jacktastic
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Why no Johnstone?

  13. Shark Team
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    JOHNSTONE INJURED ???
    -2 players

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

    Lads, not having a keeper away to Wolves doesn't make a BB fail. Feel for owners though

    1. diesel001
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Yeah, but still feels bad.

    2. Baines on Toast...
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Would suspect he will miss both though. And keeper is one of the best positions for a double with a lot of upside. Still, we know the season is unpredictable so it is what it is.

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

        Yeah, true. Unlucky.

      2. Wild Rover
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        This

  15. Hazz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Some Ryan/Button combo owners will have a playing GK this week!

  16. Dennis System
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    tbf why would you have johnstone in your team

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

      It was him or Areola... I figured Big Sam effect might help

    2. FPL.team
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Cheap for a BB

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

      Because of price and double gameweek. Best pick on wc.

  17. Scots Gooner
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    I really hate this game sometimes

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

    Oh feck off John

  19. Pepeye
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Jonhstone reportedly wanted by Spurs and Leeds

  20. DeadStarComing
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    West Brom fan here - a few players missing. Either Covid or a big shake up from Sam.

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

      Big Sam trying new formations, deserves to get screwed 10 - 0 !

  21. JELLYFISH
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Johnstone missing is just a taste of what has become.....buckle yourselves in folks, its gonna be a long gw

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

      Forget 100+ pts then?

      1. JELLYFISH
        • 11 Years
        3 years, 2 months ago

        eh?

  22. Il Capitano
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Gotta laugh

    1. Il Capitano
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      Makes me feel a bit better about not playing BB though, McCarthy likely off the bench so would only be boosting 3 players

  23. HuttonDressedasLahm
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    That’s it. I quit!
    This game is now 99% luck

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

      As always

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

      It went down from 100%?

  24. NABIL - FPL otai
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Button on my bench!

  25. Tsparkes10
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    This is the first game that nobody saw coming... imagine the others hahaha. Love to see it, only up from here surely? Don’t worry, Johnstone to get 10 midweek :p

  26. marcos11
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Have Button on the bench, wouldn’t have taken a hit to change my keeper if I thought he was gonna start

  27. Rupert The Horse
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Sorry but that Johnstone news is so brutal for some. Guy in my mini league did Button to Johnstone for a hit to play BB.

    1. DeadStarComing
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 2 months ago

      It's been a brutal season. More to come too...

  28. ivantys
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    WBA to keep 2 CS now.

  29. Digital-Real
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    have to rely on a CS + penalty save from McCarthy now. No chance

  30. wulfrunian
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 2 months ago

    Really now?F**k this game.When you start your gw like this ...i want to cry.

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

      Oh jeez