Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice to FPL Gameweek 22

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Gameweek 22 ahead of today’s 16:30 GMT deadline.

The January transfer window has now closed and Neale rounded-up the deadline-day deals including two new centre-halves joining Liverpool, and Takumi Minamino’s (£6.0m) switch to Southampton.

David examined how Gabriel Jesus (£9.2m) impacted Ilkay Gündogan (£5.8m) as the German didn’t manage a single shot on target against Sheffield United:

The return of Gabriel Jesus to the Manchester City team appeared to be a negative influence on Gündogan’s goal threat against Sheffield United … with a recognised centre-forward leading the line there were fewer opportunities for the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder to make dangerous runs into exposed pockets of space.

And Pep’s infamous roulette wheel struck again with John Stones (£5.2m) and João Cancelo (£6.0m) left out of the starting XI. David suspects this is just rotation and both players are in Neale’s predicted line-ups for the match against Burnley.

Are Newcastle not the pushovers we hoped they would be?

Last week Pro Pundit Tom thought the writing was on the wall for Newcastle United and suggested we target them when considering which players to buy. But the Magpies took everyone by surprise, including a lacklustre Everton, with a change of tactics.

In his Scout Notes, Colm Hayes included a revealing quote from manager Steve Bruce:

We’ve played a certain way for a long, long time – play a bit deeper, play on the counter attack. That’s something we’ve tried to work on and change. You hope you get a few results from it but that’s the way we want to go about our work. Over the last few weeks in particular we’ve tried to work on getting after the ball, pressing higher up the pitch and being more forward-thinking.

None were more disappointed than Ted, who had talked up the Toffees on the Scoutcast and tripled on Carlo Ancelotti’s side with a minus eight:

[Everton] showed signs of brilliance but the overwhelming thought was they struggled to create clear cut opportunities to score. I am hoping it’s just a matter of time before the key players start gelling again. Everton will need to get their mojo back fast ahead of the midweek clash with Leeds.

New Pro Pundit Seb Wassell will doubtless experience conflicting emotions tomorrow when his favourite football team comes up against his new centre-forward. A 4-3 Leeds win with a Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.6m) hat-trick the perfect result?

The actor and Leeds fan discussed his attempts at “dispassionate objectivity in his first Pro Pundit article. His decision to sell Patrick Bamford (£6.6m) for Calvert-Lewin had an element of overcompensating for a bias towards his own team:

Realistically, I do not believe my error was in interpreting the stats this way or that – plenty of people will have seen those and made their own, well-reasoned decisions – but rather in the fact that I am seemingly still looking for reasons to avoid Leeds, even now.

And Scout Network member El Statto isn’t quite ready to take the plunge on Everton players just yet:

The Toffees’ upcoming games are mixed so I’m not sure I would be rushing to bring in any of their assets. Lucas Digne could be a possible option due to the attacking threat he offers, but with everyone else averaging less than 4.0 points per game I feel there is much better value elsewhere.

Wasting Your Wildcard

David Wardale, the author of Wasting Your Wildcard, provided a typically informative and entertaining FPL round-up of the weekend’s matches. A formation switch for Crystal Palace and another blank for Bruno Fernandes (£11.4m) were discussed, and there was a game of contrasting 45 minutes for West Brom.

Matheus Pereira (£5.6m) was the star but could Mbaye Diagne (£6.0m), who emerged as a second-half sub, kickstart an unlikely revival?

David also reported on a resurgent Mohamed Salah (£12.6m), confirmed that Patrick Bamford might not be this season’s Teemu Pukki afterall, and found that Son Heung-min (£9.7m) struggles without Harry Kane (£11.1m). 

Salah is Jan‘s top pick for the captaincy this week:

With Liverpool’s Egyptian king ramping up back to his best, it is difficult to look past him, especially with increased goal-scoring responsibility if Mané is confirmed out for the visit of Brighton.

The Egyptian is included as part of a strong midfield three alongside Raheem Sterling (£11.6m) and Fernandes in the Scout Picks, with the selection panel hopeful the Portuguese can return to form:

Fernandes has still had the most shots, the most shots on target and has the highest expected goal involvement (xGI) of any midfielder over the last six Gameweeks, suggesting his good form should return soon.

Meanwhile, Marc Jobling reflected on Chelsea’s second match under new head coach Thomas Tuchel. The German is known to dislike his players crossing from wide positions and it was noticeable that the wing-backs, Marcos Alonso (£5.6m) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.7m), both drove inside towards the penalty area. A role Alonso is well suited to:

It’s the Alonso we remember from the past. His touches were in extraordinarily attacking positions and his 42 in the final third were ahead of everyone on the pitch, except for Mount.

One of Tom’s differentials this week, the Pro Pundit acknowledged the FPL legend comes with a health warning:

A move for Alonso this week does carry risk, knowing that Ben Chilwell is also pushing for a start, but there is a lot of upside too, given the Spaniard’s potential for big hauls. Will he now become first-choice? It’s impossible to say, but if Tuchel does opt to regularly use a back-three system, he’s certainly put forward a strong case.

Considering the competition for left wing-back berth, Antonio Rüdiger (£4.5m) could be a safer – and cheaper – route into the Chelsea backline. Picked out by Tom as one of his three differentials last week, as Marc noted, “the German has taken Zouma’s place in five of the last six matches and seems to be a Tuchel favourite”.

Community Competitions and Head-to-Head Fixtures

The latest Community mini-leagues and competitions round-up from RedLightning will be published shortly after the deadline. It will include the winner of the January Manager of the Month award for the Community Members mini-league.

In the Head-to-Head Leagues, the fixtures have been generated for the second half of the season. The main page includes links to each Gameweek and can be linked to here. The fixtures for Gameweek 22 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

1,174 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Oooo Matron
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Captain Salah or Sterling?

    1. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Salah for me.

      There's an argument that Sterling returns points after a bench but who knows who Pep plays tomorrow?

  2. Captain_Shirokov
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Is Mane out injured yeah?

    1. The Road to Turfdom
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Unconfirmed in absolute terms, but consensus seems to be yes probably (I am also unsure as to whether to shift)

      1. AC/DC AFC
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 8 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        It was a slight muscle strain and such a simple comment from Klopp that Mane could easily play.

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

    Any ideas here?

    Martinez
    Cancelo Stones Dier
    Salah Bruno Son Grealish Gundogan
    DCL Watkins
    Forster Mitchell Coufal Brewster

    1 FT, 5.2m ITB

    Mitchell likely to start and worth playing over Dier?

  4. Crooky
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Is there a reason no one is talking about Mahrez as an option? Gun doesnt give me differential and cant afford Sterling so it's him or Barnes

    1. tafrère
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Mahrez never delivers for his owners.

    2. Black Knights
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      In and out (mainly out) of the team. Always a gamble.

    3. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      He had that really bad run but is back in some form.

      I like him but not got him in.

    4. Team Bobcat
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      He is fine as a one week punt (fh maybe) but a terrible mid or long term option.

      Check his minutes?

  5. tafrère
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    So everyone on Salah (C).

    Are we pretend to be surprised when he's benched ?

    1. Bubz
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Id be very surprised

    2. fedolefan
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      So if he's benched, they play with a Origi Firmino Shaq front line?

    3. Team Bobcat
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      He should still do as good as my last two caotain picks..

      Dcl and Bruno

  6. AC/DC AFC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Start Holding or Justin?

    Cheers

    1. Digital-Real
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      tough one. Holding...just!

    2. mad_beer ✅
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I'm starting Justin but I wish I had that the other way around last week. 😐

  7. Digital-Real
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    first on bench?
    (a) Justin (ful)
    (b) Raph (EVE)

    1. wulfrunian
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      b

    2. Studs Up
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      B

  8. wulfrunian
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    I was with Dallas but now i am thinking that WHam could keep a cs.Thoughts?

    1. Digital-Real
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Villa are a good attacking side, i'd go Dallas playing OOP too

      1. wulfrunian
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        cheers

  9. Henning
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Gtg?
    Or Stones to Cancelo for free?
    Martinez
    Stones Dias Justin
    Son Barnes Salah Fernandes Gundogan
    DCL Bamford

    Areola Antonio Dallas Coufal

    1. School of Poch
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I like Stones to Cancelo

  10. School of Poch
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Who do you think is a more likely winner this GW out of these 3?

    A: West Ham
    B: Leeds
    C: Aston Villa

    Not fpl related sorry.

    1. Camzy
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Villa to beat West Ham.

      1. School of Poch
        • 8 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        I'm finding it so hard to call that one.

        Why do you think Villa?

    2. Bubz
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      B

  11. La Roja
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    It’s fair to say I got carried away with my transfer. Just bough the legendary

    ALONSO

  12. tabby98
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Play one:
    A) Digne
    B) Soucek
    C) Coufal
    D) Raphinha

  13. Khalico
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Start Messlier or Areola?

    1. Khalico
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      *Meslier

  14. mad_beer ✅
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Last GW I benched Cresswell and Holding. They scored 12 points between them (Cresswell came on for Cancelo).

    Is it right to bench them again this GW while playing Dias, Cresswell and Justin?

  15. hazzlehoff
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    McCarthy
    Cancello Justin Dawson
    Salah (c) Bruno son grealish gundo
    Watkins bamford
    Bench: alioski Brewster kwp

    1ft
    A) Son > Sterling and captian
    B) Dawson > Dias
    C) Brewster > Antonio and first sub incase bamford of Gundo are rested

  16. Pickle juice
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Help please

    Foden to who for free

    A. Sterling
    B. Rash
    C.Grealish
    D. Someone else

    1. The Road to Turfdom
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Keep one more week

      1. Pickle juice
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        You think he will start

        1. The Road to Turfdom
          • 7 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Who knows really, but should get at least a sub on and against Burnley i don't think that's much worse than the alternatives

  17. Areyouthereyet
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Stones to Cancelo for free? Have Dias

    1. Volley127
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      That’s what im doing!

  18. RomeluStormzy
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Bench one:

    A) DCL (lee)
    B) Watkins (WHU) (Have Grealish)
    C) Antonio (avl)
    D) Maddison (ful)

    Knowing my luck, they will all be benched anyway...

    Thanks!

    1. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      C this week?

  19. Clinton19
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Hi guys, play watkins or soucek?

  20. bangers and M*A*S*H
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Benching headache. Which one to play?

    a) Digne
    b) Soucek
    c) Son

    1. QUEN
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      C

  21. Better luck next year
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Chilwell or Soucek first sub?

  22. makaveli123
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Evening all,
    Adams->DCL a decent move?
    My other forwards are Antonio and Bamford

    1. mad_beer ✅
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Easy decision. Yes.

  23. QUEN
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Question

    A. Best £4m sub keeper, if any
    B. Dump Mendy or McCarthy
    C. Bench bamford or sourcek

  24. pjomara
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Play Dallas or Justin?

    1. I Love Lamp
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Doing Chilwell to Dallas and playing with Justin, Cancelo, Stones. hope that helps

  25. wulfrunian
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Should i bench Barnes or Gundogan?

  26. Pukki Blinders
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Salah or Cancelo for (c)?

  27. joeymanuel
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Bench one of:
    a) Shaw (SOU h)
    b) Justin (FUL a)
    c) Holding (WOL a)
    d) Soucek (AVL a)

  28. The_FF_King
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Really stuck

    A) Son to Salah for free

    B) Grealish and DCL to Salah and Watkins -4

    Can’t do Grealish to Salah due to funds.

  29. G Banger
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Martinez
    Cancelo / Stones / Dallas
    Bruno / Salah / Son / Grealish / Soucek
    Bamford / DCL

    (Holding / Coufal / Brewster)

    Any changes or GTG?

  30. R Whites
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Who to bench from one of these:

    A Son
    B Watkins
    C Antonio

    Cheers