Tips

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice to Double Gameweek 25

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Guide to Double Gameweek 25 ahead of today’s 18:30 GMT deadline.

Leeds United and Southampton are the two teams with the extra fixture – the Saints travel to Elland Road on Tuesday evening.

The other main talking point as we plot our moves for the current round of fixtures and beyond, is the potential of more Double Gameweeks in the near future. Pep Guardiola hinted that Gameweeks 26 and 27 will be Doubles for his side but at the time of writing, we await confirmation from the Premier League.

Captain Candidates

Patrick Bamford (£6.9), Raphinha (£5.4m) and Danny Ings (£8.5m) are the leading trio in the captain poll, with the highly-owned Bamford the popular choice.

The best-value forward in FPL, returning over 19.1 points per million spent, Bamford has garnered over 50 per cent of the vote. This in itself poses Fantasy managers an intriguing shield/sword dilemma:

[Bamford]’s currently in just over 53 per cent of teams, the bulk of those will captain him so if you don’t captain Bamford you will probably get pretty much no ranking gain from him, [and] you could possibly get a red arrow if there’s a surge of support in people drafting him in. Whereas Raphinha was in under three per cent of teams [so] if you captain him the gains could be absolutely huge.

– Joe, Captaincy Video

The potential for either Leeds player to do well is there, especially in that Tuesday fixture. As Jan pointed out in his Captain Sensible article, Southampton have given up 11 big chances in the last four matches, the joint-most in the Premier League, while only Liverpool have a worse expected goals conceded (xGC) figure.

Encouraging stuff. But two bits of team news could influence our decisions.

Marcelo Bielsa confirmed that Kalvin Phillips (£4.9m) will miss the first match against Wolves and could possibly sit out the Southampton game too. While Ralph Hasenhüttl revealed that Southampton will be without Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.7m) for a few weeks. 

Without Kalvin Phillips they are really not the same team, he is the guy that holds the whole thing together both defensively and going forward … he’s missed five games this year and … Bamford’s blanked in three of those five games so it makes me a bit worried about him.

– David, Captaincy Video

Speaking on the Scoutcast, “professor of LeedsSeb, as he was dubbed by Joe, conceded that Phillips offers more than Pascal Struijk (£3.9m) in an attacking sense. But, nonetheless, his optimal Leeds trio for the Double would be Bamford, Raphinha and Jack Harrison (£5.5m).

The absence of Walker-Peters is good news for Harrison in particular. The Saints have conceded 17 chances down their right flank over their last four matches and with Walker-Peters missing out, it means we could see one of the centre-backs filling in.

Although, Brazilian Raphinha could also benefit:

Harrison and Raphinha have swapped sides a couple of times in the last few matches … Harrison was obviously subbed off last match … but Raphinha actually moved to the left with Hélder Costa coming on the right, so there is a chance you’ll see Raphinha on the left.

And on Harrison himself, his last two goals I believe, certainly his last goal, came straight down the middle. So if he’s up against the weak full-back that might be more for the assist [but] for the actual goals we might see him making those runs through the middle.

So I think realistically, what’s the crux of this conversation, it’s all quite close. Get the three attackers if you can, if you can’t get Bamford and Raphinha.

– Seb

Raphinha and Harrison touch heatmap last four matches

When it comes to deciding who to captain, it’s worth noting that Raphinha takes corners while Bamford is expected to stay on penalty duties.

No Premier League team has conceded more spot-kicks this season than Wolves (seven). And Southampton are not doing particularly well in that department, either, having given up four penalties  in 2020/21.

But Danny Ings should not be discounted, the Saints talisman has recorded six attempts on goal in his last two Premier League fixtures, including three big chances. And Southampton’s high-press could prove effective against Leeds, as Arsenal discovered in Gameweek 24 scoring four goals. 

Speaking on FPL Black Box, Pro Pundit Mark revealed that he is contemplating buying Ings with one of his two free transfers, factoring in that Southampton may have three Double Gameweeks in the next four. Although, as Greyhead noted in the 100th edition of The Great and The Good, how many of us will trust Danny Ings’ fragile hamstring to manage two games in quick succession?

And, as Jamie pointed out in his Members-only analysis of Southampton, if Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side are to get the best out of Ings, then they will need to create more chances, with the Saints creation ranking near the bottom in their last six matches.

Nonetheless, Ings is the only Southampton player included in the Scout Picks starting XI alongside a triple up of Bamford, Raphinha and Stuart Dallas (£5.0m) from Marcelo Bielsa’s troops.

Pro Pundit Plans

Along with Jack Harrison, the other players who could exploit the weakness down Southampton’s right side are Timo Werner (£9.2m) and Marcos Alonso (£5.7m).

I get the feeling that [Alonso] could drop a 15-pointer in any game if he continues in the same attacking vein. It looks like Tuchel is going to persist with the 3-4-3 formation and his comments with regards to Alonso seems particularly encouraging.

– Lateriser

As high-flying Pro Pundit Andy mentioned, the Spaniard offers massive potential at both ends of the pitch if you can cope with him missing the odd game.

Chelsea were picked out by both Andy and Lateriser due to their appealing fixtures, despite a difficult-looking Gameweek 26.

West Brom, Leeds and Palace are all in the bottom three for expected goals conceded this season, with Everton the seventh-worst team in the league. The fixtures from Gameweek 27 look prime for goals.

– Andy

Werner, who has started Chelsea’s last four matches under new boss Thomas Tuchel, has accumulated the joint-highest number of big chances (five) over the last four Gameweeks. 

Lateriser also noted that for those who are not Wildcarding in Gameweeks 25/26, there is a decent fixture swing in Gameweek 31, and it could be a good time to Wildcard. Something fellow Pro Pundit Az is planning to do, his thinking no doubt supported by some colourful spreadsheets!

Meanwhile, Werner was not one of the forward options being considered by Hall of Fame No 1 Fábio Borges.

The consistent top 10,000 manager is looking to replace the injured Michail Antonio (£6.6m) in his side and, after running the rule over several candidates, it boiled down to getting Danny Ings now or benching Antonio before buying Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.7m) for Double Gameweek 26.

Community Competitions and Head-to-Head Fixtures

This is your last chance to enter the open-to-all Fantasy Football Scout Cup with qualifying for the first round taking place in Gameweek 25. Qualifying for the Members Cup – entry for Premium Members only – gets underway in Gameweek 26.

A total of £300 in prizes is available across the two tournaments.

RedLightning rounded-up the latest Community mini-leagues and competitions.

Impressively, the two main FFScout mini-leagues are the top two Leagues in FPL, followed by Andy’s own mini-league. Well done to the top five managers in each of those mini-leagues.

There’s been another small tweak this week by Mat (aka matzi11a) to the fixtures and results displayed on the Head-to-Head Leagues main page.

From now on the scores and tables will update each night, so managers can see how they are getting on as the Gameweek unfolds.

The fixtures for Gameweek 25 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

2,870 Comments Post a Comment
  1. NobodyF*cksWithTheJesus
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    1.2 itb can you suggest any last minute improvements to this wildcard?

    Martinez Areola
    Cancelo Stones Shaw Dallas Targett
    Salah Bruno Gundo Barnes Raph
    Bamford Watkins Kane

    1. NobodyF*cksWithTheJesus
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I'm actually on Ings atm but will upgrade to Kane next week.

    2. marcos11
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Solid team, similar to mine

  2. PL Ball
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Andy having a meltdown on his transfer with 11k peope watching

    1. PL Ball
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Legend

  3. Michelle Davin
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Brewster go kane for min 4?

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

    1. Double city defence (Cancelo, stones)
    2. Double burnley defence (pope, lowton)

    1. Warby84
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I have similar and tempted to play 5 atb with Shaw and Dunk

  5. lilmessipran
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Just to put things into perspective, we are building our wc squads with loads of cash for bench players for a DGW which has had NO OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION yet.. The way this season has been we might see a gw39 or a mega dgw38 as well we never know..

    1. Rupert The Horse
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Yeah I have thought of that.

  6. FPLMACKEM
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    McCarthy,
    Stones, Cancelo, Tarkowski
    Salah, Gundogan, Bruno, Son, Soucek
    Antonio, Bamford (c)

    Forster, DCL, Coufal, Mitchell

    2ft 4.3itb

    A) Antonio> Ings
    B) Antonio + Soucek > ings + raphina (bench DCL)
    C) any other suggestions?

    Probably going to WC next week now with no gw26 fixtures out and look to play the BB in a single gw later in the season

  7. RubeRx
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Having second thoughts about Raphinha (c) mostly due to fear of Bamford's EO

    stick or twist?

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

      Big upside if Raph C

    2. Teahupo'o
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      FWIW, I got cute and captained Sterling last gw. Did not end well.

    3. Brehmeren
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I'm sticking

    4. Bourbon, Pot Still or Islay…
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Depends how big your hangers are....

    5. Hazz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      I'm low-ish ranked and still sticking it on Bamford.

      Don't want to undo the good work last week lol. Their stats are so similar.

  8. DIMITRIS
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    What's better:
    A) TAA, Stones and Son
    B) Rudiger, Burn and Salah

  9. Marcin the Pole
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Targett or Aina? (Own Martinez)

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

      Aina

  10. UpTheCherries
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    A. Dias + Barnes + Ings + Kane
    B. Stones + Son + Bamford + Kane

  11. S3
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Antonio + Barnes -> Raphinha + Ings (-4)?

  12. Oh Mane Mane
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Start two between Pope/McCarthy and Dias/Cancelo ?

    1. S3
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Pope + Dias

  13. JenkoJunko
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    A. Sterling & Antonio to Raph & Kane -4 (Only have Cancelo for city)
    B. Sterling & Bissouma to KDB & Raph -4
    C. Sterling & Bissouma to Gundo & Raph - 4 (Allows Antonio to Kane GW26)

  14. Lanley Staurel
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Anyone know when the 2 Scout cups start?

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

      This is the qualifying round, check hot topic of registration

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

        Jeez that was close! Thanks mate!

  15. FallingDuck
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Bring in Shaw (-4)

    For:
    A) Cancelo
    B) Stones

    Theres so much noise abt one of them might get rested...

  16. FPL Alaska
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Play:

    A) Cancelo
    B) Stones

    1) Martinez
    2) Areola

  17. Alisson WondHaaland
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Start 1:

    A) Stones
    B) Cancelo

    Surely Cancelo is benched this week right? Im worried about a cameo

  18. Klip Klopp
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Any chance Forster plays?

  19. DB_00
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    WC25 BB26: Would you have El Mohamedy 4.3 now that Cash is out?? Only want him for the DGW.

  20. Shrimpy
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    WC.
    Martinez
    Cancelo, Stones, Dallas, White
    Mo, Bruno, Son, Gundogan, Raph
    Bamf

    Fabri, DCL, Davis. El Mohamady
    4.4 ITB for Bamf>Kane (TC) next week. BOOM

  21. Tango74
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    I’ve just logged on , what’s this about grealish ?

    On Twitter - any truth ?

  22. tibollom
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    did i get my bench right ?

    LLoris
    AWB Cancello Struik
    Salah bruno raph gundo son
    bam ings

    button mee watkins dias

    1. Scots Gooner
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Wildcarders got regrets? Very nearly pulled the trigger myself.

      Would have thought we'd have heard by now.

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

        not a wc

      2. tibollom
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        but thanks for the feedback on my team

        1. Scots Gooner
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 7 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          No idea why that ended up here. Was replying to another comment.

          Regarding your team, you've got that bench right. Good luck

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

            aha my bad mate.. thanks alot appreciate it

  23. The Big Fella
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Is the DGW next week confirmed yet? I don't want to use my WC unless it is confirmed and I only have 22 minutes now

    1. DB_00
      • 8 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      It's not confirmed officially but there is no other space for these matches and managers have hinted that they will be rescheduled in the next midweek

      1. The Big Fella
        • 7 Years
        3 years, 1 month ago

        Just Pep though as far as I know, right?

        1. DB_00
          • 8 Years
          3 years, 1 month ago

          Think Tuchel, Hodgson and Jose hinted at it too

  24. Muscout
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Spurs Dier or Davies more secure? Need for DGW26 and also GW29!

  25. The Royal Robin
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Would you play Martinez or Areola?

    Seems like a head and a heart decision. Very much a case of ownership vs the potential, etc.

    1. AiAiCaptain
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Yeah it´s a tough one. Currently on Martinez myself, probably because I got burned not owning him last week

  26. TheOneAndOnly
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Start 1;

    A) DCL
    B) Gundo

    1. Third Eye Vision
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 1 month ago

      Dom.

  27. AiAiCaptain
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    WC, gtg here?

    Martinez
    Shaw Dias Cancelo
    Harrison Fernandes Salah Raphinha
    Kane Ings Bamford(C)

    (Areola, Gundogan Rüdiger Konsa)

  28. dunas_dog
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Bench

    A Watkins
    B Gundogan

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

      Watkins!
      If you don't play Gündo and he's fit you'll lose too many points on your rivals.

  29. Jimmy Boy
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Are bench boosters going for Dan Burn on wildcards?

  30. Jdpz
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 1 month ago

    Pope
    Shaw Mee Alioski
    Raphinha(c) Bruno Salah Gundo Sterling
    Bamford(vc) Cavani

    Johnstone Antonio Cancelo Coufal

    1 ft., 0.9m itb.
    What to do? (WC, Tc, Bboost) - I need more players in 29gw.

    Cavani to Ings??? or keep?