Gameweek Guide

The Complete Guide to Scout’s tips and advice for Gameweek 38

The end of the most unusual season is upon us, and with it comes the final opportunity to climb the ranks or claim mini-league glory.

The usual mix of dead-rubbers and motivated teams is slightly diluted this season with the title and relegation places settled ahead of time, but the battle for the top four and the remaining European spots remains wide open.

And Gameweek 38 has a reputation for the unexpected. 

Take Theo Walcott’s 34-minute hat-trick against West Bromwich Albion at the end of the 2014/15 campaign, or the ten goals shared equally between the Baggies and Manchester United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s last game in charge.

This year, West Brom could be involved in another high-scoring affair when they visit a fan-filled Elland Road. The Leeds United faithful celebrating not only their first season back in the Premier League for 17 years but also their Championship victory from 10 months ago.

With the cricket season already underway, could we see a cricket score in the football?

The last round of matches all kick-off simultaneously, as is tradition on the final day of the season, handing us a Sunday deadline of 14:30 BST.

Celebration and Motivation

Just as they did in midweek, the home sides will benefit from playing in front of their supporters. Although, as Spurs discovered against Aston Villa, a poor performance can quickly change the mood. Boos ringing out at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium before half-time. 

But with Marcelo Bielsa’s side finishing the season strongly, Leeds United are not expected to suffer the same fate. 

Hotly tipped by Zophar, the Pro Pundit is backing Patrick Bamford (£6.6m) and co to push him towards his eighth top 10,000 finish. The combination of in-form striker against porous defence appeals:

Bamford tops the xG non-penalty numbers (1.73) for Leeds over the last four matches and has landed at least double the number of shots on target (six) compared to any other Leeds player. West Brom have conceded a massive 50 shots on target over the last six Gameweeks; that’s an average of over eight a game!

When selecting his shortlist of favoured armband candidates, Captain Sensible writer Jan put Bamford in third.

The Whites have only lost one of their last eight matches at Elland Road and put five goals past Sam Allardyce’s men the last time the two sides met. Since then, the Baggies’ fortunes have not changed, conceding at least two goals in six of their last eight league outings.

There was, however, a word of caution voiced for those considering Bamford.

Neale, the doyen of the team news, warned of reduced minutes for several of the Leeds contingent due to farewell appearances for long-serving players Gaetano Berardi (£4.0m) and Pablo Hernandez (£5.7m). 

I would not be shocked if [Bamford] got 60 or 70 minutes.

– Neale

Nonetheless three of Bielsa’s men are selected in the final Scout Picks of the season. 

The known absentees for the Whites are Illan Meslier (£4.8m) in goal, Mateusz Klich (£5.2m) and Diego Llorente (£4.4m). Meslier missing out has left many managers contemplating a hit for a goalkeeper, something Neale advised against, even if it meant going with ten men.

Across the Pennines, Manchester City’s line-up is, as ever, hard to predict. And this weekend they are joined in that respect by their local rivals Manchester United, who play in the Europa League final on Wednesday. 

Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer promised to “make a few changes” with Bruno Fernandes (£11.3m) among those not guaranteed a starting spot.

Going for Gold

All this means that Liverpool offer the best captain options. 

Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) and Sadio Mané (£11.8m) are not only Jan’s top picks but also those of Tom and Andy among our four Scout Picks selectors. 

Ahead of facing a side he scored 16 points against earlier in the season, Mohamed Salah is top among all midfielders for expected goal involvement (xGI) over the last four matches. Just two players have more shots in the box than him over the last six, suggesting he will be giving his all to win the Golden Boot race on Sunday.

– Scout Picks

And our Big Numbers article pointed to an encouraging statistic for Mané owners.

Seven – the number of consecutive Premier League games that Sadio Mané has scored in against Crystal Palace. In the league’s history, only Robin van Persie (against Stoke City) has scored in eight consecutive matches against an opponent.

– Big Numbers

What’s more, Liverpool need to win to ensure Champions League football for next season.

The Reds are currently level on points with Leicester City but are above them in the table thanks to their superior goal difference. However, a big win for the Foxes by five goals or more would put real pressure on on Jurgen Klopp’s side.

An unlikely scenario, perhaps, but Liverpool may want to bag a few goals against Crystal Palace just to be on the safe side.

And the Eagles have an abysmal record against their hosts, having lost their last seven matches against them by an aggregate score of 22 goals to five.

The one spanner in the works could be that this is Roy Hodgson’s final game in charge. 

Part of me thinks they are going to be right up for this and I don’t think they are going to roll over.

– David, Captaincy Video

However improbable, a repeat of the scoreline on Sir Alex Ferguson’s last day in the Old Trafford hot seat would be welcomed by Fantasy managers, with the obvious exception of Liverpool fans.

Anfield was also set to be the petri dish for David’s new ‘equal opportunities’ captain experiment.

Speaking on the Captaincy Video with Joe, David suggested the radical idea of handing the armband to the best candidate based on their qualifications alone. He highlighted a player who has scored in each of the last four Gameweeks, has had the most shots over the last six matches, and is up against the team that has conceded more big chances than anyone else.

However, that player, Christian Benteke, is now an injury doubt and has been left out of Neale’s predicted line-up. The experiment will, unfortunately, have to wait until the new season.

Must Win

The best Neto replacements and whether FPL managers should stick with Fernandes

As mentioned, Leicester City’s need not only to win but ideally by a big margin, thrusts Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.2m) into the spotlight. 

The Foxes forward has 11 goals in 11 matches and faces a Spurs side who conceded 20 shots in their home encounter with Aston Villa.

But the fact that Brendan Rodgers could instruct his team to go for it at some stage, may benefit Harry Kane (£11.9m) if it means Leicester leave themselves open at the back. The want-away Spurs forward has an impressive record against the newly-crowned FA Cup winners, scoring 14 goals in 11 Premier League meetings.

Encouragingly for those backing Kane, influential centre-half Jonny Evans (£5.6m) is set to sit out the King Power clash with injury. His presence at the back was sorely missed in the 4-2 home defeat to Newcastle United in Gameweek 35:

[The injury to Jonny Evans was] very disruptive. He’s a great talker. With Caglar and Wesley, they are both fantastic talents but Jonny is the brain in there and he organises them so for him to come out was a big blow for us.

– Brendan Rodgers, after the Gameweek 35 defeat to Newcastle

Elsewhere, Michail Antonio (£6.7m) boasts impressive underlying stats for West Ham’s clash with Southampton.

Over the last four matches, no forward has registered a higher xG non-penalty (2.52) than the Hammers forward.

– Zophar

And Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side have not done well on the road: 

Nine defeats for Southampton in their 10 away league fixtures this calendar year. The Saints, who travel to West Ham United this weekend, have conceded 30 goals in these nine defeats, scoring just seven in return. Their sole win on the road in 2021 was at relegated Sheffield United.

– Big Numbers

Don’t Look Back in Anger

Pro Pundits Simon March and Lateriser were both in reflective mood ahead of the season finale.Simon counselled on the perils of hindsight bias, while Lateriser rued his early season overconfidence.

“We are more likely to apply hindsight to negative outcomes than positive ones … The key to overcoming hindsight bias is learning to evaluate decisions based on their logic rather than their outcome. Rationally-speaking, the outcome should be irrelevant if the logic used in the decision-making process was sound.” – Simon March

And this is where Lateriser feels he let himself down at times, believing he could create whatever narrative he wanted and going against logic. He cited the example of ignoring Mohamed Salah in Gameweek 1 when Liverpool took on newly-promoted Leeds United.

All the same, the three time top 200 manager is still in love with FPL.

“I was actually very surprised by how much I enjoyed a green arrow despite the poor rank. It gave me genuine delight and that little bit of a good run I had in the past few Gameweeks.” – Lateriser

Community Competitions and Head-to-Head Fixtures

UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football is back - what you need to know 3

Following the quick turnaround of recent weeks, Neale recapped on the winners of our two cup competitions. Congratulations to Genovoze and Mohd Rodzi on their respective triumphs in the FFS Open Cup and FFS Members Cup.

And well done to Jambo17 who added a third-place finish in the FFS Open Cup to his 2018/19 runners-up spot in the Members Cup. Likewise Rossaldinho, who overcame SUNFLOWER to take the bronze medal in this year’s Members Cup.

RedLightning brought us his regular update on the community competitions, which included a look at the Grand Final of Last Man Standing.

The competition, run every year by TorresMagic, eliminates the lowest-scoring managers each Gameweek until just four managers remain to battle it out in the final round. 

The Hsuper One adds his name to the list of winners after overcoming Robert Tuck (aka COVID-CASUAL), Steven Schelk (aka The Suspended One), and Amit Sharma in Gameweek 37. Many congratulations to him.

And despite his cup success Callum Croal (aka Jambo17) will be one of the ten managers relegated from the top division in our Head-to-Head Leagues.

Gameweek 38 sees David Arblaster, in eleventh, take on Richard Clarke, in tenth, to decide the final relegation spot. Meanwhile Aleksander Våge Nilsen (aka AleksanderVN) will be hoping for a win or a draw to ensure he claims the ultimate prize of Head-to-Head League Champion. Ville Tuominen (aka Santigold) lies in wait should he slip up.

The Head-to-Head fixtures for Gameweek 38 can be found below. 

The scores and tables update every night on the Head-to-Head Leagues main page so you can keep track of the action as the Gameweek unfolds. 

For the last time this season, 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

2,761 Comments Post a Comment
  1. El Presidente
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    FPL craziness

    1. El Presidente
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      What a great top post!

  2. Luton_Fan
    • 14 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Quick captain poll? Salah here

    1. g40steve
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Sal

    2. Gearoid
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Salah

    3. Bleh
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Salah

    4. More Cowbell
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      pablo hernandez*

      *not really. mohammed salah.

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

      Benteke

  3. Maeki2
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    So now it was a fake leak. Amazing

  4. Arteta
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    No team news so I'm just leaning towards boring transfer and selling DCL. Do you think Antonio or Iheanacho is a better bet for this GW?
    Already own Bamford.

    1. SHOWSTOPPERRR
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Antonio

    2. Pulp Minion
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I went Antonio - as much to cover rival behind me as anything

    3. KUN_DE_BRU_YNE
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Antonio for sure

  5. Pulp Minion
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Play:

    1) Ederson
    2) Leno

    1. Rog.
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      1

  6. Rog.
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Need a real differential, does Sterling start?

    1. Mcgugan
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Looking for the same. Sterling or Torres - surely both start?

    2. Arteta
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I don't think so.

  7. TeddiPonza
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Son to Mane for a hit? Rival has both Son and Mane

    1. Bleh
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I’ve done that move.

    2. Jam0sh
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      I'm considering the same

  8. itsmeguneet
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Anyone saw the goldbridge tweet on united lineup?? Just a min ago

  9. waldo666
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Ederson or Mendy?

    1. Rotation's Alter Ego
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Think I'm going to go Ederson

      1. waldo666
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Cheers

    2. Pulp Minion
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Mendy

  10. FantasyHero
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    1. Vydra & raphina
    2. Willock & kdb -4

  11. Gearoid
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    1FT and 1.1 ITB

    I think I am GTG. Anything worth it?

    Forester
    Taa Stones Dallas
    Salah(c) Son Mahrez Lingard
    Kane Antonio Bamford(VC)

    Pickford ESR Philips Mitchell

  12. Nightf0x
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    With 11.4 itb pick 1 from each? 1 mid 1 def

    A) asm esr saka jwp tores wilock
    B) taylor mee coufal rudiger james

    Have lwoton & mendy

    1. Big Hands Barry
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Torres james

  13. Budgies
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Kane, Salah or Mane for captaincy?

    1. Big Hands Barry
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Mane

  14. Salah’s Sonnet
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Guys!! Quick question, three options!

    A) DCL > Bamford (Bench Mahrez)

    B) Mahrez + Son > Mane + Willock (-4)

    C) Mahrez + DCL > Mane + 5.0m FWD (-4)

    Currently leaning towards C

    Rival above me will not own Mane, and enough difference between our teams elsewhere.

    Cheers

  15. Epic Fail
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    A or B?

    1. Eleven Hag
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      ?

    2. Make United Great Again
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      B

    3. sunzip14
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      C

    4. KUN_DE_BRU_YNE
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      B

    5. richarlison2348
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      C

    6. Debauchy
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      c

    7. Jam0sh
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Yes

    8. Crunchie
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Zaha to Raphinha -4. 6 points above 1k

      A) Yes
      B) No

      1. Jam0sh
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        B

    9. Sᴄʜᴜ̈RRʟᴇ ⓝ
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Neither confirmed. Check Twitter

  16. OptimusBlack
    • 10 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Watkins > Nachoooo
    For -4 pts
    Yaaaay
    Nope

    1. Mcgugan
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      No

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

        🙁

  17. Pukki Blinders
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Goldbridge now saying the leaked United team could be a crock of bs! Absolute chaos

    1. El Presidente
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Goldbrige is a crock of shaitan

  18. the dom 1
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Play 1 from each pls?

    a. Konsa
    b. Shaw

    1. Martinez
    2.Sanchez

    Cheers

    1. TheSteel
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      A2

    2. the dom 1
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      cheers GL

  19. Nightf0x
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Forster plays ?

  20. Lucas8406
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Fernandes to Mane or Strujik to Dallas?

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

      A

    2. KUN_DE_BRU_YNE
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      F to M

  21. TVPlugSockets
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    DCL to Antonio for -4.

    Yay or Nay

  22. SAKA AND EMILE SMITH ROWE
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Start Coady & Greenwood instead of Shaw & Bruno? Just seen the leaked XI

    1. @persecuted_by_mods
        2 years, 10 months ago

        It unleaked

    2. @persecuted_by_mods
        2 years, 10 months ago

        5 penalties for Bruno incoming

      • Abra Dubravka
        • 5 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        A) Digne to Dallas for free
        B) Digne/Jota to Robbo/Raph (-4)?

      • Nemanja Vidic
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        GTG?
        Mendy
        TAA Rudiger Holding
        Salah(vc) Son Raph ESR
        Kane Aguero(c) Antonio
        Forster Regulion Ward Jota

      • Ten Season Wonder
        • 10 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Last min leaked news please folks

        1. @persecuted_by_mods
            2 years, 10 months ago

            Nothing at all other than man utd which has been taken back

        2. Bleh
          • 7 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Good luck all! It’s been fun.

        3. gengo
          • 11 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Play one

          a dcl
          b digne
          c ESR

        4. sunzip14
          • 7 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Start Shaw or Holding?

          1. Luton_Fan
            • 14 Years
            2 years, 10 months ago

            Holding

        5. Heisenberg W. W.
          • 3 Years
          2 years, 10 months ago

          Bench Coufal or Holding?

          1. Big Hands Barry
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 5 Years
            2 years, 10 months ago

            Couf

          2. Luton_Fan
            • 14 Years
            2 years, 10 months ago

            Holding