Scout’s Matchday 1 picks for the free-to-play SPITCH Fantasy game

Sponsored by SPITCH

The Premier League is back and, to celebrate, fantasy football manager game SPITCH has launched two season-long options for the 2022/23 campaign – one of which is free and has a £2,500 prize pool.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO SPITCH

Imagine a version of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) where you have a Free Hit chip every week and are only judged on your best five matchdays. With SPITCH, one week of accidentally forgetting to play won’t be problematic – even starting in April still gives you a chance of winning prizes!

Unlike FPL, managers can actually go under or over the ₵1,200 budget, which then determines how many positive or negative points they begin the round with.

Each week of ‘Season’ mode requires a new line-up with no captains. Managers are allowed up to nine players from the same club and can alter teams mid-matchday. ‘Safety Net’ automatically replaces non-starters, whilst a sophisticated scoring system rewards defensive actions in a way that FPL does not.

FREE ‘CLASSIC’ GAME HAS £250 MATCHDAY 1 PRIZE

Until now, SPITCH has focused exclusively on individual matchday games. The ‘Classic’ mode has three pitches to choose from:

• Biggest Winning Zone: Either free or paid-entry, there are smaller winnings but an equal amount for the top 70% of participants.
• Double or Nothing: The best 42.5% get twice their stake back, regardless of how much higher they finish.
• Tournament: Rewards more money for higher-placed finishes, with a winning zone of 25%.

For this week only, the free game will have a matchday prize pool of over £700 and the winner gets £250.

SCOUT’S MATCHDAY 1 LINE-UP

With the additional ability to use a 3-3-4 or 4-2-4 formation, we have taken advantage of the latter for the opening weekend of action.

Liverpool travel to Fulham, where a defensive double-up of Alisson (₵41) and Andrew Robertson (₵104) is backed to deliver. In a game where successful crosses are rewarded with 18 points, Robertson ranked fourth for this amongst all Premier League players last season. Aston Villa’s Lucas Digne (₵58) came eighth.

The attacking tendencies of Reece James (₵138) and Kieran Trippier (₵67) will also prove useful here, as they face Everton and Nottingham Forest.

As explored in our introductory guide to SPITCH, defensive midfielders are potentially even more desirable than attackers, as each pass, interception and successful tackle is rewarded with points.

That’s why Rodri (₵160) has been calculated as last season’s highest-scoring midfielder, as his 2,629 successful passes were only beaten by injured teammate Aymeric Laporte (₵144). The Spaniard also made a league-leading 292 recoveries. All-action midfielders like Bruno Guimaraes (₵72) should excel.

Finally, it’s interesting to see FPL midfielders such as Mohamed Salah (₵250), Pedro Neto (₵90), Luis Diaz (₵125) and Jarrod Bowen (₵100) labelled as forwards.

Salah and Neto will love the prospect of lining up against the Fulham and Leeds United defences, whilst Callum Wilson (₵49) is heavily-backed to score against Forest. No introduction is needed for Harry Kane (₵160), scorer of 11 league goals and six assists from just 14 matches against Southampton.

JOIN THE FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT COMMUNITY ON SPITCH

You can join other Fantasy Football Scout users in our community on Spitch here.

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