The Fantasy Football Scoutcast

Christmas fixture congestion dominates the final ScoutCast of 2018 as the crew look ahead to four sets of matches over two tightly packed weeks of Premier League action. Joe, David and Az are joined by Andy to look in detail at how best to navigate inevitable rotation over Gameweeks 18 to 21 as they offer their top tips for yuletide Fantasy Football survival. Community questions the crew tackle include whether Manchester United assets can be trusted for their kind upcoming set of games,...

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. Mohamed Salah certainly provided a timely reminder that he is already one of Fantasy Football all time greats on Saturday, with a hat-trick at the Vitality Stadium against Bournemouth. But even that impressive display is seemingly not enough to convince all of the ScoutCast crew that the Liverpool attacker should be an essential part of their festive line ups. Joining Joe, David and Luke in this week’s...

Two Gameweeks in the space of just a few days meant there were plenty of team sheet surprises for Fantasy managers this week. Despite the likes of Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah missing out on a starting berth for one match, the ScoutCast crew just about survived Gameweeks 14 and 15. Harry Kane was the hero for Az, Luke and Joe, who handed the Spurs man the armband for a 24-point haul against Southampton on Wednesday. But it was a mixed set of fixtures for...

With scores all in the thirties, Gameweek 13 was one to forget for the ScoutCast crew. After forcing themselves to relive this dire set of points, Az, David, Luke and Joe dust themselves off and look ahead to better times. Manchester City’s wealth of midfield options come under particular scrutiny during the community questions segment. A 44-points total from David Silva, Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling against West Ham last weekend, makes this is a group of players that demand...

Points ceilings and floors dominate proceedings on our latest ScoutCast as Joe, Az, Luke and Neale look over the key issues facing managers ahead of Gameweek 13. A chief concern is who replaces red-flagged Benjamin Mendy who underwent surgery last week. The enticing secure floor of clean sheet returns offered by the full-back’s Manchester City team mates, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte, appeals to Luke. Meanwhile, Joe prefers the higher ceiling of riches offered by the likes of Everton...

The latest international break gives us the opportunity to take stock of the key underlying statistics being posted by teams and players over the first 12 Gameweeks of the season. In this extra to our usual ScoutCast format, David and Joe sift through a raft of statistics to uncover who have been the most attacking players in terms of both goal threat and creativity. They also find out who has been over and under performing and delve deep into the team statistics. Most threatening sides,...

Medium term planning takes centre stage in our latest ScoutCast as Joe, David, Luke and Az look ahead to a major swing in the fixtures next month. With the season ticker turning in favour of the likes of Tottenham and Arsenal, and away from Liverpool, the ScoutCast crew are already hatching plans to get one step ahead of the template. Our community questions section considers which heavy hitters to ditch and which to bring in over the coming weeks. This includes a discussion on whether...

After gaining an unwelcome set of red arrows in Gameweek 10 the ScoutCast crew are in need of a lift. The perfect man for the job could well be Watford’s bargain basement priced striker, the aptly named Isaac Success Ajayi. Joe, David and Az discuss the merits of bringing in the Nigerian, who could enable a formation shake up with a greater focus in defence and midfield. Among the midfield success stories recently has been Ross Barkley, who has averaged 13 Fantasy Premier League points a...

With fresh rotation risks and plummeting form to deal with the ScoutCast crew’s Fantasy Premier League teams are in danger of becoming out of date. In this week’s episode Joe, David and Az are joined by new regular Luke, who has stepped in for Andy, to cast their collective eye over the current Fantasy Football trends. Joe is in search of the latest backline look as he seeks to dump his decidedly unfashionable defence. Az’s midfield is looking more like mutton dressed as lamb these days...

Battling through traffic, illness and technical glitches, the Scoutcast crew emerge triumphant to discuss the key issues affecting Fantasy Football managers in Gameweek 9 and beyond. After being stuck in motorway congestion a cold-ridden Az dropped by to join Joe, David and Andy just in time to answer the community’s questions about why none of us own assets from Arsenal. This is particularly head-scratching given the Gunners have scored more goals than any other side over the last four...

The ScoutCast crew take up dancing this week in a desperate bid to figure out which of the many strong performing heavy-hitters they can squeeze into their teams. Joe and Andy are looking to adapt the hokey-cokey, with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sergio Aguero dropping out, then back into, their teams to briefly accommodate Harry Kane. Az has gone one step further from merely putting the Spurs striker in and Liverpool winger out and has decided to wiggle his whole team about with a...

Investing heavily in Chelsea and Liverpool has proved a successful strategy for many this season. But with these two title contenders going head to head in Gameweek 7 is this ‘eggs in one basket’ tactic about to come unstuck? Joe, David, Andy and Az discuss the best strategy to dealing with these tricky ties when so many highly owned players are squaring up against each other. They also consider the merits of bringing in the likes of Everton talisman Richarlison and Arsenal’s newly...

Eden Hazard’s 20 point Fantasy Premier League haul in Gameweek 5 has left the ScoutCast team in shock. For David and Joe the the Chelsea man’s fine early season form has seen them fire up their Wildcards as they look to rip up their teams to accommodate him. Az is still without the Belgian, but is more than a little concerned he will miss out on another monster score. While Andy has been left reeling from a fine score of his own, having already swooped for the winger prior to his...

Do we make our own luck in Fantasy Football? Or are there unforeseen events that can conspire to ruin even the best managers’ season? In this week’s ScoutCast Joe, David, Andy and Az discuss the role of fortune in the game and look to introduce a ‘luck league’. This league is one of a number of new and revamped features we trialed in this episode. This saw the return of old favourites including rough with the smooth and clean sheet predictions as well as a new version of Fantasy island...

Patience is proving a virtue for the ScoutCast’s latest guest, FPL General. With top 500 finishes in all but one of his last four Fantasy Premier League seasons his track record of giving players time to perform has certainly paid off. Undaunted by a poor start this season he is sticking resolutely to the game plan, with Christian Eriksen and Josh King already rewarding him with attacking returns during a week when many thousands of others were jettisoning them. He joins Joe, Andy and...

This week the ScoutCast crew are determined to bust the myth that they share identical strategies. Long-term maverick Luke returns to reveal his freshly Wildcarded team which bravely went into Gameweek 2 without Manchester City’s hat-trick hero Sergio Aguero and last season's points scoring sensation Mohamed Salah. In stark contrast, Az is continuing his march up the rankings thanks to his faith in this premium pair, and his resolve in resisting broadsheet tittle-tattle hinting that the...

Buoyed by some impressive scores from the opening day, the ScoutCast crew are in optimistic mood as they tackle the key issues facing Fantasy managers ahead of Gameweek 2. Joe is joined by Andy, Az and new face Neale (aka Skonto Rigga) to separate the wheat from the chaff in the Fantasy Premier League’s transfer market. They ponder whether reports of the demise of forwards have been greatly exaggerated and list the under-performing players from Gameweek 1 who may well punish their...

The start of the new season is just days away and the Scoutcast crew are still full of doubts about their 15-man Fantasy Premier League squads. Andy, Az, David and Mark join Joe to mull over likely strategies for the start of the 2018/19 campaign as well as reveal their current line-ups. Across our 82-minute chat, a consensus emerges on backing Manchester City and Liverpool premium assets. But that could all change depending on transfer deadline day deals. Meanwhile, Wolverhampton,...

Launch day is here and ScoutCast duo Joe and David have gone over the Fantasy Premier League player prices to gauge their initial thoughts on the game for 2018/19. We couldn't really stop ourselves from asking the question: 'Should we have Mohamed Salah in our teams when he costs £13.0m?' You'll have to listen in to find out what we thought. The changes in positional classification have altered our strategies for the season a little bit and we discuss that in detail in this...

The latest ScoutCast brings the curtain down on another Fantasy season as we take the opportunity to navel-gaze and conduct a full retrospective. New signing David makes his debut, while Granville is a late arrival to join myself, Jonty, Andy and Az to form a six-strong crew. We start by appraising Gameweek 38 to report back on a dramatic final day at the top of the Fantasy Premier League. Then we take the lead from your final round of community questions. Our best and worst decisions,...