In partnership with

✍️ Welcome to the Fantasy Football Scout Bulletin - everything you need to know the day before the GW29 FPL deadline!

🚨 Remember, GW29 is a ‘Blank Gameweek’ meaning some teams do not play including Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Liverpool & Newcastle.

➡️ We’ve reached Blank Gameweek 29, a weekend where four sides won’t be taking part – Liverpool, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. LiveFPL says that the average top 100k team has 4.868 players from these, making chip usage a popular plan. 

✍️ Read the rest of the ‘Scout Report’ further down this email…

🧢 Lateriser’s Blank Gameweek 29 Free Hit team: It is Free Hit week for a fair few managers in FPL and with lots of coverage already on this website, I thought I’d weigh in and add some unsolicited advice for the Free Hitters…READ HERE

🚨 If you’re tinkering with your GW29 team, check out FPL Gameweek 29 tips: Best players, predicted line-ups, team news + more

❓ Who to pick as Assistant Manager in FPL Gameweek 29? While Blank Gameweek 29 has shifted many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers’ attention towards whether or not to activate their Free Hit, there are still plenty of Assistant Manager chips in play elsewhere.

🃏 Free Hit or no Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 29? Read our article on this NOW

🚑 FPL Gameweek 29 team news: Friday’s live injury updates + Trent latest. There’s Gameweek 29 team news from 13 Premier League managers to wade through on Friday.

🚌 You can see the Scout’s GW29 ‘Bus Team’ below or by clicking here

We’ve reached Blank Gameweek 29, a weekend where four sides won’t be taking part – Liverpool, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace. LiveFPL says that the average top 100k team has 4.868 players from these, making chip usage a popular plan. 

Naturally, some will push towards a Free Hit, which we’ve reminded managers how to use and provided a few draft ideas for. Remember that a new rule for 2024/25 means that saved-up transfers can now carry through its activation. 

Erling Haaland is popular - the biggest winner of the Bonus Points System changes compared to last season. Some may even resort to seamlessly introducing him via a Wildcard. But we use statistics to ask whether he’s really worth the financial sacrifices required elsewhere. For example, out-of-form Cole Palmer was ill last week but not all Pro Pundits think he should be sold.

Many will instead use free transfers that were accumulated for this moment – though Matheus Cunha’s suspension ruined lots of well-laid plans! In fact, only three of the 19 Great and the Good bosses made a purchase in Gameweek 28. Ben Crellin has already benefitted from Bruno Fernandes’ brilliant form and the playmaker is unanimous in our Scout Squad picks, just like Justin Kluivert. 

The Bournemouth midfielder is Zophar’s favourite replacement for out-of-favour Dango Ouattara but names like Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony Elanga could also do well. Lateriser’s hypothetical Free Hit squad includes Elanga, though his team-mate Callum Hudson-Odoi might have even bigger differential potential, with Nottingham Forest highly backed to beat Ipswich and give Nuno Espirito Santo some Assistant Manager points.

As well as regular weekly coverage of the Fantasy EFL game, we’ve got Captain Sensible to come before the deadline, plus the latest opinions of FPL General and Tom Freeman.

As always, check out the FPL Gameweek 29 page to quickly access all recent articles and the standard press conference updates from managers. Visit our Members Area for comparison tools and an in-depth collection of Opta and StatsBomb data.

Over on our YouTube channel, alongside the regular Scoutcast, Burning Questions and Deadline Dilemmas episodes are team reveals from General and Tom.