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Every manager in the free, no-deposit FanTeam ‘Beat the Pundits’ league has one Wildcard to use.
Well, with plenty of time left to shoot up these rankings, the official FFScout Team is activating it now, ahead of Friday’s 17:00 (BST) European Championship quarter-final deadline.
As a reminder, every manager who finishes ahead of this squad will receive a free month of our Premium Membership.
WHAT IS FANTEAM ‘BEAT THE PUNDITS’?
This free league has over 1,500 managers competing to win a bunch of exciting prizes. Not only are Scout Premium Memberships up for grabs but the top 160 will share £2,000 (as seen above). And there’s the chance to defeat some well-known FPL content creators, too.
A 15-man squad fits within the £100m budget. Three Gameweeks remain and deadlines go right up until the first kick-off but decisions can’t be tweaked afterwards.
Points are similar to FPL, except slight tweaks for things like saves, shots on target and giving away decisive fouls.
SCOUT TEAM: WILDCARD
As mentioned in last week’s FanTeam group stage review, a large part of our disappointing current rank (1,082nd) is due to poor captaincy decisions and having the wrong Germany coverage.
This continued in Gameweek 4, with Florian Wirtz (£7.5m) beginning on the bench and Jamal Musiala (£8.0m) netting again. Also, the armband didn’t benefit from Harry Kane‘s (£11.0m) winner because extra-time points are not included in the scoring.
Meanwhile, having no outfield substitutes backfired once Federico Dimarco (£6.0m) didn’t play Italy’s match. But goals for Fabian Ruiz (£5.0m) and Jude Bellingham (£8.5m) ensured the round wasn’t a total disaster.
So we’re keeping this midfield pair in our Wildcard. An increased maximum of four players per nation allows us to go all-in on England and the Netherlands.
For example, Xavi Simons (£7.0m) set up the strike that makes Cody Gakpo (£8.0m) this summer’s joint-top scorer. Combined with the 2022 World Cup, the Liverpool forward now has six goals from nine tournament matches.
Furthermore, he’s fourth for shots on target (seven), joint-fourth for chances created (11) and the best at setting up big ones (four).
Dutch team-mates Virgil van Dijk (£5.5m) and Nathan Ake (£5.5m) were agonisingly close to adding an attacking return to Saturday’s clean sheet. One hit the post and the other assisted an offside Gakpo goal.
As for England, their backline has only conceded twice and allowed just three big chances. It bodes well for Jordan Pickford (£6.0m) and John Stones (£6.0m), whilst Kane will once more be trusted with captaincy. All he has to do is score within the initial 90 minutes.
Elsewhere, seven of last week’s squad have been eliminated but the Wildcard enables us to proceed with a fully-active 15.
The Spanish trio includes defensive pair Unai Simon (£5.5m) and Dani Carvajal (£5.5m). It took until Gameweek 4 for their strong rearguard to finally concede but up next is a nasty-looking heavyweight clash with Germany.
In Kai Havertz (£9.5m), the hosts possess the joint-best player for penalty area touches (34) and the sole leader for big chances (seven). Midfield colleague Ilkay Gundogan (£6.0m) narrowly beats him for points.
To conclude, Jules Kounde (£6.0m) is the singular French pick versus Portugal and cheap fifth midfielder Michel Aebischer (£4.5m) currently has the seventh-highest tally.
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