Fantasy Football: Forward thinking rewards the Ladbrokes Life gang

It was a case of some shrewd business in the transfer window for a couple of the Ladbrokes Life gang this week in the Fantasy Football with both the Professor and Generous John seeing their tactical changes reap the rewards.

First though, to the top of the table where we have a battle developing for that £100 Free Bet.

Just two points separate the top pair of Georgi Bazlyankov’s FC Holywood and Derek Price’s The Unknowns.

The former’s decision to select Manchester United’s Juan Mata as his captain paid dividends, with the Spaniard returning 28 points with a goal, assist and clean sheet bonus delighting his manager.

For the gang though, they can only dream of the dizzying heights at the top of the pile, though there were some signs of encouragement in the weekend just gone.

Generous John continues to lead the way of the quintet, as he has done all season, himself the only one of the troupe to grace the top 200 in the table.

His decision to bring in Dusan Tadic and Wayne Rooney, with the latter getting the captain’s armband was inspired, with the pair raking in 27 points between them.

Throw in assists from Dimitri Payet and Philippe Coutinho, and a very healthy 63 points ensued.

It was a good week for The Professor too, as well bringing in Manchester United’s captain to his front-line, he also swapped West Ham’s last-gasp goalscorer Cheikhou Kouyate for the injured David Silva, adding another eight points.

It wasn’t quite the same week for the remaining trio though, but it wasn’t a shocker, for Mr Brightside and The Gut Truster at least.

Opting to bring in Anthony Martial for Harry Kane proved a pointless decision for Brightside, with the Frenchman slightly underperforming in comparison with the Tottenham forward.

Keeping faith with Coutinho and Jamie Vardy did pay off though, with the latter scoring 12 points.

It was a case of his strikers saving him for The Gut Truster, with the duo of Martial and Romelu Lukaku attributing 26 of his 42 points.

Spare a thought for The Believer this week. With 22 points to his name, he was outscored by 655 of the other 657 teams in the league.

Just two of his players netted more than two points, while his decision to oust Kane couldn’t have come at a worse time.

There’s a long way to go, but it is hard to see him not picking up the wooden spoon come May.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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