The Scottish Premiership returns this week after a week off for the FA Cup, although Motherwell and St Mirren did face off in the week. It’s been an eventful week with sackings and injuries to pay attention to heading in to this weekends set of fixtures. So let’s get in to the games and who is worth a play in the Sorare Capped Mode competitions this week.

In the interest of openness, I do own cards of some of the players I’m recommending (you can check out my gallery here) and will mark them with an asterisk (*). But, I’ll also try and include some players I don’t have. I’m certainly not Nostradamus, as evidenced by Cap 240 results to date, so do your own research when picking up players.

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The Games

Celtic-Aberdeen Celtic made it through to the Quarter Finals of the Scottish Cup with a 5-1 home victory over St Mirren. However, it came at a cost after Kyogo Furuhashi was forced off with a shoulder injury. He’ll miss this week and it’s a great opportunity for someone to step up against a shocking away side in Aberdeen. Aberdeen remain without a manager after Jim Goodwin’s sacking. It’s hard to see them having any strong performers in this game.

Dundee United-St Johnstone Dundee are rock-bottom of the Premiership and suffered a narrow cup defeat to Kilmarnock at the weekend. Their opposition, St Johnstone, have struggled recently, losing 8 of their last 9 in all competitions. It looks like it should be a close fought game, perhaps one short on quality in the attacking third.

Hibernian-Kilmarnock This looks to be a solid spot for Hibs to pick up a 7th home win of the season. Kilmarnock have picked up 2 points away from this season and scored just 5 goals in 13 games. It’s definitely a game to take any and all Hibs players and stay away from Killie.

Livingston-Rangers In general, Livingston playing at home is a situation to take advantage of. However, playing against Rangers is one of the few exceptions to the rule. But, it’s also not a game that looks good for the few Rangers players on the platform either. Livingston have conceded just 11 goals in 12 home games, including a narrow 1-2 loss to Rangers in the first game of the season.

St Mirren-Ross County Fresh off a Cup hiding from Celtic and a loss to struggling Motherwell, St Mirren are in a great bounce back spot against a struggling Ross County side. Ross County are goal-shy away from home, whilst St Mirren have the best home defence outside the Old Firm. I’d expect a St Mirren win to nil in this game.

Motherwell-Hearts Motherwell suffered an awful loss to Championship-side Raith Rovers in the Cup at the weekend. Shortly after the game manager, Steven Hammell, was fired. With Stuart Kettlewell in charge for the interim, Motherwell did bounce back with a midweek home victory over St Mirren. Hearts beat their Championship opponent in Hamilton and got Michael Smith and Cammy Devlin back from injury to boot. Hearts haven’t had the best away form this season, but Motherwell have also been shocking at home. I think there’s definitely goals here for Hearts, the question is whether Motherwell can build on Wednesday’s success.

Goalkeepers

David Marshall, Hibernian – David Marshall couldn’t have a better match-up this week against a Kilmarnock side that is woeful on the road. He comes in at a very affordable 37 points and with a clean sheet would obviously smash that. He will most likely need it as his AA games is essentially non-existent.

Trevor Carson, St Mirren – Trevor Carson is another with a really positive home match-up this week and like Marshall costs 37 points this week. Carson has kept 5 clean sheets in 13 home games this season and conceded just 9 goals in total. Unlike Marshall, he can also succeed without a clean sheet making him perhaps the better option for this week.

Other Thoughts: Like most weeks Joe Hart is a solid bet to keep a clean-sheet. Hearts have only kept two clean-sheets away from home this season, but one was against Motherwell back in September – Zander Clark is a risky pick, but maybe the 4th best option available. Livingston are usually excellent at home, but Shamal George* is unlikely to match his cost of 50 against Rangers.

Defenders

Liam Gordon, St Johnstone – St Johnstone are without Andy Considine after he was sent off last week, so Liam Gordon should return to the centre of defence against Dundee United. He’s a little bit pricey at 49 points, but he does offer the ability to score big without a decisive. This season he’s managed 7 games with 50+ points on AA scoring alone.

Scott Tanser, St Mirren – Tanser gets some set-pieces for Saint Mirren giving him an extra path to a decisive. He’s pretty cheap with an L15 of 40 points and he has exceeded that score in half of his 10 games since the World Cup break. Is St Mirren can keep a clean sheet, he should be nailed on to outscore his price.

Other Thoughts: Hibs defenders to pair with David Marshall are worth playing, Paul Hanlon* is my pick of the bunch. Alistair Johnson* didn’t have the best game in has last league match, but I still think he’s got great potential for a monster score – especially if he can bag his first decisive for the Bhoys.

Midfielders

Joe Newell*, Hibernian – Newell is an All Around monster for Hibs and also takes set pieces to give him decisive potential to boot. Back in September Newell managed a 91.90 at home to Kilmarnock with one decisive action. A repeat that good might not be likely but, Newell should see plenty of the ball to rack up AA.

Craig Sibbald, Dundee United – Given their recent form, Dundee United players might not be an obvious choice but, Craig Sibbald is a solid option in the centre of midfield. His L15 cost is 43 and that has been brought down by three sub appearances in that time. He’s got the potential to outscore that comfortably and has done in 7 of his last 15 appearance. The match-up against St Johnstone is pretty reasonable and Dundee should at least see a decent amount of the ball this week.

Other Thoughts: Josh Campbell has been in great form for Hibernian with 7 decisives in his last 5 games. Mark O’Hara hasn’t had the best of times recently, but could have a good game this week.

Forwards

Daizen Maeda*, Celtic – Aberdeen are the worst defence in the league when they play away from home conceding almost 3 goals a game. So, there should be plenty of opportunities to score for Celtic. Daizen Maeda is my favourite of the Celtic forwards as his L15 is kept down a little by some sub appearances and appearances for Japan at the World Cup.

Barrie McKay*, Hearts – Hearts haven’t been the highest scoring team away from home, but Motherwell have also been terrible defensively. McKay has hit form since the World Cup break bagging 4 decisive actions. Against Motherwell he’s got a decent chance of another and without one he can still get right around his L15 of 51 with AA alone.

Other Thoughts: I like Hibs in general but, Kevin Nisbet* returning from injury is hard to trust. There’s a fair chance he starts on the bench and he needs to grab a decisive with an L15 of 60. If you want a Hibs forward, Elie Youan may be the bettwe bet. In Kyogo absence for Celtic it’s unclear who will take his spot as the number 9. Liel Abada would be my bet in a great spot, but Oh Hyeon-Gyu could get his first start in Scotland.

My Cap 240 Line-Up

My Goalkeeper options aren’t the strongest this week so I opted for my cheapest option in Liam Kelly. I don’t love the match-up against Hearts by any means, but his L15 is only 35 so he can still have a decent performance whilst conceding. I’m not expecting much here, and I think the rest of the team will need to carry him if I’m to hit 250 points and a threshold payout.

I’ve filled the rest of the team with a couple of pairs of team-mates with the best home match-ups in the league. First off a Hibs Defence/Midfield duo in Paul Hanlon and Joe Newell. Outside of the Old Firm, Hibs are my best bet for a clean-sheet and going forward they have looked strong since the World Cup, even when Nisbet has missed time. If Nisbet does get the start, I’d feel even more confident about Newell’s chances of getting a decisive.

My second pair of team-mates come from league leaders Glasgow Celtic. I really think Alistair Johnson has huge potential week on week. He’s shown a really solid AA game for Celtic and adding just one decisive could get him to a 100 point score. Against Aberdeen is one of his best chances of getting one. Daizen Maeda should start for Celtic this week and again could benefit from a great match-up to grab a decisive.

This line-up comes to 240 points exactly but is weak at goalkeeper. If I had the options I’d love to move to one of the keepers mentioned above and swap Paul Hanlon for a slightly cheaper option to make room. Having said that, I do think there’s potential to hit 250 here, Johnson and Newell both have the ability to score 70+ and Maeda is a solid bet to top 60 points this week. Assuming Kelly can avoid shipping 3 or more we should be there or there-abouts.

Gameweek #343 Recap

I fell short of the threshold in Gameweek #343 and again performed better in Cap 220 than 240 (no rewards earned in either sadly). Starting off with what went right, Bojan Miovski had a great game scoring 2 goals for Aberdeen. Strain and Boyes both had reasonable performances, coming in right around their L15 averages.

Shamal George was disappointing, with Kilmarnock struggling so much away from home I really liked his chances of a clean sheet. Livingston conceded from a goal line scramble two minutes into the second half to end my hopes on that front.

Alistair Johnson was the last man to play and easily the biggest disappointment of the team. His score 26.8, despite playing the full 90 minutes, was comfortably his worst in a Celtic shirt. He had scored 70+ in the four games leading up to this one, so definitely not the game I had in mind for him.

Gameweek #346 Recap

There was just the Motherwell v St Mirren game from Scotland this mid-week. I already had the start of a full Motherwell team in Liam Kelly, Ricki Lamie and Kevin van Veen so I picked up a couple of other cheap options to have a go at a threshold.

I knew Lamie was an injury risk going in the game after he missed their Scottish Cup game last weekend, but he looked to be in with a shot according to PlaySharper. So, I opted to risk it with him as I didn’t want to spend too much on a one week team given how disappointing Motherwell have been for the rest of the season. Ultimately, that cost me a first Threshold as the 4 men that did play put up a very solid 226 points – more than the full 5 man team did in the previous round of fixtures!

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