It’s Scottish League Cup Final weekend with the Old Firm facing off at Hampden Park on Sunday in a game that won’t be covered on Sorare. As a result there’s just 4 Premiership games with the Edinburgh sides, Hearts and Hibernian, getting the weekend off entirely. With that in mind, finding promising scorers is going to be a little trickier this week.

In the interest of openness, I do own cards 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

Aberdeen-Livingston Manager-less Aberdeen return to Pittodrie after a 4-0 drubbing from Celtic last weekend. They have had most of their success on home turf this season, recording 8 of their 10 wins at home, and face a Livingston side that haven’t been very successful on the road. It’s definitely a week to take Aberdeen players across the board.

Ross County-Dundee United This could be a cagey game with just one point separates Ross County and Dundee United at the foot of the table. Neither team are prolific scorers, especially Ross County who have managed just 20 goals in 26 Premiership games. Dundee United will also be without ‘keeper Mark Birighitti suffered a shoulder injury last weekend and with their other senior goalkeeper loaned out in January, it looks like a youngster will have to step up. Ross County won’t have a better chance at three points this season.

Kilmarnock-Motherwell Stuart Kettlewell has done a fantastic job since stepping in at Motherwell earning him self the job permanently. He has won both games so far including a fantastic home win against 3rd placed Hearts last weekend. Kilmarnock on the other hand have struggled in recent weeks, but they are a solid home team winning 6 of 12 and only losing 3 this season.

St Johnstone-St Mirren A Stevie May double earned St Johnstone a crucial win over Dundee United last weekend and they’ll hope to build on it this weekend to keep them well clear of relegation. St Mirren have been poor on the road this season, so you would expect St Johnstone to have a chance. However, they have been poor at home themselves earning just 3 of their 9 wins in Perth. A draw might be the most likely result in this one.

Goalkeepers

Ross Laidlaw, Ross County – For a goalkeeper in a relegation threatened team Laidlaw has a surprisingly high L15 of 50. His scores show he can get close to that score if he concedes a single goal, but we’re targeting a clean sheet here against Dundee United.

Jack Newman, Dundee United – As it stands Jack Newman will the man to replace Mark Birighitti in goal. He played his first minutes of the season off the bench at the weekend giving him an L15 of 26. Ross County have struggled for goals at home, averaging just one per game so he might have a shot at a clean sheet. However, this is one to monitor in case Dundee bring someone in on an emergency loan.

Other Thoughts: There’s not a lot else to pick from with St Johnstone’s Remi Matthews not having cards on the platform. Jay Gorter at Aberdeen is probably the best of the rest. It wouldn’t be a huge shock for either keeper in the Killie-Motherwell game to get a clean sheet either.

Defenders

Liam Scales*, Aberdeen – Liam Scales is a strong option who has some real Jekyll and Hyde performances including score an actual 0 (not a DNP) twice since the new year. Fortunately for us, his poor performances come almost exclusively away from home. In fact, he’s exceeded 50 points in 7 of 10 home games he’s played this season. He has missed two of the last 5 games for Aberdeen, but one was a suspension and the other due to him not being available against his parent club, Celtic. All signs point to him returning to the line-up in a solid match-up this week.

Aziz Behich*, Dundee United – Behich returned to the Dundee United team after a 2 game absence last weekend and started at LB in a 4-man defence. He scored an unspectacular 43 points, but should return to a wing-back role in a back five this weekend. With the extra opportunities to get forward comes the potential to rack up AA and possibly a decisive. If United do manage a clean sheet, outscoring his cost of 46 should be a given with a decisive the ceiling is a lot higher.

Other Thoughts: Andy Considine* should returned to the starting XI for St Johnstone after being suspended last week. He has the potential for some monster AA scores and at home to St Mirren is a good spot. I’d stay away from Livingston defenders this week against Aberdeen.

Midfielders

Daniel Armstrong*, Kilmarnock – Armstrong is a fantastic midfield option when Kilmarnock are playing at home. He comes in at an L15 of 48, and is a good bet for 50+ points assuming he avoids a negative decisive. This season he’s scored 50 in every home game with the exception of three, two with negative decisives and a sub appearance at the start of the season. Soraredata has him as coming off injured at the weekend, but I can’t see any other source for that. He’s one to monitor as late as possible, but it looks like he should play at this point.

Yan Dhanda, Ross County – Dhanda operates as an attacking midfielder for Ross County and also takes some corners for the team. He is a decisive dependant option, but playing at home to Dundee United is one of his best shots at getting a goal or assist.

Other Thoughts: Ylber Ramadani has been a really strong home performer for Aberdeen. Sean Goss* has found some form the last couple of weeks, and takes some set pieces to help his game.

Forwards

Bojan Miovski*, Celtic – Miovski has back amongst the goals over the last couple of weeks, bagging three over the last three games. Aberdeen are free scoring at home and face a Livingston side conceding almost two goals a game on the road. Miovski is as good a bet as anyone to score given he takes penalties for the Dons, and he’ll need a decisive to outscore his L15 of 44.

Christian Doidge, Kilmarnock – Doidge missed last weeks game against his parent club, Hibs. With Kyle Vassell suspended for the game, he should return to lead the line against Motherwell. His L15 is just 37 after having a few sub appearances mixed in with starts, so he doesn’t need to do much to outscore his cost.

Other Thoughts: There’s not a lot I’m keen on at forward this week. Duk at Aberdeen is probably worth a punt. St Johnstone aren’t great at home, but it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to see Steven May or Nicky Clark bag a goal.

My Cap 240 Line-Up

My gallery has a fair few players from Hearts, Hibs and Celtic so I’m a bit short on Scottish players this week, especially the higher scoring ones. So, to make a competitive Cap 240 team I’ve mixed in a couple of non-Europe players with the Scottish lads.

The core of the team is a Kilmarnock stack, starting with Samuel Walker in goal and Lewis Mayo at centre back. Killie are a lot stronger at home than away and despite Motherwell’s back-to-back wins it wouldn’t surprise me to see them lose this one. They’re both very affordable, coming in ay a cost of 86 points combined.

My third Kilmarnock players is Daniel Armstrong, who is the creative focus of the Kilmarnock team. He takes set pieces and has 11 goal involvements in the Premiership with 9 of these coming at home.

For my forward I’ve taken Karol Swiderski of Charlotte FC in the MLS. It looks like he’ll be moving into a central attacking midfielder role this season. It’s typically a role that allows forwards to rack up lots of AA, so I think he could be over priced if he excels in his new role. On top of that, the MLS typically has a home field advantage, so getting him in a home game should be another plus.

Finally, I’ve taken Jeong Woon from Jeju United in the K-League. He captained Jeju in the second half of last season and should be a starter in the centre of defence this season. He doesn’t add decisives but he is a great AA scorer, and can put big scores even when they concede multiple goals. For the first game of the season, Jeju gets Suwon FC at home who finished in 7th (of 12th) last season and scored just 15 goals in 16 away games last year. Jeju didn’t get a lot of clean sheets last season, but this could be a good spot to grab one.

Gameweek #347 Recap

I again fell short of the threshold in Gameweek #347, despite some excellent performances from three players. Liam Kelly did fantastically to earn a surprise clean sheet against Hearts. Alistair Johnston scored a fantastic 90.4 points without a decisive and Paul Hanlon made the most of a Hibernian clean sheet on route to a decisive-free 60 points.

Despite Celtic putting 4 past Aberdeen, Daizen Maeda didn’t manage to be involved in any of them. He did win a penalty in the game that was unfortunately overturned due to an offside in the build-up.

Joe Newell was a surprise absentee from the Hibs squad due to injury. Heading into the game week there was no indication and I’m not even sure what the cause was. He’s got an extra week to recover before Hibs play again at least!

The team ended up just 2.9 points short of the threshold despite a 55 L15 player missing the week entirely. Obviously it’s disappointing to miss out on a reward, but I’m confident my approach was right. Hopefully, the variance will play out in my favour over the next few weeks.

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