Five #FFScotland things we learned from GW6

Another gameweek has come and gone, and so it’s time to reflect on what it all meant through the prism of Fantasy Football Scotland.

There was a shock win for Livingston over Celtic with Motherwell also holding Rangers to a draw on their own patch. Meanwhile, there were goals aplenty in Dingwall and Leith. Here are five #FFScotland things we learned from GW6.

‘Must-have’ assets are thinner on the ground this season

By this stage of the 2020/21 season, the ‘must-have’ assets for the Fantasy Football Scotland campaign ahead had started to emerge. Rangers were keeping clean sheets for fun, with many users tripling up on the defensive trio of Borna Barisic, Connor Goldson and James Tavernier.

Kevin Nisbet had also started the season in good form, scoring four goals in his first five league appearances. This season, though, the ‘must-have’ assets are thinner on the ground. Martin Boyle (46 points) and Liam Boyce (42 points) might fall into this category, while Kyogo Furuhashi (30 points) was on course to being classed ‘must-have’ until injury struck.

Of the top 10 points-scoring defenders, eight different clubs are represented. It’s the same story in terms of the top 10 points-scoring forwards (eight clubs represented) - remarkably, Motherwell have three forwards in the top 10 (Tony Watt, Kevin van Veen and Kaiyne Woolery).

Once their biggest strength, Rangers’ defence is now their weakness

For the best part of an hour against Motherwell, Rangers played some of the best, most fluid football they have all season long. And yet despite this, there was always a sense that the champions were vulnerable at the back. That Motherwell would find a way through at some point in the match.

So it proved as Woolery pounced on a loose ball inside the box after a driving run by Mark O’Hara. Jack Simpson made a number of errors while Barisic was also criticised for his poor performance. Last season, Rangers’ success was built on their strength at the back. Now, their weakness in this area is costing them.

Celtic are still too unpredictable to provide reliable assets

Last week was a difficult one for Celtic as they followed up their Europa League defeat away to Real Betis with a shock loss to Livingston. This is a result that leaves Ange Postecoglou’s side slumped in sixth place in the Scottish Premiership table with three wins and three defeats from their first six fixtures.

Some valuable Celtic assets have emerged this season - three of the top 10 points-scoring midfielders play for the Hoops (David Turnbull, Liel Abada, Furuhashi) - but they are still too unpredictable for those assets to be considered reliable. Things are still settling after a hectic summer at Celtic Park.

The Christian Ramirez honeymoon is well and truly over

After two goals in his first three Scottish Premiership appearances, Christian Ramirez’s ownership rose to 38.7% for GW4. The American striker appeared to be the frontman required by Aberdeen for a number of seasons and this was reflected in the way Fantasy Football Scotland managers gravitated to him.

However, Ramirez has now drawn a blank in his last two GWs as Aberdeen have slumped to damaging defeats to Motherwell and St Johnstone. The 30-year-old remains Stephen Glass’ first-pick up front, but other assets like Boyce and Watt now look to be better bets. What’s more, Aberdeen have tricky fixtures against Celtic (GW8), Hibernian (GW10) and Rangers (GW11) on the horizon. The Ramirez honeymoon is over.

Dundee United defence is the most dependable in the league

Click into the clean sheets rankings in the Statistics section of the Fantasy Football Scotland app and one team is clearly dominating things. Indeed, Dundee United’s Ryan Edwards, Jeando Fuchs, Charlie Mulgrew and Peter Pawlett have registered more clean sheets than any other players after six GWs.

Dundee United have conceded just twice in their last five league games, making a number of their players valuable assets. Edwards, despite registering 25 points so far this season, has an ownership percentage of just 2.2%. Mulgrew has the same number of points, but is owned by 25.4%. There is value to be found in Tam Courts’ squad.