Last week's team was saved by big performances by Odsonne Edouard, James Tavernier and Ryan Christie, as we ended with 71 points, one point off our best week ever.
Fixtures
Saturday 19th September
Celtic V Livingston
Dundee United V St. Mirren
Kilmarnock V Hamilton
St. Johnstone V Ross County
Sunday 20th September
Hibernian V Rangers
Aberdeen V Motherwell
Celtic V Livingston - Saturday 15:00
Shane Duffy (4.6m) has had a terrific start to his time in Hoops, the Irishman has scored in each of his first two games and he feels "he can score in every game". However, Celtic face Hibs, Rangers, Aberdeen and have a blank gameweek in their next six games, so be careful when transferring any Celtic players in. Albian Ajeti (7.1m) has had a similar start to his career north of the border, scoring a goal every 41 minutes he is on the pitch.
Livingston never seem to play well on grass, so I'd keep any assets on the bench this week.
Dundee United V St. Mirren - Saturday 15:00
Micky Mellon's side have the least shots on target per game with only a measly 2.14, so emergency 'keeper Zdeněk Zlámal (2.3m) won't be facing much work in his last game between the sticks for the Buddies, and with his good performance against Celtic, I feel confident backing the Paisley side to keep a clean sheet this week.
Kilmarnock V Hamilton - Saturday 15:00
Chris Burke (5.1m) started off the season on fire, scoring in each of the first three games of the season, but since then he has cooled off, with Hamilton missing 4 players due to COVID, it looks likely that he could be back amongst the goals, and if he could spark his connection with Nicky Kabamba (4.3m) then it should help to fire the Ayrshire men up the table.
St. Johnstone V Ross County - Saturday 15:00
Will the return of Zander Clark (2.5m) from injury mean Elliott Parish (2.1m) drops back to the bench? The Scotsman is certainly the better player, but Parish hasn't had any bad games recently, but then again he hasn't had any good ones either and Callum Davidson hasn't exactly been fickle when it come to changing his side this season. Callum Hendry (4.9m) has the most shots without scoring (16) this campaign, could this be the week he breaks his scoring drought?
Ross County defensive assets could be a good look this week as St. Johnstone only have 1 goal in their last 360 minutes of football. They have lacked quality in the final third and always have issues with the final ball. The low cost options of Alex Iacovitti (2.3m) and Josh Reid (2.1m) could be a good differential.
Hibernian V Rangers - Sunday 12:00 - Sky Sports
Rangers have now set the record for most clean sheets to start the season, a record that stood for 114 years, but how long can they continue this run? Well it certainly isn't a fluke, they have faced 21 shots and have an xGA of only 1.35, both of these are the lowest of all 12 premiership teams. It looks like Kemar Roofe (7.0m) could miss this game due to an injury sustained in the Europa League game against Lincoln Red Imps, but luckily James Tavernier's (5.9m) half time substitution looked to be tactical rather than anything injury related, a great relief for fantasy managers. Ryan Kent (6.4m) has the most shots (30) and shots on target (11) of any player in the league so far this season and looks the most likely to cause problems to a sturdy backline.
Hibs have the second best open-play defense, only conceding once so far this season, with the two other goals being penalties. Coming up against the league leaders will be a difficult challenge with the Gers having the most shots per game at 22.14, almost 3 more than the side with the second most. However, if you are looking for any crumb of comfort, then despite limited chances expected to fall to the Easter Road side, there isn't many better at taking them than Kevin Nisbet (5.3m) who has a 0.19 goals per shot ratio this season, fourth best of any player with over 10 shots.
Aberdeen V Motherwell - Sunday 15:00
The Dons have a great defensive record only conceding twice so far this season. They go up against a Motherwell side that have scored the least goals in the league and have the second worst shot-on-target % this season, with only 20.5% of their shots testing the goalkeeper. Joe Lewis (3.1m) and Scott McKenna (2.8m) look like good options both short-term and long-term.
With top scorer Allan Campbell (4.2m) a doubt for this game the task will get harder for Stephen Robinson as he looks to lift his side off the bottom of the table, this will be a test as his out of form side have only won 2 of their last 15 league games.
Gameweek 8 Scout XI
It seems slightly risky to give the armband to any Rangers player, so due to Duffy's chance of getting points at both ends he gets the nod.
Ajeti proves the biggest goal threat so he gets the vice-captain, however either of the Killie pair could be good alternatives.
Burke has put in 63 crosses so far this season, none have landed him an assist, at some point this has to change.
The pairing of Barisic and Tavernier are the two highest scoring players in the game by a long way, the Croatian delivered their worst haul last gameweek with only 3 points after he was subbed off two minutes before the hour mark, denying him clean sheet points.
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