Scout’s Matchday 10 picks for the free-to-play SPITCH Fantasy game

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If you are put off some Fantasy Premier League (FPL) options because their fixtures soon worsen, perhaps SPITCH is your ideal game – one where you effectively have a Free Hit chip to play every week!

It’s a new, exciting Fantasy game with an interesting scoring system. Furthermore, you are ultimately only judged on your five best matchdays throughout the season, allowing a riskier strategy that doesn’t need to always work.

There are two season-long options for the 2022/23 campaign, one of which is free and has a £2,500 prize pool.

And even if the FPL deadline may have passed, you still have time to enter a SPITCH team even after seeing today’s first teamsheets come in.

HOW TO PLAY SPITCH

SPITCH is a platform where managers can use their football knowledge to defeat others and win money prizes.

As with FPL, managers commit to a formation and have a budget to buy players for their line-up, in the quest to score points and win prizes.

But unlike FPL, managers can actually go under or over their ₵1,200 budget – this will determine how many positive or negative points they begin the round with.

Each week of ‘Season’ mode requires a new line-up with no captains. Managers are allowed up to nine players from the same club and can alter teams mid-matchday. ‘Safety Net’ automatically replaces non-starters, whilst a sophisticated scoring system rewards defensive actions in a way that FPL does not.

MATCHDAY 10 REVIEW

These were the top-scoring players from the latest round of matches.

GK	DEF	MID	ST
Meslier (360)	Thiago Silva (496)	Foden (1,039)	Haaland (1,115)
Pickford (347)	Botman (409)	Almiron (646)	Trossard (814)
Ederson (340)	Coady (381)	Maddison (629)	Bowen (589)
Fabianski (312)	Mee (332)	Willock (515)	Firmino (584)
Neto (263)	Kehrer (325)	Aribo (452)	Jesus (460)
Lloris (231)	Chilwell (302)	Partey (448)	Martial (458)
	Burn (300)	Barnes (418)	Antony (445)
	Konsa (300)	De Bruyne (405)	McNeil (383)
	Bella-Kotchap (292)	Lerma (369)	Watkins (369)
	van Dijk (288)	Bernardo (361)	Martinelli (347)

Meanwhile, 15 players finished with a negative score, including Fulham pair Nathaniel Chalobah (-76) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (-36). The former was shown an early red card against Newcastle United, with the latter booked before suffering an early injury.

SCOUT’S MATCHDAY 10 LINE-UP

The selection for Matchday 9 totalled 2,383 points, which ranked at a disappointing 2,147th place.

Having none of the hat-trick heroes – Erling Haaland (1,115), Phil Foden (1,039), Leandro Trossard (814) – was a huge reason for this, as the likes of Dominic Solanke (32) and Neco Williams (71) flopped for us.

Also, to have not one but two players break the thousand points barrier is pretty special.

Brentford goalkeeper David Raya (₵93) entered last week joint-top for saves made but wasn’t forced into any during the subsequent 0-0 draw at Bournemouth. This time, he goes against Newcastle United – the team with fourth-most shots so far.

We’re back to 3-3-4 this week, needing attacking rewards to forge a successful defence. That’s why England right-backs Kieran Trippier (₵77) and Reece James (₵138) bring high hopes as numbers one and three for expected goal involvement (xGI) amongst defenders.

The Chelsea man frustrated FPL managers by bagging a goal and assisting in Wednesday night’s Champions League win and, although Leicester City’s Timothy Castagne (₵59) hasn’t scored since the opening weekend, the Belgian is another who loves to get forward and have a go.

This squad is ₵43 under the budget, meaning it begins proceedings on 43 points. James Maddison (₵98) was one of our few good picks of Matchday 9, bringing in 629 points via two goals and he’s backed to haul once again at Bournemouth.

Elsewhere, the selection of Foden isn’t simply points chasing from last week. He was an unused sub for Manchester City versus Copenhagen, just like Kevin De Bruyne (₵200), which hints that they’ll start on Saturday against Southampton.

All-round midfielder Bruno Guimaraes (₵72) has an eye for goal, is an accurate passer and isn’t afraid of getting stuck in either. This is a good set of SPITCH attributes and, fully recovered from injury, he is primed to excel at home to Brentford.

Up front, does anything else need to be said about Erling Haaland? That ₵280 price is expensive for everyone else but is a bargain for this guaranteed goal machine. Taken off at half-time on Wednesday night, Saints defenders will be scared of what’s to come.

Joining him is Jarrod Bowen (₵56), who finally notched his first goal and assist of the season on Matchday 9. It’s another home game for him, this time the opponents are Fulham.

Callum Wilson (₵49) scored in his first game back from injury and will lead the Magpies’ line against Brentford, whilst Wilfried Zaha (₵110) kicks off a fantastic fixture run at home to Leeds United.