This is a quick post about GSC, primarily for any new players this season. GSC is a very simple game but there may be some things you’re not aware of before the season starts.

Rules
The rules are very simple. Pick one Premier League player per week and any goals they score are added to your total. But pick carefully as you can only use each player once all season. The addition of international and FA Cup weeks add a bit of complexity but that’s about it. No worrying about formations, transfers, chips or any of that, just one pick per week. Easy.

One thing to note is that if you pick a player and they don’t play, whether that’s through injury, postponement or just being rested, tough. You don’t get to pick that player again. So the first tip is to look out for snow.

Don’t be too clever
There are 51 gameweeks this season. That’s more than ever before and sounds like a lot, but try writing out the top 51 players you can imagine wanting to pick; you probably won’t get as far as any defenders. This might seem obvious, but most people get to the end of the season with several decent goalscorers unpicked, so don’t go picking Lewis Dunk when you’ve got Marcus Rashford free.

Pick internationals wisely
It doesn’t always work like this, but generally the most profitable GSC gameweeks are the international rounds. There are 8 of these in GSC 2019/20, meaning plenty of opportunity for big scores. In the past we’ve seen hat-tricks from the likes of Edin Dzeko, Romelu Lukaku and even Steven Fletcher. A top GSC pick playing against Gibraltar or San Marino is always worth picking, so have a look at the international fixtures early on to make sure you don’t waste a premium pick in a league round.

International weeks can be a real separator and a little research goes a long way. Finding a player in a Premier League side’s reserves who goes on to score against some minnow in a qualifier halfway round the world? It doesn’t get much better than that. But if that sounds like too much effort, just go for someone you’ve heard of.

Don’t miss the deadlines
Each gameweek’s deadline is 15 minutes before the first match of the round. The positive of this against some other games is that you’ll have team news for at least one game before the gameweek kicks off. It’s often worth going for a player in this game just to get a guaranteed starter. Until there’s a GSC app, the best way to get reminders of GSC deadlines is by copying the following link into your browser to download a GSC calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=goalscorerchallenge%40gmail.com&ctz=Europe%2FLondon

It’s a bit of fun
Having said all that, GSC is mostly about having a bit of fun. It’s free to enter, no-one takes it too seriously and so you should play it however you want to play it. That might be going for the elusive ‘one-pick’ goal by being the only person in the game to pick a particular player to score that week. Or making sure you pick from a different team each week. It’s entirely up to you!

If there’s anything you think I should add to this, or if you have any questions about the game, let me know through email or on twitter. Otherwise, enjoy GSC 2019/20.

Cheers,
Will.