Tracking The Fantasy Football Veterans – Gameweek 32

Gameweek 32 was another successful set of fixtures for the 34 veterans I am tracking for this article series. But it could mark the end of an important phase in their march up the rankings.

With no Wildcards played in Gameweek 32, many of these veterans, who are made up of previous winners, FFScout moderators and contributors and those riding high in the Hall of Fame, are likely to use this ahead of Gameweek 33. This means their successful template for much of 2016 will be ripped up as they look to take full advantage of the double Gameweeks ahead.

It remains to be seen whether their Wildcard squads will lead them to further glory, or end in heartbreak as they regret ditching those players that have performed so well for them this year. 

TRANSFERS

Gameweek 32 transfers by positions (% of all transfers in bracket)

– Goalkeepers: (25.00%)

– Defenders: (38.33%)

– Midfielders: (35.00%)

– Forwards: (1.67%)

From Gameweek 15 (when I started writing this series of articles) until Gameweek 31, Jack Butland was the most-owned goalkeeper by the veterans. His injury was the main factor for this high percentage of goalkeeper transfers – every fourth veteran changed his goalie in Gameweek 32. Also, every veteran who had two free transfers used them, which indicates that Gameweek 33 will be a popular week for wildcarding.

Transfers In:

– Dimitri Payet (WHU): 25.00%

– Hector Bellerin (ARS): 13.33%

– Thibaut Courtois (CHE): 11.67%

Transfers Out:

– Jack Butland (STO): 18.33%

– Gylfi Sigurdsson (SWA): 18.33%

– Virgil van Dijk (SOT): 6.67%

The veterans decided to bank on Chelsea’s clean sheet potential against Aston Villa and get in early on some key Wildcard targets. All three of the most popular transfer choices paid off, with West Ham’s Dimitri Payet netting from a free-kick, Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin scoring his first goal of the season, while Courtois did indeed gain valuable clean sheet points.

CAPTAINS

Sergio Aguero was the most popular captain choice among the veterans but also overall and amongst top 10,000 teams as well. All three of the veterans’ top captain picks delivered and so too did the top captain picks among top 10,000 managers, with all three scoring more than seven FPL points.

MOST POPULAR PLAYERS

* stats for top 10,000 teams and overall can be found here.

OVERALL RANKINGS

– Maximum points: 92

– Biggest rank improvements: 89,942 places

After Gameweek 32, the average overall position of all 34 veteran teams is 35,056. This is their highest overall position so far in the season and 12,109 places better than last week. Among the veterans, 70.59% gained a green arrow in Gameweek 32. In addition, the veterans’ average Gameweek 32 score was 72.41 points, way up on the overall average (47.70 points) and also better than the top 10,000 managers’ average (64.80 points).