Welcome to my latest look at how Fantasy Premier League’s most experienced managers are doing this season. Each week I’ll be checking in on a group of 50 veterans, made up of FFScout contributors, Hall of Fame leaders and former winners, to see how they are doing compared to the top 10,000 managers and in the overall rankings.
This week’s update is heavily focused on chip use, after more than 50% of these Fantasy stalwarts used there’s ahead of Gameweek 4.
CHIPS
On average those managers who used their wildcard before Gameweek 4 scored almost eight points more than those that didn’t.
A key reason is that they didn’t take the hits non-wildcarders did to squeeze in popular, expensive picks such as Alexis Sanchez or Romelu Lukaku. These tables offer a further insight into why this week was a good one for wildcarding.
VETERANS TEMPLATE
TOP STARTING PLAYERS
These tables show that non-wildcarders were forced to hang on to poorly performing popular early picks for the veterans, most notably ‘Boro’s George Friend. The same happened with John Stones from Manchester City.
Meanwhile, wild carders had the freedom to freshen up their defence and bring in Everton defenders in particular. Both Leighton Baines and Ashley Williams rewarded the wild carders with clean sheet points. Baines also did well in terms of bonus points.
In the midfield another early stinker for the veterans Southampton’s Nathan Redmond was jettisoned by the wild carders. He once again blanked. Meanwhile, popular replacement Michail Antonio from West Ham is the third most popular starting midfielders in wildcarded teams and rewarded them handsomely with a brace at home to Watford.
Up front only one veteran clung onto the suspended Sergio Aguero. Popular replacements such as Romelu Lukaku did well for all veterans but wild carders had the luxury of using this chip to also jettison Burnley’s Andre Gray, who blanked once again.
CAPTAINS
– Eden Hazard (CHE): 88%
– Harry Kane (TOT): 4%
Eden Hazard brought home a one-point return and disappointed the veterans this week.
OVERALL RANKINGS
– Maximum points: 68
– Biggest rank improvements: 798,060 places
Thanks to savvy use of wildcards the veterans are on the march up the rankings once gain. After Gameweek 4, the average overall position of all 50 veteran teams is 423,732 – 70,976 places better than after Gameweek 3.
Among the Veterans, 60% gained a green arrow, while 40% saw red. The veterans’ average Gameweek 4 score was 47.38 points (after hits), which was higher than the top 10,000 average (39.1 points) and the overall average (41.5 after hits).
BEAT THE VETERANS
The safety score for Gameweek 4 was 21 points. Stano Svetkovský had the highest score – 93 points.
7 years, 7 months agoI was certainly a happy wildcarder. Five extra goals that chip earned me.
Onwards and upwards fellow veterans!