Top 5 Career Hall of Fame Analysis – Gameweek-24

The key player this week was Romelu Lukaku,  who handed third placed Peter Kouwenberg a 92 haul, after he drafted in and captained the Everton striker, who hit four past a hapless Bournemouth at Goodison on Saturday.

A failure to secure the services of the Belgian proved catastrophic for number one Ville Ronka,  who ended Gameweek 24 with a mere 47 point return. He also dipped down to second place in the rolling Live Hall of Fame, which is updated every week and differs from the career Hall of Fame that is refreshed when the season closes.

Peter was the only Top 5 Career Hall of Famer to captain Lukaku and the move also gave him a season high FPL rank of 7,778, his first visit to the top 10,000 this campaign. It is worth pointing out that Peter, who appears on Fantasy Football Scout as My Pretty Pony was kind enough to tell us his moves and captain choice ahead of the Gameweek 24 deadline in last week’s comments section. Those wise enough to follow his advice were handsomely rewarded.

For Villa Ronke his FPL high rank dropped from 22,068 to 38,742. Without Lukaku in his team and after another poor showing from Palace’s Christian Benteke, the patient Ville used his two free transfers on Saturday night. One can only imagine that Lukaku now occupies one of the front three slots and the Palace striker has been shown the door.

It was also a poor week also for Career HoF number two, Marlen Rattiner, who hit a season low FPL rank of 89,663 that has seen him make three transfers (taking one hit) already this week.

For this article, which examines in detail this elite group of managers latest moves and strategies,  I have also deployed Fusen’s FPL Statistico tool to gain an extra insight into their thinking.

Before we look at their teams in more detail, here’s why they are the best FPL managers:

CAPTAINCY

For once Arsenal’s Alexi Sanchez was not the most popular captain choice. That honour was given to Tottenham’s Dele Alli, who failed to reward the faith put in him by David Meechan and Steve Poulsom.

Over the season Sanchez has been picked as captain 33% of the time, averaging 13.6pts when chosen. Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero follows in popularity having been handed the armband 28% of the time, averaging 14.5pts as captain, with Tottenham’s Harry Kane chosen 10% of the time and averaging 11pts, the third most popular.

How important is it to get your captain choice right?

Total Captain Points as % of Overall Score = 23% (average for the top 5)

By that measure it is fairly important with nearly a quarter of the Top 5’s points coming from their captain.

TRANSFERS

Everton players were in demand this week with Lukaku, Leighton Baines and Seamus Coleman all coming in for their home fixture against the Cherries.

Swansea’s upturn under new manager Paul Clement sees Gylfi Sigurdsson transferred in along with Hull’s Andrew Robertson being Ville’s only transfer in Gameweek 24, replacing Swansea’s out-of-favour Jordi Amat in his side.

It is worth noting that all the players brought in this week come from teams who will not suffer blanks in either Gameweeks 26 or 28 as managers plan ahead.

Lukaku’s four goals and three bonus points sees Peter turn the Immediate Points Gained table on its head. Having taken 64pts worth of hits this season, Peter has immediately gained 215pts from those transfers, or 151pts when subtracting the cost of the hits.

Of course the important thing is to make the right transfer – the table would show a completely different picture had Ville, not Peter, brought in Lukaku this week. However, so far this season Ville’s patient approach leaves him someway behind the rest of the career Top 5, who are on average 26pts better off on immediate points gained from transfers.

As noted previously using ‘Total Immediate Points Gained from Transfers’ is not necessarily the best way to measure transfer success, as transfers are often made with a series of fixtures in mind. Nonetheless it provides a starting point as we often hope for an immediate return.

In part due to making the most transfers (38) of any of the career Top 5 Peter has also gained the largest squad value – £106.9. Though I would hardly describe his early season transfers as a “blind and often misguided hits spree”, as he did in a comment a few Gameweeks back, he has certainly improved following an FPL rank of 243,702 in Gameweek 7.

Peter’s now managing to make transfers before the player hauls – an example would be Diego Costa to Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Gameweek 18 – rather than after – such as only bringing in Eriksen in Gameweek 17 after his big returns in GWs 13, 14 and 16.

Patient vs Stubborn

– How long do you hold onto a player who is not scoring well in FPL?

Below is a table of stubbornness. Looking at the outfield players who have played more than 10 Gameweeks and have low average points when they’ve played/started. It’s not surprising that Ville has a few players who’ve scored quite poorly given the patient way he plays the game.

Players whose names are in bold currently feature in their teams.

With Palace unable to build on their encouraging performance against Bournemouth it is my view that Christian Benteke has now left Ville’s team, and it is easy to see why with an average of 3.7pts when playing for his team.

If Lukaku’s haul wasn’t enough for Peter, Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia finally delivered on his potential, with 11pts to reward his stubbornness, or patience if you prefer.

PLAYERS

Spurs’ midfield duo continue to feature prominently with Dele Alli in four teams, closely followed by teammate Christian Eriksen in three.

Sanchez and Ibrahimovic remain the only players to feature in all five teams.

Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso is the most popular defender featuring in four teams, closely followed by Seamus Coleman and West Brom defender Gareth McAuley, who are in three teams each.

Baggies winger Matt Phillips and Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas also feature in three teams each, predicted by the top five to be the value picks under 6.0 they continue to disappoint, with Stanislas even losing his starting role in the Bournemouth attack last weekend.

FORMATION

4-4-2 was the unusual popular choice of FPL formation this week, chosen only 6% of the time this season. However with West Brom, Everton, and Chelsea defenders providing an enticing combination of attacking returns and defensive solidity it is unlikely to be the last time it is used.

Over the course of the season 3-4-3 has been favoured 64% of the time by the career top 5 HoF, with 3-5-2 second with 20%.

The only manager to choose 3-4-3 this week was second placed Marlen, whose expensive front three of Diego Costa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Sergio Aguero, haven’t been value for money of late.

City’s out of favour Argentine, who was also captained by Marlen this week, has been particularly disappointing, having been deployed as a substitute in his last two league matches. As I mentioned last week an explosive return up the rankings is of course possible at any moment with those three but patience with Aguero must be wearing thin. With three transfers already made this week I would imagine Aguero is one of the victims.

POINTS, RANK, VALUE

*from GW6 onwards

Only one of the Top 5 qualified for the cup (#5), they went out in Gameweek 19.

They all still have their wildcards and the only chip that has been played is All Out Attack

The improvement continued for fourth-placed Steve, who now has an FPL rank of 187,875 despite picking Alli as his captain this week – that’s a whopping increase of 658,036 places since Gameweek 17. Taking hits into account he’s amassed 445pts over that period, second only to Peter’s 449pts. He’s only taken one hit over that period compared to Peter’s 24 points worth of hits, proving again that it’s about buying the right players not necessarily the least or the most.

I apologise if it freaks any of them out seeing their moves analysed in this way, but for us lesser mortals I hope it provides insights on how to play the game successfully. Thoughts and comments appreciated.