Top 5 Career Hall of Fame – Gameweek 4 Review

Wildcard fever struck the Top Five in this week’s Hall of Fame review but while four of these revered managers used this chip it was the lone abstainer who prevailed. 

Patience proved a virtue indeed for Jay Egersdorff, who has assumed the role of this season’s Ville Rönkä in persevering with players. He saved his transfer on his way to a 68 point total, a full 20 points ahead of his closest Top Five rival, the Wildcarding Matthew Jones (aka Numb), who is now ranked well outside the top 2m.

It also proved a disastrous week for the other Wildcarders,  Mark Sutherns (aka Mark) and Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor), who both saw red arrows as they dropped to 1.5m and 2.3m respectively.

Furthermore there’s been a shift in the top five of the Live Hall of Fame. While Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony) clings onto top spot, despite a less than successful Wildcard, both Mark and Matthew have tumbled out of this elite group.

This article focuses on the moves and strategies employed by the five elite managers who grace the upper echelons of this site’s Career Hall of Fame. Between them these managers have achieved nine top 1,000 finishes in the past three seasons and have ended up in the top 10,000 a whopping 37 times over the course of their FPL careers.

To help out I have also deployed Fusen’s FPL Statistico tool to gain an extra insight into their thinking.

POINTS AND RANK

Jay’s 68 point total was helped with 27 points from his Tottenham duo – Harry Kane and Ben Davies. Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne also chipped in with a very welcome nine points following a slower than expected start to the season, justifying Jay’s decision to keep hold of the Belgium ace when many others were showing him the door.

CAPTAIN

In the end it made no difference if you picked Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku or Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette as your captain – they both scored 12 points.  Mark, Graeme and Peter’s gamble to get Lacazette in didn’t pay off as well as they might have hoped.

TRANSFER SUCCESS

This table makes for depressing reading for everyone apart from Jay. Confirming that this week’s Wildcarders would have been better off doing nothing at all. Especially Matthew, who sold Manchester City’s resurgent duo Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus.

Still Matthew’s -23 wasn’t quite as bad as the -41 disaster suffered by Top Mark.S (no relation). 

WILDCARD REVIEW

It could be described as the “Firmino Wildcard”. Jay, the only manager in the Top Five who didn’t Wildcard, already owned the Brazilian striker.

PETER’S WILDCARD

Peter’s obviously been unlucky with both Pogba’s injury and Mané’s sending off.

He dropped Lukaku for Lacazette, a decision he may be feeling uneasy about especially following Pogba’s injury. Although last season’s FPL champion Ben Crabtree agrees that Lukaku could be an expensive non-captain option given Kane’s essential status.

He changed his 4.5m mids – out with Carroll and Loftus-Cheek, in with Nathaniel Chalobah. Newcastle’s Christian Atsu left after one week to be replaced by Burnley’s Robbie Brady.

Ultimately by downgrading Jesus he’s upgraded a midfielder. So the balance has changed slightly to include three midfielders over 8.0m instead of two.

His Manchester United choice at the back switched from David De Gea to Phil Jones, two Southampton defenders (Bertrand and Stephens) were replaced with one – Cedric.

GRAEME’S WILDCARD

Graeme made the fewest changes to his team from those Wildcarding in the Top Five.

One of three Top Five managers to downgrade Jesus. However Graeme’s chosen to stick with two 4.5m mids, Loftus-Cheek and Carroll, and instead he’s shifted funds into defence bringing-in Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso. Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah is another notable signing.

He’s given himself a bit more flexibility at the back with Newcastle’s 4.0m option Chancel Mbemba leaving the squad, replaced with Swansea’s 4.5m Kyle Naughton. Bournemouth’s Charlie Daniels offers good rotation with Burnley’s Ben Mee.

The 4-3-3 formation employed this week could become a regular set-up for Graeme.

Looking ahead Lacazette is set to become Kane, and he has Pogba’s injury to deal with too.

MATTHEW’S WILDCARD

This is fairly template stuff from Matthew, especially with his premium picks – Firmino, Kane, Lukaku, Salah, Alli, Pogba. He selected one 4.5m mid in Chalobah and like Peter he replaced Loftus-Cheek and Carroll.

He has picked one 4.0m defender in Newcastle’s Chancel Mbemba, suggesting 5.0m teammate Atsu will be a regular fixture as Matthew’s fourth midfielder.

He looks likely to set up with either a 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 formation with Naughton, Chalobah and Brighton’s Lewis Dunk set to rotate.

Matthew was the only Wildcarding manager in the Top Five not to pick Lacazette.

MARK’S WILDCARD

Mark came under heavy fire on this weeks Scoutcast, however, as Jonty and Granville pointed out he’s left himself a little exposed with a non-playing second choice goalkeeper in Brighton’s Tim Krul – a move which was also made by fellow Top Five manager Matthew.

Mark’s decision to bring in Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was also questioned, given the Reds have conceded eight goals in his two league starts. It’s a move which Mark passionately defended, and it could pay off this weekend against Burnley. But it was not a decision that was replicated by the rest of the Top Five – in fact Graeme sold Alexander-Arnold on his Wildcard.

Mark was the only manager to upgrade his third forward – Swansea’s Tammy Abraham made way for that man Firmino. Mark also has three midfielders over 8.0m – his choices from Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United being Salah, Alli, and Mkhitaryan. Luckily Mark avoided the Mané sending off and Pogba injury.

This does mean Mark is left with two 4.5m mids, like Graeme he settled on Peter and Matthew’s rejects; Loftus-Cheek and Carroll. It was a move criticised for its inflexibility by Jonty because it limits his transfer options should one or both get injured or dropped. There’s always Chalobah, however. 

Again like Graeme, Mark has no 4.0m player in defence. But without any mid price or premium defenders Mark may find it difficult to leap on emerging rearguard bandwagons . For example even drafting in Tottenham’s Ben Davies, who is priced kindly at 5.7, will require a hit due to his lack of investment at the back. In addition, Joe Gomez’s sending off in the Champions League for Liverpool reduces Alexander-Arnold’s security of starts in Gameweek 6 and 7.

TEMPLATE – GAMEWEEK 4

Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more

Foster, Elliot

Cedric, Mee, Naughton, (Mbemba)

Salah, Pogba, Alli, Carroll, Loftus-Cheek

Lukaku, Kane, Firmino

PLAYERS – GAMEWEEK 4

AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER*

*based on GW1 prices

Goalkeeper – £4.2m

Defender – £4.5m

Midfielder – £7.0m

Forward – £10.5m

There remains a fairly template feel to the Top Five HoF teams.

A near unanimous front line of Firmino, Kane, Lukaku – both Mark and Graeme have planned to get Kane back in for Lacazette – Peter is the only manager who may end up keeping Lacazette in place of Lukaku.

Salah, Alli, a Manchester United midfielder – Pogba was the popular choice until his injury. Take your pick of one or two 4.5m mids; Carroll, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek.

Cedric is now the popular Southampton pick.

A switch to wing-back boosted Kyle Naughton’s value, however, managers will be hoping Paul Clement reverts to three at the back following the back four against Newscastle. The shift in formation saw Naughton play full-back and reduce his attacking threat.

FORMATION

3-4-3 was the most popular formation again this week. So far this season it has been chosen 70% of the time with 4-3-3 second most popular on 25%.

Those managers with two 4.5m mids (Mark, Jay, and Graeme) look set to alternate between 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 depending who has the better fixture between fourth defender and fourth midfielder.

GAMEWEEK 5

With the injury to Pogba and Mané’s suspension to deal with, along with possibly having to transfer in Kane, a number of this week’s transfers will have already been allocated.

Jay will no doubt be feeling smug that he has his Wildcard still to play and already has Tottenham’s Ben Davies in his side. The Welshman’s 14 point haul in Gameweek 4 makes him the most transferred in player as Spurs embark on a good run of fixtures starting at home to Swansea this weekend. Will any of his fellow Top Five managers feel the need to get him in for a hit?