Top 5 Career Hall of Fame – Gameweek 3 Review

After a largely dismal start to their campaign Wildcard fever has struck the Career Hall of Fame top five as they look to rise up the rankings in Gameweek 4.

As was discussed on this week’s Scoutcast we know career number five Mark Sutherns (aka Mark) has wildcarded after finishing Gameweek 3 with a rank outside the top 1m.

Another who has opted to overhaul his side is number four Matthew Jones (aka Numb), who is languishing outside the top 2.5m and is the lowest ranked manager among this group.

After observing suspicious fluctuations in their money In The Bank (ITB) with their Gameweek transfers remaining at 0, I think career number one Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony) and number two Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor) are also on their Wildcards. Hopefully they will drop by in the comment section  below to let us know whether this is the case

I could well end up with egg on my face here if I’m wrong but I think the only manager who hasn’t Wildcarded is career number three Jay Egersdorff, who compared to most of his fellow elite managers has every right to feel  content with his 722,258 rank.

There almost doesn’t seem much point looking back on Gameweek 3 given the Wildcards in play, but at least it may explain why they decided to use them.

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.

In a few weeks time I will make use of Fusen’s FPL Statistico tool to gain an extra insight into their thinking. For now there’s still not a huge amount of data.

Points and Rank

One look at their FPL ranks will tell you everything you need to know about why they have Wildcarded. Graeme and Matthew are outside the top 2m after three Gameweeks, with Mark outside the top 1m. Clearly keen to stop the rot they have taken decisive action.

Gameweek 3’s best performer was Peter with 51 points. He benefited from defensive returns thanks to Manchester United’s David de Gea, and Southampton duo Ryan Bertrand and Jack Stephens. His faith in Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus was repaid with a goal against Bournemouth, and his new signing, Newcastle’s Christian Atsu contributed an assist against a lacklustre Hammers side.

Despite a small green arrow Peter still finds himself down on his position at the same stage last season. When after 3 Gameweeks he was just outside the top 100K. It’s been a poor start all round. Even old HoF favourite Ville Rönkä sits only just inside the top 1M.

CAPTAIN

I made a big deal in my Gameweek 2 review about the potentially decisive captain choice between Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku, referring to last season’s pivotal Gameweek 24.

In the end it was a bitter disappointment.

Last year Harry Kane was the most unreliable of captain choices for our elite quintet; chosen as captain 9% of the time he returned an average of 13 points. He first outing as captain this season saw him do even worse with a meagre four point return.

Yet this bettered last season’s most reliable captain Lukaku. His penalty miss against Leicester rewarding those who put the armband on him with a big fat zero. Last year the Red Devils’ frontman was picked as captain 11% of the time averaging 20.7 points.

TRANSFERS – GAMEWEEK 3

Both Peter and Graeme, who were kind enough to share their moves ahead of the Gameweek 3 deadline in last week’s comments section, were right to be nervous about ditching Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. The pacy Egyptian scored and provided an assist against an obliging Arsenal.

Graeme sold Salah for United’s Paul Pogba, who promptly delivered no attacking returns for the first time this season. While Peter, who bravely admitted to making two kneejerk transfers, gained only an assist from Atsu with Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen also blanking for the first time in 2017/18.

If these two are on their wildcards, frustration in the transfer market could well be a factor.

Mark no doubt joined Peter and Graeme in banging his head against the wall when his one transfer out, Bournemouth’s Charlie Daniels, scored a belter against Manchester City.

The only manager who gained any positive points from his moves in Gameweek 3 was Jay. Arsenal’s Sead Kolasinac dropped to the bench for his side’s encounter with Liverpool meaning Jay’s new recruit Spurs’s Ben Davies left him in the black simply by appearing on the pitch against Burnley.

TEMPLATE – GAMEWEEK 3

Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more

Foster, Elliot

Bertrand, Dann, Mee, Long, (Mbemba)

Carroll, De Bruyne, Willian, Ramsey, Loftus-Cheek

Lukaku, Kane, Jesus

PLAYERS – GAMEWEEK 3

AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER

*based on GW1 prices

Goalkeeper – £4.35m

Defender – £4.9m

Midfielder – £6.7m

Forward – £11.03m

ITB – £0.9m

This section feels fairly redundant this week given that we have no idea what their teams are going to look like next week.

Jay’s team features a frontline of Lukaku, Kane, and Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino. He is the only manager in the Top Five to own Firmino, currently the top scoring forward in FPL.

However he doesn’t own any of the top scoring midfielders. Still in his team is the most sold player this gameweek – Manchester City’s ‘new’ defensive midfielder Kevin de Bruyne, and 7.0 options – Chelsea’s Willian and Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey.

Ramsey was Gameweek 2’s most popular transfer in for the Top Five. An understandable move based on his improved stats following Wenger’s decision to change formation to three at the back. A home fixture against a leaky Bournemouth side remains a tasty proposition for Arsenal, and Ramsey could well profit should he start as expected.

Another manager to be eyeing up this fixture is Mark. His sights are fixed on summer signing Alexandre Lacazette as a one week punt with possibly Kane returning in Gameweek 5.

Mark has also divulged his current wildcard side on this week’s FPL Show:

MARK’S CURRENT WILDCARD SIDE

Foster, Elliot

Jones, Naughton, Cedric, Mee, Alexander-Arnold

Alli, Mkhitaryan, Salah, Loftus-Cheek, Carroll

Lukaku, Firmino, Lacazette

With nine players under 5.0m the side, Mark would appear to be keeping some money in the bank.

We expect that to be to fund a reappearance of Harry Kane next week, although I would imagine it depends slightly on how his front three get on in Gameweek 4. We should also see Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez return to the fray and he could easily force his way into Mark’s plans should he perform well. He was the most popular captain choice last season in the Top Five HoF, chosen 32% of the time.

Alli was picked ahead of teammate Eriksen due to the England midfielder’s Champions League ban guaranteeing him Premier League pitch time. Liverpool youngster Trent Alexander-Arnold makes an appearance with Mark predicting he will start against Burnley in Gameweek 5.

Cedric is the preferred Saints defender with question marks over who will start at centre back following Virgil van Dijk’s return to the squad. Swansea’s Kyle Naughton comes into the picture as the fixture list shines kindly on the Swans with four home matches in the next six.

There’s currently no place for Chelsea’s in form Alvaro Morata or Marcos Alonso. The fixture list changes in favour of the Champions in Gameweek 8 so we could see those two and possibly Eden Hazard enter the picture then.

After the Scoutcast team openly questioned the wisdom of his “ill-timed” Wildcard this week, the pressure is on Mark maximise its use. A decent return in Gameweek 4 will go someway to quashing the naysayers.

FORMATION

3-4-3 was the most popular formation again this week. So far this season it has been chosen 73% of the time with 4-3-3 second most popular on 20%.

Will 4-3-3 continue to be a popular choice following the wildcards?

With a lack of funds invested in midfield over the first three gameweeks it became the default second choice. If Mark’s current Wildcard team is anything to go by then the likelihood is it will. Firmino plus two premium strikers appears to be the default strategy at the moment.

GAMEWEEK 4

With so many unknowns on the surface it seems a tricky time to Wildcard. How will the new signings fit in? Will transfer dispute players reintegrate? What of the players no longer playing for moves?

Then there’s the long haul flights to consider and player fitness after international fixtures. This is swiftly followed by the return of midweek cup competitions to really mess things up for us fantasy managers.

Matthew and Mark are definitely on their Wildcards, Peter and Graeme could well be too. It promises to be a fascinating Gameweek. Tune in next week to find out their Wildcard choices.