In Gameweek 7 current Live Hall of Fame leader Jay Egersdorff became the first of our elite quintet to finally break into the top 100k this season.
It has been an inauspicious start for this group but there are signs that others in this stellar group are also starting to turn it around.
Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony) returned to the top 1m after a Gameweek 5 low of 1,573,948 and Matthew Jones (aka Numb) continues his surge up the rankings. After narrowly avoiding a rank over 3m in Gameweek 5, Matthew’s 141 points in the past two Gameweeks means he finds himself at 1,736,803, although he remains the lowest ranked of our Top Five HoF managers.
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
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark |
GW7 points | 66 | 66 | 75 | 61 | 49 |
Total points | 396 | 377 | 432 | 365 | 375 |
FPL rank | 629,017 | 1,270,547 | 72,713 | 1,736,803 | 1,335,671 |
FPL ID | 36298 | 345 | 175574 | 97282 | 370 |
Mark Sutherns (aka Mark) was the only Top Five manager to receive a red arrow, his third since wildcarding in Gameweek 3. As discussed on this week’s Scoutcast a failure to invest at the back when deploying this chip has cost him dearly, as he missed out on points hauls from pricier rearguard selections such as Ben Davies, who netted 16 points in Gameweek 7. Mark’s midfield assets also let him down as he finished Gameweek 7 with a below average 49 points.
Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor) was the only other Top Five manager not to own Ben Davies, although he wisely has invested at the back and benefitted from an 11-point haul from Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin, as he continues his ascent up the rankings.
Jay had his three defenders to thank for 28 of his 75 points. Clean sheets for Arsenal and Manchester City meant Sead Kolasinac and Kyle Walker picked up 12 points between them in addition to the 16 points from Davies. Patience in the Spurs left wing back, who was benched in Gameweek 5 and only delivered a point in Gameweek 6, was well rewarded.
Alli remains the preferred Spurs midfield asset among our elite managers. His Champions League ban should mean he is guaranteed Premier League pitch time, as the first Champions League match he will be available for is the home tie against Real Madrid on 1 November.
Captain
The armband decision was split between Tottenham’s Harry Kane and Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku. It was a tough call to make and despite having fewer big chances in his match against the Terriers it was Harry Kane who triumphed in his head-to-head against United’s number 9.
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Ave. (c) points | As % of score |
GW (c) Points | 12 | 26 | 26 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 27 |
Total (c) Points | 92 | 102 | 106 | 96 | 96 | 98 | 25 |
Backing the right horse this week were Graeme and Jay, meaning they picked up an extra seven points over their rivals. Kane and Lukaku both have 100% ownership in the Top Five.
So far this season four different players have been handed the armband by our Top Five. Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku is the most popular having been chosen 46% of the time, followed by Kane on 37%.
Despite Gameweek 7’s disappointment Lukaku has proved the more reliable choice averaging a 15.7 point return when chosen as captain compared to Kane’s 10.6 points.
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette have both been chosen 9% of the time, averaging 22 and 12 points respectively. This information is displayed in the graphic below:
This week with Kane at home to Bournemouth and Lukaku away to Liverpool the decision would seem more clear-cut. It would be surprising if the Tottenham man wasn’t given the armband despite The Cherries improving defensively and the ‘Wembley factor’.
Transfers Gameweek 7
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark |
Players In | Lukaku | Morata | Lukaku, Walker | – | – |
Players Out | Aguero | Aguero | Aguero, Mendy | – | – |
Having been the most popular transfer in for Gameweek 6, Aguero was popular transfer out in Gameweek 7.
It was a question of dealing with injuries for our Top Five, which saw Jay take a hit to remove City pair Aguero and Mendy and replace them with teammate Walker and United’s Lukaku.
Graeme will be cursing his luck that his replacement – Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata – went off with a hamstring injury. Graeme was quick to make a transfer and there’s every chance Chelsea’s new Spaniard has already been replaced with Leicester’s Jamie Vardy.
Perhaps having not gone for City cover in the shape of Gabriel Jesus, there’s a possibility that Graeme has used his second transfer to upgrade Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey to Raheem Sterling. This is pure guesswork however.
Graeme is so far the only manager to make a transfer.
Mark, having saved his transfer in Gameweek 7, revealed on the Scoutcast that he is likely to bring in Vardy and Sterling as well.
By switching Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino to Vardy, Mark feels he is still keeping flexibility – Vardy can be easily downgraded to a cheaper third striker (Newcastle’s Joselu perhaps?) should he wish to shift funds into midfield.
With potentially explosive players like Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez getting more game time, the possibility of moving funds away from a premium forward line is a consideration.
TRANSFER SUCCESS
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Average |
GW7 Transfers | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
GW7 Points Hits | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
GW7 Immediate Points Gained from Transfers | 12 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Minus Points Hits | 12 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
By handing Romelu Lukaku the captain’s armband Peter earned the most immediate transfer points when taking hits into account.
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Average |
Total Transfers | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Total Points Hits | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
Total Immediate Points Gained from Transfers | 17 | 26 | 39 | -23 | 1 | 12 |
Minus Points Hits | 9 | 18 | 35 | -27 | -3 | 6 |
£ Value (GW7) | 100.8 | 101.3 | 101.0 | 101.2 | 101.7 | 101.2 |
Total Benched Points | 47 | 67 | 58 | 32 | 46 | 50 |
The poor start to the season is reflected in the relatively low points gained from immediate transfers. In fact Matthew and Mark, who both saved a transfer this week, have negative points totals. As we discovered in a community article this week – sometimes doing nothing can be more fruitful.
Template – Gameweek 7
Players in Bold are in three teams or more
Elliot, Foster / Krul
Naughton, Cédric, Davies, Jones, Mee
Salah, Alli, Carroll, Mkhitaryan / Silva / Ramsey / Ritchie / Loftus-Cheek
Kane, Lukaku, Firmino
Players – Gameweek 7
Players in 5 teams | Kane, Lukaku, Elliot |
Players in 4 teams | Salah, Naughton |
Players in 3 teams | Firmino, Alli, Carroll, Jones, Mee, Cédric, Davies |
Magic Beans* | Carroll x3, Ritchie x2, Loftus-Cheek x2, Chalobah x2, Calvert-Lewin, Choupo-Moting, Brady, Gross |
*aka – attacking players 6m and under
Average Cost Per Player
*based on GW1 prices
Goalkeeper – £4.2m
Defender – £5.0m
Midfielder – £6.8m
Forward – £10.7m
There is not much change to our template this week. Roberto Firmino would seem set to leave at least Mark’s team. Kane and Lukaku’s presence means that funds are heavily invested in forward lines.
There’s no consensus in midfield in either the mid-price category or cheap enablers (magic beans!). Demonstrating that we are perhaps still waiting for truly consistent options to emerge.
Formation
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark |
GW Formation | 4-3-3 | 4-3-3 | 3-4-3 | 3-4-3 | 4-3-3 |
In terms of formation 4-3-3 was the most popular this week. So far this season it has been chosen 26% of the time with 3-4-3 proving the default option on 71%.
Those managers with two 4.5m mids (Graeme, Matthew, and Mark) look set to alternate between 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 depending on who has the better fixture between fourth defender and fourth midfielder.
This week Peter played 4-3-3 benching his injured 4.5m mid (Chalobah) along with Burnley’s Robbie Brady, favouring the Burnley midfielder’s defensive teammate Ben Mee away against an out-of-sorts Everton. This turned out to be the correct decision with Mee earning seven points to Brady’s three.
A Sky Blue Gameweek 8?
We are very lucky this year with how much our Top Five contribute to community conversation about Fantasy Football.
Mark obviously makes a living from FPL and is very open about his thought processes.
Peter now contributes to various articles on this site, sharing his thoughts on the week’s events.
Graeme and Matthew are site regulars with well over 10 pages of comment history each each month, and Jay regularly shares his thoughts via his Twitter account.
Based on their comments so far Manchester City assets seem very much at the forefront of their thoughts this week – having scored 17 goals in the last four Gameweeks that comes as no surprise.
But there are inevitably some doubts.
How will players like Gabriel Jesus and Nicolas Otamendi perform after the international break, having played 180 minutes each, endured long haul flights and only arrived back in the UK on Thursday?
Will Aguero make a miraculous recovery and how will that affect the pitch time of players like Jesus, Sterling, or Leroy Sané?
Currently David Silva is the only City attacking asset owned by our Top Five (by Jay and Matthew) but with City’s next three fixtures at home to Stoke and Burnley, followed by West Brom away, it may not be long before this elite group’s XIs are dominated by Pep Guardiola’s troops.
6 years, 6 months ago
Thanks for this. I think you are right to assume that Man City assets are in their thoughts. Think Silva and Sterling especially will be popular, although they may swerve Jesus for now. This could mean that unlike many of this week's wildcarders they will still have Lukaku. A goal or two from the Belgian at Anfield and this lot could have the edge on us plebs once again.