A steady but not spectacular week for our Top Five as they continue to head in the right direction. Four of these illustrious managers attained green arrows with the Gameweek’s highest scorer Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor) entering the top 1m for the first time this season.
Graeme’s decision to transfer in two Manchester City players helped him to his fourth green arrow in a row as he picks up from an early season low of 2,348,091.
He joins Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony) and Jay Egersdorff inside the top 1m placings, while Mark Sutherns (aka Mark) and Matthew Jones (aka Numb) still languish outside.
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 |
GW8 points | 41 | 56 | 52 | 44 | 51 |
Total points | 433 | 429 | 484 | 409 | 422 |
FPL rank | 838,457 | 960,104 | 57,205 | 1,646,953 | 1,187,448 |
FPL ID | 36298 | 345 | 175574 | 97282 | 370 |
Career HoF number one Peter slipped slightly this week as his potentially impressive frontline of Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku, and new signing Leicester’s Jamie Vardy all drew blanks. It was left to fellow new signing Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling to deliver the solitary attacking returns for his side.
Captain
As the chart above shows every slice in this week’s captaincy pie belonged to Harry Kane. The unanimous choice for our Top Five failed to deliver any returns as his Wembley form continues to defy statistics. Big chances aside surely the law of averages means he must be due a Wembley goal soon?
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Ave. (c) points | As % of score |
GW (c) Points | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
Total (c) Points | 96 | 106 | 110 | 100 | 100 | 102 | 24 |
So far this season four different players have been handed the armband by our Top Five. Lukaku is the most popular having been chosen 45% of the time followed by Kane on 40%. So far Lukaku has proved the more reliable choice averaging a 15.7 point return when chosen as captain, compared to Kane’s 8.8 points.
I keep banging this drum but it is a similar story to last season when Lukaku outscored Kane by an average of 20.7 points to 13. Was Kane’s performance last week a one-off or will he at some point become a more predictable and reliable captain choice?
The other two players who been chosen as captains by our Top Five this season are Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette. They have both been chosen 8% of the time, averaging 22 and 12 points respectively. This information is displayed in the graphic below:
Transfers – Gameweek 8
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark |
Players In | Vardy, Sterling | Jesus, Sterling | Sterling | Loftus-Cheek | Abraham, Sterling, Otamendi |
Players Out | Firmino, Salah | Morata, Ramsey | Mkhitaryan | Chalobah | Firmino, Mkhitaryan, Dawson |
Sterling was the popular transfer in this week, with only career HoF number four Matthew out of this elite quintet ignoring the clamour for his signature. Happy with Sterling’s teammate David Silva in his team, he kept faith with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Tottenham’s Dele Alli in his midfield. Having saved a transfer last week Matthew replaced his injured £4.5m midfielder Watford’s Nathaniel Chalobah with another budget asset Crystal Palace’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Even Jonty, the on-loan Chelsea man’s fiercest critic, revealed on this week’s Scoutcast that he had drafted him on on his Gameweek 8 wildcard, and he could yet prove to be an astute pick. Palace put in a good performance against Chelsea and have the fixtures – Spurs in Gameweek 11 aside – to do well in the coming months.
Ultimately if you feel happy with your team and have a couple of free transfers it seems a very sensible move to replace any annoying long-term cheap injured players as Matthew did.
It’s also interesting that with another £4.5m mid – Swansea’s Tom Carroll – already in his team and two free transfers, Matthew decided against upgrading one of his £4.5 midfielders by downgrading elsewhere.
At the moment Matthew has made one transfer this week and his money in the bank has increased from 0 to £1.3m. My guesses aren’t always correct but that would allow a move such as Alli to Sterling. Maybe Matthew will be kind enough to tell us in the comments section below?
If correct he would join current Live Hall of Fame leader Jay as the only other Top Five manager to own both City mids David Silva and Sterling in his side.
Transfer success
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Average |
GW8 Transfers | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
GW8 Points Hits | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
GW8 Immediate Points Gained from Transfers | 12 | 28 | 12 | 0 | 22 | 15 |
Minus Points Hits | 8 | 24 | 12 | 0 | 18 | 12 |
Graeme earned 24 immediate points gained from transfers after subtracting the cost of any hits. Astutely picking both Sterling and teammate Gabriel Jesus, and – as he told us in last week’s comments section – he was close to going all in on City and making Raheem Sterling his captain.
Will he hand the armband to one of his City players this week or will Romelu Lukaku’s enticing match against Huddersfield prove the safer bet given Pep’s propensity to rotate his players?
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark | Average |
Total Transfers | 9 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 8 |
Total Points Hits | 12 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 |
Total Immediate Points Gained from Transfers | 29 | 54 | 51 | -23 | 23 | 27 |
Minus Points Hits | 17 | 42 | 47 | -27 | 15 | 19 |
£ Value (GW8) | 100.8 | 101.7 | 101.7 | 101.4 | 101.4 | 101.4 |
Total Benched Points | 49 | 71 | 65 | 32 | 61 | 56 |
Mark added to his total of benched points this week as Manchester United’s Phil Jones and Swansea’s Tom Carroll earned 15 points between them. With Liverpool playing United and Salah starting in midfield for his side, coupled with Jones being an injury doubt, Mark put his faith in his other defenders. He started with a back four of Southampton’s Cédric Soares, City’s Nicolas Otamendi, Burnley’s James Tarkowski, and – the only player to get a clean sheet for him in Gameweek 8 – Swansea’s Kyle Naughton.
While immediate transfer points are impressive, what is harder to measure is when keeping faith in an under-performing player is rewarded. For instance after the first three Gameweeks of this season Jay must have felt some pressure to dispense with City’s Kevin De Bruyne, especially after De Bruyne admitted he was often playing in a deeper position. However he kept faith with the Belgian for another two gameweeks and was rewarded with three assists.
Template – Gameweek 8
Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more
Elliot, Foster / Krul
Naughton, Cédric, Davies, Jones, Mee
Sterling, Salah, Alli, Carroll, Loftus-Cheek
Kane, Lukaku, A.N. Other
Players – Gameweek 8
Players in 5 teams | Kane, Lukaku, Elliot |
Players in 4 teams | Sterling, Naughton |
Players in 3 teams | Salah, Alli, Carroll, Loftus-Cheek, Jones, Mee, Cédric, Davies |
Magic Beans – Attacking players 6m and under | Carroll x3, Loftus-Cheek x3, Ritchie x2, Abraham, Calvert-Lewin, Choupo-Moting, Brady, Gross, Chalobah |
AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER
*based on GW1 prices
Goalkeeper – £4.2m
Defender – £5.0m
Midfielder – £6.8m
Forward – £10.5m
In The Bank (ITB) – £1.0
Sterling is the big addition to the template this week, with the third striker position very much open. Each manager has different player in that position.
Mark re-signed Swansea’s Tammy Abraham this week, a player he sold in Gameweek 4, which helped him to upgrade West Brom’s Craig Dawson to City’s Otamendi and leaves him with a healthy £2.5m in the bank after also swapping the disappointing Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Sterling.
Clearly a fan of the Chelsea loanee, a player who was part of England’s Under-21 team in the summer and was a prolific scorer with Bristol City in the Championship last season, owning a cheap third forward allows him to distribute funds more evenly in his side.
Formation
Manager | Peter | Graeme | Jay | Matthew | Mark |
GW Formation | 3-4-3 | 4-3-3 | 3-4-3 | 3-4-3 | 4-3-3 |
3-4-3 was again the most popular formation this week. So far this season it has been chosen 70% of the time with 4-3-3 second most popular on 28%.
It is interesting to note that Jay, who was an advocate of 3-5-2 last season, has used 3-4-3 in seven of the eight gameweeks so far. Demonstrating that he is able to adapt to each season’s new circumstances. However as the season evolves will 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 continue to be optimum formations?
Those managers with two 4.5m mids (Graeme, Matthew, and Mark) look set to alternate between 3-4-3 and 4-3-3 depending who has the better fixture between fourth defender and fourth midfielder.
As mentioned in addition to two cheap mids Mark also has a cheap third forward. It will be interesting to see where he decides to invest his £2.5m with a potential formation change on the cards.
Gameweek 9 Forecast
Surely more blue skies lie ahead this week? As City prepare to steamroller their next victims the only question is which three City player should we triple up on?
In terms of captaincy will Graeme and his fellow managers at the HoF’s top table be brave enough to hand the armband to a City player this week? Surely rotation must be a concern.
Or will Lukaku, who currently still has 100% ownership in the Top Five, emerge as a better option should he be allowed out of the shackles to run free against Huddersfield? A side who seem to be finding life in the top flight a bit harder of late. He could well prove to be the safer bet.
6 years, 11 months ago
Thanks for posting
Jay remains very much the manager to keep closest tabs on. Very impressive start from him.
I'd bet most will captain Lukaku - as you say its the obvious choice. But will one or two of this elite group break ranks and go for a City asset? I also wonder if any will be tempted by the move from Kane to Aguero (c)....that could be a game changer....for better or worse.