Career Hall of Fame Top 5  – Gameweeks 10 and 11

Over the last two Gameweeks current Live Hall of Fame leader Jay Egersdorff has been in a class of his own, surging into the top 1,000 this season, according to Top Marx‘s latest look a the Career Hall of Fame top five.

Here’s what Top Marx says: 

Since using his wildcard in Gameweek 6 Jay has only seen green arrows, a feat matched by Matthew Jones (aka Numb), although with a far slower improvement rate having only just breached the 1m ranking mark.

Jay’s recent form is in sharp contrast to this year’s Career Hall of Fame number one Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony). Peter has seen thee red arrows in the last four Gameweeks as he struggles to build on his good Gameweek 1 score.

Jay’s exceptional start has given him an 86 point lead over career number five Mark Sutherns (aka Mark), currently second in our elite Qquintet.

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 & RANK

The graph below shows the ranks of the Top Five managers so far. The vertical scale is from rank 1 to 3m. The distance between the ranks corresponds to the number of points separating them. For instance there are 159pts between rank 1 and rank 100k but only 56pts between 100k and 1m. The graph gives an idea of how difficult it is to move up the ranks as you near the summit.

Jay’s been the highest scorer in our Top Five for both the past two Gameweeks with his faith in under the radar players, such as Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey, paying dividends.

It’s perhaps surprising to discover that the Arsenal midfielder has outscored Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in the last three Gameweeks.

At this stage last season none of the career Top Five were even inside the top 10,000, so for Jay to find himself inside the top 1,000 this early on is very impressive. Given his pedigree we could very well be witnessing a challenge for the overall number one spot

Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor) hasn’t had the best two Gameweeks; frustratingly for him he benched Burnley’s Ben Mee for his eight point return away to Southampton in Gameweek 11. In the same Gameweek he was also let down by his front line of Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku, and Swansea’s Tammy Abraham. Between them the trio managed no goals or assists at all.

CAPTAIN

How our elite quintet must wish they captained Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in Gameweek 11, when he fired in a brace away to West Ham, instead of Gameweek 10, when he missed a penalty and managed a single assist.

Kane managed to convince the Top Five that he was ready to become a reliable captain for Gameweek 11’s Wembley clash with Crystal Palace. But with no attacking returns his siren call proved costly.

The Spurs talisman has now blanked against Burnley, Swansea, Bournemouth and now Palace at home. Peter, so good at picking captains last year, has fallen into this Kane captaincy trap every time.

Regarding Salah’s heroics, as Uwais pointed out last season sometimes it is a good idea to captain certain players away from home, where teams are likely to be less defensively minded.

So far this season seven different players have been handed the armband by our Top Five. Kane is the most popular having been chosen 45% of the time followed by Lukaku on 33%. So far Lukaku has proved the more reliable choice averaging a 15.1 point return when chosen as captain compared to Kane’s 9.3 points.

In the graphic below I have displayed this information for the five most popular captain picks.

The other three players most popular players who been chosen as captains by our Top Five this season are Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette. Salah has been chosen 7% of the time and averages 8 points as captain, Both Aguero and Lacazette have been chosen 5% of the time, averaging 22 and 12 points respectively.

TRANSFERS GAMEWEEKS 10 & 11

TRANSFER SUCCESS

Jay’s success in the overall rankings is reflected in his immediate transfer points. While this table provides an interesting look at how our Elite Quintet are performing, there are a couple of caveats to mention:

Transfers aren’t made with only one fixture in mind – In Gameweek 8 Mark did a triple move, taking a four point hit, with City’s Nicolas Otamendi one of the new players he drafted in. Against Stoke in Gameweek 8 the Argentine international gained a solitary point, not helping Mark in his immediate transfer success. However, as we know in Gameweek 9 the former Valencia centre back redeemed himself with a 15 point return thanks to a goal, clean sheet and all three bonus points. These points are not reflected in the Immediate Transfer Success table.

Patience – when keeping faith in an underperforming player pays off – 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 the midfield maestro 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.

Selling an underperforming asset who then does well is reflected in the table, as we saw this week with Dele Alli’s nine points damaging the totals of Peter, Matthew and Mark.

TEMPLATE – Gameweek 11

Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more

Elliot, Foster / Krul

Naughton, Jones, Mee, Dunk

Sterling, Salah, Richarlison, David Silva, Loftus-Cheek

Kane, Lukaku, Abraham

PLAYERS – Gameweek 11

AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER

*based on GW1 prices

Goalkeeper – £4.2m

Defender – £4.8m

Midfielder – £7.1m

Forward – £10.1m

In The Bank (ITB) – £1.4

FORMATION

The 3-5-2 frmation made its first appearance of the season over the last two Gameweeks. So far this season 3-4-3 has been chosen 65% of the time with 4-3-3 second most popular on 22%. Although with recent transfer moves investing more funds in midfield, 3-5-2 could be set to overtake 4-3-3 in popularity.

Jay used his Gameweek 6 wildcard to invest in a strong midfield – the first of our Top Five not to own a £4.5m mid – by purchasing Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin as a cheap third striker.

Last season Jay espoused the benefits of 3-5-2 ,however he didn’t play 3-5-2 this season until Gameweek 10. Instead he stuck with Calvert-Lewin during a poor run in which he returned only an assist in Gameweek 8. His fifth midfielder, Brighton’s Pascal Gross, has now moved from his bench to his starting eleven in favour of the young Evertonian, who only played 22 minutes in Gameweek 11.

Peter joined Jay in with his Gameweek 10 transfers as becoming the second manager in our Top Five to get rid of his £4.5mids. He upgraded Watford’s injured Nathaniel Chalobah to teammate in Richarlison, as he moved funds from defence to midfield by downgrading Tottenham’s Ben Davies to Liverpool’s Alberto Moreno. Davies is no longer a certain starter with the return to fitness of teammate Danny Rose.

Peter has gone for a strong front 8 and low budget defence. In Gameweek 11 he benched Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and would have been relieved when the winger missed a glorious chance after beating Spurs’s third choice keeper to the ball with the goal at his mercy. It’s tempting to say that benching headaches await but with the rotation threat that comes with owning Manchester City players – Peter owns both Sterling and David Silva – combined with the usual Christmas rotation, a strong front 8 might not be a bad idea for now.

Graeme is now the only manager to back the ultimately doomed 4.5 midfield double pivot of TomCarroll and Reuben Loftus-Cheek.

GAMEWEEK 12 FORECAST

Peter has played a ‘mini wildcard’ over international break, making three transfers in total. No doubt regretting his Gameweek 8 decision to sell Mohamed Salah, I’m expecting the Egyptian to have returned to his side.

Graeme has made two transfers, taking one hit. Mark has made one transfer, while at the time of writing Jay and Matthew were yet to make a move.

The captaincy could prove crucial once again, with Romelu Lukaku set to be a key candidate given his on paper easy home game against Newcastle. Meanwhile, some of the elite top five may want to bank on Kane repeating his heroics on the road this season. The Spurs man has scored six on his travels and visits an Arsenal side he has scored against in each of his five North London derbies.

It is worth noting that pace-setting Jay may very well consider handing the armband to the Tottenham marksman as he currently does not have Lukaku in his side.