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Top 5 Career Hall of Fame – Gameweek 15 Review

The headline in Gameweek 15 is the continued rise of current Live Hall of Fame leader Jay Egersdorff. The Blackburn Rovers fan is up to 57th in the world with a Gameweek score of 76.

Jay was the only top five manager to captain Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, who scored two goals and returned maximum bonus points to reward his faith in him. It was a wise move given that the other four managers all handed the armband to Tottenham’s Harry Kane, who blanked for the eighth time in the 14 Gameweeks he’s appeared this season.

Jay is also the first ever manager to have a HoF rating of over 99, improving his career HoF rating from 98.27.

Matthew Jones (aka Numb) moves out of the wooden spoon spot among this group after hitting 67 in Gameweek 16, despite being the only one not to own Hazard. His failure to jettison Liverpool frontman Roberto Firmino through his long barren spell proved a blessing in disguise this week, as the Brazilian scored two goals and earned three bonus points – his first double digit score since his 12 point haul against Arsenal way back in Gameweek 3. 

Replacing Matthew in last is Career Hall of Fame number one Peter Kouwenberg (aka My Pretty Pony). A last minute change of heart saw Peter change his captain from Hazard to Kane, a move which cost him 13 points.

Peter remains in second position in the live Hall of Fame, although his rating has gone down from 98.65 to 97.08. Peter has three top 1,000 finishes in a row so I would certainly expect him to move up significantly from his current overall FPL rank of 399,685 before the end of the season.

Graeme Sumner (aka Gregor) decision to transfer in Hazard and Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin this week paid immediate dividends, with the pair contributing 27 points to his total.

Graeme, Matthew and Peter are only separated by seven points but despite recent rankings rises are struggling to mount a serious challenge to Jay this season.

Mark Sutherns (aka Mark) moved up to 101,075 overall, 30 points ahead of Graeme but is still more than 100 points behind pacesetter Jay. Mark’s 54 points this week was helped by double digit returns from Hazard and Otamendi.

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

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMark
GW points4951766754
Total points806813958809843
FPL rank399,685318,01657357,075101,705
FPL ID3629834517557497282370

The graph below shows the ranks of the top five managers over the eleven Gameweeks 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 193pts between rank 1 and rank 100k but only 73pts between 100k and 1m. The graph gives an idea of how difficult it is to move up the ranks as you near the summit

Rank1101001,00010,000100k1m2m3m
Points Difference to First05685115149193266307346

CAPTAIN

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMarkAve. (c) pointsAs % of score
GW (c) Points443044914
Total (c) Points18213221415618817421

Graeme has been the worst performing manager at picking his captain out of our elite quintet. His total of 132 is only 16% of his total score. We can expect Graeme to improve on this as the season progresses and reach the average of between 20% and 25%.

So far this season nine different players have been handed the armband by our Top Five.

Kane is the most popular having been chosen 49% of the time, followed by Lukaku on 31%. Lukaku has proved the more reliable choice averaging a 14.2 point return when chosen as captain compared to Kane’s 9.1 points.

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

Salah, Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette complete the most popular captain picks so far. Salah has been chosen 7% of the time and averages 11.6 points as captain,  Aguero and Lacazette have both been chosen 4% of the time, averaging 22 and 12 points respectively.

TRANSFERS

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMark
Players InSterlingHazard, Calvert-LewinHennesseyHennesseyPope, Christensen
Players OutD. SilvaLukaku, CarrollElliotElliotKrul, Dann

TRANSFER SUCCESS

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMarkAverage
Transfers121121
Points Hits040042
Immediate Points Gained from Transfers-7240044
Minus Points Hits-7200003

Jay might have not earned any transfer points this week bringing in Crystal Palace’s Wayne Hennessey for Newcastle’s Rob Elliot, however by doubling up on Palace keepers it meant Speroni emerged from his bench with a very welcome 11 points.

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMarkAverage
Total Transfers221715121717
Total Points Hits3616841616
Total Immediate Points Gained from Transfers318148-301830
Minus Points Hits-56540-34214
£ Value102.1103.1103.2102.4103.5102.9
Total Benched Points80121118539794

Caveats to this table – It doesn’t reflect that:

  • Transfers aren’t made with only one fixture in mind
  • When Patience in an underperforming player finally pays off
  • Points from newly transferred in players left on the bench are included.

Graeme might be the worst of the top five at picking captains but he is the best at making successful immediate transfers. His total of 65 in immediate transfer points after hits is 25 points ahead of Jay.

Matthew remains the worst performer of this group in terms of immediate points from transfers. 

TEMPLATE – Gameweek 15

Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more

Elliot, Speroni/Hennessey

Christensen, Naughton, Mee, Dunk, Daniels

Salah, Sterling, Hazard, Richarlison, Loftus-Cheek

Kane, Morata, Calvert-Lewin

PLAYERS – Gameweek 15

Players in 5 teamsKane, Morata, Salah, Sterling, Loftus-Cheek
Players in 4 teamsHazard, Richarlison
Players in 3 teamsChristensen, Mee, Dunk, Daniels, Naughton, Elliot
Magic Beans – Attacking players 6m and underLoftus-Cheek x5, Calvert-Lewin x2, Abraham, Niasse, Groß

AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER

*based on GW1 prices

Goalkeeper – £4.2m

Defender – £5.0m

Midfielder – £7.5m

Forward – £9.4m

In The Bank (ITB) – £0.2

The Top Five template evolved this week with Raheem Sterling joining Kane, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Chelsea’s Alvaro Morata, and Crystal Palace’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek as players owned by all managers.

There are 13 players in three or more teams, with only the goalkeeper and third striker positions where our managers don’t see eye to eye.

FORMATION

ManagerPeterGraemeJayMatthewMark
Formation3-5-23-4-33-4-33-4-33-4-3

A 3-4-3 formation was the most popular choice this week as it has been for the majority of the season. It has been chosen 64% of the time with 4-3-3 second most popular on 16%. 4-3-3 was the canny early season choice as managers looked to take advantage of real world formations favouring wing-backs. Although it hasn’t been used by our Top Five since Graeme played it in Gameweek 9.

Managers are now shifting their attention to the value to be found in midfield as choices emerge across a range of price brackets.

Peter in fact started the week with a 3-4-3 formation but with Niasse not playing, Ruben Loftus-Cheek was subbed in altering his formation to 3-5-2.

GAMEWEEK 15 – FORECAST

After picking Hazard last week, this week Jay seems set on picking “Mr Tottenham” aka Harry Kane. Perhaps favouring players with home fixtures.

It’s a decision Mark agreed with on this week’s Scoutcast. Mark is yet to make a transfer this week and could well bank his transfer unless he decides to sell Bournemouth’s Charlie Daniels. He revealed that his possible replacements include Watford’s £4.6 priced Kiko Femenia.

TopMarx Fan of Fantasy Football and Monty Python. "Archimedes out to Socrates, Socrates back to Archimedes, Archimedes out to Heraclitus, he beats Hegel. Heraclitus a little flick, here he comes on the far post, Socrates is there, Socrates heads it in! Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad, the Greeks are going mad! Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside. Follow them on Twitter

25 Comments Post a Comment
  1. J0E
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Thanks for posting.

    The formations bit is particularly interesting. Shows how they spot trends in terms of form and fixture and juggle their line up accordingly. Those wingback backlines seem so far away, so too those power premium front threes.

    Looks to be all about the midfield now.

    1. G-Whizz
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 6 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      This.

      Started with 5-2-3 with a power front line now switched to 4-3-3 with Hazard in midfield with Salah and Sterling...

    2. Krionos
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      Sort of shows there is no formation to stick to. Probably wiser to have a solid 15 in your squad so you can adjust each gameweek.

  2. Gregor
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    I used to be good at picking captains, I always think you want at least 10 points from your skipper and on that basis I've had eight fails in a row now!

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      I remember you were on fire last season with you captain picks

  3. Pirlø's Pen
    • 8 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Well in TopMarx, great read as always mate.

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      Thank you PP

  4. Chidi LaLa
    • 8 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Good read. This is the week where Kane finally gets to punish me for not owning him. Jay might as well go on to win the FPL. It will be interesting to see Peter's final position come GW 38. He's struggling at the moment but his pedigree has never been in doubt. How much improvement can we realistically expect in a game where luck can greatly influence the outcome?

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      I think we can expect a fair amount where Peter is concerned, and indeed all the HoFs, their records speak for themselves. Last year we saw Steve Poulsom shoot up the table from a rank of nearly 1m in GW17 to finish just outside the top 10,000.

      There's a long way to go and still a large number of managers occupying the top positions for whom this is unchartered territory. For instance Jay is the only manger in the current top 100 who has even finished in the top 1,000 before. There are a lot of managers in the current top 1,000 who have never even finished inside the top 100k before! A lot of those have played chips such as bench boost and triple captain, important chips that our top five HoF managers still have at their disposal.

      What it does show is that someone with Jay's experience really has a great shot at winning the overall title this year, he's got to be the favourite.

      Take a look at this site for info on the current top ranking managers overall https://premierfantasytools.com/top-fantasy-premier-league-managers/

      Yes Kane does seem popular this week, you've done very well not owning him so far. Could Spurs finally click?

  5. The Mandalorian
    • 11 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Great article TopMarx, much appreciated as always.

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      thank you

  6. Prøfeßör …
    • 7 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Excellent stuff, TopMarx. Keep up the great work!

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      thank you

  7. Numb
    • 9 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Cheers TM!

    If you're interested, this week I had 2 FTs and was torn between two different moves:

    1. Silva + Firmino > Hazard + DCL
    2. Silva > Coutinho (roll the other)

    In the end I went for 2 but that was before the rumours about Coutinho and Morata. 😮

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      Going for 3 Liverpool attackers! I like it, could prove a nifty differential, good luck! I'm sure Cout will play, just hope the snow doesn't throw a spanner in the works...

  8. MyPrettyPony
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Hey, TM, good stuff. I shouldn't have swapped that captaincy last week, eh? Yet another costly call.

    Pretty much all my recent transfers have had to be undone - Dann, Moreno, plus the yoho City midfield. Just making too many bad calls this year.

    Work party last night and logged on briefly at 1am to do Sterling and Dann to Cout and Zeeg. Whoops!

    1. MyPrettyPony
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      Zeeg red as Dann comes on. Couldn't make it up

    2. MyPrettyPony
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 6 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      And Dann goal. Ever feel it's not your year!

      1. DT42
        • 12 Years
        6 years, 3 months ago

        Wow! You couldn't make this story up!

      2. TopMarx
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 11 Years
        6 years, 3 months ago

        you've just written my next article for me 😉 as Jonty tells me this is classic 'man bites dog' journalism, I apologise in advance for adding to your woes. Although yes, I feel like every year is not my year! You are currently making the kind of moves us mortals normally make 🙂 Has the fame and adulation proved a distraction? Have you lost your hunger to succeed? Last year it was a quick pint after work, now it's partying till 1am - is the burden of being the career all time number one Fantasy Football manager weighing like an anvil around your neck?

        1. TopMarx
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • Has Moderation Rights
          • 11 Years
          6 years, 3 months ago

          When I wrote that comment last night I actually thought your weekend might get a bit better with Coutinho to play... 1pt in a 12min cameo. I do feel for you this week, awful luck.

          1. MyPrettyPony
            • Fantasy Football Scout Member
            • 6 Years
            6 years, 3 months ago

            Haha, it's true. Since I (briefly) hit HoF number 1 it's been booze fuelled parties and page 3 models (is there such a thing anymore!) and the hunger is gone...

            In all seriousness, if you look at my transfers since the WC, but particularly in the last month it has been a catalogue of poor decisions and poor luck. The move away from Silva (also missing Sterling's recent points) was the first time I've worried about price changes and that went badly. As for my defensive moves of Moreno, Dann, Zeeg, the less said the better.

            But sometimes you just have to smile!

            1. TopMarx
              • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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              • 11 Years
              6 years, 3 months ago

              As the hotel bellboy said to George Best when delivering a bottle of vintage champagne and finding him with a scantily-clad Miss World and the bed covered in money - "Where did it all go wrong?"

  9. Gloria Kanchelskis
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    6 years, 3 months ago

    Cheers Top Marx
    Fine article as always

    1. TopMarx
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
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      • 11 Years
      6 years, 3 months ago

      thank you GK