I started this series of articles after Gameweek 15. My plan was to track a group of 34 managers, made up of FFScout moderators and contributors, Fantasy Premier League winners and Hall of Fame leaders. In this strange Fantasy year, pretty much all of them have had an awful season. I thought that may improve as the series went on but once again our hardy bunch of veterans has failed to significantly climb the rankings.
Gameweek 21 proved another shocker, with their average score the lowest since the series started. Looking at each of their teams though they appear strong, which makes it tough to see how they can make the rankings ascent they crave. Perhaps Wildcards may be needed?
TRANSFERS
There was a high frequency of transfers this week with 16.75% taking point hits. They made an average of 1.67 transfers (last week was just 0.79). One of the managers used his Wildcard but, aside from that, no other chips were played. Manchester City’s in-form striker Sergio Aguero was the main reason why almost every veteran has made almost two transfers this week. It was not an easy task to buy a 13.2 striker in one move.
Transfers by positions (% of all transfers in bracket)
– Goalkeepers: (00.00%)
– Defenders: (16.36%)
– Midfielders: (45.46%)
– Forwards: (38.18%)
Transfers in midfield were related with two main factors:
1) Free up a cash for Sergio Aguero (mostly by bringing in the in-form Spurs mid with great fixtures, Dele Alli)
2) West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, who was such a reliable option in the first half of a season, was fit and ready to play after two months of absence.
Transfers In:
– Sergio Aguero (MCI): 29.09%
– Dele Alli (TOT): 18.18%
– Dimitri Payet (WHM): 12.73%
– Junior Stanislas (BOU): 5.45%
– Odion Ighalo (WAT): 5.45%
Transfers Out:
– Jamie Vardy (LEI): 23.64%
– Aaron Ramsey (ARS): 14.55%
– Theo Walcott (ARS): 10.91%
– Philippe Coutinho (LIV): 7.27%
CAPTAINS
– Sergio Aguero (MCI): 73.53%
– Kevin de Bruyne (MCI): 11.76%
– Odion Ighalo (WAT): 5.88%
Ahead of City’s home match against Everton, everybody who had Aguero in their squad captained him. Others mostly tried to protect themselves by captaining Kevin De Bruyne. Aguero’s high percentages of transfers in this week were in correlation with his captaincy percentages. A lack of other good options for armband this week was a clear factor, forcing many veterans to turn to the tried and tested pedigree of Aguero immediately, even with a hit or two. But as with last Gameweek when three quarters of veterans drew a blank with Ozil as captain, the same disappointment followed this week.
This overall low-scoring Gameweek could have been a turning point in our veterans’ season. If Aguero had scored a brace this could have been the kick-start they so badly needed. While 73.53% of veterans captained him, only 9.6% players overall made the same move. Also just 12.2% of the top 10,000 captained the Argentine striker.
MOST POPULAR PLAYERS
Top Starting Goalkeepers
– Jack Butland (64.71%)
– Wayne Hennessey (14.71%)
– David de Gea (8.82%)
Top Starting Defenders
– Hector Bellerin (41.18%)
– Toby Alderweireld (35.29%)
– Joel Ward (29.41%)
– Aleksandar Kolarov (23.53%)
– Alberto Moreno (17.65%)
Top Starting Midfielders
– Mesut Ozil (91.18%)
– Riyad Mahrez (88.24%)
– Kevin de Bruyne (85.29%)
– Delle Alli (67.65%)
– Dimitri Payet (26.47%)
Top Starting Forwards
– Romelu Lukaku (82.35%)
– Harry Kane (83.35%)
– Sergio Aguero (73.53%)
– Odion Ighalo (23.53%)
OVERALL RANKINGS
The average veterans’ score this Gameweek was the lowest so far, only 30.24 points after hits, lower than the overall average (34.90 after hits) and top 10,000 average (31.90, also after hits). For the second week in a row the overall average has trumped the top 10,000 and veterans’ averages. Amongst veterans, 30.30% got a green arrow, while 69.70% saw red. The average overall position of all 34 veteran teams is now 187,866 – 21,150 places worse than after Gameweek 20.
