Learning from the experts

“Who watches the watchmen”

In my increasingly futile attempts to get better at FPL and return to my glory days of a top 10k finish (it was so long ago I think Des Lynam was presenting Match of the Day) I have decided to turn the spotlight on the experts from this very site (plus a couple of FPL galacticos) to analyse their tactics.

I have chosen 10 and I apologise in advance for those I have missed..

Mark – pretty obvious, he is the acceptable face of FPL
Jay Egersdorff – No. 1 FPLer and serial vlogger
Ville Ronka – The man/woman/myth of the FPL world but clearly very very good
The Scoutcasters – Jonty (the Duke of Dullards), Andy (Let’s Talk FPL),  AZ (Lord of the Wingbacks) , Granville, and new boy David
Torres Magic – King of the last man standing
Niemi – He is guiding me through my first Eliteserien and made me love Erik Tonne

So now I have introduced my ones to watch. This is what I have learnt so far.

Overall Performance 

A good start for all with 3 of the experts already in the top 100k. The opening weekend belonged to the managers who had Mendy, Mane, Richarlison, Robertson.

Ville Ronka benefitted from a bit of luck with Wan-Bissaka coming on as an automatic sub whilst Mark suffered bench pain with Mendy and the aforementioned Wan-Bissaka winking at him from the sidelines.

Still lots to play for and as you would have expected the experts all comfortably beat the weekly average of 53.

TorresMagic 98 (rank 19516)

Ville Ronka 97 (rank 23877)

Jonty 89 (rank 83755)

David 86 (rank 122510)

Niemi 84 (rank 155354)

Andy 83 (rank 174246)

Jay Egersdorff 77 (rank 332832)

Az 76 (rank 367966)

Granville 72 (rank 539072)

Mark 72 (rank 539072)

Team Selection

The template for the experts teams looks like this:

Foster (6) Fab (5)

Mendy (10) Wan-Bissaka (10) Robertson (7) Peltier (6) Tomkins (4)

Salah (10) Jota (7) Richarlison (6) Mane (6) Stephens (4)

Aguero (9) King (6) Kamara (4)

* brackets show number of teams they appear in

Key lesson here is if you haven’t got Salah, Mendy, and Wan-Bissaka (who would have guessed a 4.0 palace defender would have been so popular a couple of weeks ago) then maybe you are on the wrong site.

Team Investment and Formation

Average Cost of Player looks like this across the teams

Goalkeeper – 4.5
Defender – 5.0
Midfielder – 8.4
Forward – 7.9
ITB – 0.3

In general, the experts are following the trend of limiting investment upfront with Mark going the most extreme and only spending 6.8 on average for his forward line. The majority of the others have gone for Aguero plus 2 other less glamorous forwards. Only Granville (10m average forward) and David (9m average forward) have picked a couple of premium centre forwards to lift the average price.

Midfield is where we have seen the biggest investment with Ronka, Jay, Mark, Az, and Niemi  going big in midfield combining some heavy hitters and some of those 6.5 priced options which is looking to be the battleground for success this season. They are all at the 9m average cost for a midfielder.

There is still debate on the rotating keepers over the fire and forget option. 50/50 split here with the Foster/Fab option popular and the others trusting DDG, Patricio, Pickford to pick up the points.

The experts have stuck to the tried and tested formations and are split down the middle in terms of playing either 3-5-2 or 3-4-3.

Captain and Differentials

Captain Salah. Obvious to all. This week we should see Aguero come into contention although Mark has removed that temptation by not having him in his squad.

Everyone has their own special differentials. Each one of them has picked a couple of calculated punts Ozil/Deeney (Jay), Lennon (David), Maddison (Az), Adam Smith (Mark), Boly (Jonty), Lucas (Granville). Some more dubious than others but will leave with you to make that judgement.

Anyway, I will follow their every move over the coming season to see what can be learned (ie. transfers, hits).

That’s all for now and remember don’t have nightmares.

Greyhead