The international break has given us the chance to analyse our recently updated Live Hall of Fame – and analyse the strategies of those managers who feature in the top ten.
This ranking system is applied to everyone who takes part in either of our Fantasy Premier League mini-leagues (free or members), with managers’ performances over the seasons then tracked to give a Hall of Fame (HoF) rating.
The live version has been updated to take into account Gameweek 4’s results and can be viewed by Members via this link.
Further information on the FFS Hall of Hame is included at the bottom of this article, but alternatively, you can view this movie to listen to our very own Mark and Rate My Team’s Chris Atkinson discuss the feature.
The career version, which shows the standings at the end of last season, is free to view here or via the HoF tab on the home page.
The Updated Top Ten
Not only do we have four new entrants in the top ten from the standings listed at the end of 2017/18, but we also have a new leader.
Grant Barclay is our new number one, deposing Career Hall of Fame front-runner Jay Egersdorff from top spot.
Grant has three top 1,000 finishes and a further seven inside the top 10k, with his best overall rank being 105 in 2016/17.
Jay falls to third, with his current overall rank of 691,177 costing him first place.
Like Grant, Jay has three top 1,000 finishes to his name, with two just outside the top 100 in 2009/10 and 2016/17.
Matthew Jones sits comfortably inside the top 50k after Gameweek 4 and rises to second place as a result. There is a common theme developing with our podium places: Matthew has three top 1,000 finishes in nine seasons as an FPL manager.
Marlen Rattiner is a non-mover at four, after a solid start to 2018/19: Marlen can boast four overall ranks inside the top 1k, with his best “OR” being 194 in 2014/15.
Richard Clarke and Owen Walker are the other two FPL managers to remain in our Live HoF top ten from the Career table compiled at the end of 2017/18, sitting in fifth and ninth place respectively.
Owen is a relative newcomer to the game, but has an impressive three top 1k finishes in just six seasons of competing.
Richard, meanwhile, is a high-performing veteran of some 12 years, with two top 1,000 finishes to his name during that period.
The four entries into the top ten have, of course, had excellent starts to this campaign.
Kenneth Tang, The Magician (aka TorresMagic) and Bruce Savage all sit in the top 20,000 after Gameweek 4.
Kenneth has an enviable five top 1,000 finishes in 12 years of recorded data, while price rise king TorresMagic has six overall ranks inside the top 3,000 in ten seasons – two of them inside the top 1k.
Bruce meanwhile can boast the best finish of any of our top ten: 54th place in 2009/10.
Paul Godson has had the best start to this season of any of the above managers, currently sitting in 4,361st place overall. Paul, like so many of his fellow elite managers, also has three top 1k ranks to his name.
The legends that are Paul Gee (last year’s runner-up) and Ville Ronka slip out of our top ten despite fair starts to this season, while the 2018/19 ranks of Lester Cheng and a certain Mark Sutherns – both currently sitting outside the top one million – have also come at the expense of their places in the top ten.
A special mention to Stephen Harrap, in 20th place in our Live HoF, who currently sits in 255th place in the world.
Top Ten – Strategies and Teams in 2018/19
Two of our Live HoF top ten have played their Wildcards already: Owen in Gameweek 3 and Jay in Gameweek 4. The rest, including all of the above managers currently sitting in the top 100k, have held their Wildcards back – though there remains the possibility of this chip being used during the international break.
At the time of writing, none of our top ten has made a transfer for Gameweek 5 – though any Wildcard deployment would, of course, be hidden from view.
Unsurprisingly, no other chips have been used by the ten managers in question.
Marlen and The Magician (headlining the John Peel Stage next year) are the only two of the aforementioned managers to take a transfer hit this season, meanwhile.
All ten of our managers captained Sergio Aguero (£11.3m) in Gameweek 4, while all bar Jay and Grant own both Sadio Mane (£10.0m) and Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) – the Senegalese midfielder is missing from their 15-man squads, with Jay selling him on his Gameweek 4 Wildcard.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.1m), Benjamin Mendy (£6.4m) and Andrew Robertson (£6.1m) feature in all ten of these squads, though Marcos Alonso (£6.8m) has surprisingly been overlooked by five of our elite FPL managers.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan‘s (£7.2m) “one-pointer” at Cardiff was bad news for seven of our featured Fantasy bosses, while six were affected by Wilfried Zaha‘s (£7.0m) non-appearance at Selhurst Park last Saturday.
Half of our managers made the Richarlison (£6.6m) to Theo Walcott (£6.8m) transfer for Gameweek 4, though Owen and Kenneth are sitting on Everton’s Brazilian midfielder for the time being.
Bruce and Marlen – both of whom own David de Gea (£5.9m) – are the only two managers who have opted for a premium goalkeeper this season.
The maverick picks are few and far between, though Grant does own David Luiz (£5.5m) and Alexandre Lacazette (£9.4m) – both of whom excelled for him in Gameweek 4.
Further analysis of our Live HoF’s teams and strategies will follow during the season.
Hall of Fame FAQ
How is my rating calculated?
The “HoF Rating” is based on your points scores from previous FPL seasons, with the latest season weighted the heaviest and each corresponding season weighted at roughly 80% that of the previous season. So, in other words, those who performed best in 2017/18 will receive a bigger HoF Rating boost from those who did best in 2007/08. The “HoF Ranking” even allows for those with missing years, adapting the formula accordingly to allow to rank alongside the veterans of the FPL.
How do I join the Hall of Fame
Simply sign up to our leagues next season, either the Fantasy Football Scout Classic League or if you’re a member, the Members Classic League – the code is available on the dashboard of the Members Area.
How do I find myself in the Hall of Fame?
The search box at the top of the ranking tables allows you to search by surname or by FPL id.
What if I don’t want to be listed?
Either notify us via support@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk or simply leave the Fantasy Football Scout league and you’ll be removed on the next update.
When does the Hall of Fame get updated?
The Career table is available to all and is updated at the end of each season to display the latest rankings. The Live version of the Hall of Fame is updated throughout the season to reflect the scores of the current campaign.
