“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos…”
The chaos continued into GW16, with barely chance to draw breath The Great and The Good had decisions to make around Arnautovic. They also had to roll the rotation roulette wheel as even the undroppable became, well, droppable. Hello Harry.
The run up was dominated by who was going to the replace the West Ham talisman. Was it time to go for the expensive Arsenal options or go budget friendly with Wilson, Jiménez or Mitrovic?
In the end there was only one man making the headlines, Mr Egyptian Gold himself, Mo Salah.
The GW scores this week were dominated by the Salah captaincy. Some did, and some didn’t and are probably still learning inappropriate Egyptian swear words.
A strong performance from Ville Ronka this week and he moved up to 817 in the world. He did this without any city attackers and he is still only 2nd in his mini league IVU vs HARI. Credit to Atte Kinnunen who is tackling the FPL legend head on.
Only just behind Ronka this week was David. He has scored an impressive 165 points over the last two game weeks and moves into the top 8,000. The “king of the captains” picked Mo but also had his marauding wingbacks Doherty, Robertson and Digne to thank for his rise the rankings.
Az and Joe also continued their return to form with 3 green arrows in a row now. On the flip side we saw Jay pay the price for his Salah exit strategy. However, his decision in week six to ditch Mo has gained him 760,000 places over that time so some consolation.
Bottom of the pile was Niemi who was a massive 54 points behind Ronka this week. He has been consistent all season averaging around the top 35k since GW4 but the wheels came off this week. He took Salah out and then not one of his strikeforce of Kane, Lacazette or Jiménez started. Where was Erik Tonne when you need him?
TRANSFERS AND HITS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week:
Andy – Son, Kamara (Martial, Arnautovic)
Az – Kolasinac, Lacazette, Anderson (Alonso, Arnautovic, Martial)
The Great and The Good were divided as the UK over Brexit with a clear split between the replacement strategy for Arnautovic.
The more cautious went for Mitrovic or Jiménez. Joe, David, Ronka and Mark fell into this category. You may be surprised to see Mark described as cautious but since his infamous 5 hits in 4 weeks he has not taken one over the last 4 game weeks.
On the other side were the more cavalier Jay, Torres Magic, Niemi, Az, and Granville who went for one of the Arsenal big guns. The first four of those managers took hits to get either Lacazette or Aubameyang.
Az appears to be taking a more aggressive approach with a minus 8 this week. Lacazette was the one disappointment this week with Felipe Anderson and Kolasinac looking good on their debut for Az.
Finally, again spare a thought for Niemi as he not only transferred out Salah after 15 patient weeks but also took a hit to do so. We all know how that ended.
TEMPLATE
After those transfers the template now looks like this:
The template continues to adjust, and Arnie is the latest to leave. As mentioned, there is no clear consensus on replacement so Mitrovic, Wilson and both Arsenal strikers are now in contention for the third spot in the forward line.
Out of the headlines we see Felipe Anderson appear in the template. His form, fixtures and value should see him cement his place in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Doherty again proved why he is the only man in all ten of the Great and The Good teams with a last minute goal to continue his good run of returns.
TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE
Average Cost of Player looks like this across the teams based on week 1 prices.
Goalkeeper – 4.5
Defender – 5.0
Midfielder – 8.2
Forward – 8.1
ITB – 1.0
A definite move of budget this week to the forwards with the managers using their ITB funds plus redistributed cash from defence.
Mark is the first of The Great and The Good to get to a team value of 105 million, but Andy and Granville were the big risers. They went up 0.7 in a week thanks to the incredible multiple price increases for Aubameyang.
CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS
David is now 16-0 ! Despite the building pressure he continues to exhibit voodoo like powers in his armband choice. This week’s decision was an emphatic success as Salah earned him 42 points. He averages 21 pts from his captain picks this season.
David was joined in the gloating corner by Ronka, Joe, and Mark. It was no surprise Mark made Salah captain, he has done this 11 out of 16 game weeks.
The remainder of The Great and The Good went for either Lacazette (Jay, Az, Niemi) or Aubameyang (Andy, Granville, Torres Magic). That didn’t end well but their fixtures suggest a little patience. They won’t face such a dogged Huddersfield defence every week.
The key differential this week was Son for Andy with a goal and an assist. This could be a great purchase but remember he only has 5 more games before the Asia Cup.
The other one to watch was Snodgrass bought by Jay last week. A cheaper alternative to Anderson but with 24 points in 3 weeks he is one to watch.
CONCLUSION
This game week proved that no one is safe from the winter fixture list. What is the best tactic when it comes to the heavy hitters?
Aubameyang, Kane, Hazard, Sterling and Salah all look capable of hauls and bench splinters in equal measure.
Do you attempt to second guess and do the heavy hitter hokey cokey?
Or do you place your bets and ride out the bad times when they come?
Let’s see how The Great and The Good handle this latest conundrum.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.
I think the score in the table for Az needs amending. I'm sure he got in the 70's this week. Not sure if the other scores are correct but probabaly worth checking too.
5 years, 4 months agoNice read