Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweek 26

“Oops, I did it again. I played with your heart, got lost in the game”

The wise words of Britney Spears rang true for many as Aguero and Sterling did it again providing handsome returns and mini league chaos. Whilst Sané was again left with bench splinters and leaving his owners feeling toxic.

We also engaged in a game of where’s Aubameyang? As we scoured training ground photos for the Arsenal striker. Pogba demonstrated what a consistent performer he has become and Kolasinac proved again what a rollercoaster ride it is to own him.

So, who are The Great and The Good? They are Jay Egersdorff, Ville Ronka, The Scout-casters (Joe, Andy, Az, David, Granville and Mark), Eliteserien’s expert Niemi and the last man standing Torres Magic.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

The Great and The Good were split this week by those who owned either of the City dynamic duo and those who didn’t with none of them having the elusive double up of Sterling and Aguero. Niemi was the early adopter of Aguero having signed him back in GW17 but the long term move as paid off with his fourth green arrow and moving into the top 30,000. Andy and Granville were the others to hold the City hitman and this helped the latter achieve his sixth green arrow in succession.

Sterling still only remains in 10-11% of FPL teams at the time of writing with his price tag and the structure of many a team preventing higher ownership, but Mark and Az have found a way and reaped the benefits. Whilst Mark suffered a tiny red for the week he remains at the 2,000 mark and it was a good week for Az as Sterling’s heroics helped move him up 74,000 places.

In fact, Andy and Az were the top scorers for this game week, they were the only ones to take hits but ended up with a healthy 77 points. Andy’s success was based on a Liverpool triple up which earned him 35 points plus Pogba’s brace and Aguero’s points.

At the other end of the scale TorresMagic fell below the weekly average with the Wolves triple failing to come good, Alonso continuing to disappoint and Kolasinac’s own goal snatching defeat from the jaws of a good score.

Ville Rönkä’s tale of woe continues to give us all hope with his tenth red arrow moving him down to 35,000. His decision to sell Pogba last week and keep Hazard looks questionable at best but I am sure he has a trick or two up his sleeve.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Son, Mané (Sané, Richarlison)

Az –  Son, Jiménez (Sane, Success)

David – Son (Sterling)

Granville – Son (Sané)

Jay – Son (Sané)

Joe – Son (Sané)

Mark – No transfer

Niemi – Son (Sané)

Torres Magic – Son, Anderson (Hazard, Sané)

Ville Ronka – Son (Sané)

*transfers out are in brackets

If variety is the spice of life, the transfers this week were ready salted flavour at best with nine out of ten managers bringing in Son. Only Mark decided against the Spurs hitman which makes you wonder whether he has a bigger plan at play? This did mean he kept Hazard which in the short term did not pay dividend.

Andy took a hit and brought in Mane alongside Son which seems a smart bit of business as it saw him move out the misfiring Richarlison and AWOL Sané. The Liverpool triple up also seems to set him up well for the turbulence ahead.

Andy has been more aggressive in his moves over the last few weeks, making eight transfers since GW21 taking him to 33 for the season and above Mark in terms of total transfers.

Az was another to take a hit, finally seeing sense and bringing in Jiménez who he has not owned all season. Although Az must feel cursed as he duly blanked on his debut for him. He also sold Sané who was the fall guy for most of the managers even Ville Ronka showed impatience and got rid after the City man only graced his team sheet for one week.

David attempted to zig whilst everyone zagged and sold Sterling instead of Sané which in hindsight could have gone better.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Patricio

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Bednarek, Digne

Richarlison, Hazard, Salah, Pogba, Son

Rashford, Jiménez, Kamara/Aguero/Firmino

What can I say? Sané out and Son in. Moving on.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

Average Cost of Player looks like this across the teams based on week 1 prices.

Goalkeeper – 4.5

Defender – 4.8

Midfielder – 8.9

Forward – 6.8

ITB – 2.0

So, this week gave many of The Great and The Good opportunity to further build their war chest with the money ITB at a season high. Torres Magic appears to be not just saving for a rainy day but the monsoon season with 7.7m ready to be spent.

Torres Magic also leads the way in team value at 106.5 with Mark and David also in the 106m gang.

FORMATION AND BENCH 

The surprise benching of Rashford and the less surprising benching of Danilo meant nine of out ten managers had to call on their substitutes. There were mixed results although David must have been pleased to see Ashley Barnes jog on for his double figure score.

Formations were skewed because of the 11 enforced changes to the squads meaning 4-4-2 was the most popular final formation this week.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

It was all about Mo again this week with The Great and The Good sticking to their season favourite with the Egyptian being the armband choice 44% so far this year. Ronka has a soft spot for the Liverpool man having picked him 62% of the time. Mark still has the best captain average at 19.5 points per game.

Looking over the differentials between The Great and The Good Andy has the pick with Mané, setting himself up well to deal with the blanks. Granville has gone early with Fraser; the Bournemouth playmaker has a decent GW27 fixture and from GW30 it looks promising.

David is the only one with Sane after the mass exodus, will he be stubborn and say baby hit me one more time or move him on?

CONCLUSION 

The FA Cup matches now out of the way and Champions League underway, the landscape is now starting to take shape for the tough period from GW31 through to the end of the season.

It will be fascinating to see which chip strategies are employed with only two of them playing the Triple captain chip so far, and leaving them with plenty of options.

When will they wildcard? When will they Free Hit? The Triple captaincy is really up in the air.

As always, I am sure there will be a few twists and turns.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.