Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweek 29

“It’s such a rush just being with you. We’re driving in the rush hour.”

Life on the FPL highway is getting faster and faster with a third GW in quick succession which could only mean one thing…rotation.

However, there was plenty of optimism going into the weekend with the Chelsea, City and United fixtures looking favourable plus the anticipated new manager bounce for Leicester giving many of The Great and The Good the hope of a good score. Yet, it’s the hope that kills you.

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

It was an ocean of red arrows this week with only Ronka and Mark making any progress in what proved another frustrating weekend for the managers.

Ville Ronka was top this week with a score of 52 finally ending 12 weeks of decline – clearly 13 is his lucky number. He put the armband on Hazard and had Jiménez double digit return to thank for his return to greener pastures.

Jay was at the wrong end of a tough game week with Barnes and Vardy being the only high points. Joe also continued his poor form with his 6th red arrow thanks to that man Pogba and a bit of bad luck with Luiz being benched as he transferred him into his team.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Hazard (Son)

Az – Boruc (Ederson)

David – Mané (Sane)

Granville – Mané (Sane)

Jay – Sterling, Vardy (Richarlison, Agüero)

Joe – Luiz (Laporte)

Mark – Fabianski (Patricio)

Niemi – Mané, Ake (Son, Digne)

Torres Magic – Sterling, Higuain (Aubameyang, Richarlison)

Ville Ronka – Pogba, Barnes (Firmino, Richarlison)

*transfers out are in brackets

Mane was the most popular move this week but a true mixed bag of transfers with attempts to strengthen across every position whilst keeping an eye on the GW31 blank.

Jay and Torres Magic were the only ones to take hits with the highly fancied Sterling and his much-quoted scoring record against Bournemouth the driving motivation.

Jay was particularly brave as he transferred out Aguero as part of the deal and must have had a minor panic when the City striker’s name appeared on the team sheet. Fortunately, Bournemouth’s bus parking tactics prevented any damage for those not holding the City front man.

Mark and Az were slightly less dramatic with their moves bringing in new keepers, but Mr Sutherns must have been pleased to see Fabianski provide immediate returns. In fact, he has proved to be the king of the keeper transfer having made 7 changes over the season.

Mark has also still made the most transfers this season at 36 but has slowed down over recent weeks giving Andy chance to catch up on 35 with 9 hits.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Patricio/Button/Guaita/Hamer

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Periera, Bednarek

Anderson, Salah, Pogba, Son, Sterling/Mané

Jiménez, Barnes, Aguero

Finally,…… Richarlison dropped out of the template, he has taken residence since GW7 and this proved wise as even Silva seems to have lost patience with the Brazilian when he dropped him to the bench.

Mane and Sterling fight it out for the 5th midfielder spot buts it’s nothing compared to the battle royale for the 2nd keeper position with 4 of them brawling for the honour.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

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

Goalkeeper – 4.4

Defender – 4.7

Midfielder – 9.1

Forward – 6.8

ITB – 0.9

The budget has again shifted into midfield with the rise of the cheaper striker and most of the managers building up the middle of the park for the blank.

FORMATION AND BENCH 

3-4-3 continues to dominate at 44% over the season particularly for Joe who has deployed this formation 66% of time up to this point.

The Great and The Good had to look to their bench with all the rotation but sadly all Mark found was Cardiff’s Bamba who delivered a minus one.

Az would have been delighted to see a few late injuries as he had 29 points sitting on his bench this week including Jota, his luck is not in this season.

FREE HIT OR NOT FREE HIT?

So how are The Great and The Good set up for the blank and will any play their free hit or are they saving for the bumper double in GW32? The evidence is inconclusive.

Niemi has ten players ready to play although two of them are keepers so appears to be waiting until the double. Meanwhile, Az only has six for now so suggests he is the most likely to free hit in the blank, but I suspect he may take a hit or two to get to a skeleton of a team.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

There appeared to be almost too much choice this GW with Sterling, Pogba, Salah, Hazard and Higuaín all looking good options for the armband. It the end they turned out to be nothing but bad options with only the Chelsea duo providing any returns.

Half of The Great and The Good were stung by the Pogba missed penalty fiasco with Joe, Andy, Granville, David and Niemi cursing the Frenchman.

Ville Ronka was the only one to go with Hazard and was rewarded with an assist whilst the rest had Sterling who blanked under the weight of expectation.

CONCLUSION 

With more red arrows than green for these FPL household names over the last few weeks these are troubling times. This is the time for nerves to hold and plans to stick with GW31 onwards looking more crucial to the season’s success.

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