Learning from the Great and the Good 19/20 – Gameweek 25

“And I wonder. When I sing along with you. If everything could ever feel this real forever. If anything could ever be this good again. The only thing I’ll ever ask of you. You’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when”

The calm after the storm of Gameweek 24 saw Salah owners hoping that the Egyptian King would not stop making them feel this good following his heroics in the double whilst those with Mane were debating whether his injury would be everlong.

The build up to the weekend saw hopes of another dramatic transfer deadline day but even Sky Sports legend Jim White couldn’t make a former Watford striker going on loan to United exciting.

Having said that the arrival of Bruno Fernandes got the pulses of some United supporting FPL managers racing, Sander Berge’s transfer to Sheffield United led many to question their faith in the Lord but it was Spurs new boy Bergwijn’s spectacular volley on Sunday that made most sit up and take notice.

As a reminder The Great and The Good are a handpicked group of FPL celebrities (?), FF Scouts or Pro Pundits who I will follow to see what we can learn as they navigate their way through the season. They are the Scouts (Mark, Joe, David, Geoff and Neale), FPL “celebrities” (Az, LTFPL Andy, FPL General and Jules Breach) and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville Ronka, Matthew Jones and Sean Tobin.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

David was the best of you this week on 71 points with a second strong showing in a row, he has gained 470,000 places over Gameweek 24 and 25. The Salah captaincy obviously helped but he had Henderson (the Sheffield United variety) and Firmino’s double digit hauls which gave him the edge.

Az had another good week; he now has 12 green arrows out of 14 and it was Firmino again who helped him up the rankings. Special mention to Ville Ronka who moved up to second and is only 42 points behind Neale making up 39 points over the last ten weeks, beware the Finnish Enigma is walking after you.

At times like these the only option is to captain Salah and so it came to pass as all the managers showed faith in Mo and he delivered with a 16-point performance.

I suspect Mo may take a firm grip on the armband over the next few weeks as the fixtures continue to look favourable and it will be a monkey wrench to look elsewhere although a vengeful City against a pretty awful West Ham must make Aguero the favourite this weekend.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Fernandes, Salah (Maddison, Mane)

Az – Salah, Boly (Mane, Soyuncu)

David – No transfers

FPL General – Son (Mané)

Joe – Traore (Mane)

Jules Breach – No transfers

Geoff – No transfers

Mark – Aubameyang, Martial (Greenwood, Mane)

Matthew Jones – No transfers

Neale – Jimenez, De Bruyne (Abraham, Mane)

Sean Tobin – Aubameyang (Vardy)

Ville Ronka – De Bruyne (Mane)

*transfers out are in brackets

Moving on Mane was the theme of this week’s transfers with Andy and Az taking hits to bring in Salah, this was relapse for the recovering hit addict Az who had not taken a minus four since Gameweek 16, whilst Andy has now taken ten for the season.

Ville Ronka and Neale mumbled their apologies to the Belgian maestro De Bruyne as Kevin was brought back into their squads after they had kicked him out only one week ago, but he and his City teammates huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the Spurs parked bus down.

Sean Tobin and Mark made the move for the returning Aubameyang which looks like a move that will require some patience if his performance against Burnley is any indication, whilst Andy went a bit more maverick with Bruno Fernandes put straight into his fifteen.

TEMPLATE

The template for The Great and The Good looks like this :-

Button (6) McCarthy (5)

Lundstram (12) TAA (11) Kelly (8) Soyuncu (6) Rico (6)

Salah (12) De Bruyne (11) Grealish (10) Martial (5) Mane/Dendocker/Cantwell/Traore (3)

Vardy (10) Ings (9) Calvert-Lewin (6)

* brackets show number of teams they appear in

The search for the perfect midfield combination still seems to elude The Great and The Good with several options being considered to accompany Salah, De Bruyne and Grealish.

Mane’s injury sees him fall out of favour but could those who keep him could have the advantage when he returns to the fold, Matthew Jones, Jules and Geoff are the ones to hold their nerve.

Salah now sits in all the squads and joins Lord Lundstram in this regard, but I suspect the swashbuckling blade’s days are numbered after being benched this well and Berge’s arrival could spell the end, will his ultimate fan boy David drop him?

TEAM VALUE

As we get to the end of season some would argue now is the time that team value becomes an advantage as you look to capitalize on those early season money makers such as Pukki, De Bruyne and latterly Sir Danny of the Ings.

So, who is the king of the cash cows amongst The Great and The Good? Well, the Canadian Kingpin Geoff leads the way on 106.6 but hot on his heels is Az on 106.2, he has made 1.3 million profit in the last five weeks.

Andy and Neale suffered financially from the early season hack so only sit at 103.6 and 103.7, as does Jules Breach who could do an injection of cash to stop her slide down the rankings.

CONCLUSION 

This season has challenged us all to think differently about our approach and there appears to be another twist in this tale with wildcards activated by both Andy and Joe.

The FPL manager rule book appears to have been thrown out the window with many rejecting the traditional notion of hanging onto the chip to end all chips until the end of season doubles.

It will be fascinating to see who they pick, with the blank Gameweek 28 ahead will we see City, Sheffield United players and of course the template mid-price midfielder Grealish in their final selection? Only time will tell whether more of us must learn to fly and take the plunge to keep up.

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

For those effected by any of the topics raised in the above article they can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19

Likewise, if you want to keep up with the Tweets of The Great and The Good you can find them here

https://twitter.com/SkontoRigga

https://twitter.com/GeoffreyDance

https://twitter.com/matthewpenycae

https://twitter.com/LetsTalk_FPL

https://twitter.com/DavidMunday815

https://twitter.com/ffscout_az

https://twitter.com/FFScout_Joe

https://twitter.com/FPLGeneral

https://twitter.com/julesbreach