Fantasy Premier League managers in the top 10k have some important decisions to make ahead of Blank Gameweek 28.
Following the Gameweek 27 deadline, we can see where the likely gaps exist, with Manchester City, Aston Villa, Sheffield United and Arsenal all without a fixture next weekend.
Perhaps the area of biggest concern could be in goal, considering the most popular shot-stoppers among the top 10k.
As you can see, Dean Henderson (£5.1m) remains the number one goalkeeper at this level, sat in 37.3% of teams, but he will not play in Blank Gameweek 28.
Those also in possession of Brighton’s understudy David Button (£3.9m), who is the second-most-popular goalkeeper in the top 10k (34.8%), could, therefore, go into the Blank without an active option between the sticks.
Midfield could be another problem area for these managers, as just three of the most popular options are set to play in Blank Gameweek 28.
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m) is understandably still in 92.1% of top 10k teams but, of course, will be in EFL Cup final action on Sunday.
Meanwhile, only Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) and De Bruyne are more popular at this level than Jack Grealish (£6.7m), who will be lining up against Manchester City at Wembley.
Therefore, the above data tells us that several of the top 10k managers may have to line-up with only three midfielders unless they make some changes.
Furthermore, Todd Cantwell (£4.9m) and Adama Traoré (£5.8m) are the most likely options to start Blank Gameweek 27 for managers inside the top 10k, leaving a big gap between them and the premium-priced Salah.
If we go by the most popular players at this level, the defence and forwards departments may be less of an issue for managers in Blank Gameweek 28.
As you can see above, the Liverpool defensive double-up of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.7m) and Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) still has some support with each player represented by 87.8% and 28% of the top 10k respectively.
Joining them on the Blank Gameweek 28 fixture list is Leicester’s Çaglar Söyüncü (£5.0m), who has clung onto 36.2% ownership in the upper echelons.
Meanwhile, the three most-popular forwards in the top 10k also have matches next weekend with Danny Ings (£7.1m), Raúl Jiménez (£7.8m) and Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) facing West Ham, Spurs and Norwich respectively.
The second Wildcard continues to be the most utilised chip among the top 10k.
With the so-called chip season still to come, the number of managers at the top level who will go into that period without a Wildcard has now reached 30.2%.
That figure increased by a marginal amount in Gameweek 27 as 2.9% overhauled their squads ahead of this weekend’s fixtures.
As you can see, the Wildcard has been of greater importance to the top 10k compared to the rest of the world.
Naturally, there will be a greater proportion of inactive players in the wider pool, hence why only 22.3% worldwide have played their second Wildcard at this stage.
Most Fantasy managers in the top 10k will be looking ahead to the second half of Gameweek 27 as they wait for their captain to play.
Salah’s domination of the armband at this level reached astronomical heights this weekend too.
After earning just over half of the support in our most recent poll, the Egyptian has gone one better when it came to the highest-ranked managers in the world.
81.6% of the top 10k managers have handed Salah the captain’s armband for Liverpool’s meeting with West Ham on Monday night.
That has afforded him effective ownership at this level of 175.2%.
By contrast, just 6.7% of the top 10k opted for Salah’s team-mate Sadio Mané (£12.3m), whose ownership fell off a cliff after his Double Gameweek 25 injury.
Many of the extreme differential options for the captaincy have also not yet been in action.
2.7% went with Jiménez ahead of Norwich’s trip to Wolves while the 2.5% who opted for Alexander-Arnold will have to wait until Monday night.
However, the 1.9% who captained Ings for his blank against Aston Villa will already be quaking in their boots with the more heavily backed options still to play.
