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Learning from the Great and the Good 19/20 – Gameweek 28

“We’re on a road to nowhere. Come on inside. Taking that ride to nowhere. We’ll take that ride”

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers were left on a road to nowhere this week with the reduced fixtures and surprise team sheets leading to a tough week for most, our very own FPL talking heads The Great and The Good were not immune to these challenges.

We were left baffled, confused by the blanks and doubles with a rumoured “will they/won’t they” double Gameweek 29 along with a lack of consensus over whether to prepare for a blank 31, build for Gameweek 34 or just throw in our Wildcard now.

Things turned from bad to worse as we saw a last hour panic as a Jamie Vardy-less Leicester team sheet was leaked, then came the Liverpool undefeated getting erm…defeated plus a worrying trend for last minute injury news not previously indicated in the press conferences, I point to Joseph Gomez, Danny Ings and Vardy as exhibit A and B and C.

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 (MarkJoeDavidGeoff and Neale), FPL “celebrities” (AzLTFPL AndyFPL General and Jules Breach) and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville RonkaMatthew Jones and Sean Tobin.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-19-20-gameweek-28 1

FPL General was top dog this week with an impressive 49 points which saw him move up to 40,000 places and into the top 100,000 for the only the second time this year, he had Matt Doherty and Nick Pope to thank for his surge up the rankings.

David was another top performer with 47 points and move of 61,000 places due to the rise of a new hero Sir Sarr who managed a very impressive 19 points, he also had Dominic Calvert-Lewin who scored again and leads the way in shots in the box over the last four week with 16.

However, for others it was a tough week, the average amongst these managers was 37 points which is the second lowest of the season, Az and Geoff suffered with scores of only 27 and 25 respectively.

The choice of the armband was just a case of picking one of the Liverpool knights as they were bound to have the beating of Watford at the battle of Vicarage Road, but they did not account for the rise of Sir Sarr. The majority had gone Mo Salah but at least Az and Geoff tried to be different with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mane, in the end they should have looked outside of Merseyside.

WILDCARD

Jules took desperate measure to arrest her eleven consecutive red arrows by triggering her Wildcard with ten changes to her squad, including the return of Alexander-Arnold meaning he is now in all of The Great and The Good’s teams, she had a good start with a 105,000 green arrow.

She has used the chip to rebalance her squad and now has a strong fifteen to help navigate the blanks ahead, for example she has a full complement of Burnley and a couple of Wolves to help with Gameweek 31.

Sergio Aguero has been sacrificed in order to help fund a double Liverpool defence, which will need to improve on Saturday’s night performance, and she has a couple of smart differentials in Abdoulaye Doucoure, Willy Boly and Ryan Bertrand.

The full moves are below:-

IN – McCarthy, Alexander-Arnold, Taylor, Bertrand, Boly, McNeill, Maddison, Doucoure, Calvert-Lewin, Jimenez

OUT – Ryan, Lundstram, Soyuncu, Holgate, Kelly, Jorginho, Moutinho, Fleck, Vardy, Aguero

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Barnes (Mahrez)
Az – Maddison, Taylor (Grealish, Lundstram)
David – Calvert-Lewin, Perez, Mee (Vardy, De Bruyne, Lundstram)
Joe – No transfers
FPL General – No transfers
Geoff – Perez, Saiss (Grealish, Lundstram)
Mark – Fernandes, Maddison, Pope (Martial, Gazzaniga, Mahrez)
Matthew Jones – Barnes (Grealish)
Neale – Mané, Barnes (De Bruyne, Grealish)
Sean Tobin – Fernandes, Armstrong (Martial, Grealish)
Ville Ronka – Barnes (Grealish)
*transfers out are in brackets

The blank caused a stir amongst the managers with five of them taking hits including a -8 from Mark, he now leads the way for the season along with Andy with ten minus fours, eight taken in the last nine weeks, but this week his gamble was paid off by Pope’s double digit performance.

The fashion was for Leicester players this week with the lure of a Friday night Fox too good to resist but they were left disappointed as the Norwich Canaries had the last cheep but the upcoming fixture list looks kind for Brendan Rodger’s men and there may be another twist if they lose to Birmingham and end up with a Gameweek 31 fixture.

Neale and David took a hit to take out Kevin De Bruyne, who was described as being essential by many when he took on penalty-taking duties during the Champions League, clearly the Scouts have low expectations of a double Gameweek for City next week as otherwise this is a very brave move ahead of any announcement.

Having said that they all the managers seem to be stockpiling cash with an average of £2.6 million in the bank and David has £7.7 million so plenty of scope to make moves or bring back Kevin once potential double Gameweek are confirmed.

The bandwagon for Bruno Fernandes is gaining momentum with Mark and Sean making a move for him, he repaid them with a blockbuster of a goal, helping Sean to his eighth consecutive green arrow and the United man clearly likes a shot, he is joint lead with Calvert-Lewin for shots (16) over the last four weeks although only four of them have been inside the box.

TEMPLATE

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

McCarthy (8) Button/Henderson/Pope (4)
TAA (12) Boly (7) Stephens (5) Saiss (4) Robertson (4)
Salah (12) De Bruyne (7) Barnes (5) Traore (5) Mane (4)
Ings (12) Jimenez (9) Calvert-Lewin (5)
* brackets show number of teams they appear in

Lundstram finally drops out of the template with his missed game this week and continued rotation meaning he bid farewell, we must feel for David during this emotional time as the book was closed on the legend of the Lord.

There was an influx of new talent into the template with Romain Saiss, Harvey Barnes, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Mané all joining the squad with the injuries both real and fake leading to Vardy and Anthony Martial’s departure, the blank Gameweek also meant Jack Grealish is now surplus to requirements.

BENCH STRENGTH

Rotation – the dreaded R word which brings fear to an FPL manager heart and that worry continues to grow as we see more uncertainty around the starting elevens of the top teams, one can speculate Liverpool will chop and change even more now that the record is no longer achievable and of course who knows what lurks in the mind of Pep.

The strength of our squads is therefore key and all four of the Wildcards so far from The Great and The Good have spread investment a bit more evenly across the fifteen knowing that the points from the pine could be crucial in giving us an edge in the final weeks.

So, who has been the bench master and has gained the most from his or her substitutes? The table below summarizes:

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-19-20-gameweek-28

You will see that Jules and Joe lead the way in benched points showing a nod to the importance they place on squad depth, in fact Joe would be top overall if this was a fifteen man game as his score plus benched points would see him overtake Neale.

Mark’s high number of auto-subs perhaps shows his more cavalier style to player selection with his substitutes being called upon twenty times, the opposite can be said of Ville Ronka who has only done so seven times but actually has the best average score from the pine at 4.6 points, he benefited this week from a Jordan Ayew rare goal as he came off his bench.

CONCLUSION

This week brought last minute panic as we had the late news about Vardy and we could see similar excitement again with all eyes on the early Liverpool game.

This is the time of the season which favours the patient planners, the navigation of the blanks should become easier later in the week once the dust has settled on the FA Cup matches, so hold your nerve and the road to nowhere might lead us to FPL paradise.

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

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

9 Comments Post a Comment
  1. brianutd-why always we? 20
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 26 days ago

    Pleased that I am keeping up with the Jones’s! Great article thanks.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 24 days ago

      Thanks, very kind

  2. doy
    • 6 Years
    4 years, 26 days ago

    Great article, kudos to Sean and General who have been storming up the ladder of late...Sean is right on my ass now!

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 24 days ago

      Now there is an image ... good luck

  3. Rotation's Alter Ego
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 12 Years
    4 years, 25 days ago

    Cheers Greyhead. Storming week for the General there.

    Looking forward to seeing what chip strategies get thrown out from this group!

  4. Chemical76
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    4 years, 25 days ago

    Schadenfreude

    I take great comfort from that fact I'm beating all the Great and Good.

    ((Achoo...))

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 24 days ago

      You just made me google Schadenfreude.

  5. Two Popes and a Gazza
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 4 Years
    4 years, 25 days ago

    As always, a fun article this is.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      4 years, 24 days ago

      Thanking you for kind words I am