Learning from the Great and the Good 20/21 – Gameweek 31

“Baby, can you handle this? I don’t think you can handle this”

A bootylicious bumper edition this week with not one, not two but six Wildcards played by The Great and The Good.

After an impressive win over Arsenal and a nice set of fixtures Liverpool players dominated the moves this week, although a couple of The Great and The Good had concerns over Salah with Mark Sutherns and FPL General still going without Mo.

The City vs Leeds game looked to be full of goals with many advocating a punt on the likes of Sterling but Stuart Dallas spoiled that particular party and we were all crazy in love with Lingard and Iheanacho after further double digit hauls on Sunday.

For those of you just catching up, The Great and The Good are the Scouts Neale Rigg and Joe Lepper, Pro Pundits (Mark Sutherns, Az, Lateriser, Fabio Borges and Tom Freeman ), FPL “celebrities”, FPL General,  Magnus Carlsen and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville Ronka, Matthew Jones and Sean Tobin.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Az was the one to run the world this week with the top score of 77 which provided him with a fine start to his Wildcard with Lingard, Iheanacho and Alexander-Arnold all contributing and taking him to his highest rank of the season.

In fact, it was the week for the Wildcarders as all those who pressed the button were in the top half of this Gameweek’s scores, Magnus was also in contention despite having played this chip back in Gameweek 29 and continued his great form with an average of 68.8 over the last five weeks.

You better listen as the fight for the top spot continues with only 3 points between Mark and Fabio, if Mark had been more conventional in his captain picks in the last couple of weeks going with Kane and Salah then he would have held first place.

Stuart Dallas’ performance left us speechless and dangerously in love but only Ville Ronka was brave enough to play him, Mark and Matthew Jones were his other two owners and had to sit in frustration as his 17 points stared back at them from the bench.

If you liked you should have an armband on it when it came to captaincy choice with the majority going Salah, Magnus went back to Vardy, Lateriser had a nostalgic moment with Aguero, General jumped on Jota and Mark, Neale’s one week punt on Sterling didn’t pay off.

WILDCARDS

Az

IN – Mendy, Forster, Rudiger, Alexander-Arnold, Coady, Holding, Reguilon, Salah, Lingard, Jota, Iheanacho, Davis

OUT – Pope, Martinez, Digne, Targett, Dallas, Cancelo, Dunk, Raphinha, Trossard, Odegaard, Bamford, Antonio

Sorry to say but we may have to kick Az out of maverick club, as he appears to have channelled his inner dullard with his template Wildcard, or should I say Mildcard, although perhaps going the obvious route is the best way in this season which so often has punished the differential picks.

Obviously his selection of Keinan Davis will get the headlines, but elsewhere he tripled up on Spurs ready for the double, and whilst he has embraced the Liverpool fixture swing he has been more cautious with his choice of Wolves and Leicester players with only Coady and Iheanacho making it into the final fifteen.

Fabio Borges

IN – Mendy, Forster, Rudiger, Alexander-Arnold, Fofana, Coady, Salah, Jota, Davis, Iheanacho

OUT – Areola, Johnstone, Digne, Dias, Alonso, Dallas, Lingard, Gundogan, Bamford, Watkins

Fabio followed a similar path to Az with 12 out of 15 players the same, he must have been listening in to the Blackbox.

What catches the eye is his Raphinha pick as his mid-priced midfielder despite the fixtures, although this came at the expense of Lingard so maybe the Portuguese maestro has made a bug a boo?

Elsewhere, Fofana joins at the back and he will hope for a least a couple of clean sheets over the next four plump matches for Leicester, at least he won’t have to face up to Jesse or is that Messi every week.

Joe Lepper

IN – Mendy, Forster, Veltman, Phillips, Shaw, Coady, Salah, Jota, Iheanacho, Wood

OUT – Ederson, Steer, Dallas, Coufal, Konsa, Stones, Raphina, Gundogan, Bamford, Calvert- Lewin

Joe got Wood this week or at least must have been a little excited when the Burnley striker chipped in with an assist this weekend.

In other news, he decided against Alexander-Arnold instead asking Phillips to cover whilst he gambled on this week’s Chelsea no show Alonso, maybe the Spaniard will have to learn how to track back if he wants his name in Tuchel’s Tombola for team selection.

However, his decision to stick with the double-digit soldier Lingard looks to be his smartest move of all!

Mark Sutherns

IN – Mendy, Rudiger, Holding, Alexander-Arnold, Sterling, Jota, Iheanacho

OUT – Pope, Digne, Cresswell, Dias, Son, Gundogan, Bamford

A reluctant Wildcarder, making the fewest trades out of those refreshing their squads, and his concerns may have been well-founded as his triple Chelsea defence stalled and his one-week wager on Sterling failed to live up to expectations.

He is not jumpin jumpin for Salah just yet and is without Mo but has the resources to bring him, assuming a diversion to Son, in the next couple of weeks.

Mark also keeps faith with Calvert-Lewin presumably with the guaranteed double in mind, but he was left disappointed on Monday when Dominic’s abductor made him unavailable to play.

Neale Rigg

IN – Mendy, Forster, Holding, Alexander-Arnold, Alonso, Mitchell, Coady, Sterling, Jota, Iheanacho, Davis

OUT – Martinez, McCarthy, Dallas, Veltman, Azpilicueta, Cresswell, Dias, Gundogan, Lookman, Bamford, Calvert-Lewin

Neale seemingly played a game of FPL chicken with his Wildcard, only blinking with nine minutes to go when he pressed the magic button.

Say my name Raheem, say my name as he went all in on Sterling and apparently looks content to go without Salah as doesn’t have enough in the bank to move for Mo, at least not in one move.

It’s a cheap bench for Mr Rigg with Davis, Mitchell and Holding as his reserves so he will be hoping Alonso can secure a few more starts going forward.

Sean Tobin

IN – Mendy, Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger, Holding, Fofana, Salah, Jota, Neto, Vydra, Iheanacho

OUT – Martinez, Dallas, Digne, Alonso, Dias, Bale, Gundogan, Raphinha, Bamford, Watkins

Last but not least is Sean who was one of the wise ones to go with Vydra but had the misfortune of leaving him on the bench, he also suffered from Neto’s injury.

Meanwhile, his back line sees him keep faith in Coufal, along with the obligatory Chelsea double up and a rejuvenated Alexander-Arnold.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az – WILDCARD

Fabio Borges – WILDCARD

Joe Lepper – WILDCARD

FPL General – Alexander-Arnold (Reguilon)

Lateriser – Iheanacho, Aguero, Jota (Antonio, Bamford, Havertz)

Magnus Carlsen – Vardy (Antonio)

Mark Sutherns – WILDCARD

Matthew Jones – Jota, Phillips (Tierney, Raphinha)

Neale Rigg – WILDCARD

Sean Tobin – WILDCARD

Tom Freeman – Salah (De Bruyne)

Ville Ronka – No Transfers

*transfers out are in brackets

Whilst half of them were Wildcarding there was plenty of drama amongst the transfers for the rest of them, with Magnus bringing in and captaining Vardy and Lateriser taking a minus eight for the sentimental pick of Aguero.

Then there was Matthew Jones who as always waited patiently whilst others rushed to overhaul their teams, taking a hit to bring in a couple of Reds. He is the only survivor with a Wildcard in hand, will this pay off when the remaining doubles get announced?

TEMPLATE

The template for The Great and The Good is as follows with number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:-

Mendy/Forster (8)

Alexander-Arnold (7), Rudiger (6), Alonso (5), Coady/Veltman (4)

Son (10), Salah (9), Bruno Fernandes (9), Jota (9), Raphinha (6)

Kane (12), Iheanacho (7), Davis/Calvert-Lewin/Watkins (3)

A seismic shift in the template squad to reflect the Wildcards with only Kane remaining irreplaceable as he sits in all the teams.

At the back we see Mendy come in between the sticks and Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger and Coady make up the other newcomers to the defence.

Salah and Jota join and make up the Liverpool contingent, Gundogan’s exit means we have no City coverage and ring the alarm as few would have put money on Iheanacho being in the template this season.

TOP TEAMS

Time for a look at the most popular teams that make up The Great and The Good squads to see how the fixture swing has influenced the line ups.

As expected all the single ladies have jumped on Liverpool with only three of The Great and The Good not tripling up, a similar story with Spurs with 24 of them in the squads ready for next week’s double but we may have expected more of Leicester and Wolves with only 11 and 5 respectively despite a good run of matches.

Few signs of any of the relegation battlers with no Sheffield United, Newcastle or West Brom players although there are six Fulham representatives in the mix with some keeping faith in Areola and Lookman.

THE NEXT GREAT AND THE GOOD

Whilst this year participants continue to battle it out, there is another war underway in my mini-league, imaginatively entitled The Next Great and The Good, where anyone and everyone was given chance to gain members-only access and the opportunity to take on Mark, Magnus and Fabio next year.

The table below shows the top 5 and there are only nine points separating them with last week’s lead Greg Brozybski knocked off his perch as he chose to hold his Wildcard.

Interesting only, he and second place Damien Dunnion have the biggest chip of them all remaining, whilst current leader Les Caldwell will have to hope he has done enough with his overhaul to keep no.1 spot.

Elsewhere, David Cousins sits in second and has his triple captain chip remaining- I wonder whether he’ll use it on a certain Harry Kane this week?

Good luck to all competitors and will check in again as we come to final nail-biting weeks.

CONCLUSION

The FPL landscape has shifted as we move into the final leg with the new template seemingly the best way to climb up the ranks.

However, much can change as there are a fortunate few with chips in their hands plus no doubt soon the dreaded phrase of a team being on the beach, subject to COVID guidelines, will be used, as motivation becomes a factor.

The race to win The Great and The Good remains close as does the competition to gain entry next year, let’s hope they’re ready for this jelly.

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

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