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Learning from the Great and the Good 20/21 – Gameweek 33 and 34

“You can’t hurry fixture announcements

No you just have to wait

She said FPL don’t come easy

It’s a game of give and take”

Patience was required prior to this weekend’s deadline as FPL managers eagerly awaited the fixture rearrangements and double Gameweeks, they came late, but then events at Old Trafford meant we would yet again need Ben Crellin and his spreadsheet on speed dial.

Whilst we were waiting there were Gameweeks to be played and both 33 and 34 brought entertainment and despair in equal measure, with a Chris Wood hat trick and a dancing disco inferno BigManBakar bringing the joy, and a surprise blank from United and Liverpool contributing to our frustration.

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

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Joe was the top dog over the two weeks with an impressive 76 points in Gameweek 33 inspired by his love of Wood, the Burnley striker chipped in again with a penalty on Monday propelling Mr Lepper just outside the top 100,000 and more importantly for him, I imagine, above Az.

Tom Freeman also had a good couple of weeks scoring 64 points this weekend, his differential picks of Welbeck, Veltman and Reguilon came good and saw him jump 68,000 places, suddenly the battle at the bottom of the table got interesting.

Meanwhile, up at the top of the table we have a new leader in Fabio Borges, his Son captaincy call proving decisive giving him a 3 point lead, but I still fancy Magnus to be in the fight with a couple of chips in hand.

Lateriser is making a really really late surge gaining 330,000 places in the last 3 weeks, the Bale transfer proving that the upside chaser is still alive and kicking, if only he could stop taking hits, he is up to 22 for the season.

Captaincy picks over the last couple of weeks followed a predictable path with Salah and Kane the favoured options, Az’s differential pick of Alexander-Arnold failed to defy the curse of captaining a defender in Gameweek 33 but it was Fabio’s choice of Son this weekend that proved a touch of genius.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Az

GW33 – Greenwood, Castagne (Son, Reguilon)

GW34 – Son (Fernandes)

Fabio Borges

GW33 – Vardy (Kane)

GW34 – Digne (Coady)

Joe Lepper

GW33 – Vardy (Kane)

GW34 – Kane, Ward (Vardy, Coady)

FPL General

GW33 – Vardy, Salah (Kane, Son)

GW34 – Kane (Vardy)

Lateriser

GW33 – Greenwood, Alexander-Arnold (Son, Cancelo)

GW34 – Wood, Bale (Cavani, Jota)

Magnus Carlsen

GW33 – Jota, Castagne (Lookman, Alonso)

GW34 – No transfers

Mark Sutherns

GW33 – Salah (Son)

GW34 – Son (Fernandes)

Matthew Jones

GW33 – Castagne (Stones)

GW34 – Sigurdsson (Jota)

Neale Rigg

GW33 – Vardy , Salah (Jota, Kane)

GW34 – Kane, Smith-Rowe (Davis, Fernandes)

Sean Tobin

GW33 – Vardy, Lingard (Kane, Neto)

GW34 – Kane, Smith-Rowe (Salah, Vydra)

Tom Freeman

GW33 – Alexander-Arnold (Cancelo)

GW34 – Reguilon (Pereira)

Ville Ronka

GW33 – Vardy (Kane)

GW34 – Kane (Vardy)

*transfers out are in brackets

Lateriser was the top of the swops with his Bale and Wood transfers in Gameweek 34 but the Blackbox duo also made a wise purchase in Son and Tom Freeman’s choice of Reguilon proved a good move.

The Vardy party was in full swing in Gameweek 33 as the majority took advantage of Kane’s absence, due to the Carabao Cup, to bring in the Fox in the box, unfortunately he played little more than a supporting role to the inspired Iheanacho.

Vardy was swiftly shipped out the following week for Sir Harold of Kane by the masses although Fabio and Neale, two kindred cautious spirits decided to keep him ahead of the Southampton game.

This looked a wise decision when the Saints when down to ten men but Vardy failed to deliver and I wonder whether they will keep faith ahead of this week’s double or will they be tempted by a Calvert-Lewin or Watkins to free up funds elsewhere?

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 (9), Rudiger (6), Alonso/Coady/Veltman/Holding (4)

Salah (11), Son (10), Lingard (8), Jota (7), Bruno Fernandes (6)

Iheanacho (11), Kane (11), Vardy (4)

The template remains relatively stable with the only new face being Vardy with Watkins/Davis moving on. No player is 100% owned by any of The Great and The Good with Sean Tobin transferring out Salah, Magnus without Iheanacho and Fabio coping well despite being Kane-less.

BENCH STRENGTH

The quality of our benches was brought under scrutiny more than ever this weekend, so I thought it worthwhile to have a quick check on the quality of The Great and The Good auto subs:-

Ville Ronka and Lateriser have had to call on the bench the most this season at 25/24 auto subs which perhaps indicates the need for squad depth in this most unpredictable of seasons.

Neale is the Prince of the Pine with a 4.9 average from his substitutes, Bamford’s 15 points in Gameweek 21 a highlight and I suspect he would acknowledge the irony that his actual bench boost only secured him eight points.

CONCLUSION

The final double is upon us, swiftly followed by a blank for the bigger teams which means we will spend more time than usual considering Palace, Southampton, Everton and Villa players as they have 3 games over the next two weeks, this may well extend to United and Liverpool once the fixtures have been rescheduled.

For those who have planned then ground can be gained but for other hits will be taken, pretty much guaranteed with Lateriser.

A note of caution before you rush off to take a minus eight for Ward-Prowse and Zaha, the doubles can and have disappointed in the past, plus remember to consider rotation, late injury news and motivation in your moves, so take your time and remember Phil Collins’ advice you can’t hurry love or indeed FPL transfers.

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

10 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Rotation's Alter Ego
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Cheers Greyhead! Enjoyed reading as always 🙂

  2. Baps hunter
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Cheers!

  3. Fulchester's New Centr…
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    A. Supremes
    B. Phil Collins

    1. Dreaming of glory
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Diana ross

      1. Hooky
        • 8 Years
        2 years, 10 months ago

        Just don't let her take a penalty

    2. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Clearly I only have eyes for Phil 🙂

  4. Dreaming of glory
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    35 pts back in mini league. Think rival will captain Bruno or nacho so I need a diff

    1. Greenwood
    2. DCL

  5. shuddahaddum
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 10 months ago

    Thanks Greyhead. Great read as always.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      Thank you!

    2. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 10 months ago

      And I should congrats you sir for being top of The Next Great and The Good... we might see you grace these updates next season 🙂