Learning from the Great and the Good 20/21 – Gameweek 35

“Upside, inside out

We’re livin’ la vida loca

FPL’ll push and pull you down

Livin’ la vida loca”

A Triple Gameweek! An event not seen since Middlesbrough in 2006 brought much excitement to the FPL world with a mad scramble for Man United players, hits were taken, chips were brandished, and you could score over 100 points and still get a red arrow.

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

Tom Freeman played his free hit this week to perfection and hit a glorious 140, fifty-seven more than the weekly average, fuelled by Bruno, Greenwood, Digne, Alexander-Arnold, he could even afford to leave 36 points on the bench with Smith-Rowe’s haul staring at him from the side-lines.

This gives Tom his fifth green arrow in a row and back in the top 100,000 after being at 250,000 in Gameweek 31, quite the turnaround.

Magnus also played his free hit and whilst he scored a century it gave him a red arrow, he was let down by Watkin and Maguire plus his Mane gamble which looked a shrewd move after the weekend failed to deliver on its promise on Thursday night.

Joe Lepper and Ville Ronka pressed the boost button gaining a respectable 17 points from the pine, although the mysterious Fin must have been sweating a bit as his scores relied on a double Villa and Everton defence so he would have cheered the rather drab 0-0 between the two teams.

A nod here to Az for being brave and going Greenwood against a tidal wave of Bruno captainers, it levelled out in the end and sees him lose ground to Joe in their own personal battle for bragging rights.

WILDCARD – Matthew Jones

Finally…… Mr Jones played his Wildcard, at one stage I thought he had forgotten he had it, but as always he was just showing his legendary patience and sublime skills to navigate the choppy waters of this season without needing to resort to the mother chip.

The full details are below:-

IN – Pickford, Ederson, Maguire, Digne, Shaw, Alexander-Arnold, Coufal, Jota, Lingard, Ward-Prowse, Calvert-Lewin

OUT – Martinez, McCarthy, Dunk, Dallas, Phillips, Castagne, Konsa, Son, Soucek, Sigurdsson, Kane

Squad depth is evident with only two big hitters in preparation for a bench boost, yes, he has hoarded that chip too, ready for use in the closing weeks.

He tripled up on Liverpool and Everton as well as doubling on West Ham, all teams that sit high up on the fixture ticket with Ederson the only City representative.

Maguire and Watkins failed to fire this time round and I suspect may be replaced with Antonio, Bamford and Dallas looking good options.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az – Calvert-Lewin, Lindelöf (Rudiger, Davis)

Fabio Borges – Calvert-Lewin, El Ghazi (Son, Davis)

Joe Lepper – Maguire (Alonso)

FPL General – Ward, Digne, Calvert-Lewin (Bamford, Alonso, Azpilicueta)

Lateriser – Calvert-Lewin, Fernandes, Robertson (Kane, Bale, Reguilon)

Magnus Carlsen – Free Hit

Mark Sutherns – Shaw, Digne (Alonso, Rudiger)

Matthew Jones – Wildcard

Neale Rigg – Lindelöf, Digne (Alonso, Coady)

Sean Tobin – Calvert-Lewin, Digne, Salah (Son, Vardy, Fofana)

Tom Freeman – Free Hit

Ville Ronka – Zaha, Greenwood, Maguire (Son, Bissouma, Dallas)

*transfers out are in brackets

Fortune favoured the brave this week with FPL General, Sean Tobin and Lateriser all taking minus eights with great (and good) impact.

They all bought in Calvert-Lewin, particularly smart with Sheffield United up next, Lateriser brought back Bruno at the right time, Sean saw the light with Salah and General gained a couple of clean sheets from Ward and Digne.

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 (10), Digne (7), Shaw (5), Holding/Rudiger/Veltman (4)

Salah (12), Lingard (9), Jota (8), Bruno Fernandes (7), Son/Raphinha (6)

Iheanacho (11), Kane (9), Calvert-Lewin (6)

A minor shake up in the most popular picks with a defensive reshuffle as Digne and Shaw came in for Alonso and Coady, whilst up front Calvert-Lewin is preferred to Vardy.

SEASON STATS

A glance now at the season stats show that Fabio Borges continues to lead the way on his armband assessment with 588, this has been a key factor for him in gaining the edge over Mark in the last few weeks, there are now 34 points between the top two.

Mark can gain some comfort from his team value, well probably not much, as he tops this financial metric at 105.9. Just behind him is Magnus, who despite his reputation for aggressive moves has taken the lowest number of hits alongside Tom and unsurprisingly Ville.

THE NEXT GREAT AND THE GOOD

With only a couple of weeks to go let’s check in on the battle to join next year’s cohort, Les Caldwell holds on to the top spot but that lead has been cut by John Pritchard who used his free hit in spectacular fashion to score 132. Whose nerve will hold in the race to wrestle with Mark and Fabio next season?

CONCLUSION

Only a couple of weeks left of this disjointed season with postponed fixtures becoming a regular part of weekly planning.

Let’s not end on a whimper, let’s live this crazy FPL life and gamble on a few differentials.

There are plenty to choose from with Mahrez, Foden, Bale and Antonio all looking good bets, even Willock if you are feeling brave.

If this week has taught us anything, it’s that good to be a little loco and seize the opportunity, plenty of chance to take a break over the post season but for now it’s time to have some fun!

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