Learning from ‘The Great and The Good’ FPL managers ahead of Gameweek 24

Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead continues with his series of articles analysing the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfers and strategies of some noted Fantasy managers, from serial top 10k finishers to well-known faces.

The Great and The Good this year are the Scouts Joe Lepper, Neale Rigg, Geoff Dance and Tom Freeman, FPL Wire’s Zophar, from the Hall of Fame Fabio Borges, FPLMatthew, Yavuz Kabuk and Tom Stephenson, Blackbox’s Az and Mark Sutherns, FPL “celebrities” LTFPL Andy, Magnus Carlsen and FPL General plus last year’s mini-league winner Les Caldwell.

“The first rule of FPL is: you do not talk about Gameweek 23. The second rule of FPL is: you DO NOT talk about Gameweek 23”

A brutal, unforgiving couple of weeks, as the longest Gameweek both in terms of time and emotional toil – particularly if you owned Emmanuel Dennis (£6.2m) – came to an uninspiring end.

The Watford strikers made us see red, particularly when Dennis was sent off, but Josh King (£5.9m) did little to reward those who put the armband on him and the real hero was Nick Pope (£5.4m), who provided some divine inspiration.

The doubles and blanks have now been announced to cause more excitement than Burnley vs Watford, plus Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) is soon to return. Although that exact date is a hot topic of discussion, our man @KaramTayser is already tracking his flight in preparation.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

The top two of Fabio and Az pulled away from the chasing pack this week and they were the only ones to score over 45 points thanks to a couple of inspired transfers.

The Portuguese Hall of Famer continues to show faith in his fellow countrymen with four of them in his squad but it was a man from a small town in Cambridgeshire, Nick Pope, who contributed most of his score with a 19-point haul.

This gives Fabio 12 green arrows out of the last 13. In that time he has outscored Az by 81 points which, if nothing else, should give a glimmer of hope to Mark Sutherns who is now 124 behind his Blackbox buddy. Still another 15 weeks to go, Mr Sutherns!

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az – Digne (Pinnock)

LTFPL Andy – No transfers

Fabio Borges – Pope (Guaita)

Joe Lepper – King, Dennis (Ronaldo, Antonio)

Geoff Dance – King (Calvert-Lewin)

FPL General – No transfers

Les Caldwell – Dennis (Toney)

Magnus Carlsen – No transfers

Mark Sutherns – Foden (Gundogan)

FPL Matthew – Dennis (Antonio)

Neale Rigg – No transfers

Tom Freeman – Dennis (Antonio)

Tom Stephenson – No transfers

Yavuz Kabuk – Dennis, Foden (Ronaldo, Trossard)

Zophar – Dennis (Antonio)

“We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.”

One thing we didn’t need was a double Watford forward line but, unfortunately, many decided on this double trouble, with Joe and Yavuz taking a hit they won’t forget for a while.

Aside from the previously mentioned Pope transfer, Az’s move for Lucas Digne (£5.1m) continues to prove he has a Midas touch this season. Digne’s dozen was welcomed in a Gameweek with very little to offer.

TEMPLATE

The template for ‘The Great and The Good’ is as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams they appear in:

De Gea (8), Foster (6)

Alexander-Arnold (15), Cancelo (15), Livramento (9), Alonso (6), Dawson (5)

Bowen (15), Jota (15), Foden (8), Gray (7), Bruno Fernandes (5)

King (13), Antonio (10), Ronaldo (9)

Despite the sway of Josh King and Dennis transfers, the template remains rock solid although I suspect a certain Egyptian will be flying back into the squad by Gameweek 25 and his dream double in Gameweek 26.

DOUBLE-DIGIT DIVAS

A delve into the double-digits now to reveal which of these managers has been the smartest when it comes to netting that haul:

Tom Stephenson leads this metric with 50 throughout the season and even having the option of benching three along the way. This is an incredible 11 more than Neale Rigg who sits at the bottom of this brace-bagging list.

When it comes to the players themselves, it’s no surprise to see Salah at the top but alongside him is Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m), which must at least make you think once or twice about handing him the Triple Captain chip in Gameweek 26.

Elsewhere, it’s a reflection of the campaign that a third of the double-digit divas on this list come from our back lines, whilst only approximately a sixth are forwards. It’s also worth noting that Bernardo Silva (£7.5m) has hit four, which is two more hero hauls than his national teammate Bruno Fernandes (£11.7m).

CONCLUSION

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

This seems an appropriate quote after many suffered a red arrow in the last week, as there are a multitude of options on offer for those willing to think a little different.

The obvious path appears to be Free Hits in 27 and 30, followed by a Wildcard in the later weeks to capitalise on the big doubles and a potentially massive Bench Boost in Gameweek 36.

However – and get ready for rumble of the ultimate FPL cliche – you need to play your own game.

All our teams are unique, and all our styles are different, so we all need to make our own decisions and more importantly let others play their own way.

So don’t criticize if some play their Wildcard this week or hold their Free Hit until the last weekend of the season as ultimately only one person knows what’s best for your own team and that’s you.

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

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me here on Twitter.