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.
“Here comes the Son, and I say, It’s all right”
Son Heung-min (£10.9m) – and Harry Kane (£12.5m) – came to save the day and make it all right in a brutal Blank Gameweek, as the absences of Raphinha (£6.5m), Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) plus the Raul Jimenez (£7.4m) red card decimated some already threadbare squads.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Free Hitting FPL Matthew and non-Free Hitting Neale Rigg were the ones to score big this week, both hitting 66 points, some 38 points above the weekly average in a low-scoring week for most, particularly those who didn’t own the dynamic Spurs duo.
Putting paid to the myth that using a Free Hit in this blank was a bad idea, FPL Matthew relied on the Spurs strike force for most of his points but Gabriel (£5.3) and Harvey Barnes (£6.6m) also chipped in.
Les Caldwell was the other manager to Free Hit and scored 57 points to give him his seventh consecutive green arrow, gaining just under two million places in that time, after his season was massively disrupted by the hack.
Az continues to lead the way but will be disappointed to not achieve the legendary grey spot (staying at the same rank week-to-week) as he moved up just one place in the overall rankings from 556th to 555th.
Captaincy was a straight choice between Son and Kane this week with only Magnus Carlsen stirring the armband pot by going with Barnes – that’s his 14th different captain pick of this season.
TRANSFERS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week, with sold players in brackets:
- Az – Barnes (Gordon)
- LTFPL Andy – None
- Fabio Borges – Toney (Wood)
- Joe Lepper – None
- Geoff Dance – Reguilon (Digne)
- FPL General – None
- Les Caldwell – Free Hit
- Magnus Carlsen – Kane, Barnes (Salah, King)
- Mark Sutherns – Kane, Podence (Son, Saint-Maximin)
- FPL Matthew – Free Hit
- Neale Rigg – Kane, Maddison (King, Salah)
- Tom Freeman – Reguilon (Livramento)
- Tom Stephenson – Kane, Kulusevski (Broja, Son)
- Yavuz Kabuk – None
- Zophar – Martinelli (Trossard)
Bringing in Kane was seen as priority amongst ‘The Great and The Good’, with Magnus, Mark, Neale, and Tom Stephenson all taking hits to do so – a couple of them sacrificing Son in the process.
Neale deserves a mention for his decision to move out Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) to provide funds for Harry but it paid off as did his call to bring in James Maddison (£6.8m). I wonder whether this paves the way for a Wildcard in Gameweek 31 or is he gambling on Salah not being present and correct to face Watford?
TEMPLATE
The template for ‘The Great and The Good’ is as follows, with number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:
- Ramsdale (10), Dubravka/Sa (5)
- Alexander-Arnold (13), Doherty (10), Tierney (5), Robertson (5), Saiss (5)
- Raphinha (12), Saka (12), Salah (11), Kulusevski (10), Son (8)
- Kane (12), Broja (8), Jimenez (8)
Despite the scramble for a playing XI this week, there was little change in the template with Kieran Tierney (£5.1m) coming in for Antonio Rudiger (£6.1m) and Ben Foster (£4.1m) leaving the squad for now.
The next few weeks should see the return of the Manchester City and Chelsea favourites as they both have good runs. It’s worth noting that Kevin De Bruyne (£11.7m) has never made ‘The Great and The Good’ template this season – could someone gain the advantage by calling on the same ‘Belgian Bezerker’ who has scored 36 points in his last six?
FATAL OR FANTASTIC FOUR?
The last four Gameweeks have been pivotal for many of us and, inspired by Lateriser’s brilliant article comparing the fortunes of the Gameweek 26 and Gameweek 28 Wildcarders, I thought it worth seeing how ‘The Great and The Good’ have fared when split into these two camps.
The table shows when each manager has played their Wildcard, their points over the last five Gameweeks and the number of chips remaining. On average, the Gameweek 26 Wildcarders have gained ten points over the Gameweek 28 gang and 37 over the ones who still have the chip to play.
This gap widens to 51 points when you remove Magnus and FPL Matthew from those still to activate it, as they have used a Free Hit during this period.
There is no doubt that Tom Freeman, Neale and Zophar have a hill to climb, with their extra two chips needing to make up that deficit. Having said that, I wouldn’t put it past them.
The final weeks will bring plenty of movements in many mini-leagues, so don’t give up hope if you’ve had a torrid couple of rounds – I for one have a 26-point gap to make up on the aforementioned Lateriser, with only a Bench Boost in hand!
CONCLUSION
An international break such as this will bring comfort to many after a challenging Gameweek 30 – remember as always to enjoy the time away and not dwell too much on what might have been or the ‘injuries’ to some of our favourites, as I suspect that there may yet be some miraculous recoveries.
For those behind in mini-leagues, stay optimistic. Especially if you have chips in hand. For those that are ahead, don’t go counting your FPL chickens just yet.
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 on Twitter.
2 years, 10 months agoIt’s quiet on here during the IB