Learning from ‘The Great and The Good’ FPL managers ahead of Gameweek 36

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.

“Son-day, Bloody Son-day”

You too could’ve been the victim of blood-red arrow this week if you missed out on the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder’s haul this Son-day.

We also saw two heavy-hitting benchings with the undroppable Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) become, well, droppable, while the safety of Kevin De Bruyne‘s (£11.9m) starts are beginning to look decidedly unsafe.

The lead-up to the Gameweek had seen a huge amount of excitement about Philippe Coutinho (£7.1m) but he proved to be just another Villain. Richarlison (£7.5m) also showed a bit too much flair, while we ended the weekend with the Norwich/Fulham Premier League exchange trip.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Az stays top but the gap between him and the FPL Terminator, Fabio Borges, is down to just two points. He has been relentless in his pursuit despite a misplaced armband on Salah and Jordan Pickford (£4.8m) was his hero this week with his first double-digit return of the season.

I am pleased to report that FPL’s equivalent of the Last of the Summer Wine, Mark and Joe, were back to their best this week as they were Gameweek 35’s top scorers.

“Compo” Sutherns tripled up on Spurs with Harry Kane (£12.4m), Dejan Kulusevski (£6.3m) and of course a Son Heung-min (£11.0m) captaincy, while “Cleggy” Joe only doubled but had an inspired transfer for Ollie Watkins (£7.5m).

Zophar is one to watch, as well, after a late surge. He has saved his chips for the final weeks and has moved from outside the top 50,000 to 15,000. An eighth top 10,000 finish is within reach!

Magnus Carlsen continues to win the award for the most differential armband picks, with Matty Cash (£5.3m) his money shot this weekend. Geoff laid a successful bet on the Siu superstar but Neale and Tom Freeman lost their gamble with Pep Roulette.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

• Az – Cash (Amartey)
• LTFPL Andy – Foden, Robertson (Havertz, Digne)
• Fabio Borges – No Transfers
• Joe Lepper – Watkins, Son(Wood, Fernandes)
• Geoff Dance – Mings (Regulion)
• FPL General – No Transfers
• Les Caldwell – Watkins, Gordon (Weghorst, Willock)
• Magnus Carlsen – No Transfers
• Mark Sutherns – Son (Fernandes)
• FPL Matthew – No Transfers
• Neale Rigg – No Transfers
• Tom Freeman – No Transfers
• Tom Stephenson – No Transfers
• Yavuz Kabuk – No Transfers
• Zophar – Coutinho (Havertz)

TEMPLATE

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

• Foster (8), Schmeichel (6)
• Alexander-Arnold (14), Cancelo (12), Robertson (10), James (9), Alonso (6)
• Salah (12), Saka (12), Kulusevski (9), Mount (8), Son (5)
• Pukki (8), Kane (6), Nketiah/Broja (5)

The forward line, outside Kane, still looks dire, but I would wager we will see Ollie “woodwork” Watkins and the on-form Richarlison soon come into contention dependent on whether the FA takes any action against the Everton striker.

CHIP PLAY

Gameweek 36 will see the next round of hot chip action, with most either Free Hitting or playing their Bench Boost, so I’ve had a quick look at where The Great and The Good are with their chips this season:

FPL Matthew, Yavuz Kabuk, Neale Rigg, Tom Freeman and Fabio Borges are the managers with a decision to make going into next weekend as they are the only ones with both the Free Hit and the Bench Boost at their disposal. This could be key for all of them: FPL Matthew and Yavuz will be hoping it spurs them onto another top 10,000 finish whilst it could be crucial for Fabio in his ongoing battle with Az.

There have been varying degrees of success with the chips this season. The Bench Boosters will have done well to topple FPL General’s very impressive 28 points back in Gameweek 28 and, as for the Free Hitters, Az showed how it was done in the same Gameweek with 133 points but then how not to do it in Gameweek 34 – I suspect the word “variance” will be overused by many a manager depending on the outcome.

CONCLUSION

An exciting week ahead with the age-old question of whether the Free Hit is mightier than the Bench Boost finally to be answered.

Those without a chip should probably visit their local garden centre as there will be a heady mix of big scores and big benchings to come.

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