Every Gameweek here at Fantasy Football Scout, we bring you analysis of the teams and chip analysis of the leading Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers via the excellent LiveFPL website.
Usually we concentrate on the top 10,000 but we’re in the very early stages of the campaign and the front-runners are still jostling for position.
So instead, we’ll take a quick look at how the all-time elite FPL bosses have set up for Gameweek 1.
INTRODUCING THE ‘LEGENDARY MANAGERS’
Much like our very own Hall of Fame, the LiveFPL site features its own list of the leading 1,000 FPL managers of all time.
You can see the top 10 above, with a very familar name at the top of the pile.
Other notable names you may recognise further down the list include Finn Sollie (2nd), John Canning (43rd), Pranil ‘Lateriser’ Sheth (52nd), Mark Sutherns (88th) and one of our new recruits for the 2022/23 season, Obay Eid (125th).
OWNERSHIP
There’s a very definite template that has formed at this early stage of the season.
A total of 13 players are owned by more than 60% of these featured managers, with bench fodder Neco Williams (ยฃ4.0m), Andreas Pereira (ยฃ4.5m) and Cameron Archer (ยฃ4.5m) also able to boast such popularity and only not featuring on the above list because of their low ‘effective ownerships’.
There is a bit more of a divide with the second goalkeeper slot, with some managers installing Danny Ward (ยฃ4.0m) as their number one and having the 31%-owned Daniel Iversen (ยฃ4.0m) as back-up. Others will be using Ward as more of a bench-warmer or as part of a budget rotation, with Aaron Ramsdale (ยฃ5.0m) a part of 32.3% of squads and Robert Sanchez (ยฃ4.5m) in 22.9% of them.
It’s effectively the 15th and final spot that is most keenly contested, with Pedro Neto (ยฃ5.5m) the next most-owned on 44.6%.
Around two-thirds of managers had an ยฃ8.0m midfielder in place, perhaps with a view to swapping the candidates around when favourable fixture runs come and go. Luis Diaz (ยฃ8.0m) was the most owned of these players but still in only 23.6% of teams.
CAPTAINCY
This one is nice and easy: the vast majority of our featured FPL bosses handed the armband to Mohamed Salah (ยฃ13.0m) for his double-digit haul against Fulham on Saturday lunchtime.
FABIO BORGES’ TEAM
The man, the myth, the legend.
Top of not just the LiveFPL ‘legendary managers’ but also our very own Hall of Fame, Fabio Borges has registered seven successive finishes in the top 5k.
He started Gameweek 1 with a biggish at the back 5-3-2, with Gabriel Magalhaes (ยฃ5.0m) joining four ยฃ6.0m+ defenders. Fabio did, however, favour the Ward/Iversen double-up.
There are no surprises elsewhere, with the inclusion of Gabriel over Williams meaning that two ยฃ4.5m midfielders warm his bench and there is place for a Neto or a Leon Bailey (ยฃ5.0m).
BENCH BOOST IN GAMEWEEK 1?
Six of the elite 1,000 played their Bench Boost chips in Gameweek 1, a tactic we’ve seen increasingly used in recent years as it eliminates the necessity to plan for/worry about it later in the season.
The best of the half-dozen to use it scored 17 points, a more than respectable score, but two of the six burned it on a bench full of fodder and a non-playing goalkeeper. The other boosted benches scored 8, 11 and 13.
