How the all-time best FPL managers set up for Gameweek 1

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 (£4.0m), Andreas Pereira (£4.5m) and Cameron Archer (£4.5m) 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 (£4.0m) as their number one and having the 31%-owned Daniel Iversen (£4.0m) as back-up. Others will be using Ward as more of a bench-warmer or as part of a budget rotation, with Aaron Ramsdale (£5.0m) a part of 32.3% of squads and Robert Sanchez (£4.5m) in 22.9% of them.

It’s effectively the 15th and final spot that is most keenly contested, with Pedro Neto (£5.5m) the next most-owned on 44.6%.

Around two-thirds of managers had an £8.0m midfielder in place, perhaps with a view to swapping the candidates around when favourable fixture runs come and go. Luis Diaz (£8.0m) 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 (£13.0m) 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 (£5.0m) joining four £6.0m+ 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 £4.5m midfielders warm his bench and there is place for a Neto or a Leon Bailey (£5.0m).

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.