Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses 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 season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper, Tom Freeman, Neale Rigg, Geoff Dance, Pro Pundits Pras, Zophar and FPL Harry, FPL “celebrities” Magnus Carlsen, FPL General, LTFPL Andy, Ben Crellin, from the Hall of Fame, Fabio Borges, FPL Matthew, Finn Sollie and Tom Stephenson and of course last year’s mini-league winner and overall no.2 Suvansh.
“I fought the law and the law won”
The FPL authorities were busy this week defending the laws and regulations of the game, with the rule book adding to the dismay of many. We had Marcus Rashford (£7.1m) offside/onside/not interfering with play, fury over a non-assist from goalkeeper Ederson (£5.4m) and the double-kick penalty miss of Aleksandar Mitrovic (£7.2m), which was a new low for his owners.
There was much excitement in the run-up to Double Gameweek 20, with the AGM of FPL content providers deciding this was the time to Triple Captain Erling Haaland (£12.2m). Rashford hype was at an all-time high, although we should’ve been talking about Bruno.
Also, amidst all the chaos, our Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen made the ultimate sacrifice by playing his Wildcard.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Fabio Borges had fellow countryman Bruno Fernandes (£9.8m) to thank for giving him this week’s highest score of 91. In fairness, he’s had the Manchester United maestro since the restart, way before the other cool kids clamoured for his services.
He was one of many to use his Triple Captain chip, with seven of ‘The Great and The Good’ pressing the button on Haaland. The jury is out as to whether it was well-played. Fabio also had a degree of good fortune with Ben White (£4.7m) auto-subbing in for an absent Marc Cucurella (£5.2m).
Tom Stephenson wasn’t too far behind on 85. His eight-point hit was well-judged and brought a rise of around 140,000, although the biggest green arrow belonged to Az with a Dejan Kulusevski-fuelled (£7.9m) 300,000 boost up the rankings.
Despite all this, Ben Crellin remains at number one, sitting just outside of the top 2k overall. Let’s hope all these double and blank calculations don’t distract him.
WILDCARD FOR MAGNUS
He’s only gone and played his Wildcard, a couple of weeks after seemingly forgetting about FPL when he made no changes during the period of unlimited free transfers. He’s come back with a bang, overhauling the squad just a week after his ill-fated Mitrovic triple captaincy.
Magnus has gambled big time, trying to maximise this week’s double by having triple Manchester City and Tottenham coverage. He opted for the cheap Rico Lewis (£3.9m), the enigmatic Riyad Mahrez (£7.9m) alongside the inevitable Haaland, with the amazing Algerian putting the biggest smile on his face.
As for Spurs, he went for both Son Heung-min (£11.6m) and Harry Kane (£11.7m), even captaining the latter, with Matt Doherty (£4.6m) making up the Cockney threesome – another phrase not to Google unless you’re on your own.
He has not left himself much room to manoeuvre over the upcoming schedule but perhaps most shocking is that he dropped his old favourite Mohamed Salah (£12.8m)
As always, I’m sure it will end up well for him, despite my doubts, as he appears to be playing on a completely different FPL chessboard from the rest of us.
These were Carlsen’s full Wildcard moves:
IN: De Gea, Lewis, Doherty, Shaw, Bueno, Rashford, Mahrez, Son, Kane, Toney
OUT: Pope, Cancelo, van Dijk, Cresswell, Williams, Salah, Mount, Willock, Martial, Mitrovic
TRANSFERS
Hits, hits and more hits! There were minus fours and even minus eights being thrown around willy, and indeed nilly, with only the unflappable Fabio and Zophar steadfastly refusing to go mad in the transfer market.
Kane was the most popular target, with Darwin Nunez’s (£8.8m) injury proving as good a reason as any for a fire sale on Liverpool’s miss master.
Perhaps the best move was opting for Bruno, which LTFPL Andy, Ben Crellin and Tom Stephenson were all rewarded for.
Az’s eight-point hit involving Martin Odegaard (£6.8m) was pretty decent and I am sure he will be smiling on his Mexican sun lounger. Follow him on Instagram for the full gory details.
- Az – Kane, Botman, Odegaard (Darwin, Trossard, Cancelo)
- LTFPL Andy – Fernandes, Ake, Shaw, Ederson (Mount, Cancelo, James, Arrizabalaga)
- Ben Crellin – Kane, Fernandes, Ake (Darwin, Salah, Chalobah)
- Fabio Borges – De Bruyne, Shaw (Salah, James)
- Finn Sollie – Kane, De Bruyne, Doherty (Darwin, Salah, Cancelo)
- FPL Harry – Mahrez, Kane, Stones (Cancelo, Mitrovic, Mount)
- Joe Lepper – Kane, Doherty (Darwin, Cancelo)
- Geoff Dance – Kane, Doherty (Darwin, Cancelo)
- FPL General – Kane, De Bruyne, Botman (Mitrovic, Salah, Cancelo)
- Magnus Carlsen – Wildcard
- Mark Sutherns – Ake, Rashford (White, Trossard)
- FPL Matthew – Kane, Doherty, Shaw (Darwin, Cancelo, Shaw)
- Neale Rigg – Kane, Almiron (Darwin, Kulusevski)
- Pras – De Bruyne, Kane, Mings (Salah, Darwin, Cancelo)
- Suvansh – Perisic, Shaw (Cucurella, Patterson)
- Tom Freeman – Martial, De Bruyne, Shaw (Darwin, Foden, Cancelo)
- Tom Stephenson – Fernandes, Ake, De Bruyne (Mount, Cancelo, Salah)
- Zophar – Kane (Darwin)
TEMPLATE
The template fell victim to the first Double Gameweek wave, with Kane and Doherty replacing Joao Cancelo (£7.2m) and Darwin. Meanwhile, Rashford has moved into essential status alongside Haaland but it’s time to feel sorry for Kieran Trippier (£6.0m), who just can’t convince Fabio to buy him.
The template for ‘The Great and The Good’ is as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:
Kepa (13), Ward (12)
Trippier (17), Shaw (17), White (10), Patterson, Doherty (6)
Rashford (18), Martinelli (13), De Bruyne (13), Andreas (11), Saka (7)
Haaland (18), Mitrovic (14), Kane (13)
WILDCARD TIMING
Magnus caught many of us off guard with his decision to overhaul his squad. This may have been forced by neglecting it during the World Cup break, or maybe it’s some master plan that a mere mortal like myself couldn’t comprehend.
Whatever the reason, it prompted me to look at whether the timing of your Wildcard can impact your season. So I observed the data from this season’s first Wildcard.
It proves that, just like in comedy, timing is everything in FPL. You can see that the early movers had some success but it was those Gameweek 8 Wildcarders that blossomed the most, with an average rise of 69 per cent.
What’s fascinating is that the results decline by using it just one week later and the less said about Neale’s late movements, the better.
Either way, it is worthwhile to spend time formulating your chip strategy for the second half of the season.
CONCLUSION
My advice this week is to roll.
No, seriously that’s it. Just roll the free transfer.
I am expecting a very small update when it comes to ‘The Great and The Good’ transfer moves, as the collective wisdom is to wait until we have a clearer picture of Blank Gameweeks 25, 28 and 32, plus a potential announcement of more doubles in the meantime.
So, for now, sit back, relax and wait until FPL God decides which way to throw the dice.
Anyway, that’s all from me and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article, you can find me on Twitter.
