Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for the 2022/23 season 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 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.
“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble”
Far from being a tragedy, it was a Shakespearean tale of jubilation for those FPL managers that Triple Captained Marcus Rashford (£7.8m), with the real sorrow being for the ones who missed out on the United midfielder’s brace.
There was a twist in the tale this week, and certainly no room for us to get bard, as a Double within a Blank was announced for Gameweek 25 – meaning that Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) will probably stay in the squads of those who have bitterly hung onto him so far. Hello, Let’s Talk FPL Andy.
It was all too much for Jesse Marsch, who was yanked out of the Leeds hot seat, with odds closing on Nathan Jones to go next. Jones seems to think Luton Town were the best team in Europe last season; I am not sure even mad Hatter fans would agree with that assessment.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Some big green arrows this week with nine of them scoring over 100; coincidentally all of these managers put the Triple Captain chip on Rashford.
Az was the greatest of The Great and The Good for this week with 107, which saw him rise by over 380,000 places; that is a gain of 950,000 since Gameweek 17, when he was outside the top million.
FPL Harry was not far behind on 106 and has now turned the battle for the no.1 spot into a two-horse race. He is just two points behind Ben Crellin, with both residing in the top 3,000.
Magnus continues to surprise us by handing the armband to Luke Shaw (£5.3m). This resulted in a poor week for the Grandmaster and Mark Sutherns gained over 52 points on him this week at the bottom of the table, meaning that the tussle over the wooden spoon is far from over.
Mr Sutherns had a strong week and can now add the accolade of having the biggest rank jump of the season with a move of 1.19 million. Now that is a super green arrow!
TRANSFERS
Operation: Buy Bruno was in full swing this week, with the majority of them fancying a Portuguese playmaker. Finn Sollie and Geoff Dance went as far as taking a hit, he returned their faith with a well-taken penalty.
Eddie Nketiah (£6.8m) was the other popular option, but Andy went all macro strategy going for Tyrone Mings (£4.3m) with an eye on the mid to long-term blanks, whilst Ben Crellin went short-term by gambling on Illan Meslier (£4.5m).
The full list of transfers is below:-
- Az – No transfers
- LTFPL Andy – Mings (Patterson)
- Ben Crellin – Meslier (Ward)
- Fabio Borges – No transfers
- Finn Sollie – Nketiah, Fernandes (Kane, Almiron)
- FPL Harry – Fernandes (Salah)
- Joe Lepper – Gnonto, Fernandes (Mitrovic, Kulusevski)
- Geoff Dance – Fernandes, Saka (Almiron, De Bruyne)
- FPL General – Fernandes (De Bruyne)
- Magnus Carlsen – Saka, Gabriel (Son, Doherty)
- Mark Sutherns – Fernandes (Salah)
- FPL Matthew – Nketiah, Fernandes (Kane, Almiron)
- Neale Rigg – Fernandes, Shaw (De Bruyne, Cucurella)
- Pras – Nketiah, Fernandes (Kane, Almiron)
- Suvansh – Gnonto, Fernandes (Mitrovic, Kulusevski)
- Tom Freeman – Nketiah, Fernandes (Salah, Martial)
- Tom Stephenson – Nketiah, Mitouma (Martinelli, Greenwood)
- Zophar – Nketiah, Fernandes (Kane, Almiron)
TEMPLATE
The template took a turn towards Manchester this week with Bruno entering the building and Shaw becoming the third player now to be at 100% ownership alongside Erling Haaland (£12.2m) and Rashford.
Bizarrely, Hugo Bueno (£3.9m) joined the template due to a lack of better alternatives in the fifth defensive spot but then failed to play so his days may be numbered, with my money on James Tarkowski (£4.2m) to have a Dyche-led renaissance.
Finally, this is the point of the article I remind everyone that Fabio Borges, one of the best in the business, doesn’t own Kieran Trippier (£6.1m), although the Newcastle right-back did blank this week so maybe he foresaw something the rest of us haven’t.
The full details for The Great and The Good are as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:
Ward (13), Kepa (13)
Shaw (18), Trippier (17), White (14), Patterson (7), Bueno (5)
Rashford (18), Bruno Fernandes (16), Martinelli (12), De Bruyne (10), Andreas (10)
Haaland (18), Mitrovic (12), Kane (8)
TRANSFER SUCCESS
A peak now into the murky world of the transfer market to see which of them has been most successful. Az has taken the Nottingham Forest route and made the most moves and hits to get his team up to scratch, but also like the Trees has been relatively successful with immediate returns of 136 points.
Perhaps, the most surprising of stats is that Magnus has yet to take a hit. I refuse to believe this will stay the case with the fixtures jungle up ahead.
CONCLUSION
Time to get your spreadsheets out, or at least copy someone else’s, as we try and navigate the blanks and doubles ahead.
This should lead to a divergence in approach and fortunes, some no doubt will try and plot their way through the fixtures without taking a hit, whilst others will be preparing themselves for a flurry of minus fours and minus eights.
All I know is that Let’s Talk FPL Andy will still own Salah at the end of the season.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now, but remember don’t have FPL 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
