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.
“I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day”
The FA Cup results have brought a lot more clarity to what lies ahead, and the dark stormy cloud of the blanks in Gameweek 28 and 32 don’t seem that foreboding anymore, prompting many to bring a little sunshine into their lives with an early Wildcard.
While all the fixture chaos was becoming, well, less chaotic, there was actually a Double Gameweek going on, which started with disappointment and ended with a ‘meh’ as the multiple hits taken just about justified themselves.
The message going into the Double Gameweek had been straightforward: take hits, buy triple Liverpool and dump Harry Kane (£11.7m) – it looks as though many will be reversing these moves over the coming weeks.
We also had some new entrants into the FPL Hall of Shame: Darwin Nunez (£8.8m) cemented his place with a no-show followed by no goal, Eddie Nketiah (£6.8m) joined as his Double Gameweek turned into a double benching, and Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m) trolled us all, apart from those with the appropriate level of foresight/luck to keep him, by returning to the team and bracing.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Star of the show this week was Magnus Carlsen, who has taken the path less trodden over the last few weeks with his captaincy calls and chip strategy: he played his second Wildcard back in Gameweek 20, and this week he scored 121 points.
The century was achieved without any hits and by disregarding Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) and Darwin Nunez, and as a result of which he halved his rank from 880,000 to 400,000. He captained Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) but also had Martinelli and a double Liverpool defence, thanks to his move for Allison (£5.4m).
The other centurion was Neale Rigg, who kept faith in Martinelli. Whilst his beloved Newcastle lost out in the League Cup final, it must be some solace that he has moved up the ranking by 840,000 places since Gameweek 21. Not sure about that transfer in of Ellis Simms (£4.5m), though.
TRANSFERS
It was the FPL version of Supermarket Sweep this week (only the old or the unemployed will get that reference), as The Great and The Good dashed around the aisles ready to spend their minus fours, minus eights and even, pause for dramatic effect, minus 12s to get hold of the doublers.
Fabio Borges, Ben Crellin and FPL General were amongst the most ostentatious with five transfers, as the Liverpool trio of Salah, Darwin and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) proved irresistible, but it was the last-minute orders at the tills which proved most decisive. Fabio’s purchase of Pablo Sarabia (£5.5m) was particularly impressive.
The wisdom of buying Everton players was brought into question as the results came in. Joe even went down the route of a double Toffees defence but despite that, he will be sweet on his ranking this week as is now up to 54,000 and sits comfortably in fourth amongst these managers.
The full list of transfers is below:
- Az – Salah, Tarkowski (Patterson, De Bruyne)
- LTFPL Andy – Darwin, McNeill, Alexander-Arnold (Ake, Mitrovic, Fernandes)
- Ben Crellin – Darwin, Salah, Alexander-Arnold, Solanke, Pickford (Mitrovic, Fernandes, Ake, Ederson, Kane)
- Fabio Borges – Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Sarabia, Tarkowski (Shaw, Mitrovic, Fernandes, Cucurella, De Bruyne)
- Finn Sollie – Darwin, Tarkowski, Salah (Mitrovic, Shaw, De Bruyne)
- FPL Harry – Darwin, Salah, Alexander-Arnold, Tarkowski (Kane, Shaw, De Bruyne, Patterson)
- Joe Lepper – Coleman, Tarkowski, Salah (Doherty, Patterson, De Bruyne)
- Geoff Dance – Darwin, Robertson, Salah, Tarkowski (Lewis, Shaw, Kane, De Bruyne)
- FPL General – Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, McNeill, Tarkowski (Kane, De Bruyne, Botman, Almiron, Patterson)
- Magnus Carlsen – Gakpo, Allison (Rashford, De Gea)
- Mark Sutherns – Johnson, Alexander-Arnold, Salah (Mitrovic, Shaw, Fernandes)
- FPL Matthew – Saka, Salah, Alexander- Arnold (De Bruyne, White, Fernandes)
- Neale Rigg – Simms, Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah (Kane, Mitrovic, Shaw, Fernandes)
- Pras – Darwin, Robertson, Salah (Mitrovic, Shaw, De Bruyne)
- Suvansh – Robertson, Tarkowski, Salah (Perisic, De Bruyne, Digne)
- Tom Freeman – Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Iwobi (Mitrovic, Fernandes, De Bruyne, Shaw)
- Tom Stephenson – Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Iwobi (Mitrovic, Fernandes, Ake, De Bruyne)
- Zophar – Darwin, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Odegaard (Mitrovic, Fernandes, White, De Bruyne)
TEMPLATE
The template lurched again as Saka joins Erling Haaland (£12.2m) in the ‘essential’ list, with all of the featured managers now owning him. Elsewhere, we had the trio of Salah, Darwin and Trent entering the fold, along with Nketiah – but I’m not sure how long he will last.
The exits were also noticeable with Kane leaving in a huff and with a goal, Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.8m) sold by many after one too many sicknotes, and FPL royalty Kevin De Bruyne (£12.2m) dumped by all 13 managers who had him in their squads for Gameweek 24.
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:
Kepa (13), Ward (12)
Tarkowski (14), Alexander-Arnold (13), Trippier (16), White (9), Bueno (5)
Saka (18), Salah (17), Rashford (14), Odegaard (12), Andreas (12)
Haaland (18), Darwin (13), Nketiah (7)
DOUBLE DIGITS
A look this week at those members of The Great and The Good who have managed to spot that haul (please note this is just up to Gameweek 24 due to my writing schedule):
The leader this season, FPL Harry, has built his empire through an impressive ability to identify the double-digit haul, with 54 of them so far this season – some three more than any other manager. He could also afford to bench three extra ones!
Finn Sollie has been less wasteful with his 51 double-digit returns and not one sat on his woodwork, but the same can’t be said for Fabio Borges, who has benched six of his hauls.
The table below gives us a view of which players have been the most explosive over the season. There will be no shock to see Haaland top with eight but it’s maybe a surprise to see Kane with four, as he has been steady rather than spectacular.
As before, this is just up to Gameweek 24, but either way, it’s surprising to see Saka nowhere near his Arsenal colleagues of Martinelli or Martin Odegaard (£7.0m). His brace this Gameweek was only his second double return of the season.
Finally, a little tip for those Wildcarding, spend a little more time on the Goalkeepers, amongst this list of players with 3 or more hauls, there are 5 shot stoppers compared to only 3 strikers and defenders.
CONCLUSION
So, the next 24 hours will be a blur of Wildcard activity as many decide to strike now with the complexities of the blanks seeming less complex and the Bench Boost in Gameweek 29 looking far more appealing.
I am sure the decision will split The Great and The Good, with the more cautious possibly hanging onto their all-mighty chip to make the gains later in the campaign. Whatever you do, I hope you have a bright, bright sunshiny FPL Gameweek. Apart from you, Andy North.
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.
