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.
“You will be assimilated”
The Gameweek 26 Wildcard Borg was busy assimilating many an FPL manager, as the combination of fixtures and injuries meant many decided to boldly go where everyone else was going.
Within The Great and The Good ranks, the only stubborn resistance came from the good ship Blackbox, as Captain Mark Sutherns, Az and their old sparring partner Joe agreed to Klingon to their Wildcard.
The decision not to pull the trigger certainly looked a wise one as Mr Salah had his MO-ment on Sunday, meaning all three non-Wildcarders went to Warp speed up the ranks.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
I suspect Mark Sutherns might read this week’s article, as he was our top scorer with an impressive, non-Wildcard tally of 77 points.
Obviously, he had Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) but it was Brennan Johnson (£5.7m) who was the real hero, helping his beloved Nottingham Forest to a draw and moving the Blackbox host off the bottom of The Great and The Good and inside the top million for the first time.
In fact, it was all the non-Wildcarders who triumphed this week, Az reached his highest rank of the season with a green arrow up to 263k and Joe also reached his campaign high of 31k and is third in this mythical mini-league. Could he become the greatest of The Great and The Good this year?
In other news, thoughts and prayers are with Pras and Geoff who benched Kaoru Mitoma (£5.5m), Ben Crellin who had to watch James Ward-Prowse (£6.3m) miss a penalty and the GOAT Fabio Borges who took a 95,000 red arrow after Wildcarding.
WILDCARDS
14 of 18 managers in The Great and The Good decided to trigger the Wildcard photon torpedo with the opportunity to maximize the benefit of the upcoming Double Gameweeks. There was an awful lot of similarity between the teams, with the Bees and Seagulls dominating.
Ben Crellin’s approach did set him apart as he is positioning his team for an imminent Bench Boost, two rounds earlier than the majority who are aiming for the bigger double of Gameweek 29.
The mysterious disappearance of Robert Sanchez (£4.6m) may put a little doubt in his mind but, with seven doublers in his Wildcard, this still looks to be the path he’ll follow.
It’s using the logic that the upcoming international break brings uncertainty for those boosting in Gameweek 29 – not that appears to have put those managers off.
Suvansh is the other one not to follow the herd, as he completely ignores both Harry Kane (£11.7m) and Erling Haaland (£12.2m) in favour of Ollie Watkins (£7.3m) and Joao Felix (£7.6m), allowing him to stretch to James Maddison (£8.1m) in midfield. Last year’s number two is rolling the dice and I, for one, wouldn’t bet against him.
Fabio Borges is another one to secure Maddison but, unlike many, has doubled up on Arsenal’s defence, hoping they can secure a clean sheet for longer than the nine seconds against Bournemouth.
Elsewhere, it’s the FPL equivalent of spot the difference, with only very subtle divergence between the others. I had thought that Pras and Zophar were Wildcard doppelgängers before being reminded they have different reserve keepers – Nick Pope (£5.4m) and David Raya (£4.8m). Yes, the differences are really that minute.
Other minor variations include Gabriel Martinelli (£6.5m) being preferred to Martin Odegaard (£7.0m) by Neale Rigg and FPL Harry, Tom Freeman and Finn Sollie opting for Solly March (£5.1m) over Mitoma and FPL Matthew winning the Brentford defender lottery by going with Ethan Pinnock (£4.4m).
TRANSFERS
Here are the moves of those brave enough not to activate their chip, the names in brackets are those who made way:
- Az – Henry (Bueno)
- Joe Lepper – Mitoma (Andreas)
- Magnus Carlsen – Mac Allister (Mahrez)
- Mark Sutherns – Toney (Nketiah)
Joe and Magnus nailed their moves this week, as they picked the right Brighton M&Ms. You can bet Mark will be happy with his specialist penalty taker pick of Ivan Toney (£7.7m) and, in Rico Henry (£4.5m), at least Az has one Brentford player for the upcoming double.
TEMPLATE
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 (14), Raya (7)
Estupinan (13), Henry (12), Zinchenko (11), Trippier (11), Gabriel (8)
Saka (18), Rashford (17), Mitoma (14), Odegaard (11), March (7)
Haaland (17), Toney (16), Kane (16)
Not one, not two but nine changes in the template as the Wildcard ran roughshod, with Salah, Darwin Nunez (£8.8m), Andreas Pereira (£4.4m) and Ben White (£4.7m) all leaving with a departing goal.
Kane and Toney join Haaland in what looks like the trio of choice for the coming weeks, the midfield now has a couple of Seagulls in Mitoma and March but it’s the defence that has a complete facelift, thanks to four new arrivals – Henry, Pervis Estupinan (£4.8m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (£5.2m) and Gabriel (£5.2m).
Meanwhile, Raya comes in for Danny “double digits” Ward, who surely must be one of the best £4.0m goalkeepers in FPL history.
SEASON STATS
Now, a look through the season’s stats, as there have been a few changes over recent weeks. Joe now sits atop the armband rankings – he should do a regular weekly captaincy video or something. One of his guests shouldn’t be Magnus, whose erratic picks mean he sits bottom of this metric.
Elsewhere, FPL Harry is cash rich on £104.3m whereas Neale is going through his own cost-of-living crisis on £101.4m. When it comes to transfers, it’s Geoff Dance, Harry and Finn Sollie who have taken the most hits but Magnus has yet to take a minus four.
CONCLUSION
A divisive weekend of action, with initial Wildcard results being disappointing and fingers then being pointed at content creators, when the only finger involved in pressing the button was probably your own.
However, away from all this, there’s plenty to look forward to with another double on the way. Just don’t blame anyone but yourself when Ben Mee (£5.1m) doesn’t score the obvious hat trick. I believe that’s called a reverse jinx.
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.
