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.
“Take me down to the Free Hit city, where the arrows are green and the ranks are pretty”
A tsunami of Free Hits flooded the FPL community with a downpouring of drafts that all looked remarkably similar. Even the captaincy question was a bit dull, as Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) took full advantage of Erling Haaland (£12.2m) having an FA Cup holiday to dominate the polls.
However, there was some excitement this week as Magnus Carlsen changed his team name to Mont Blank, perhaps suggesting that whilst he may have ‘given up’ on FPL he was aware of the blank and the mountain he has to climb.
There were plenty of goals expected for Liverpool and it seemed to be a question of how many they would score against relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest. In the end, there were plenty of returns but only a few gambled on two of the top scorers being Diogo Jota (£8.8m) and Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.5m).
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Last year’s number two has not had much to celebrate this time but Suvansh Singh showed the rest how to Free Hit with Jota and Alexander Isak (£6.8m) leading him to 89 points, going above both Magnus and Mark Sutherns in the rankings.
FPL General was not too far behind with 88, although he will be thankful that James Maddison (£8.1m) didn’t make the team bus as this meant Isak’s 13 points auto-subbed into his first XI.
This season has been a game of two halves for him, with a strong showing since the restart putting him at 12,000th in the Second Chance League.
In other news, Andy and Neale continue their green runs with nine positive arrows in a row – who will blink first? Magnus sinks to the bottom but at least has his Free Hit available and FPL Harry rises above it all with a phenomenal rank of 202nd.
TRANSFERS
There were a limited number of transfers, as you would expect. Only Magnus and Ben Crellin made any moves, Mr Crellin brought in Ibrahima Konate (£4.8m) to bolster his Liverpool ownership during their nice run of fixtures, perhaps forgetting they can’t defend.
Now the fixtures have been announced for Double Gameweeks 36 and 37, my spies tell me he is plotting to use his Free Hit on the final day. He certainly seems to be treading the path less trodden this season.
The full list of transfers is below:
- Ben Crellin – Konate (Zinchenko)
- Magnus Carlsen – Schar (Chilwell)
TEMPLATE
A Free Hit-influenced template, with only Kieran Trippier (£6.2m) and Ollie Watkins (£7.7m) surviving the one-week fling.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) was the only one to be 100% owned by all managers, he would’ve been joined by Salah but Magnus doesn’t own the Egyptian and wasn’t on his Free Hit.
It was perhaps surprising not to see Bukayo Saka (£8.5m) owned by all, with Geoff Dance taking the unfortunate gamble not to have him in his squad.
The full details for The Great and The Good is as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:
Johnstone (15), Iversen (6)
Alexander-Arnold (18), Trippier (15), Alex Moreno (10), Castagne (7), Andersen (7)
Salah (17), Saka (17), Martinelli (16), Gakpo (12), Maddison (7)
Watkins (16), Jesus (12), Toney (8)
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD ACADEMY
With only a few weeks to go, it’s time to look at the feeder mini-league to The Great and The Good, as I leave one space free for the manager who wins out.
Marko Miseric leads the way and sits at 269th overall. It’s worth noting that the leading four are all inside the top 1,000.
This Croatian Liverpool fan’s previous highest finish in FPL has been around 34,000th, so he is having a fantastic season.
All of his chips have been used, just like the majority of leading managers, as you have to go down to 13th in this league to find Jack Harrison (not that one) still with a Free Hit in hand.
Third-placed Eion Wilson is one to watch for captaincy decisions, having scored 602 points from his armband – higher than any of the current The Great and The Good. He and Ricki Lomas have also taken a remarkably low number of hits, with only one minus four taken all season.
Good luck to all those still in with a shout as we get to the business end of the season.
CONCLUSION
The final FPL fixtures were put in place this week with the announcement of Double Gameweeks 36 and 37, so expect to see a Brighton triple-up remain in most teams.
What will be more tricky is picking the best Manchester representatives, as rotation is still a concern should both clubs continue their European adventures.
Any future rank rises will probably depend on how willing you are to gamble on the likes of Riyad Mahrez (£7.3m), John Stones (£5.5m) or even Anthony Martial (£6.3m).
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 here on Twitter.
