Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for 2023/24 with his series of The Great and the Good articles, analysing the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends”
I’m back, you’re back, the FPL servers – following a swift kick – are just about back, even some of those who swore off the game for life at the end of last season have come crawling back.
After a lengthy pre-season of draft procrastination where my phone nearly reached its FPL screenshot limit, the game we love returned with a familiar last-minute panic, caused by an unexpected Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.0m) rumour and an entirely expected twist of the Pep Roulette which left us and our refresh browser wheels spinning.
WHAT IS THE GREAT AND THE GOOD?
Before we pile drive on with the usual combination of stats, sarcasm, poor puns and occasional analysis, I should probably explain what The Great and The Good is. Although I’ve been doing this for six years, so if you don’t know me by now, you probably never will.
In short, these are a group of hand-picked managers I keep my beady eye on over the season to see what can be learnt from their moves, strategies and occasional mistakes.
They are an eclectic mix of high-profile FPL managers and quieter types with exceptionally good track records. Over time, there is some rivalry between them as they try to win this fictitious Fantasy league and lay claim to being the greatest of The Great and The Good.
In other news, the more dedicated types can receive the Great and the Good Deadline Day email and dossier direct to their inbox courtesy of Mini League Mate. Special thanks here to Top Marx for making this happen.
Click here and under ‘Join an existing league’ enter your name and email together with league code MLM0001. It’s all free!
Anyway, enough of the science stuff and let’s introduce the stars of our show.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD: CLASS OF 23/24
One person with a glaring absence is Magnus Carlsen, who did a Harry Kane by deciding that he was more likely to win a trophy at the Chess World Cup than by competing amongst the FPL masses.
Elsewhere, as always, tough decisions were made and I have been struck off a few Christmas card lists, although there is an opportunity to return. More about that later.
Harry Daniels aka FPL Harry
Last year’s winner of this fabricated Hall of Fantasy Fame was FPL Harry – see how happy he looks! And so he should be, it was his third consecutive top 5k finish and he finished 510th in the world. Yet the only question is how many people will start copying the team of this YouTube wonderkid?
Mark Sutherns
Return of the Mark! I needed smelling salts to resuscitate the FPL Godfather from last season’s challenges, especially the one-point knockout blow from Az on the final day. Mark returns with revenge on his mind and a couple of magic beans via Moussa Diaby (£6.5m) and Richarlison (£7.0m).
He’s one of the best-known managers around and a former winner of The Great and The Good – which I am sure he regularly reminds his Blackbox partner-in-crime.
FPL General
No 59th-minute substitution for this FPL mainstay, whose cracking track record has three finishes in the exclusive three-digit rank club.
His podcast is essential listening, always providing a more considered view than most of the Fantasy landscape. The only way to perfect his CV would be to win The Great and The Good.
Additionally, he has recently started playing dress-up with David Munday – not sure if this is a show of confidence or a cry for help!
Jan Kepski
The first of the newbies, let’s review Jan’s credentials. He is the FPL Analytics poster boy with three top 1k ranks throughout the last four seasons and sits 15th in the Hall of Fame. My dark horse to win the mini-league.
Pras
No deadline dilemma here as Pras returns to the fold. The burning question is whether he will take it to the wire and win the granddaddy of ’em all this time.
A content-creating polygamist with multiple podding partners yet, with each one, he provides quality insight. Plus he’s not finished outside the top 100k since 2012.
Joe Lepper
One of The Great and The Good OGs, Joe earned his eighth top 10k finish in 22/23 and remains one of the best in the business. He makes being a dullard seem cool whenever he’s let out of his cupboard. A price points predator amongst men.
Tom Freeman
The Deputy Editor here in Scoutland, with an eye for a differential and who has spoiled us with pre-season team reviews.
He’s also a terrific manager with five finishes in the top 1k, and, as a Villan, expect him to tempt you with a couple of Unai Emery’s men if their form lives up to the hype.
Seb Wassell
A new face and what a face with his Zoolander good looks and deep blue analytical eyes distracting us from a stellar FPL record. There have been three top 5k finishes in the last four outings. Thankfully, to prove that nobody’s perfect, he’s a Leeds United fan.
Ben Crellin
The Grandmaster Funk of Fixture Spreadsheets, with an unhealthy understanding of doubles and blank Gameweeks.
He finished second to FPL Harry in last season’s The Great and The Good, so expect the Excellence of Excel to be up there again this time.
Zophar
A piece of FPL royalty with seven top 10k finishes, Zophar acts as the calm foil to Lateriser’s maverick moves on The Wire. This Chelsea fan has forgotten more about FPL than most people know.
Az
Our resident Jack Whitehall lookalike and Blackbox host with an unhealthy James Maddison (£7.5m) obsession. So it was a slight surprise to see him prefer Richarlison in his initial squad.
Az won his most recent duel with Mark to make it a successful campaign, just don’t get him onto effective ownership (EO) or the word ‘optimal’.
Andy North
Won his way into this mini-league after a silly bet with an even sillier writer. Before we go in two-footed on his FPL record, he’s actually got plenty of top 100k finishes and ended at 39k last time.
One of the nicest people in the FPL Community with a fetish for dressing up, Andy has promised to wear a revealing outfit if he doesn’t win The Great and The Good in his debut appearance (allegedly).
LTFPL Andy
One of the biggest names in FPL YouTube universe. Another with a strong track record, he will tell you he should’ve won The Great and The Good a few years back had he not been unceremoniously kicked out.
Furthermore, he likes to be called ‘Slippers’ and seems to know someone amongst the Arsenal defensive coaching staff.
Finn Sollie
The FPL Roger Federer to Fabio Borges’ Rafael Nadal has now snatched the Scout Hall of Fame number one spot from the Portuguese legend.
Keeping himself to himself, this silent-but-deadly manager has eleven top 10k finishes. Surely one of the favourites to win.
Jon Ballantyne
Another new face who is now of BBC Sport fame after an interview last year, also being winner of the MVP award in 22/23’s Strikers Keepers Losers Weepers.
Aside from all that, he finished 500th last year, ranks third in the Hall of Fame and four of his last five outings have ended inside the top thousand.
Fabio Borges
The only manager I would admit to having an FPL man crush on, Fabio is the GOAT of FPL, managing seven successive 5k finishes before a relatively disappointing 32k last time.
The only man to win The Great and The Good twice, he’s now aiming for the hat-trick.
Marko Miseric
Marko who? Well, he was the winner of the feeder league with a remarkable placing of 122th overall.
Information on him is sketchy – all I know so far is that he’s a Croatian Liverpool fan. More will be revealed as the weeks pass.
FPL Gunz
The champ is here! Last but not least, only one person could realistically replace Magnus and that is the reigning winner of FPL.
Don’t be mistaken for thinking his remarkable performance last time out was a fluke because, in 21/22, he finished 215th. The Great and The Good should be worried – Gunz will not be firing blanks.
So, in summary – and to give you the links to the teams – The Great and The Good this season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scout’s Joe Lepper and Tom Freeman, Scoutcasters Seb Wasell and Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar, and FPL Harry, FPL celebrities LTFPL Andy and Ben Crellin, current FPL Champion FPL Gunz, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Finn Sollie, Jan Kepski and Jon Ballantyne, alongside last year’s mini-league winner Marko Miseric.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Joe and Finn have had the strongest of starts, with 87 points putting them at 128k. The common theme between the teams is Chelsea’s new forward Ben Chilwell (£5.6m) – I know he’s not really – goalkeeper Andre Onana (£5.0m) and of course Bukayo Saka (£8.6m).
A lack of support for the Mo vote was apparent, with only the Godfather (Mark), the GOAT (Fabio) and the Rookie (Marko) deciding to go for Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), who really did struggle to get his wristbands off this Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, Erling Haaland (£14.0m) was the captain of choice. It’ll be interesting to see if this trio give their armbands to Mo in Gameweek 2, as this could be the first swing of the campaign.
Another point to note is the amount of money left in the bank, with many keeping coins in a piggy bank to allow flexibility when catching those early-season bandwagons.
On average, the unspent amount is £0.7m, with Pras being the most Scrooge-like by having £2.0m in savings. Joe, Andy North and Seb aren’t far behind with £1.5m.
The other trend this year is the domination of 3-5-2, with only FPL General being faithful to 3-4-3. He has gone with Ollie Watkins (£8.0m), Joao Pedro (£5.5m) and, of course, the other bloke, which gives him an easy route to the much talked about Nicolas Jackson (£7.0m) for Gameweek 3. Will he be setting the formation trend or is he a step behind?
TEMPLATE
The template for ‘The Great and The Good’ is as follows:
Turner (17), Pickford (9)
Estupinan (18), Chilwell (13), Saliba (12), Baldock (7), Shaw/Gabriel (6)
Rashford (18), Saka (17), Fernandes (15), Mbeumo (10), Martinelli (9)
Haaland (18), Joao Pedro (9), Archer (9)
Perhaps no surprise to see Haaland, Marcus Rashford (£9.0m) and Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m) have 100% ownership. I’m pretty sure Gabriel would’ve joined them had it not been for the late leak.
Saka not being owned by everyone is of note, especially as the one person without him is Fabio. Instead, he’s invested further into the Arsenal defence and I wonder if that will change.
The real differences appear to take place in goal, for the fourth midfielder and when picking a second forward.
STICKING WITH THE PACK
The template is strong here. With each passing season, it appears to be taking a tighter grip on our Gameweek 1 squads as information is so readily available to FPL managers. Let’s see whether any of The Great and The Good strayed from the herd.
The simple answer is no.
Two-thirds of them fall under the ‘very template’ category and it says something when a 72% rating for Jon Ballantyne is seen as maverick when even that is classed as ‘moderately template’.
This data and classifications are pulled from LiveFPL. A full explanation of how this is calculated can be found here, courtesy of Ragabolly.
The reason Jon is the resident rebel is that he went for a triple Arsenal midfield with Martin Odegaard (£8.5m) and Kai Havertz (£7.5m), plus a couple of rotating £4.5m defenders in Ezri Konsa and Sven Botman.
The similarity in our teams appears to be increasing year by year. Last season, the average amongst this group was in the 70s and there were even ratings of 32% and 55% for Mark and Az.
Do we need to worry about this? The template is named like this for a reason – because they are good players. Plenty of analysis has gone into identifying this relatively small subset, whilst in reality the real gains are made over your weekly transfers. There is plenty of time to be different.
CONCLUSION
We are up and running for this season and it’s been an eventful start in Great and the Good Land with a missing Grandmaster, moans about the template and controversial team leaks rearing their ugly heads again.
Let’s not forget that it was actually a good weekend of football. With plenty of FPL plotlines developing, is angry Mo going to punish his non-owners? What routes do we have to triple Chelsea by Gameweek 3? And why can’t we have more than five midfielders? It’s going to be a good one.
Before I go, if you do fancy being part of The Great and The Good next season you can join the open to all league ‘The Next Great and The Good’ – the code is ks0yks.
You have until the end of Gameweek 1 to join, if you win you are in. It really is that simple – just ask Marko Miseric.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now, but remember – don’t have FPL nightmares.
For those affected by any of the topics raised above, you can find me here on Twitter
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