Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for the 2023/24 season with his series of articles analysing the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
The Great and The Good this season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper and Tom Freeman, Scoutcasters Seb Wassell and Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar and FPL Harry, plus FPL ‘celebrities’ LTFPL Andy and Ben Crellin, 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.
“Cause two out of three ain’t bad”
There were not one, not two but three hat-trick heroes this Gameweek.
If you owned one then, well done you play FPL, as Erling Haaland (£14.1m) is now in 91.8% of our teams. Amazingly he still managed a price rise this week, I do wonder who suddenly realised after four matches that he was actually a good pick after all.
Owning two meant you were a little more astute in your selection of Spurs midfielder or Brighton forward. Well done Joe Lepper from The Great and The Good ranks for spotting that Evan Ferguson (£5.9m) might be a useful prospect.
As for Son Heung-min (£9.1m), well let’s just say I expect a lot of FPL articles over the international break on the merits of owning the South Korean, with 9.0% ownership and a leaky Sheffield United up next – even Everton scored against them.
Elsewhere, it was all about chasing price rises, arguing over Raheem Sterling (£7.2m) and James Maddison (£7.8m) and everyone pointing fingers and laughing at Jordan Pickford (£4.5m) owners before realising their goalkeeping picks were no better.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The battle for supremacy in The Great and The Good just got interesting, as Fabio Borges, Hall of Fame no. 2, is now level on points with Hall of Fame no. 1 Finn Sollie. He just edges top spot as he has taken one less transfer.
FPL Harry is only one behind, and in fact, only 36 points separate The Great and The Good, with Az just a good week away from climbing the ranks.
However, it was two veterans of the game, a polite way of saying old, who hit the high notes this week as both Joe Lepper and Mark Sutherns scored 83 points. It was Julian Alvarez (£6.7m) who did it for the FPL Godfather with a double-digit haul and of course, for Joe, it was his knowledge of Brighton forwards that gave him the edge.
Lots of debate this week on the merits of early transfers, as to whether gaining that extra £0.1m or £0.3m in the case of Raheem Sterling was a risk worth taking. Looking at The Great and The Good, it was fairly close with seven of them making moves before the Friday deadline day.
Jon Ballantyne was one of the first to go, making his move for Sterling on Saturday 26th, with Mark Sutherns and Finn Sollie also transferring him in before Gameweek 3 had ended.
FPL Harry and Jan Kepski were not so far behind, at least waiting until Monday night football had finished before making their transfers, although Harry brought in Maddison not Sterling.
The most trigger-happy was Marko Miseric who didn’t even wait until the end of Friday night, knee-jerking Malo Gusto (£4.2m) in just after his haul against Luton Town, although to be fair he did have a transfer in hand for any mishaps during the week.
TRANSFERS
Talking of transfers, let’s have a look at the moves of The Great and The Good in more detail.
Sterling was the most popular transfer in with 50% of them bringing in the Chelsea man only for him to blank against a resolute Nottingham Forest. More painful when you consider his standard replacement of Gabriel Martinelli (£7.9m) chipped in with an assist and his rival alternative Maddison scored again in the Burnley thrashing.
FPL Gunz and Jan Kepski were the best wheeler-dealers this week, with last year’s FPL Champion rewarded for dumping Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) and Jan for bringing in Destiny Udogie (£4.7m).
Meanwhile, Tom Freeman and Az are probably looking a little sheepish as they moved on Martin Odegaard (£8.5m) before his goal. I suspect the Norweigan will have another season of being overlooked despite the consistency of his returns.
The full list of transfers is below:
- Andy LTFPL: Sterling (Martinelli)
- Andy North: Foden, Mbeumo (Martinelli, Mitoma)
- Az: Maddison (Odegaard)
- Ben Crellin: Sterling (Havertz)
- Fabio Borges: Chilwell (Estupinan)
- Finn Sollie: Dias, Maddison (Baldock, Martinelli)
- FPL General: Maddison (Martinelli)
- FPL Gunz: Maddison (Fernandes)
- FPL Harry: Maddison (Martinelli)
- Jan Kepski: Udogie, Sterling (Shaw, Havertz)
- Joe Lepper: Sterling (Martinelli)
- Jon Ballantyne: Sterling (Havertz)
- Marko Miseric: Gusto, Gvardiol (Gabriel, Kabore)
- Mark Sutherns: Sterling (Richarlison)
- Pras: Dias, Sterling (James, Martinelli)
- Seb Wassell: Foden (Havertz)
- Tom Freeman: Sterling (Odegaard)
- Zophar: Maddison, Sterling (Martinelli, Mitoma)
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Sterling enters the fray for Martinelli, whilst Udogie fulfills his destiny by joining the backline and Ben Chilwell (£5.8m), who is now 100% owned after Fabio decided it was a good idea to bring him into his squad.
Turner (14), Pickford (9)
Chilwell (18), Estupinan (17), Saliba (9), Baldock (7), Udogie (6)
Rashford (18), Saka (17), Bruno Fernandes (13), Mbeumo (11), Sterling (9)
Haaland (18), Jackson (15), Archer (6)
LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEARS
There has been lots of talk about the good old days, with FPL enthusiasts claiming the influx of information and managers has made the game harder. So, I thought a casual glance of times gone by might be of interest. All the data below shows averages for Gameweek 4 in previous campaigns.
Frequently around this time, we have managers start to get a tinge of worry about their rank, despite wiser heads reminding them that it doesn’t matter at this early stage. Looking at The Great and The Good you can see that this year’s average rank compares well against the same time last year, although not so much to 2021/22.
Still, no hits this season from any of The Great and The Good is possibly a reflection of the strength of the opening template. Team value is a little higher, certainly compared to 2021/22, and this can be attributed to the growing number of overexcited FPL managers causing more volatility in the prices.
Finally, the captain points show the transition from permanent Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) captaincy in 2021/22 to permanent Erling Haaland captaincy from last year. Unfortunately, it just took a couple of The Great and The Good a while to cotton on to the Norweigan meat shield at the start of the last campaign.
CONCLUSION
So, the international break is upon us, with the majority of us having steady starts and plenty of time to make up ground.
I suspect there will be a Wildcard or two triggered over the next two weeks with further price rises expected, those Newcastle fixtures turning green and a certain Son Heung-min dominating our thoughts. Let’s see if any of The Great and The Good press the button – I am looking at you Az.
As always if you want to dig further into the data then do have a read of the Mini-League Mate dossier. Click here https://www.minileaguemate.com/membership and under ‘Join an existing league’ enter your name and email together with league code MLM0001. It’s all free!
Anyway, that’s all from me for now, and 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 at Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19
