Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for the 2023/24 season with his series of Great and the Good articles, analysing the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
This season’s names 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.
“You’ll find us chasing the sun. They said this day wouldn’t come, we refused to run.
“We’ve only just begun. You’ll find us chasing the sun”
Many were chasing the Son this week as Son Heung-min (£9.1m) became the most wanted man in FPL, with the two-week international break seemingly dedicated to his inevitable brace. Spoiler alert: it didn’t happen.
In other news, Luton Town became the epicentre of Double Gameweek excitement, with all those who held Issa Kabore (£4.0m) and Amari’i Bell (£4.0m) feeling pretty smug. Plus, there was a head of steam building around a potential Carlton Morris (£5.5m) bandwagon.
Gameweek 5 brought more rough than smooth with defenders Pervis Estupinan (£5.3m) and Ben Chilwell (£5.8m) disappearing. Meanwhile, Gabriel Martinelli (£7.9m) took us from delight to dismay in the same time that it takes to conduct a VAR review. And the less said about goings on at Old Trafford, the better.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The FPL Godfather aka Mark Sutherns soared whilst others sunk this week, securing the highest score of 54 points. His rank halved this week and that’s three green arrows in a row following his Julian Alvarez (£6.8m) acquisition. Amazingly, he’s the only one to own the “almost undroppable” Argentinian.
Mark is also one of two to have Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), alongside our current leader Fabio Borges. Many will be preparing to use a Wildcard that purchases the Egyptian King over the next few weeks, so I wonder whether these two will delay their plans as a result.
Elsewhere, it was an ocean of red misfortune with the four Horsemen of the Gameweek Apocalypse – Az, Joe, Ben Crellin and Tom Freeman – all suffering rank drops of over one million.
There were moments of good fortune too, as Marko Miseric gained seven points from a Joao Pedro (£5.4m) autosub, whilst Seb Wassell was smart enough to start this rotation risk being safe in the knowledge that Manchester United is not a terrifying a place to visit anymore.
As for captaincy, some were brave this week and veered away from the Erling Haaland (£14.1m) missionary position.
Yet they were punished for having such deviant thoughts, with Tom Freeman, Jon Ballantyne and Ben Crellin all suffering a Son blank. Az will be mad about captaining James Maddison (£7.9m) but at least FPL Gunz got an assist from Bukayo Saka (£8.7m).
TRANSFERS
Furthermore, if anyone sees Az, please hold him and tell him it’s all going to be okay, as his sale of Richarlison (£6.8m) backfired quite spectacularly.
From the rest, I suspect only those Newcastle United investors Fabio, Harry and Jan Kepski will be happy. Especially the latter, as he’s seemingly one step ahead of a popular Gameweek 6 transfer by ditching “Bench” Chilwell for Kieran Trippier (£6.5m).
The full list of transfers is below:
- Andy LTFPL – Son (Sterling)
- Andy North – Udogie (Shaw)
- Az – Mbeumo (Richarlison)
- Ben Crellin – Son (Saka)
- Fabio Borges – Schar (Saliba)
- Finn Sollie – none
- FPL General – none
- FPL Gunz – none
- FPL Harry – Schar (Saliba)
- Jan Kępski – Trippier (Saliba)
- Joe Lepper – Udogie (Henry)
- Jon Ballantyne – Son (Rashford)
- Marko Miseric – none
- Mark Sutherns – Maddison (Rashford)
- Pras – Son (Fernandes)
- Seb Wassell – none
- Tom Freeman – Son (Saka)
- Zophar – Son (Fernandes)
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
It’s all quiet on the template front with only a small reshuffle in midfield as we saw Maddison come in for Raheem Sterling (£7.2m), who is yesterday’s news after being the headline act only a couple of Gameweeks ago.
Turner (17), Pickford (7)
Chilwell (18), Estupinan (15), Saliba (9), Udogie (8), Baldock (6)
Rashford (16), Saka (15), Mbeumo (12), Bruno Fernandes (11), Maddison (9)
Haaland (18), Jackson (15), Archer (8)
WHAT IF?
This weekend was cruel but I want to pile on the agony by bringing out the ‘What If?’ machine. It calculates what would have happened if you had left your team alone, making no transfers or captaincy changes.
The results are below and you can check out your own score here.
Yikes! Those who chant the “if in doubt, roll the transfer” mantra will be rubbing their hands at these results. Two-thirds of The Great and The Good have made things worse for themselves by making moves.
Seb Wassell has at least made it slightly better for himself by gaining 16. As for Az, well, he should just avoid reading this week’s article.
CONCLUSION
After all the points-chasing of recent Gameweeks – first Sterling and now Son – the ‘What If?’ machine perhaps proves that patience is the key. He says, while planning his Wildcard for a couple of weeks’ time.
As always, if you want to dig further into the data, have a read of the Mini-League Mate dossier. Under ‘Join an existing league’, just enter your name and email address alongside the league code MLM0001. It’s all free!
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
