Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses 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, FPL ‘celebrities’ LTFPL Andy and Ben Crellin, FPL champion FPL Gunz, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Finn Sollie, Jan Kepski and Jon Ballantyne, and last year’s mini-league winner Marko Miseric.
The Scout Picks for Gameweek 20 will follow this article.
“So, this is Christmas and what have you done, another year over and a new one just begun”
Whilst many were overdosing on mince pies and family arguments over Monopoly – I swear Auntie Pat miscounted when she landed on Park Lane – all these dedicated FPL managers were wishing for was a green arrow under the Christmas tree.
Gameweek 18 was one of redemption as Dominic Solanke (£7.0m) sleighed Nottingham Forest, Richarlison (£6.8m) gave Everton claus for concern and Gabriel Magalhaes (£5.0m) finally popped down the chimney to deliver his thunderbolt header, even if most of us left him in our stocking.
Then came Gameweek 19, where bringing in Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.4m) was the consensus. Only the brave and Az didn’t captain Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) and all this whilst keeping one eye on Erling Haaland’s (£13.9m) Instagram feed for news of his return.
Finally, we ended on the news that Fabio Borges and FPL General have pressed their Wildcard buttons, mainly because they have to with the first half-season chip deadline now due, but also as they had to distract themselves from all that uneaten Turkey.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
It was meant to be a wintry Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) wonderland in Gameweek 18 against a leaky Sheffield United. However, maybe we need to revisit our assumptions as the Wilder organised defence looks a little more Scrooge-like. Did someone say low block?
Fabio Borges was the talk of FPL tinsel town and was one to keep the faith in Son Heung-min (£9.9m), along with FPL Gunz, and so gained an advantage over the Christmas crowd.
In fact, the Portuguese GOAT was the leading scorer in Gameweeks 18 and 19, moving to 144,000 overall after being at 560,000 before the festive fixtures. He made all the right calls, benching Darwin Nunez (£7.5m) in Gameweek 18 but playing him in 19, putting Gabriel in his starting XI for his 10-pointer and then enjoying Hee-Chan’s Hwang-tastic brace (£5.7m).
Fabio now has five green arrows in a row, so talk of his demise is greatly exaggerated. He will also reveal his Wildcard this week. Be afraid, be very afraid.
There were plenty of leftovers on the Gameweek 18 bench with FPL Harry amassing a Santa sack worthy 32 points. Meanwhile, Pras suffered some bench pain on Boxing Day as he left Chris Wood’s (£4.9m) hat-trick on the plank, plus a number of them left Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) on the sidelines.
So, we end the Christmas fixtures with FPL General on top and with a Wildcard to play, yet only a team value of £103.2m compared to Mark Sutherns on £105.9m. However, with AFCON and the Asian Cup removing heavy hitters Son and Salah this probably won’t matter.
Maybe the big question is whether it will include Julian Alvarez (£6.9m), who went from potential exit to absolute essential in the space of an Everton game and a dodgy penalty.
The chasing pack are tightly bunched with only 15 points separating the top 10 managers in this made-up mini-league.
TRANSFERS
In Gameweek 18, the merry memo was sent around to buy Watkins and some of his Villa festive friends, yet the smartest move was that of Zophar who chose the right time to put the Solanke star at the top of the tree.
As for Gameweek 19, the herd moved onto Trent, who now has 51 points over the last 6 matches. However, the transfer of the week goes to Joe who correctly predicted a goal from Alfie Doughty (£4.4m) was imminent.
All the transfers are listed below.
- FPL General: Beyer > Trippier (GW18), Johnstone > Alisson (GW19)
- Jan Kepski: Archer > Watkins (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Joe Lepper: Darwin > Watkins (18), Tsimikas > Doughty (19)
- Mark Sutherns: Haaland > Watkins (18), Tsimikas, Ait-Nouri > Alexander-Arnold, Porro (19)
- Zophar: Darwin > Solanke (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- FPL Harry: Tsimikas, Livramento > Alexander-Arnold, Trippier (18)
- Andy North: Gordon > Richarlison (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Ben Crellin: Archer > Watkins (18)
- Seb Wassell: Darwin > Watkins (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Andy LTFPL: Cash > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Finn Sollie: Darwin > Watkins (18), Haaland > Solanke (19)
- Pras: Taylor, Gordon > Konsa, Richarlison (18), Livramento > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Marko Miseric: Isak > Watkins (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Jon Ballantyne: Archer > Watkins (18), Sterling > Odegaard (19)
- Tom Freeman: Gordon > Odegaard (18), Mubama > Alvarez (19)
- Fabio Borges: Osula > Watkins (18), Tsimikas > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- Az Phillips: Sanchez, Guehi > Martinez, Porro (18), Cash > Alexander-Arnold (19)
- FPL Gunz: Archer > Watkins (18)
TEMPLATE
It’s template time, so who is rocking around the Christmas tree whilst others are still hoping for some joy under the mistletoe?
The big arrival was Trent who was this year’s must-have Christmas present.
CAPTAIN CALLS
After two captain blanks for the majority, it’s a good time to point and stare at the season armband stats. The absence of Erling has created a bit of excitement, you can see he was the default pick with 52% of the votes over the season until his foot got stressed, allegedly caused by an over-enthusiastic family game of Twister, allegedly.
Jan leads the way, edging it due to Carlton Morris (£5.1m) in the Double Gameweek. FPL Gunz has been the most unpredictable with six different picks, including Gabriel Jesus (£8.0m) in Gameweek 19. And the less said about Az’s armband calls the better – although he did go Trent this week.
Fabio’s rise up the ranks has coincided with an improvement in his captaincy picks, so a couple of lessons to learn here. Lest we forget, firstly deciding your armband is probably the most important weekly call to make (on average over a season it is 20-25% of your points), and dare to be different, but the real skill is knowing when to separate from the pack.
CONCLUSION
All eyes are now on the Haaland family WhatsApp chat to find out whether Erling will return for Sheffield United – only two of The Great and The Good have held the faith but will it be repaid? Pep’s comments suggest not.
Meanwhile, the captaincy call is wide open this week and will remain so over the coming fixtures, plus the variety of our midfields will diversify with Mo and Son off on international glory – I sense swing season is on its way in the early days of 2024.
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 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
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