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.
“A long, long, long time ago…”
Hands up if you can remember when this Gameweek started. Yes, the 11 days of FPL action being painfully drip-fed into our Fantasy veins is finally over. But there’s bad news in that we have another six days until the next deadline.
The build-up to the elongated action was all about what to do with Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) and Son Heung-min (£9.7m) who went off in search of international glory. A parade of beautiful replacements was put forward. However, very few mentioned Diogo Jota (£7.9m), whose 19-point haul will no doubt see a flood of FPL content dedicated to him over the coming days.
It was a round of comebacks. Ivan Toney (£8.0m) returned with more fanfare than an overhyped social influencer boxing match, although his goal will no doubt turn a few heads before Double Gameweek 25. Speaking of which, Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m) and his new flowing locks also gathered admirers with a double-digit score – maybe he’s worth it.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
FPL Gunz blazed his way to the highest score of 89 points this week, almost halving his overall rank in the process. Last year’s global FPL winner has certainly brought some maverick moves to The Great and The Good and it was his decision to put the armband on Gabriel Martinelli (£7.7m) which was pivotal. His more risk-taking approach, which has currently cost him 24 points in hits, has brought highs and lows this season but this was absolutely a high.
Meanwhile, at the top, Ben Crellin reached the pinnacle for the first time this campaign – the seventh different manager to lead the way. The battle remains fierce, though.
He has had a strong run, recording a sixth green arrow in seven Gameweeks, and looks well set for Double Gameweek 25 as he has a trio of Manchester City assets already in place. Plus there are a couple of Liverpool lads, should they end up having a couple of games too.
The moves of our Hall of Fame top two caught my eye this week, as they have taken very different paths. Finn Sollie spent eight points to bring in a couple of Brighton and Hove Albion players, selling Salah in the process. Whereas Fabio Borges kept his powder dry, keeping both the Egyptian and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m), presumably waiting for more information before making moves.
Tom Freeman also had a strong week. This dynamo of differentials struck again with his move for Jota – the sole Great and The Good manager to do so – and it helped him to a 140k green arrow.
At the same time, picking a captain proved to be a model of inevitability as most wore their sensible Bukayo Saka (£9.1m) y-fronts. Only Andy North tried on the Cole Palmer (£5.8m) pants, alongside the aforementioned FPL Gunz choosing something even more frilly and tantalizing with Martinelli.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TRANSFERS
Plenty of hits took place, with Az joining Finn Sollie in a minus eight that placed faith in Brighton. The most popular move was for Phil Foden (£8.0m), with two-thirds backing the City slicker, whilst Son was the makeweight for 78% of them.
All the moves are detailed below. Please take a moment to applaud the 27 immediate points gained by Tom Freeman’s trades.
- Andy LTFPL – Son > Richarlison
- Andy North – Son > Foden, Alexander-Arnold > Estupinan
- Az – Salah > Garnacho, Archer > Joao Pedro, Livramento > Estupinan
- Ben Crellin – Son > Richarlison
- Fabio Borges – No Transfers
- Finn Sollie – Son > Foden, Salah > Gross, Taylor > Estupinan
- FPL General – Salah > Foden
- FPL Gunz – Son > Foden, Alexander-Arnold > Estupinan
- FPL Harry – Son > Foden
- Jan Kepski – Son > Foden
- Joe Lepper – Son > Foden, Lamptey > Estupinan
- Jon Ballantyne – Son > Foden
- Mark Sutherns – Son > Foden, Alexander-Arnold > Doughty
- Marko Miseric – Kudus > Foden, Son > Gross, Alexander-Arnold > Estupinan
- Pras – Son > Foden
- Seb Wassell – Dalot > Walker
- Tom Freeman – Son > Jota, Livramento > Estupinan
- Zophar – Son > Foden
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Here is the updated template for The Great and The Good. No pretty picture this time because someone stole the crayons:
Areola (14), Dubravka (13)
Gabriel (15), Porro (15), Alexander-Arnold (11), Estupinan (9), Taylor (7)
Saka (17), Palmer (17), Foden (15), Salah (13), Richarlison (5)
Watkins (18), Solanke (14), Alvarez (11)
The consensus appears to be to hold Salah, as he remains in all but five squads. Elsewhere, there is a reshuffle in the backline with Estupinan coming in for William Saliba (£5.6m) and Foden replacing Son.
CASH RICH
As Simon March notes in his latest article, this season has seen a remarkable rise in team value. The below table reflects what The Great and The Good have in their coffers.
In comparison to this time last year, the average was £103.2m compared to the £104.6m of now. Mark Sutherns is the Scrooge McDuck with £106.1m, with 2022/23’s being FPL Harry on £104.1m. At the opposite end, FPL Gunz is the poorest right now (£102.2m).
As for money in the bank, the one holding the briefcase at the top of the ladder is Marko Miseric with a remarkable £10.0m in his savings account. And the average is at an astonishing £5.0m. Let’s just call this the Erling Haaland (£13.9m) effect, with those who didn’t hold the Norwegian needing to make sure they’re ready to bring him back once we finally find out what’s wrong with his foot.
CONCLUSION
Thankfully, the painfully slow week is over but – wait – there is more patience required as we now have to hold our nerve and be ready for an exhausting amount of injury updates on heavy-hitters Haaland and Salah. My advice is to let it all wash over you and hold your decisions until nearer the deadline, as no one wants to fall into the Jarrod Bowen (£8.1m) trap again.
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.
