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.
“That’s number-Hwang”
Trying to work out how to plot our way through the Doubles and Blanks has left many an FPL manager a gibbering, incoherent wreck still muttering under their breath about Erling Haaland’s (£14.4m) xG in Gameweek 25.
Should they bring in players with games in Gameweek 29? Try to second-guess the FA Cup results? Plan to Free Hit? Push the Wildcard button? Or just relax until the fixtures are certain – actually scratch that last suggestion – completely ridiculous!
The only certainty heading into Gameweek 26 was that the loudest answer being shouted was Hwang Hee-chan (£5.6m), which if nothing else gave everyone a chance to bring out their collection of Hwang innuendos. Oo-er missus.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
It was a red wedding this week with a crimson veil covering most of The Great and The Good as a combination of hits and hangovers, following some gambles in Gameweek 25, led to many tumbling down the ranks.
In fact, the biggest gain was a mere 1,628 places and that was FPL Godfather Mark Sutherns, who successfully gambled on the in-form Bukayo Saka (£9.2m) for the captaincy. The Arsenal winger was ably supported by Leon Bailey (£5.6m) who finally came good for Mark with a goal and an assist.
The only other green was a massive 513 places, so so close to a grey dot for Andy North. His best mate Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) gave him those vital five points to see him gain at least a little ground.
Not one of them owns this round’s top points scorer Jarrod Bowen (£7.7m) as they were all distracted by the Hwang. At least Seb Wassell had Douglas Luiz (£5.6m) but his eight-point hit to get him and build some reserves for future weeks meant he was destined for a red.
Ben Crellin got his first red for the first time in about a billion years. Interestingly he noted that the only rank drops over the last 12 weeks have been in the blank Gameweeks, maybe he should build a spreadsheet or something?
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TRANSFERS
Transfer frenzy as all the managers tried to plug the gaps left from the sinking ship that was Gameweek 25, with Darwin Nunez (£7.6m) and Diogo Jota (£8.2m) sold en masse with 15 out of 18 of them going for Hwang. This cost a collective points penalty of 60 with 15 hits taken to right the ship.
FPL Gunz, our resident Del Boy wheeler dealer made the biggest gains this week, moving out that Liverpool pair for Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) and Saka, taking another hit in the process – that’s 10 for the season for those counting.
FPL General also brought back in Watkins after a two-week gap, he has owned him for 24 of the 26 Gameweeks this season.
- Ben Crellin – Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Jan Kepski – Eze > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Mark Sutherns – Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Seb Wassell – Bradley > Pau, Jota > Hwang, Alvarez > Watkins
- FPL Harry – Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Zophar – Jota > Hwang, Archer > Solanke
- Joe Lepper – Darwin > Solanke
- Pras – van Dijk > Pau, Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Andy LTFPL – De Bruyne > Fernandes, Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Fabio Borges – De Bruyne > Hwang
- FPL General – Gusto > Pau, Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Watkins
- Andy North – De Bruyne > Hwang
- Job Ballantyne – No transfers
- Finn Sollie – Jota > Hwang, Darwin > Watkins
- Tom Freeman – Guehi > White, Jota > Hwang
- Az – De Bruyne > Hwang, Darwin > Solanke
- Marko Miseric – No transfers
- FPL Gunz – Jota > Saka, Darwin > Watkins
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
A tremble in the template this week, as Darwin made way for Dominic Solanke (£7.1m), for those managers planning for his Double in Gameweek 28. Jota was kicked out for the Wolves midfielder with the rude name, meanwhile.
CAPTAIN, OH CAPTAIN
A look now at the captaincy stats, as Mark proved this week it is prudent, now and then, to go against Haaland. However, don’t say that to FPL General who has stuck firmly with the goal-scoring cyborg all season, picking him 17 out of 26 weeks.
Haaland has obviously been the most popular default pick. I suspect this would have been higher than 50% of the season if his poorly toe had not gotten in the way.
Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) lags some way behind him with Fabio Borges one of his fanboys, perhaps demonstrating the Portuguese loyalty to tried and tested players in his selection. The Liverpool legend has actually averaged more points than Haaland when picked.
As for who you should follow for captaincy advice, keep an eye on this Jan Kepski fella who has over 442 points from his armband picks this campaign.
CONCLUSION
In the name of all things FPL, just hold on to your transfers this week until at least we find out the results of the Cup matches before making your moves, then the real fun begins as we get out our spreadsheets and start to plan our end-game strategies.
I, for one, hope there is a little chaos to see a little variety in the plans ahead but let’s see what the FPL Gods have in store for The Great and The Good.
If you want to dig further into the data then do have a read of the Mini-League Mate dossier. 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.
