Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for 2024/25 with his series of The Great and the Good 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, Tom Freeman and Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar, FPL Harry and Lateriser, FPL “celebrities” Ben Crellin, Luke Williams and FPL Fran, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Jan Kepski, Markku Olaja and Seb Wassell, and last year’s qualifying mini-league winner Geraint Owen.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us”
Dear Lord, that was a long international break. It gave us a lot of Sleeper drafts, surprisingly few price drops and worries about Joao Pedro’s (£5.7m) flight home. Spoiler alert: Pedro made it, although then had a small issue getting off the plane.
So, hurrah for the return of FPL… sort of. It quickly reminded us of the many lows associated with the game.
Lowlights included Diogo Jota (£7.6m) running too quickly off the pitch to join the 59th-minute brigade, Alexander Isak (£8.4m) going off at half-time due to a nosebleed, and the benchings/non-appearances of Pedro, Josko Gvardiol (£6.0m) and Rodrigo Muniz (£6.1m). Hello, Andy North, who owned all three!
It was one big lowlight for those who are cyborg-less as Erling Haaland’s (£15.2m) one-robot mission to destroy non-owners’ seasons continued.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
In a good week to have a bad week, or some other well-worn cliche, it was a great week for Joe and Az.
Joe showed that long-forgotten skill of patience, plus also recognizing that Spurs can’t defend corners, by keeping Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.0m). That helped him to a healthy score of 61 and a rank gain of 429,000.
Meanwhile, Az’s pick of Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m) over Eberechi Eze (£6.9m) may prove a smart move. The Frenchman appears to be sharing penalties with his teammate – perhaps agreeing to take them when it is most likely to annoy Eze’s owners.
It was also a week for bench jam, so let’s line up the guilty culprits now. Jan Kepski got a green arrow despite his Haaland-less approach, thanks to Gabriel coming off the bench for Pedro. Az and Pras had Emile Smith-Rowe (£5.7m), whilst Seb Wassell gained points from Christopher Nkunku (£6.2m).
Elsewhere, it was a bad week for Mark. At least he can console himself with having the highest team value, along with Pras, at £101m.
WILDCARD
We had our first overhaul this week with Geraint Owen, who qualified via The Next Great and The Good mini-league last season, taking the plunge.
In came triple Liverpool with Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m), Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.7m).
He then doubled up on Brighton and Villa with Ezri Konsa (£4.5m), Morgan Rogers (£5.1m), that man Pedro and Yankuba Minteh (£5.5m). In fact, it was the perfect Wildcard with all those home fixtures – but then, FPL fate doesn’t work like that.
His differential pick of Nicolas Jackson (£7.6m) catches the eye, as does his bench strength. It looks like he will be rotating those £5.0m-£5.5m attackers over the next few weeks.
TRANSFERS
Seb Wassell still hasn’t made a transfer and is up to four in the bank. Can he unlock the ‘five transfers’ level?
For those more active, there were obvious moves this week: buy the free-scoring Salah and the in-form Pedro ahead of two lovely home fixtures. Sadly, FPL is not that straightforward.
Pedro vanished and Salah’s shooting boots also disappeared as both moves fell flat. Bukayo Saka (£10.1m) then turned up to punish those who sold him.
The less said about Ben Crellin and FPL General’s decision to sell Gabriel the better.
So, a tough week. It says something when the best transfer was Pras’ move for Lewis Dunk (£4.5m):
TEMPLATE
One big difference to the template this time. Salah’s mass transfer/disappointment into 13 of the teams sees him displace the analytically annoying Bruno Fernandes (£8.4m):
HOLDING BACK THE RANKS
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:
So, it looks like it has been a tough start for The Great and The Good compared to previous seasons. They are averaging ranks of over two million compared to the heady heights of 890,000 last year. This is despite a higher average total of points but that has probably got something to do with the Haaland-influenced captaincy returns this campaign.
No doubt then, that the game has changed. It is certainly less template but let’s ignore those beads of worry and remind ourselves that rank doesn’t matter at this early stage.
CONCLUSION
A good Gameweek to file under ‘could do better’. At least we don’t have to wait long before the next Gameweek appears. Whilst it will be tempting to make our transfers in frustration, I suspect the best move for most of us is to not do very much at all.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now – and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
For those affected by any of the topics raised above, you can find me here on Twitter.
