How ‘The Great and The Good’ managers did in FPL Gameweek 12

Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers in his series of The Great and the Good articles.

This season’s names 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, plus last year’s qualifying mini-league winner Geraint Owen.

“Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why. You had to hide away for so long (so long). Where did we go wrong?”

FPL is a cruel game! Full disclosure I am having a stinker of a season thanks to a malfunctioning robot – Erling Haaland (£15.1m) – and a very costly decision not to switch to Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) and a cheap striker back in Gameweek 10. 

For those managers who followed me down that path of despair, we are now at a minimum 50 plus points worse off, assuming of course you captained Salah.

The move has obviously brought a delightful swing for those who took the plunge, with budget forwards Matheus Cunha (£6.9m) and this week’s hot property Joao Pedro (£5.6m) turning into Lionel Messi.

• READ MORE: FPL notes: “Talisman” Cunha + vulnerable Villa
• READ MORE: FPL notes: Semenyo ban + “difference maker” Pedro

It will bring comfort that some of The Great and The Good have suffered the slings and arrows of this outrageous fortune or skill issue, depending on how cruel you wish to be. Maybe we all need a bit more blue sky thinking.

At least there was one certainty in this maelstrom of a season, buying or even recommending Lucas Digne (£4.7m) is always a bad idea – Mr Sutherns take note!

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Some strong scores this week with FPL General leading the charge on 87 closely followed by Seb Wassell on 86. 

The triple-up on Arsenal paid off handsomely for the General, with a double defence complementing the permanently limping Bukayo Saka (£10.2m). And of course, he had Cunha too.

He was also one of those to finally celebrate some clean sheet points from Mark Flekken (£4.5m) – it’s a miracle!

Seb’s fine score was the result of a couple of amazing transfers, bringing in Nicolas Jackson (£7.9m) and Joao Pedro at exactly the right time.

In other news, the two-horse race turns into a triple threat with Pras moving into second above Ben Crellin – triple Arsenal alongside Cunha the consistent in these high scores. 

This means that Pras, Harry and Ben are all now in the top 100,000.

TRANSFERS

As mentioned, Seb was the champion wheeler dealer this week with his double striker swoop. 

Elsewhere, Alexander Isak (£8.5m) and Lewis Hall (£4.4m) were popular purchases but failed to deliver on their debut.

Andy North proved that he learns from his past mistakes as he brought in Salah, which at least gained him a green arrow this week.

THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE

Here is the template with ownership below:

Flekken (50%), Fabianski (44.4%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Lewis (72.2%), Greaves (55.6%), Hall (44.4%), Ait-Nouri (38.9%)
Mbeumo (100%), Palmer (94.4%), Salah (88.9%), Rogers (66.7%), Semenyo (33.3%)
Cunha (50%), Raul (50%), Solanke (50%)

The template sees a reshuffle in the backline with Trent Alexander-Arnold (£6.9m) and Pedro Porro (£5.5m) making way for the less expensive options in Hall and Rayan Alt-Nouri (£4.8m). 

If we don’t see Pedro in this template by next week then I will be surprised with Southampton up next.

All this means that Haaland is now a differential…

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

So clearly captaincy has played a major part in our success or otherwise in the last few weeks. The chart below shows the popularity of the main picks over the season. Haaland still dominates with 55% of the vote although this has dropped significantly since the first few weeks.

It has been a two-way decision most of the way with Salah the better alternative over recent times. Other alternatives such as Cole Palmer (£10.9m) and Saka haven’t had much of a say, but will that change this weekend? 

It’s worth noting the FPL manager who has shown the most variety is Ben Crellin. With six different picks, he is our leading captaincy points scorer.

CONCLUSION

The last few weeks have seen plenty of movement, most of it good for the Salah fans. However, the upcoming week seems one to take a pause, with the Liverpool v Manchester City game dominating the schedule.

There are plenty of points to be made up from Gameweek 14 as we go into the festive fixture chaos, so if you are suffering then at least take some comfort from this.

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 on X or BlueSky

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