In The Great and the Good, Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses 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 and Tom Freeman, Scoutcaster Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar, FPL Harry and Lateriser, FPL “celebrities Ben Crellin, Luke Williams and FPL Fran, from the Hall of Fame, Fabio Borges, Jan Kepski, Markku Olaja and Seb Wassell plus last year’s mini-league winner Geraint Owen.
“Three is a Magic Number”
The Threemium is back. That FPL “made-up” term has been resurrected and basically means it’s a good idea to have three high-priced players in your team – only this time it does not include Erling Haaland (£15.0m). Yes, if you have Mohamed Salah (£13.2m), Bukayo Saka (£10.3m) and Cole Palmer (£11.0m), then you had quite a splendid week.
The lead-up to the weekend had plenty of drama. Get me Joao Pedro (£5.8m) now! Sell Haaland! Manchester City are rubbish! Wolverhampton Wanderers are the new Barcelona! Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m) is injured! The FPL community seemed to be on high alert to capture the latest swing. Then the football started and at least disproved a couple of those theories.
So, how did The Great and The Good respond to such turbulence? Well, with hits – five in total. This included Zophar (-4) and Mark (-8) taking them to exit Erling, but also bring in Saka. Insert smug faces here.
There were even some maverick captaincy picks. Well done to Luke for a smart Saka pick and bad luck to Andy who went with Bryan Mbeumo (£7.8m). A good pick on paper but we play FPL on spreadsheets…
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
FPL General was the leading scorer with 93 points, lifting him to just outside the top 100,000. As with many of the green arrow gang, he had Salah, Saka and Palmer but also the 9-9-9 of Chris Wood (£6.6m), Gabriel and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m).
The General is now in fourth place and is trying to keep up with Ben Crellin. That’s eight green arrows in a row, along with Harry and Pras.
Zophar also proved that a life without Haaland can be a profitable one, as he rose 790,000 places. His moves for Saka and Nicolas Jackson (£8.1m) paid off as did his patience with Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.6m).
TRANSFERS
The headline moves were definitely the hits taken by Zophar and Mark, with Haaland given the heave-ho and Saka coming in and hauling.
Joe also took the minus four to bring in the new “must-have” in FPL but well done to Az who managed it without the need of a hit.
Lateriser’s moves are also worth a mention. He now has triple Arsenal defence, along with Haaland and Salah – I have missed having this unconventional legend in The Great and The Good.
Elsewhere, everyone clamoured to get in Joao Pedro. The jury is out on that move.
TEMPLATE
The template has lurched towards the triple midfield threat of Palmer, Saka and Salah, with Pedro joining the cheaper forward line to make room in our budgets.
Flekken (50%), Fabianski (44.4%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Lewis (38.9%), Greaves (44.4%), Hall (44.4%), Ait-Nouri (50%)
Mbeumo (100%), Palmer (100%), Salah (88.9%), Saka (55.6%) Rogers (55.6%)
Cunha (55.6%), Joao Pedro (55.6%) Solanke (50%)
CHIP KING
A look now at chip usage and who has benefited the most up to Gameweek 12. Wildcard success is based on points gained over the FPL average over a five-week period – or less depending on when played.
As you can see from the above, Fabio sits atop this metric for now. It’s possibly too early to give a full assessment as he was the last to play it in Gameweek 11 but it’s not a bad start!
Ben Crellin was the best of the early Wildcarders but it’s meagre gains all round for those who followed the herd and played their chip around Gameweek 6.
No question on the best Triple Captain players (so far) with Luke, Fran and FPL General dining out on that Haaland armband in Gameweek 2.
CONCLUSION
With Santa warming up his sleigh, we should look to make sure we have enough stocking depth to avoid the festive rotation ahead. Let Dominic Solanke’s (£7.6m) sudden disappearance be a warning to us all not to be on the benching naughty list.
No time to waste before we jump into the next round, which is great if you had a red arrow as there’s less time to think about it. Enjoy!
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.or BlueSky.
