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.
“I am inevitable”
A brace from Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) seemed inevitable, after his latest Gameweek 14 haul. The game against Everton seemed destined to bring further returns – until Storm Darragh intervened.
Apparently, only an act of God can foil the Egyptian’s goal-scoring ways. And it’s worth noting that this means a Double Gameweek is coming for Mo, with spreadsheet junkies suggesting Gameweek 25 as the most likely.
Saturday morning’s weather caused havoc amongst the FPL community, punishing early transfers with many looking in desperation at their benches. However, even the eternal third sub Jacob Greaves (£4.0m) disappointed by failing to show.
Also, those benchings we’d been warned about came to pass, as Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.2m), Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), Nicolas Jackson (£8.2m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) and Pedro Porro (£5.6m) were some of the popular names to either start on the sidelines or completely miss out.
Old fantasy favourite Ruud van Nistelrooy has arrived, this time as Leicester City manager. Will he turn them into some free-scoring Foxes and is a Jamie Vardy (£5.5m) party about to start?
Here, the quick turnaround of last week’s fixtures makes this a double round-up of Gameweeks 14 and 15.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Gameweek 14
Gameweek 15
FPL General rises to the top of the table after a strong couple of green arrows place him inside the top 20k. His heroes were the Bryan Mbeumo (£7.6m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m) pair that had been abandoned by so many. Could this be the year he wins The Great and the Good crown?
Meanwhile, Gameweek 14 belonged to Lateriser with his glorious 85 points bringing a rise of over 800,000 amongst the sea of red. He has tripled up on Arsenal’s defence and – even though Gabriel missed out – he was still able to benefit from the 14 points of Jurrien Timber (£5.6m). Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.3m) now has a special place in his heart.
TRANSFERS
Gameweek 14 saw a third of these managers move for Bukayo Saka (£10.5m) with previous favourite Mbeumo cast aside. He made many regret that decision when hauling in Gameweek 15.
The same anguish may linger for Alexander Isak (£8.6m) sellers like Joe Lepper and Andy North. The Super Swede bagged 19 points over these two encounters.
Interestingly, Gameweek 15 saw FPL Fran and Mark Sutherns buy Isak instead, whilst Andy continued his unlucky run by ditching Nikola Milenkovic (£4.5m) at exactly the wrong time.
Additionally, we also saw Az finally take the plunge on Salah, taking a hit for him ahead of Gameweek 14.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Despite all the transfer activity, the template squad remains the same. Yet ownership levels are relatively low, with the only certainties being Salah, Gabriel and Cole Palmer (£11.1m).
Flekken (50%), Fabianski (44.4%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Ait-Nouri (50%), Greaves (50%), Hall (44.4%), Lewis (44.4%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (94.4%), Saka (88.9%), Mbeumo (77.8%) Rogers (66.7%)
Cunha (61.1%), Joao Pedro (66.7%) Solanke (33.3%)
FOLLOWING THE CROWD
This season is proving to be like no other, with huge variations in our squads. The table below shows the template rating of The Great and The Good, as calculated by lovely Ragabolly at LiveFPL.
In previous campaigns, these ratings have typically been in the high 80s by now but, if anything, teams are becoming more and more differential. This should give hope to those on a low rank, as the swings are going to be significant and there is still plenty of time to gain (or lose) rank.
CONCLUSION
There you go – a double helping of The Great and The Good, with a flurry of activity and no real consensus regarding the right path forward. Transfers are being saved up by many but, if the last couple of Gameweeks are anything to go by, then maybe, just maybe, the best tactic is not to do anything at all.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
Those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article can find me here on Twitter or BlueSky.
