Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead presents 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 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, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Jan Kepski, Markku Olaja and Seb Wassell, plus last year’s mini-league winner Geraint Owen.
“I see double up ahead”
“Hurrah!”, shout us excitable FPL managers with our fixtures spreadsheets at the ready.
Double Gameweek 24 is now confirmed and we all start licking our lips at the prospect of Triple Captain Mohamed Salah (£13.7m), Assistant Manager Arne Slot (£1.5m) and… Jordan Pickford (£5.0m)?
An extra kink was the arrival of the Assistant Manager price list, which ranged from the pricey but safe Slot to the temptation of Thomas Frank (£0.8m) and Ruben Amorin (£0.8m) for those more open-minded types. Even David Moyes (£0.5m) came back into our thinking as he returned to Goodison just ahead of the double.
Elsewhere this week, we had an actual decision to make on captaincy between the inevitable Alexander Isak (£9.4m), the immovable Salah or the cold finishing of Cole Palmer (£11.4m).
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Az had Amad (£5.5m) week after benefitting from the Manchester United winger’s hat-trick and a smart captaincy pick of Isak. He even benched the right player as Dominic Solanke’s (£7.5m) own-goal sat on his sidelines – although he did have to suffer the Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.4m) vanishing assist, so it wasn’t perfect!
This saw Az rise over 400,000 places, which gives hope to many of us still awaiting that “good” week that significant climbs can still be made.
FPL Harry was the other big scorer with 91, again driven by Amad. This sees him back into the top 50,000 along with four others, with Pras re-taking ownership of the no.1 spot in this fierce fictional title race.
TRANSFERS
A quiet week in Transfer Town, Fabio Borges now has five in his pocket after rolling again – show-off!
Harry did Harry things by buying Chris Wood (£6.9m) and Anthony Gordon (£7.7m); they both scored as he had foreseen. If we were in medieval times, I would have him burnt as a witch.
Mark went a bit maverick with Liam Delap (£5.6m). As for Andy… well I can only assume he has walked under too many ladders or crossed a lot of black cats as he sold Antonie Semenyo (£5.6m) just as he hauled.
TEMPLATE
There’s very little change with Gordon now joining the squad to make it a triple-up on Newcastle. He displaces Martin Odegaard (£8.3m):
Fabianski (44.4%), Raya (38.9%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Alexander-Arnold (88.9%), Hall (61.1%), Munoz (44.4%), Mykolenko/Robinson (27.9%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (100%), Rogers (55.6%), Sarr (38.9%), Gordon (38.9%)
Isak (100%), Joao Pedro (61.1%), Wood (38.9%)
CAPTAIN
A look now at the captaincy picks, with Salah now receiving the most votes over the season. He overtakes the former goalscoring cyborg Erling Haaland (£14.8m) – he edged past him in Gameweek 19.
Palmer isn’t that far behind on 26% armbands between this group of managers over the season. Isak is the best of the rest on 5%; one wonders if that will rise with his goalscoring spree.
CONCLUSION
Right, no time for chit-chat as we are straight back into the FPL firing line. I would, however, recommend a pause for thought before jumping into any transfers – as it’s chip strategy time.
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.
