How ‘The Great and The Good’ did in FPL Gameweek 23

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.

“Great Expectations”

Even the most cynical, world-weary FPL manager viewed Gameweek 23 with cautious optimism, particularly those who had gone heavy on Liverpool and Newcastle United. It even made some so giddy that Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.4m) was touted as one to watch – twang went that hamstring.

Liverpool and Newcastle duly delivered and those with Cody Gakpo (£7.6m) could allow themselves that smug glow. The only disappointment was that late Jacob Greaves (£3.9m) goal, and to think some transferred out this free-scoring Ipswich defender for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) – sorry FPL General and Lateriser.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Lateriser made the biggest gains this week as he moved up over 365,000 places into the top 1m with a score of 82, thanks to some bold trades in the transfer market.

He finally sold Erling Haaland (£14.7m), meaning that none of The Great and The Good currently own the Norwegian. Erling will no doubt be gutted and will just have to console himself with his new 9.5-year deal and £260m contract – that doesn’t impress The Great and The Good.

Anyway, back to Lateriser, he used the funds to bring in Gakpo, Alexander-Arnold and Bryan Mbeumo (£7.8m), which looks even better ahead of that Tottenham Hotspur game. They all returned plus his double Arsenal defence finally paid off with David Raya (£5.5m) contributing nine points. Is this going to be a late rise for, erm, Lateriser?

Az had another good week, with similar culprits to Lateriser. He is the manager in form and is the highest scorer over the last four weeks, moving from just outside the 1m mark to within the top 500,000.

Meanwhile, Pras is still teasing the top 10,000 and continues to fight off the advances of the chasing pack, with Geraint Owen now applying the most pressure with a score of 71.

TRANSFERS

Gakpo was go, with five of them bringing in the Dutchman just at the right time, so well done Joe, Az, Geraint, Tom and Lateriser.

Some, like this writer, brought in Calvert-Lewin – what were we thinking? He now looks to be ruled out of the Double Gameweek ahead.

TEMPLATE

Will someone please wake up the template as it remains unmoved, with the only big news that Alexander-Arnold now joins the 100% club.

However, with the double up next and plenty of transfers in hand, I will eat my hat if we don’t see Gakpo and perhaps Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) in here next week.

Fabianski (44.4%) , Raya (38.9%)
Alexander-Arnold (100%) , Gabriel (88.9%) , Hall (66.7%) , Munoz (44.4%) , Mykolenko (33.3%)
Palmer (100%) , Salah (100%) , Rogers (55.6%) , Gordon (44.4%) , Eze/Mbeumo/Sarr (33.3%)
Isak (100%) , Joao Pedro (61.1%) , Wood (55.6%)

MAN V MACHINE

A look now at how the managers have performed against the mighty algorithm. The table below compares the projected points from the fabulous RMT machine versus the actual totals. Please note, before you write in, that this is just up to Gameweek 22.

One could argue that this is a measure of luck, with the mighty machine not taking account of dodgy team leaks, training ground bust-ups etc, so therefore, Seb Wassell has not been treated well by the FPL Gods as he is 27 points worse off than predicted.

However, maybe just maybe it shows that the algorithm is fallible (shock, horror) and that the likes of Geraint Owen, Pras and Fabio Borges have been able to outsmart the machine and use their own judgement to boost their fortunes. I’ll leave you lot to argue over that one.

CONCLUSION

So, I hope you all have your Double Gameweek countdown clocks on standby as it’s that time, where the results barely meet the hype. However, that won’t stop us from loading up on Everton players, although it may be better looking at those Brentford lads as the Spurs slump continues.

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 over at BlueSky