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.
“Kiss my Ass (Man)”
Yes, the controversial Assistant Manager chip that few seemed to want. It ended up being the talk of Gameweek 24, due to the very late announcement of Double Gameweek 25 – I’m concerned that Premier League fixture schedulers might not be considering the stress levels of us poor FPL managers.
However, not everyone found themselves debating the merit of David Moyes (£0.5m) and Arne Slot (£1.5m). Some continued down their original path of making Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) a Triple Captain, leading to the more mathematical types calculating which of those chips brought the best returns.
Although you don’t need to be Carol Vorderman to work out it was the Triplers (is that a word, Susie Dent?)
If you don’t know these names, Google the word ‘Countdown’.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The majority played their Assistant Manager chip, although it was a split decision between Moyes and Slot. It’s worth noting that Fabio Borges and FPL Harry chose the Triple Captain route and it was the latter who had a Gameweek to remember. A score of 149 makes him the king of The Great and The Good Mountain.
Harry’s score took him inside the top 15k for the first time this season. 58% of his score came via the 87 of Salah and he also had the foresight not to be a Chris Wood (£7.1m) seller.
Not far behind was Joe on 141 points, putting him inches inside the top 100k. He combined Wood and Salah with an Everton triple-up including their manager. The Moyes massive were definitely those who celebrated the hardest after that extremely late equaliser from James Tarkowski (£4.8m).
Az was part of that. He made all sorts of shrieking sounds when the centre-back scored, leaving Mark looking very despondent. I really don’t know why he keeps agreeing to those FPL Blackbox watch-alongs.
TRANSFERS
It was a week for moves, with every manager making at least one trade – even Fabio Borges, who has steadfastly rolled over recent weeks. Unfortunately for him, the person he moved on was Wood. Ouch.
Meanwhile, Pras became the first to join the ‘full fat five club’ as he used all his transfers and took a hit. He was clearly very excited by the double, though was another Wood seller and lost out in the huge swing between Everton forwards Beto (£4.9m) and IIiman Ndiaye (£5.5m).
Bournemouth players are fastly becoming must-haves, with Dango Ouattara (£5.1m) and Justin Kluivert (£5.9m) drafted into many squads. Their combination of great fixtures, strong form and a confirmed Blank Gameweek 29 match is simply too good to resist.
Lateriser was one of those to go with Kluivert and he was the biggest hitter this week. By spending eight points, he joins Mark and Luke as the managers with the most hits this season. Mind you, it’s only a total of four, showing the impact of this season’s new rule for transfer rolling.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Lots of new arrivals here, due to the frenzy of transfer activity. In comes Ouattara, Ndiaye, Jordan Pickford (£5.1m) and Cody Gakpo (£7.6m), with Wood one of the high-profile exits.
Surely this lot won’t make the same mistake by kicking out Alexander Isak (£9.5m) for his Manchester City trip, despite the temptation of Ollie Watkins’ (£8.9m) double.
Pickford (66.7%), Fabianski (38.9%)
Alexander-Arnold (100%), Gabriel (88.9%), Hall (55.6%), Mykolenko (50%), Munoz (44.4%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (100%), Mbeumo (66.7%), Rogers (55.6%), Gakpo/Ouattara (33.3%)
Isak (100%), Ndiaye (55.6%), Joao Pedro (50%)
FORM
Now, a look at recent form, based on the five Gameweeks up to Gameweek 23, to see what we can glean from their success.
Tom Freeman has been the one to hit the high notes, followed closely by Az and Andy North. The simple answer to why they have flown a bit closer to the sun is that they’ve taken a few low-owned risks.
Tom kept faith in Antoine Semenyo (£5.7m) and even got a double-digit return from Gabriel Jesus (£6.6m), while Az went with Amad Diallo (£5.6m) and Yoane Wissa (£6.3m). Then there was Andy’s flutter with Raul Jimenez (£5.6m).
Over the next few weeks, as we continue into chip season, our teams will become very similar. That’s fine if you are happy with your rank but, for others, a differential or two may be in order.
CONCLUSION
We’re heading straight into another double and the main talking points appear to revolve around Aston Villa. Should the Assistant Manager chip be shifted to Unai Emery and is it worth taking a punt on any of their players? I’d suggest looking at the size of their injury list before overly committing.
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.
