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.
“Ah, push it! Push it real good!”
Welcome to FPL’s big show, with big surprises, big injuries and big points. No sooner had we recovered from the marathon event that was Double Gameweek 24, another one then came along with the debate raging on the ‘stick or twist’ Assistant Manager decision, lots of forwards getting injured and Villans becoming heroes – hello, Ollie Watkins (£8.9m).
In other news, Justin Kluivert (£6.0m) used TikTok to reassure owners that he was doing all he could to push along the birth of his child, another double was announced for Gameweek 32 and there are now two Egyptians hauling, with Omar Marmoush (£7.1m) temporarily stealing the spotlight from the other one.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
It has been a challenging season for the feline-loving Markku Ojala but he was the cat’s whiskers this week with the highest score of 114 and a rank boost of over 430k. This was due to a smart Watkins transfer, his double Arsenal defence coming good and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) having a great double.
At the very top, FPL Harry holds on despite pressure from Pras, whose risky eight-point hit was successful. He was another to buy Ollie but also picked up a couple of fine Cherries, a team that has a good set of fixtures including an outing in Blank Gameweek 29.
Everyone picked Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) as captain, which was dull but entirely expected. The real intrigue surrounded the Assistant Manager chip, with Arne Slot owners sticking and David Moyes’ men going to Unai Emery – aside from Az, the only one moving from Moyes to Slot.
Currently, it’s a tiny advantage for the Moyes and Emery combo but let’s see what plays out in Gameweek 26, as I suspect we’ll see some move to Mikel Arteta or even Ruud van Nistelrooy.
TRANSFERS
As mentioned, the most popular move this week was to Emery – who thought we’d be saying this at the start of the season?
Elsewhere, it was predominantly about Watkins and Bournemouth. But it’s worth noting that Seb Wassell, Tom Freeman and FPL Fran bought a differential Arsenal attacker. Both Ethan Nwaneri (£4.6m) and Leandro Trossard (£6.9m) are owned by under five per cent.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
The template didn’t move an inch this week. I thought Watkins might have made the cut but he narrowly missed out.
Although the forward line is most likely to change, as a combination of a blank, injury and benching means Alexander Isak (£9.5m), Iliman Ndiaye (£5.5m) and Joao Pedro (£5.5m) won’t remain the front three for long.
Pickford (66.7%), Fabianski (33.3%)
Alexander-Arnold (100%), Gabriel (88.9%), Hall (50.0%), Munoz (44.4%), Mykolenko (44.4%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (100%), Mbeumo (66.7%), Rogers (66.7%), Ouattara (44.4%)
Isak (88.9%), Ndiaye (44.4%), Joao Pedro (44.4%)
SEASON STATS
Meanwhile, the season-long data shows that Ben Crellin still leads the way with captaincy. He’s gathered 600 points this way, although this week is an opportunity for some to catch up, with Salah not likely to be a unanimous decision.
Harry proves to be the king of cash with a team value of £106.2m, narrowly more than Mark Sutherns. As for transfers, Fabio continues to make very few and I expect a strong end of season from him, knowing he has a lot of free trades and all chips left to play, aside from Triple Captain.
CONCLUSION
A bit of calm after the Double-Double could, however, become a swing week. There’ll be a bit of captaincy variety, preparations for Blank Gameweek 29 and some interesting differentials coming to the fore – Marmoush, Marmoush, will you do the fandango?
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.
