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.

“The one where everyone Wildcards”

From famine to feast. After the FPL wasteland of March’s extended international break and FA Cup break, we were pushed straight into the oncoming traffic of Gameweek 30 with a blitz of Wildcards.

Until Erling Haaland (£14.8m) hobbled off during his trip to the Bournemouth seaside, the perceived wisdom was to wait until Gameweek 31 to press FPL’s nuclear button.

However, a combination of that, the return of the ‘messiah’ Bukayo Saka (£10.3m) – according to Arsenal fans – and some FOMO meant there was a mass rush to Wildcard, including 13 of The Great and The Good 18.

Inevitably, it only took 16 minutes for the hindsight merchants to point out the benefits of waiting another Gameweek, when Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.4m) got his season-ending injury.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Yet it wasn’t one of the Wildcard teams that scored the highest this time, as Luke Williams’ 61 points topped the charts.

Even though he captained Mohamed Salah‘s (£13.8m) blank, it was the selection of Anthony Elanga (£5.4m) that came good again. The Nottingham Forest winger autosubbed in with 11 points, giving him an 86k green arrow. Joe Lepper wasn’t far behind on 60 points, also backing Elanga.

To be fair, it was all tightly packed, as only 14 points separated the top and bottom tallies.

Jan Kepski joined Joe on 60, leading a bunch of rank-chasing managers who put their armband on Omar Marmoush (£7.5m) over Salah. Also trusting the ‘other’ Egyptian were Markku, Andy North, Az, Mark Sutherns, Tom Freeman and Fran.

WILDCARDS

So, with two Wildcards already activated in Gameweek 29, it leaves only Tom, Andy and Seb Wassell remaining. With a huge similarity between the ones already played, it’s time to play spot the difference.

Investing in at least two of the Arsenal backline was considered crucial, but only Mark went all-in with three of them – well, two now, as Gabriel, well, you know.

Joe, Zophar, Harry and Jan were left feeling quite pleased with themselves, as they drafted in the will-he-won’t-he Saka.

The three forwards were usually Marmoush, Alexander Isak (£9.5m) and Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.6m), with the only variation being Fabio and Ben Crellin on Evanilson (£5.7m), plus Joao Pedro (£5.6m) picks from Fran and Markku.

It’s in midfield where some differences occur. Joe and FPL General chose the initially-suspended Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) and the FPL Wire trio of Lateriser, Pras and Zophar took the Phil Foden (£9.2m) oath.

TRANSFERS

That means that only a few regular transfers took place but they were nonetheless impactful.

Four bought Marmoush, while news of Haaland’s injury even prompted Geraint Owen to take a hit.

THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE

A brand, spanking new template post-Wildcard mania with only Daniel Munoz (£5.1m), Josko Gvardiol (£6.1m) and Gabriel surviving from before. The last of whom won’t be there by Gameweek 32.

Raya (61.1%), Henderson (33.3%)
Gabriel (88.9%), Gvardiol (83.3%), Munoz (50%), Livramento (38.9%), N. Williams (38.9%)
Salah (88.9%), Palmer (77.8%), Sarr (72.2%), Eze (44.4%), Murphy (44.4%)
Isak (100%), Marmoush (94.4%), Mateta (55.6%)

SAME DIFFERENCE

Now, a look at the template rating, as measured by the marvellous LiveFPL.

As expected, those who Wildcarded with a respectable rank stay in the moderate-to-very-template region.

Lateriser, Jan and Markku are chasing and therefore have slightly more differential squads, such as Jan picking double Manchester City defence.

Based on not Wildcarding, Tom and Andy stood out as very differential.

CONCLUSION

For those who activated their chip for Gameweek 30, they can probably put their feet up, as I suspect most will roll their transfer unless there’s an impatience to immediately replace Gabriel. So all eyes are on the Gameweek 31 overhauls. Will they actually be much different?

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.