Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the Gameweek 31 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, and last year’s mini-league winner Geraint Owen.
“If you know, you know”
Knowledge is power. Some in the FPL world claim to have that power when it comes to Alexander Isak’s (£9.5m) travel plans. Some appear to have secret knowledge on deciding to bench Bukayo Saka (£10.4m). Others, well, we just wish we had known not to pick Phil Foden (£9.2m) on our Wildcard.
Speaking of Wildcards, we had three more in Gameweek 31 amongst The Great and The Good. Tom Freeman, Seb Wassell and Andy North completed our set and braced themselves to say the sentence, “A Wildcard isn’t just for one week”.
As for the Gameweek itself, it was dominated by benchings. Saka was sat down, Cole Palmer (£10.7m) placed himself on the pine and some of us wished we hadn’t put Josko Gvardiol (£6.1m) or Morgan Rogers (£5.6m) on our own Fantasy sidelines.
GAMEWEEK 31: OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Geraint Owen, our rookie entrant, continues to be doing a “Leicester” this season – and by that I mean the 2015/16 league-winning version and not the current incarnation. He topped the scores again this week.
His total of 67 was a result of another mastermind transfer as he brought in Jacob Murphy (£5.1m) at precisely the right time, while he already had Evanilson (£5.8m) and Daniel Munoz (£5.2m). Having won promotion in last season’s feeder championship, could he win the big boys league this time round?
Standing in his way is FPL Harry, a former winner, who went with the Assistant Manager chip this week – and Howe well did he do? Well, Eddie gained him 11 points. It’s worth noting that the master of patience, Fabio Borges, has yet to play his Assistant Manager chip.
Geraint will also have to beat Pras, who is our new leader amid a continuing ding-dong battle with Ben Crellin. Pras scored 65 points, saved a little by Tino Livramento (£4.6m) and that man Murphy’s first-half show.
The captaincy created a bit of a stir. The clumsy characterisation was that the leaders went to Mohamed Salah (£13.8m), the chasers went with Isak and the desperate went for Palmer and Saka.
And of course, there were the Wildcards…
THE LAST OF THE WILDCARDS
Brace yourself but Andy North had the best immediate results from his overhaul with a tally of 57 points. As you expect with the upcoming double, he went with triple Newcastle and Palace. His decision to favour Livramento over Kieran Trippier (£5.6m) proved a wise one.
The double Arsenal defence of David Raya (£5.5m) and William Saliba (£6.4m) is present and correct, as well as Saka, who he suspiciously benched, along with Rogers, who he didn’t bench. There is also the now-template frontline of Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.7m), Isak and Omar Marmoush (£7.6m).
All this meant he couldn’t afford Palmer, who Tom Freeman could accommodate. The Villa fan also went for Marco Asensio (£6.2m) over Rogers. Perhaps the biggest shock of Tom’s Wildcard is that he is sans Salah; could this be a master stroke from the differential king?
And then leaves us with Seb Wassell, who also joined the non-Salah party. He preferred Saka and Palmer and he even went for Joao Pedro (£5.5m) over Mateta, instead bringing in Munoz alongside the Ismaila Sarr (£5.7m) and Eberechi Eze (£6.8m) combo. This gave him his eighth green arrow in a row as he tries a Lazarus-style comeback.
GAMEWEEK 31 TRANSFERS
Limited activity this week. Aside from Geraint’s exceptionally timed move for Murphy, it was a case of replacing Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) for a couple of them.
Jan Kepski went sideways to Saliba, Mark Sutherns reverted to Ruben Dias (£5.4m) and Harry moved onto Nikola Milenkovic (£5.1m).
It’s worth noting that it appears Fabio Borges is storing up his transfers again with the doubles in mind.
TEMPLATE
A slight change to the rock-solid template, with Saliba coming in. Surprisingly, the injured Gabriel stays for now, with Neco Williams (£4.4m) being the one to make way.
Spotting a difference between the squads is a challenge now with eight players over 60% owned.
SEASON STATS
A quick glance at the key stats over the season and Ben Crellin continues to lead the captaincy metric after his early-season gambles. Lateriser is typically leaving it late to hit one of his.
Harry should be appointed our Chancellor of FPL as he keeps a firm grip on his finances at £105.8m.
As for transfers, Lateriser has taken the most hits on six. Fabio Borges, Markku Ojala and Ben Crellin are yet to blot their copybook and take one.
CONCLUSION
Benchings will no doubt be a key point of discussion this week, with the likes of Arsenal and Villa likely to rotate. Best keep an eye on the ‘ITKs’ in the FPL community and ignore the ‘IDKs’ (I don’t knows). Be kind, Arteta and Emery.
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.
