In The Great and the Good, Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the Gameweek 7 transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
The Great and The Good this season are the FPL Godfather Mark Sutherns, BlackBox pair of Az and Andy North, Scouts FPL General, Joe and Tom, the FPL Wire trio of Pras, Lateriser and Zophar, FPL celebrities FPL Harry, Martin Baker, Pingreen, FPL Frasier, Luke Williams and Ben Crellin, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges and Tom Dollimore, and last year’s mini-league winner Huss E.
“Riders on the storm”
Storm? What Storm? FPL Weatherman was dusting off his windsock in the run-up to Gameweek 7, with talk that there was going to be a gale blowing that might cause chaos.
In the end, the only typhoon blowing through the FPL landscape was the ongoing defensive contribution (DefCon) typhoon – has Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) got his tackle points yet?!
The fixture swings for Arsenal, Brighton and Hove Albion, Chelsea, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers had a few more Wildcards twitching with Joe Lepper, Martin Baker and Az the latest to throw all their cards up in the air.
None of them contained Joao Pedro (£7.7m), who has quickly fallen out of favour, but they did all pick Viktor Gyokeres (£9.1m), who is now tumbling down the bad grace hill with him, as it turns out he was never on penalties.
Ben Crellin and Tom Dollimore also decided Gameweek 7 was a good week to Bench Boost. Editor’s note – it wasn’t.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Hall of Famer Tom Dollimore moved ominously into second place with Fabio in his sights with a fourth green arrow and a score of 87.
The Gameweek 7 Bench Boost was a flop with just the seven points; however, he had the essential Antoine Semenyo (7.9m), who is destined to be more expensive than Mohamed Salah (£14.4m) with the way his price keeps rising, alongside a double Arsenal defence and an overlooked Josko Gvardiol (£5.9m).
Martin Baker continues to be well above average with the best of the Wildcards on 86, with Dan Burn (£5.1m) the unlikely difference maker. It’s worth noting he is the fifth-highest scoring defender and is under 10% owned.
The captain decision was mainly dominated by the high-scoring robot. The two non-owners went for Bukayo Saka (£9.9m) and Fernandes. Luke picking Bruno again after Gameweek 6’s disaster does feel a bit like asking an arsonist to put out a fire.
WILDCARDS
Three brave souls Wildcarded this week – see below for the full view.
There was a distinct pattern of triple Arsenal – one from the back, one from the middle and one from the front.
Erling Haaland (£14.5m) is there, plus DefCon freak Marcos Sensei (£5.0m), plus Nick Pope (£5.1m) and of course Semenyo.
Two of them went with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.5m), who appears to be the algorithmic flavour of the international break; only Joe showed more sense to resist.
Az jumped on the Enzo Fernandez (£6.7m) express, a smart move as he appears to be more advanced with Cole Palmer (£10.3m) off sick. He also showed faith in the Nuno revolution at West Ham United, with El Hadji Diouf (£4.4m) showing up on his bench.
The pick of Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m) by Joe catches my attention as he knows his Seagulls and Brighton have a decent run, plus he picked the in-form Jaidon Anthony (£5.7m).
Martin Baker goes a bit more route one, aside from the previously mentioned Burn, with a couple of in-form Crystal Palace lads, Ismaila Sarr (£6.5m) and Chris Richards (£4.5m) – anyone think the latter looks like the lead singer of Thin Lizzy? No, just me then.
Az
Joe
Martin
TRANSFERS
The red half of north London was the hubbub of transfer activity, with Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.3m) and Saka the favoured options.
Tom Freeman and Zophar risked the rotation of Jurrien Timber (£5.9m) but gained the reward of an assist and a clean sheet this week. Maybe there is still life in the attacking full-back picks.
TEMPLATE
A small disturbance in the force as Saka comes in for Phil Foden (£8.1m). I myself am still keeping faith in him, even though having him in the team right now appears as useful as a cat flap in an elephant enclosure.
The template and % ownership amongst these managers is below:
Dubravka (100.0%), Raya (38.0%)
Senesi (66.7%), Gabriel (66.7%), Andersen (61.1%), Porro (38.9%), Rodon (33.3%)
Reijnders (83.3%), Semenyo (77.8%), Fernandes (66.1%), Ndiaye (33.3%), Saka (33.3%)
Haaland (88.9%), Gyokeres (77.8%), J Pedro (50.0%)
CHIP UPDATE
A look now at the chip strategies. Fabio has gone all in with four already. Greedy Fabio!
Whilst Mark Sutherns, Tom Freeman, Lateriser, Zophar and Huss E have just played the Triple Captain chip so far.
CONCLUSION
I hope this canter through the last week has kept you mildly entertained whilst we await a further week of international break boredom.
Whatever the FPL monotony brings, do not, I repeat, do not consider Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now. 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.
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