In ‘The Great and The Good’, Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the 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 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 and Luke Williams, Hall of Famers Ben Crellin, Fabio Borges and Tom Dollimore, and last year’s mini-league winner Huss E.
“Don’t you forget about me”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing! As we lost patience in the likes of Joao Pedro (£7.4m) – 1.6 million sales – and Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m), it was always going to be the case that the FPL Gods would punish us.
Add this onto Mohamed Salah’s (£14.2m) goal (and the reminder that he is quite good, ahead of a decent fixture run from Gameweek 12), and it meant that this was a weekend of regret for many.
All the focus going into the first double-digit Gameweek seemed to be on the Palace. No, not those Royal shenanigans, but the Crystal variety.
FPL managers were salivating over Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.9m), getting overexcited by the Eagles’ victory over Liverpool’s B-team. That EFL Cup win also opened up the possibility of a Blank/Double Gameweek… which came to nothing.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
He has come from nowhere… well, not quite, but he doesn’t have the prominence of the rest of The Great and The Good. Nevertheless, Huss E goes top again with 91 points.
His strategy of the triple triple-up on Arsenal, Chelsea and Crystal Palace sees him at 260,000 overall. It does help he picked the right threesomes with Pedro, Mateta and the double Arsenal defence paying dividends this week.
He is also the only one who has his Wildcard left, which I suspect he will use in Gameweek 13 when some will look to build teams containing both Salah and Erling Haaland (£14.8m).
FPL Harry is making consistent gains now, with the serial top 5k finisher on his sixth green arrow. He has three free transfers in the bank, so looks well positioned to be able to continue the momentum, although I suspect the Chelsea fan regrets the sale of Pedro ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley.
There were also a couple of Bench Boosts this week as Mark Sutherns and Zophar played this chip to anticlimactic results. The boosted benches produced scores of 7 and 10, respectively.
Overall, this most hated of chips has produced mixed gains, with an average of 15 points scored. Harry had the biggest tally, 23, in Gameweek 5.
TEMPLATE
The rush for Crystal Palace players shook the template with both Mateta and Ismaila Sarr (£6.6m) coming in for Tijjani Reijnders (£5.5m) and Joao Pedro.
We’re still waiting for Fabio Borges to buy Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.6m)…
Dubravka (94.4%), Pope (50.0%)
Gabriel (88.9%), Senesi (66.7%), Rodon (50%), Andersen (44.4%), Timber (33.3%)
Semenyo (83.3%), Enzo (72.2%), Saka (72.2%), Sarr (61.1%), Fernandes (55.6%)
Haaland (94.4%), Mateta (83.3%), Gyokeres (38.9%)
TRANSFERS
Plenty of movement this week, with that man Mateta the most popular acquisition. Martin Baker’s move for Bryan Mbeumo (£8.4m) reflects his form and match-ups ahead as Manchester United sit second in the Fixture Ticker over the next five Gameweeks.
Ben Crellin’s algorithm was back on form with his move for Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m), who returned nine points.
Finally, Andy North brought in Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) and then benched his return – it seems to be turning into a habit.
TEMPLATE TIMES
Normally, around this time of the season, the pack begins to herd together as it becomes clearer who the must-have players are for the campaign.
So, we take a quick gander now at how ‘template’ the teams are, thanks to data provided by LiveFPL.
Looking at the results, it appears the template is not as solid as it was in previous seasons. Half of ‘The Great and The Good’ are at 70% or below, making them “moderately differential”. It’s particularly eyebrow-raising when that list includes the likes of Zophar and Ben Crellin, who can hardly be described as cavalier.
FPL General continues to be considered a maverick, with his rating dropping to 34% from 61% on the opening weekend. As most have been drawn towards Haaland, the big-hitter-less General remains a man of principle, so let’s hope he gets some of those maverick captain returns soon.
CONCLUSION
So, a middling weekend with few big jumps. I suspect that this won’t be the case this Gameweek as the Liverpool vs Manchester City game encourages a few differential captain picks and maybe a Free Hit or two.
I am saying this in a very transparent attempt to encourage some of you to take some risk with the armband, although I suspect you boring lot will go with Haaland again.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now, and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
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