Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the Gameweek 17 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, the 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 and Luke Williams, Hall of Famers Ben Crellin, Fabio Borges and Tom Dollimore, and last year’s mini-league winner Huss E.
“Driving home for Christmas”
Gameweek 17 arrived in a festive frenzy, with FPL managers emptying the sack early. Triple Captains were unwrapped, early transfers were rushed through like last-minute gift shopping at the local garage, and then Bruno Fernandes’ (£9.4m) injury knocked over the Christmas Tree completely.
- READ MORE: Best Bruno Fernandes replacements in FPL
It was a week when Hugo Ekitike (£8.9m) became the star on top of the tree, Brentford defenders gate-crashed the points table like distant relatives you forgot to budget for, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.8m) proved he was no longer happy to play the nativity donkey. Sorry, Az!
From festive hauls to absolute Cherkis, it’s time to jump on your Christmas Reijnders, top up the mulled wine, fake a smile and take a merry (and slightly painful for those that didn’t Triple Captain the Erling Haaland (£15.1m) splurge) look back at everything that Gameweek 17 had to offer ‘The Great and The Good’.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
We didn’t quite see triple digits, but FPL Frasier got extremely close with a score of 99 points. The Triple Captain gang sleighed it!
He has the Ho Ho Ho Haaland but also Matheus Cunha (£8.0m), double Arsenal defence and Robin Roefs (£4.8m), who continues to outscore David Raya (£6.0m) at a discounted rate.
Tom Dollimore and FPL Harry also played this chip and got into the nineties. They kept faith in Antoine Semenyo (£7.7m), who appears to be yo-yo-ing in and out of teams.
This haul was enough to keep them both in the top 100k, giving us a total of four such managers. Luke Williams and Ben Crellin were the other ones to get a Triple Captain festive boost.
TRANSFERS
Semenyo was this week’s top transfer, and he proved to be the toast of Tinseltown. Nico O’Reilly (£5.3m) wasn’t far behind and gave new owners a clean sheet, but perhaps Lateriser showed the biggest baubles by grabbing Ekitike, just before his price starts to soar.
Meanwhile, there was no Christmas cheer for Pingreen, who transferred out Nick Woltemade (£7.3m) just before his brace.
‘THE GREAT AND THE GOOD’ TEMPLATE
Despite all recent transfer activity, the template seems to be getting more and more settled. Phil Foden (£8.9m) has reached 100% ownership.
Dubravka (94.4%), Raya (55.6%)
Andersen (66.7%), Timber (61.1%), O’Reilly (61.1%), van Dijk (55.6%), Rodon (50.0%)
Foden (100.0%), Fernandes (94.4%), Saka (88.9%), Minteh (61.1%), Szoboszlai / Cunha (16.7%)
Thiago (100%), Haaland (94.4%), Guiu (44.4%)
BEATING THE ALGORITHM?
The festive season is a time of reflection, as well as overindulging in mince pies.
Anyway, that’s as good a reason as ever to look at how the managers have scored if things had gone the way of the algorithmic projections. Note that this is based on Gameweek 16, due to the tight turnaround.
Our red-hot rookie Huss E is outscoring his predicted total by 82 points, making him the winner in the man vs machine debate.
However, Az is worse off by 76, so maybe he can point to plain bad luck when explaining his tough season so far.
CONCLUSION
Right, let’s get back to wrapping presents and hoping my early transfers don’t cause pain over the festive period. Thanks for reading along, as always, and have a very Merry Christmas.
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.
