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, 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, plus last year’s mini-league winner Huss E.

“Under Pressure”

If Gameweek 32 had a soundtrack, it would be the sound of a kettle screaming just before it boils over. The pressure was very much on.

Actually, no, that is my kettle with my morning cuppa. Give me a moment…

Right, back. Where were we? Ah, yes. With the announcements of Double Gameweek 33 and Blank Gameweek 34, half of The Great and The Good hit the big red Wildcard button, all in service of that sweet, sweet Bench Boost to come. Suddenly, everyone owned the same players, give or take whichever mid-price Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder happened to be favourite.

The other half, put off by Arsenal’s inconvenient FA Cup exit (how dare they?) and the absence of a double for the Gunners, caused a subset of “hipster” managers to zig while others zagged. A Free Hit in Gameweek 33 and a Wildcard in Gameweek 35 became the cool, contrarian play.

In their laser focus on Double Gameweek 33, most Wildcard squads had quietly ditched perfectly good Gameweek 32 players. Igor Thiago (£7.3m)? Gone. Jarrod Bowen (£7.6m)? Forgotten. Manchester United midfielders? Only Bruno Fernandes (£10.3m) made the cut, although that felt a little foolish after Monday’s events. It left managers in the uncomfortable position of fielding teams that looked great next week but slightly questionable right now.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

In the great Wildcard vs Non-Wildcard showdown, the non-Wildcarders edged it with an average of 68 vs 60. Not exactly a knockout, more a scrappy points decision with VAR involved.

Five managers cracked the 70s, and only one of them played the Wildcard card: Mark Sutherns. Naturally, he did it his own way, rolling out Bowen and Thiago, safe in the knowledge he had transfers to burn.

The top scorer was Frasier Crane with 78, who ignored the Wildcard memo entirely and instead trusted a double Sunderland defence. Yes, really. Add in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.1m) and you’ve got a team that sounds made up but scored like a dream.

Andy North posted a tidy 75 thanks to Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m) and is now eyeing a five-digit rank. Meanwhile, FPL General keeps climbing steadily.

However, all eyes should be on Huss E, who has gatecrashed the party, dominated the mini-league, and is lurking just outside the top 2k.

WILDCARDS

The numbers say it all. LiveFPL revealed that 38% of managers who Wildcarded had 14/15 players from the same draft, 61% had 13/15, and a huge 87% had at least 11 identical picks. At that point, this wasn’t a template; it was a copy-and-paste exercise.

So, did anyone actually break free from the mould? Not really, though a few tried to at least look like they had. Tom Dollimore (13/15) added a bit of flair with Bowen up front and Pascal Struijk (£4.3m) at the back. Mark Sutherns (12/15) leaned into familiar names with Bowen, Thiago, and a loyal nod to Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.4m). Harry (14/15), meanwhile, didn’t follow the template; he practically was the template, with only Jack Hinshelwood (£5.1m) over Pascal Groß (£5.5m) separating him from the crowd.

Elsewhere, FPL Baker (14/15) made a single swing with Kaoru Mitoma (£6.1m) over Groß, while Joe Lepper (13/15), Luke Williams (14/15), and Pingreen (14/15) all stayed firmly on the straight and narrow, making only the safest of tweaks. Fabio Borges (11/15) at least showed some independent thought, opting for Thiago, a triple Brighton defence, and Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m), with one eye on future doubles. Lateriser (11/15) went furthest of all, throwing in Danny Welbeck (£6.3m) and even doubling up on the Leeds defence. At least one manager decided to embrace the chaos.

The results favoured the brave, with Mark the highest scorer. The template produced mixed results but at least some have stockpiled transfers to make up for it later, with FPL Harry hanging on to five of those.

TRANSFERS

So what of the rest not Wildcarding? Well, the majority all reached for the same comfort blanket in the form of Danny Dyer’s son-in-law, with about a third bringing him in.

Close behind was Matheus Cunha (£8.0m) but, unfortunately, the United double-up did not pay off.

TEMPLATE

A Wildcard wave hit the template this week, with seven changes. Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.2m) and Bruno Fernandes remain impervious despite the lack of a double, while Bowen actually joined for the first time this season, despite being another ‘single Gameweeker’.

As for the changes, Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) replaces David Raya (£6.0m) in goal, joined by new arrivals Nico O’Reilly (£5.0m) and Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5m). Bryan Mbeumo (£8.5m) and Morgan Rogers (£7.4m) were ditched for Cole Palmer (£10.5m) and Antoine Semenyo (£8.2m). All in all, a bit of a hybrid.

Verbruggen (61.1%), Dubravka (44.4%)
Gabriel (88.9%), O’Reilly (55.6%), Van Hecke (50%), Virgil (44.4%), Hill (44.4%)
Fernandes (100.0%), Palmer (55.6%), Semenyo (50%), Wilson (38.9%), Dango (27.8%)
Haaland (88.9%), Thiago (61.1%), Bowen (50%)

THE NEXT GENERATION

A look now at the qualification leagues for next year’s The Great and The Good.

In top spot in the open-to-all league, Jamie MacDonald leads the way with an overall rank of 356. Jamie also has his Wildcard, Bench Boost and Free Hit in hand. He has four top 25,000 finishes, including a top 1,000 finish in 2021, so he looks to have some pedigree.

He is closely followed by Tom S, who just has his Free Hit remaining, and then Alastair McKeever, who has two top 10,000 finishes to his name.

Meanwhile, in the invitational league, Ben McCrum seems to have led from start to finish. Remember, he is coming off a finish of 32nd last year, so it wouldn’t be wise to bet against him getting into The Great and The Good. Brad Lyne hit a jaw-dropping 102 points this week, which saw him move from 32,000 to inside the top 5,000. Other names in the top five are analytical ace Jonny Currie, a familiar face in Markku, who is looking for a quick return, and veteran and all-round Hall of Famer, Mark Mansfield.

CONCLUSION

The battle lines have been drawn with a score draw of sorts so far between those who Wildcarded this week and those doing so in Gameweek 35. There’s no point in claiming victory yet until the final bell.

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 on BlueSky.