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 FPL 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.
“We don’t need no education”
The exam hall doors are creaking shut, the invigilator is pacing with ominous intent, and the end-of-season clock is ticking louder than the regret of tripling up on Chelsea players. Yes, we’ve reached the final stretch of the FPL season. Just three weeks left of glorious triumph or soul-crushing disappointment. Pencils (and chips) at the ready!
Before we even glance nervously ahead to the one confirmed double in Gameweek 36, we first had to survive the pop quiz that was Gameweek 35.
In a move reminiscent of students who ignored revision all term and are now cramming the night before, the late Wildcarders made their dramatic entrance. Six of “The Great and The Good” slammed that chip down like they’d just discovered the syllabus five minutes before the exam.
Meanwhile, Pras and Zophar – clearly revision partners who’ve spent too long in each other’s company -once again mirrored each other’s moves, both activating their Bench Boosts in perfect unison. One suspects that if one of them sneezed, the other would reach for a tissue.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
So, how did they get on? Well, Pras and Zophar, The Wire sparring partners, were the model students with their Bench Boost. Pras put up a solid 20 from his “super substitutes,” but Zophar went full top-of-the-class with a huge 30, thanks largely to those unlikely Bournemouth defenders. That matches the Gameweek 33 benchmark set by Luke and Fabio Borges; proper gold-star territory.
The late Wildcarders picked up some short-term gains, but with Palace assets not exactly screaming “revision success,” it’s still unclear whether their Bench Boost next week will beat the average of 23.6 achieved so far. Realistically, we won’t know who won the chip strategy battle until the final results are in – though the Gameweek 32 Wildcarders are looking like the ones who revised early and got it right.
At the top of the class, Huss E delivered again. He led the week among those just playing XI with 71 points. No Bench Boost needed; efficient, controlled, and slightly annoying for everyone else. That takes him to 2,201st overall, adding to a track record that includes a 41st-place finish last year and five top 20k finishes in six seasons. At this point, he’s not just passing, he’s already on next year’s honours list.
Captaincy calls were a proper multiple choice. It perhaps didn’t pay off that much to get creative at this time of the season.
WILDCARDS
Gameweek 35 was Wildcard week, and most of the class clearly revised the same notes.
Andy North went all-in on a triple Arsenal defence (so far so good), backed by five doublers, Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.7m), Morgan Rogers (£7.5m) and some Brighton players alongside the standard front line of Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.8m), Igor Thiago (£7.4m), Erling Haaland (£14.6m) and the unavoidable Bruno Fernandes (£10.4m).
Ben Crellin basically showed his working from Andy’s paper – same forwards, same doublers – but added Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) and a couple of side notes in Harry Wilson (£5.9m) and Marcus Tavernier (£5.4m) to secure the marks. Az followed the model answer too, upgrading to six doublers and throwing in Eberechi Eze (£7.3m) for a bit of “show your reasoning” flair alongside the disappointing Rogers.
FPL Fraiser copied most of that but sacrificed his defence to afford Saka, while Tom Freeman swapped Thiago for Danny Welbeck (£6.3m) and, in classic style, chucked in Yankuba Minteh (£5.5m) and Brenden Aaronson (£5.4m) —because he likes to throw a differential or two.
Top of the class (of course), Huss E kept it clean with six doublers, Bruno, Gabriel and Saka, but spiced things up with Anton Stach (£4.8m) and Pedro Porro (£5.2m), plus Welbeck up top.
TRANSFERS
Just six transfers across The Great and The Good. Either everyone’s supremely confident going into the final weeks, or they are stocking up ready for next week
The most popular answer on the paper was Gabriel, a safe, sensible pick that practically everyone copied. It’s the Fantasy equivalent of writing your name correctly and hoping for method marks; unlikely to win you top of the class, but it should keep you from failing.
The standout move came from Mark Sutherns, whose switch for Saka was easily the most eye-catching.
Then there’s Harry’s move from Semenyo to Cherki, which has sparked more whispers than a suspiciously quiet exam hall. Was it genius insight, or has he somehow got hold of the answer sheet? Turns out it was more the former than the latter. Either way, the invigilators are watching closely.
And best not to mention Luke’s move out of Senesi.
TEMPLATE
With the chaos of Free Hits last week and Wildcards this week, everything’s been ripped up and rewritten – a complete overhaul with no time to revise.
The clear-out has been brutal: only Bruno and Gabriel survive from the old template. Everyone else has been wiped like wrong answers in pencil.
Even better, Bruno and O’Reilly are the only players at 100% ownership; the two answers the entire class has copied down.
Darlow (77.8%), Verbruggen (55.6%)
O’Reilly (100%), Gabriel (77.8%), Hill (66.7%), Van Hecke (50%), Struijk (44.4%)
Fernandes (100.0%), Tavernier (66.7%), Palmer (61.1%), Semenyo (55.6%), Cherki (44.4%)
Haaland (94.4%), Calvert-Lewin (83.3%), Joao Pedro (61.1%)
TOP PICKS
Gameweek 36 now, and we turn to the most popular picks of The Great and The Good — the exam answers everyone was fairly confident about writing down.
No surprises at the top of the paper: Haaland and Bruno are the go-to answers for the majority. Tellingly, overall leader Huss E didn’t try to get clever either, backing those two plus Gabriel like a student sticking rigidly to the revision guide.
In a rare twist, we even get a goalkeeper question worth full marks. Andy North and Fabio Borges have both gone with David Raya as their set-and-forget option, a bold move in a section most people usually skip.
Elsewhere, there’s a light scattering of picks like Semenyo, Thiago, and Bowen, the kind of answers that show you did some extra reading but didn’t want to go too far off-script. But standout for originality goes to Lateriser, who’s sitting alone with O’Reilly – clearly the one student who guessed the right answer early on.
CONCLUSION
Right then, pens almost down as we prepare ourselves for the double and ask the question: do we trust Crystal Palace?
Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
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