“Show me the money”
Mo Salah finally showed the money to his owners with a 15 point performance in the match against Cardiff. Elsewhere, Bournemouth assets continued to prosper, Arnie went MIA, Spurs and City played American Football, Barkley emerged as an FPL option, and there was more Liverpool defensive juggling for The Great and The Good to consider.
Who are these mighty FPL gladiators who earn the name of The Great and The Good? They are Ville Ronka, Jay Egersdorff, The Scoutcasters (Joe, Andy, Az, David, Granville, and Mark), Eliteserien’s expert Niemi, and the Last Man Standing TorresMagic. These are FPL managers I have handpicked to follow to help improve my own performance.
Overall Performance
Ville Ronka GW 76 pts Total 683 pts (rank 4629)
TorresMagic GW 71 pts Total 667 pts (rank 13023)
Andy GW 69 pts Total 658 pts (rank 21426)
Niemi GW 62 pts Total 647 pts (rank 37536)
David GW 68 pts Total 645 pts (rank 39930)
Joe GW 65 pts Total 637 pts (rank 57969)
Granville GW 74 pts Total 634 pts (rank 65548)
Mark GW 83 pts Total 630 pts (rank 79209)
Az GW 62 pts Total 603 pts (rank 212096)
Jay Egersdorff GW 82 pts Total 593 pts (rank 293848)
Jay’s performance is the real talking point this week as he managed an excellent 82 points and showed real courage, as he was the only one of The Great and The Good not to have Salah is his squad, instead relying on Mane.
In terms of points Mark was the highest scorer this week closely followed by Jay and they both benefitted from the continued faith in Callum Wilson as he again delivered points (that is now an impressive 33 points over the last 4 weeks). They also can thank their keepers with Ryan continuing his good form and Dubravaka showing the first signs that he could prove a wise purchase as Newcastle hope to tighten things up at the back with some pleasant fixtures on the horizon.
Jay rose up another 200,000 + places and his surge up the rankings is now really picking up momentum. This was particularly impressive as he only could field 10 men this week. He was not the only one who struggled to get a full eleven on the pitch with Az, David, and Torres Magic also down to the bare bones of their squads.
Ville Ronka still leads the way and achieves his highest position of the season as he sits in the top 5,000 for the first time. At the other end of the table Az continues to struggle after his wildcard a few weeks ago and has down dropped out of the top 200k. This could have been a lot worse had he not drafted in Salah, even after suggesting earlier in the week he was prepared to go without.
Transfers and Hits
This is a summary of the rest of transfers for this week :
Andy – Arnie (Vardy)
Az – Salah (Sterling)
David – Arnie (Jiménez)
Granville – No transfer
Jay – Arnie (Zaha)
Joe – Robertson (Trippier)
Mark – Holebas (Wan-Bissaka)
Niemi – Maddison (Richarlison)
Torres Magic – Arnie (Jiménez)
Ville Ronka – No transfer
*transfers out are in brackets
The most popular transfer this week was the purchase of Arnautovic, but his absence from the team sheet was a bitter blow to many of The Great and The Good. I am sure he’ll be back but concern over his fitness may put off further investment despite those glorious fixtures and it may be hasta la vista baby. Andy brought him at the expense of Vardy and David’s transfer was seemingly influenced by Joe following discussion on the Breakfast Club. Is this the first sign of mind games being played by Joe, as David currently leads him in the overall rankings?
Template
After those transfers the template now looks like this:
Hennessey, Hamer
Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Alonso, TAA/Bennett
Salah, Hazard, Maddison, Richarlison, Fraser/Hojbjerg
Aguero, Mitrovic, Arnautovic
Little change in the template this week with Arnie being the only new name on the team sheet replacing Jiménez. Surprisingly, TAA is still clinging onto his place but I’m pretty sure Mendy will be making his return soon. Mitrovic is another one whose days may be numbered, but he is probably safe for at least another week due to the enticing Huddersfield fixture. I would fancy Wilson or possibly Murray to be on the shopping list for The Great and Good, which is a classic debate of form vs fixtures. Hazard is the only one who sits in all ten teams but his absence was another one that tested the bench strength of the teams.
Team Investment and Value
Average Cost of Player looks like this across the teams based on week 1 prices:
Goalkeeper – 4.5
Defender – 5.1
Midfielder – 8.2
Forward – 7.7
ITB – 0.9
There is limited change in The Great and The Good’s investment with the excess money in the bank from last week being used to provide a slight upgrade to their forward lines. In terms of overall team value (for those of you following along please note that this is based on value as of GW10 deadline) the 103 million gang is now yesterday’s news as we now have two in the 104 gang. Granville leads the way at 104.1 and Ville Ronka has 104. Meanwhile Jay is still outside 103 with a team value of only 102.4.
Formation and Bench
It was all about the bench strength for gameweek 10. All of The Great and The Good had to bring two off the bench this week to cover some of the notable absentees, apart from Granville who only had Richarlison coming in. The contribution from the substitutes was mixed with David and Torres Magic gaining some comfort from Yedlin’s clean sheet and the aforementioned Richarlison adding an assist to help Granville and Mark’s cause.
Looking over the full season there seems to be a growing need to factor in some form of reserve strength. Jay, for example, has had to look to the sidelines 8 times during the first 10 weeks. King of the substitutes is Granville who has averaged 7 points from his replacements so far.
Formation wise it is still all about the 3-4-3 (51% deployment over the season) although Ville continues to reject this tactic. However, with all the changes in personnel, this week saw 5-3-2 deployed for the first time by Andy and a surge in the popularity of the 4-3-3 which now sits at 12% usage over the season.
Captain and Differentials
This was the week to captain Salah and he rewarded all with a strong return. He reclaimed the most popular captain spot over the season from Aguero having now been picked 46% of the time versus Aguero’s 42% with the rest just making up the numbers. Jay was the one manager who stuck by his Salah-out strategy and without the Egyptian he relied on Mané. It was a bold move but Jay was rewarded and is now racing up the rankings. The Senegalese star is currently only in Jay’s squad. Speaking of which, in terms of differentials (those players only held by one The Great and The Good teams) perhaps the most intriguing are Siggy and Balbuena, who both only sit in Niemi’s squad. Siggy is looking more and more like a better option than Maddison or Richarlison and the Eliteserien king seems to have it right with the Icelander registering points this week. However, he will be disappointed that Balbuena was only third on his bench this week as that would have been a useful boost. Elsewhere, Mark is the only one to keep faith with Sterling (and was rewarded with an assist) as Az abandoned him in the rush for Salah.
Conclusion
This week saw many managers having to rely on on their substitutes in order to keep them afloat. Yet investment in the bench still remains low, the average cost of the players based on week 1 prices from this group for gameweek 10 was only 4.4. It is against the general wisdom to spend much on these players and the excellent series of interviews with some of the best FPL managers by Joe has encouraged limited attention to the bench.
Yet with more and more rotation, European adventures ongoing for the top clubs, niggling injuries for some of the best targets, and some increasingly annoying vague press conferences (Klopp and Howe are the worst), the question for The Great and The Good is this: Is it time to use transfers to ensure a team with 14 or even 15 good options?
As always I am sure they will have the answer..
However, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.
