“I’m spinning around. Move outta my way”
Managers were spinning around as the pace of the game weeks continued with only 48 hours between GW14 and GW15. Thankfully none of The Great and The Good have taken to wearing Kylie’s golden hot pants yet. I’ll leave you with that image….
The build up to this week saw FPL managers desperate for big name strikers with Kane and Aubameyang (he who is always mispronounced) top of the list.
The actual gameweek itself saw some heavy hitters on the bench with Salah, Sterling, and Lacazette not making the first eleven. Many of The Great and The Good had to rely on their first and second substitute to field a full team.
So who are The Great and The Good? They are Jay Egersdorff, Ville Ronka, The Scout-casters (Joe, Andy, Az, David, Granville and Mark), Eliteserien’s expert Niemi and the last man standing Torres Magic.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
This week was a rollercoaster ride for many with the quick fixture turnaround leading to lots of nervous checking of the team news. Yet in the end most of The Great and The Good had green arrows with five of them celebrating their highest positions of the season (Jay, Ronka, Torres Magic, Niemi and David).
David lead the way with a fantastic score of 81. Everything went right. He went 15-0 for his captain picks, this time going for Harry Kane. His transfer of Sane gave immediate returns and Fabianski, Richarlison, and Fraser all delivered to take him into the top 20,000 for the first time this year.
It was also good news for Jay and Az as they continued their climb up the rankings. They have moved up 130,000 places since GW13.
At the other end Andy had a stinker with only 46 points. His decision to go Aubameyang rather than Kane didn’t pay off this week. It could have been worse but for the Wolves duo of Doherty and Jiménez coming off the bench.
TRANSFERS AND HITS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week:
Andy – Aubameyang (Aguero)
Az – Kane (Aguero)
David – Sané, Kane (Hazard, Aguero)
Granville – No transfer
Jay – Sané, Kane (Hazard, Aguero)
Joe – Sané, Kane, Sigurdsson (Hazard, Aguero, Gudmundsson)
Mark – Mitrovic (Jiménez)
Niemi – Kane, David Silva (Hazard, Aguero)
Torres Magic – Kane, Anderson (Aguero, Hazard)
Ville Ronka – Sigurdsson, Kane (Hazard, Aguero)
*transfers out are in brackets
There was a common trend to the transfers this week with the double act of Sané and Kane being the popular picks over Hazard and Aguero. This certainly paid off in the short term.
Jay, Joe and Torres Magic all took hits to get in Sir Harold of Kane and fortunately he repaid in full against a poor Saints team. Joe in particular has been more aggressive in the last few weeks and had made 10 transfers since GW8 with 3 hits. Is he trying to go mini maverick?
Always different Mark brought in Mitrovic as he continues to deploy a cheap forward line. Meanwhile, as mentioned Andy was the only one to take the Aubameyang path.
TEMPLATE
After those transfers the template now looks like this:
Fabianski, Hamer/Ryan/Patricio
Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Alonso, Alexander-Arnold
Salah, Sane, Richarlison, Sterling, Hojbjerg
Kane, Arnautovic, Jiménez
The template continues to evolve and we see Kane make a dramatic return with Aguero now not in any of The Great and The Good teams.
In midfield patience with Hazard was short and he has been replaced by Sane with many looking to capitalize on his scintillating form. It is intriguing that the Chelsea playmaker could now be a differential, only sitting in Mark, Az and Granville’s teams.
Next week we should be saying hasta la vista baby to Arnie from the template but who will be his replacement?
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 – 7.8
ITB – 1.4
This week saw a shift of funds into the forward line with many investing in Kane. Let’s see with Arnautovic’s injury whether more decide to go big up top with his replacement and we see the balance start to shift away from midfield and defence.
In terms of overall value, Mark now leads the way after some clever moves over the last few weeks and his TV of 104.4 is top of the pile. Granville and Torres Magic are also part of the 104 million gang.
FORMATION AND BENCH
Lots of bench activity this week with seven out the ten managers having to bring on two substitutes. Jay has had to look to his reserves the most this season from this group (11) backing up his consistent advice to others of having a strong 15 man squad.
From a formation perspective we see the continued shift towards four at the back with 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 now at 11% and 15% utilization over the season.
CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS
This week was a straight choice for The Great and The Good between Kane and Salah. Mark, Andy and Granville were the ones disappointed when Salah didn’t get a starting place with the others reaping the benefits of a Kane double digit score.
Possibly interesting to note that Mark has stuck doggedly to Salah as his captain picking him 66% of the time over the season.
As mentioned there are some key differential players with Aubameyang the big, and the long name, grabbing the attention for Andy. Mitrovic could be a handy pick for Mark and Granville’s Mane choice could see him flip flop up the standings if he recovers from his injury.
CONCLUSION
The injury to Arnautovic sees us approach another fork in the road for many FPL managers: do they go cheap and cheerful or big and beautiful with his replacement?
Is it time to spend our cash and sacrifice our midfield and defence to bring in the likes of Aubameyang and Lacazette?
The alternative is to follow Mark who has built his success on cheaper options upfront and replace Arnie with Wilson, Jiménez or Mitrovic.
Let’s see which way The Great and The Good go.
Anyway that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.
5 years, 3 months ago
Very Good Article .... 🙂