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Learning from The Great and The Good: GW23

“For your eyes only…”

With spygate dominating the headlines going into GW23 there were very little secrets amongst The Great and The Good as they all rushed to bring in Rashford. Elsewhere, FPL managers were planning for life without Son, Huddersfield seemingly pressed the self-destruct button and one Liverpool defender proved you only live twice.

Kane and Alexander-Arnold played the Bond villains with both looking as though they had picked up long term injuries but in an ultimate act of subterfuge TAA then made a stunning recovery, although not enough to make this GW. The magic sponge must be very effective at Liverpool or at least soaked in a vodka martini.

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

Joe proved that dullards or diamonds are forever with another storming performance this week. He scored 86 points, achieved his fifth green arrow in a row and is in the top 10,000 for the first time this season. He moves ahead of Ville Ronka, sitting just behind Mark and David in the race for the greatest of The Great and The Good.

Joe had scores from across the pitch with Salah, Sane, Pogba, Rashford, his new signing Firmino and even Foster all contributing. He has also made a smart move in terms of the heavy hitters ignoring Hazard, Sterling and Aubameyang to afford himself a much more balanced team.

The name is Munday… David Munday and he continues to sit top of the table with a season and career, high of 3,433. He continues to nail the captaincy and despite a cautious approach in the transfer market he has made some great moves in the last few weeks with Pogba, Luiz and now Rashford. The world is not enough for him this season.

At the other end Jay, Az and Ville Ronka suffered the lowest scores. Ronka has seen a skyfall in his performance with seventh red arrow in succession, even a rare hit couldn’t save him this week.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Robertson (Keane)

Az –  Rashford, Sterling (Kane, Richarlison)

David – Rashford (Kane)

Granville – Firmino, Fraser (Arnautovic, Son)

Jay – Rashford (Kane)

Joe – Rashford, Firmino (Kane, Ings)

Mark – Rashford, Bednarek (Arnautovic, Schindler)

Niemi – Salah, Rashford (Son, Kane)

Torres Magic – Sané, Rashford (Kane, Martial)

Ville Ronka – Digne, Robertson, Firmino (Alonso, Zanka, Aubameyang)

*transfers out are in brackets

The injury of Kane, Rashford’s rapid rise, Son’s departure and Arnie’s imminent exit scared the living daylights out of The Great and The Good this week with hits a plenty.

Perhaps what was shocking, positively shocking was that Ville Ronka finally took a hit, his first of the season. His moves for Robertson and Firmino provided immediate returns with Digne’s own goal the only spectre of disappointment. His transfers out of Aubameyang and Alonso show a lack of his usual patience.

Mr Rashford, we have been expecting you was a phrase uttered by most as he was brought in by seven of the managers. This thunderball of a transfer was too much for a Mark to resist and he took his tenth hit of the season to bring him onboard. Niemi and Granville also took hits although the latter resisted the United striker and went the Firmino route.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Hamer/Patricio

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Alonso, Digne

Richarlison, Hazard, Salah, Pogba, Sane

Rashford, Jiménez, Kamara

The template was left shaken not stirred with Rashford the only addition following the Kane injury news. Niemi also realized this week being Salah-less was one of those things that just aren’t done, such as drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. His transfer in of Mo means he now sits in all ten teams along with Pogba and Doherty.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

Average Cost of Player looks like this across the teams based on week 1 prices.

Goalkeeper –  4.4

Defender – 4.9

Midfielder – 9.0

Forward – 6.6

ITB – 1.8

A big swing this week with the savings made by bringing in Rashford being shifted into midfield or into their investment accounts. With funds in the bank at a season high it will be intriguing to see how they spend their millions.

Torres Magic continues to be the richest with an overall TV of 105.8 as at GW23 deadline. Many of them made a tidy profit on the Rashford rise with Andy being the one to benefit the most going up by 0.7 week to week.

FORMATION AND BENCH 

3-5-2 continues to be the most popular formation and over the last six weeks has been deployed 62% of the time by these managers.

A couple of the managers looked to the substitutes this week with Mark and Granville saying never say never again to benching Alexander-Arnold. Bennett scored a rare goal for Granville as the backfill for the Liverpool defender.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

Salah was the man with the golden gun or at least the golden armband as he led the way for nine out of ten teams. Az did it for Queen and Country and proved he was still capable of a maverick move by going with Sterling who rewarded him with a double-digit haul although it was not quite up to the Salah standard.

In terms of differentials Joe’s goalkeeping decisions are giving him a view to a kill and he is the only manager with Foster who rewarded him with eight points. Elsewhere, Granville’s decision to keep Aubameyang as his licensed trouble-shooter will hopefully pay off in the next few weeks and Niemi may have expected more from Aguero against the Terriers.

CONCLUSION 

We are now entering the stage of the season where many are starting to plan for blanks and double gameweeks, and wildcards are being considered. Will these provide 007 heaven for The Great and The Good or will some have to live and let die?

Is right to plan this early or is this premature with the fear of missing out on those double game week players impacting your ability to invest in players who are in form right now?

As always, The Great and The Good will have the answer.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares

4 Comments Post a Comment
  1. vardys party
    • 8 Years
    5 years, 2 months ago

    Lloris (Button)
    Rudiger Robertson Bennett Balbuena Bamba
    Hazard Salah Richarlison Pogba Hobjberg
    Rashford Firmino Jiminez

    The plan is to save this week, and do 2 FTs next gameweek in time in dgw 25. But maybe not, just do the one on Balbuena to Digne/laporte?

  2. TorresMagic™
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 14 Years
    5 years, 2 months ago

    Cheers Greyhead.
    Hard to make ground on this lot.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      5 years, 1 month ago

      At least you avoided the Digne disaster!

  3. RamaJama
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    5 years, 1 month ago

    Sane or Sterling for the dgw?