Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweeks 24 and 25

“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?”

The last two game weeks have left many a FPL manager suffering from outrageous fortune with shock defeats, blanks and the double game week causing havoc for The Great and The Good.

For some the question was whether to double or not to double or even triple for those brave souls who played their triple captain chip.

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

There was an air of a Shakespearian tragedy, or should that be comedy, about the last two game weeks for The Great and The Good with internal conflicts, fatal flaws, and even a tragic hero or two.

The true villain of the piece was Pep Guardiola whose rotation particularly of Sané wrecked many a best laid plan.

Mark returned to his throne atop The Great and The Good, with his second century of the season in GW25 moving him into his highest rank of the season at 1,742.

He was the only one of the managers to captain Sterling, made the shrewd purchase of Laporte and keep faith with Hazard. He also rotated between a Wolves and Cardiff double defence over the two game weeks which paid a handsome reward.

There was also a return to form for Niemi who used his triple captain chip on Aguero for a 57-point return, this was a huge swing when compared to Andy who had the misfortune to use the same chip on Sane for 2 points.

Torres Magic was the top scorer in GW24 thanks to a Wolves triple up but was another to have the in-Sane bad luck in GW25. Granville meanwhile is on good form with his fifth green arrow in a row.

Ville Ronka continues his poor run and has had 9 red arrows in a row although despite this still sits at the 22,000 mark. His uncharacteristic mini wildcards over the last 3 weeks have cost him with Firmino/Sane disappointing and the discarded Aubameyang/Anderson and Pogba punishing him. Perhaps a return to a more patient approach is in order?

Our tragic heroes must be Az and Jay who continue to plummet and in fact neither made it over 100 points for the two weeks combined. Jay dropped 127,000 in the rankings over the game weeks whilst Az lost 216,000 places.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – GW24 No transfer GW25 Aguero, Bednarek, Puncheon (Alonso, Hazard, Kamara)

Az – GW24 Ederson, Jota (Anderson, Hamer) GW25 Sané (Hazard)

David – GW24 Sterling, Bednarek (Snodgrass, Luiz) GW25 No transfer

Granville – GW24 No transfer GW25 Danilo, Aguero (Aubameyang, Digne)

Jay – GW24 Sane (Redmond) GW25 No transfer

Joe – GW24 No transfer GW25 Laporte, Sigurdsson (Alonso, Anderson)

Mark – GW24 Kolasinac (TAA) GW25 Laporte (Alonso)

Niemi – GW24 No transfer GW25 Periera (Balbuena)

Torres Magic – GW24 No transfer GW25 No transfer

Ville Ronka – GW24 No transfer GW25 Sané, Sigurdsson, Bednarek (Anderson, Pogba, Digne)

*transfers out are in brackets

The transfers over GW24 and GW25 were dominated by the managers seeking out the best double game week assets with 12 out of the 19 moves for either City or Everton players. Aguero, Sane, Laporte and Sigurdsson were the favoured options but with mixed success.

Such was the low expectation for the double that very few took hits with Az, Andy, and surprisingly Ville Ronka the only ones to the take the plunge. Torres Magic even forfeited his transfer such was his limited excitement.

Ville Ronka was possibly the most reckless, and yes you did read that right, as he took his second hit in the space of 3 weeks to bring in two double playing assets and even sacrificed Pogba in the process.

Andy and Granville made the dream transfer as both brought in Aguero for his hat-trick. However, Mark and Joe were not far behind with their Laporte pick who scored a triple of his own with a goal, an assist and a clean sheet over the double.

Az, Jay and Ville had the worst of the luck with Sane being dropped to the bench for the first game of the double and then not even making 60 mins in GW25.  Painful indeed for Az who had shipped out Hazard before his inevitable troll haul and for Jay before Redmond’s unexpected troll haul.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Patricio

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Bednarek, Digne

Richarlison, Hazard, Salah, Pogba, Sane

Rashford, Jiménez, Kamara/Aguero/Firmino

GW25 finally saw the end of Alonso’s time in the template with the cheaper Bednarek now the preferred choice allowing valuable funds to be freed up.

Little drama at the back with only Hamer dropping out of the battle for the second keeper spot. However, upfront it gets a little bit more interesting with Firmino and Aguero battling against the non-playing, yoga hating Kamara.

The double GW did see the increase in the number of City players in the squads with 13% representation, a number which itself had doubled over the last two weeks. Liverpool stills remains the most popular team overall though.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

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

Goalkeeper – 4.5

Defender – 4.8

Midfielder – 9.0

Forward – 6.8

ITB – 1.3

Still a lot of money in the bank but at least some of it was spent as the managers shifted funds toward their front lines in the form of Aguero and Firmino.

In terms of team value Torres Magic sits at the top of the financial tree with 106.4 and his squad is worth 2.6 more than Ronka’s thanks to his Pogba fire sale. Mark, Joe, Granville, Niemi and David also sit in the 106m VIP section.

FORMATION AND BENCH 

The battle for the formation top spot intensified with 3-5-2 continuing to be the go to formation deployed 60% of the time by these managers over the two game weeks. Over the season it is now at 34% catching 3-4-3 at 43%.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

The Great and The Good kept it simple in GW24 all going route one and picking Salah who unfortunately blanked. This must have been even more disappointing for Granville, who can normally can be relied on for a more maverick choice, he was the only one to hold Aubameyang and yet didn’t give him the armband.

GW25 was a case of gambling on the City player with the majority going for Sané with Andy even playing his triple captain. We all know how that ended.

Granville and Niemi went for Aguero and Mark stuck with his favourite Sterling. Niemi was the star, triple captaining Aguero was a master stroke.

In terms of differentials, Niemi had been the first to get on the Aguero train and he will be hoping his foresight pays off again as he is the only one with Periera. Meanwhile, Az has attempted to steal a march by signing Jota to his roster.

CONCLUSION 

So, what did we learn from the last couple of weeks and the double?

Well, to go back to Shakespeare we had many of The Great and The Good asking themselves whether to act or not to act over the double.

Some were proactive whilst some decided to let it be. Some were lucky and some well they triple captained Sane.

Ultimately, all we can do is enjoy the highs and laugh at the lows as “all the world’s a stage” and we are “merely players” in this FPL world.

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