Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweek 28

“Pressure pushing down on me. Pressing down on you, no man ask for. Under pressure that burns a building down”

The Great and The Good were feeling the pressure this week with carefully laid plans at the whim of injuries and rotation with only a day to recover from the challenges of GW27.

Many a manager had to contemplate a replacement for Rashford and wonder what City rotation would occur whilst still looking ahead to the GW31 blank and the promised land of GW32.

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

The pressure of the game week clearly got the best of the managers with only one of them managing a green arrow.

Step forward Andy who manages a very credible 68 thanks to a Liverpool double up of Mane and Robertson plus a wise captain choice of Aguero.

At the bottom of the pile over the midweek fixtures was David who only managed a measly 38 with only Robertson adding anything of merit. Although it was bad week for most of them with only Andy and Niemi struggling over the 53 average.

Also, whilst not to sound like a broken record it was a Ville Ronka’s 12th red arrow in a row which saw him out of the top 50k for the first time since GW4.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – Rondón (Rashford)

Az – No transfer

David – Rondón (Rashford)

Granville – Sane, Rondón (Fraser, Firmino)

Jay – Aguero (Rashford)

Joe – Aguero, Barnes (Firmino, Rashford)

Mark – TAA (Laporte)

Niemi – No transfer

Torres Magic – Barnes (Rashford)

Ville Ronka – No transfer

*transfers out are in brackets

No surprise about the main transfer exit this week with Rashford making way in most of the teams for either Rondón or Barnes.

Full marks to Mark who did the best bit of business bringing TAA in for his 18-point haul, timing is everything in FPL.

Joe and Granville both took hits this week to bring in City coverage although the purchase of Aguero by Joe was slightly more lucrative than Granville’s Sane transfer.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Patricio

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Bednarek, Periera

Richarlison, Anderson, Salah, Pogba, Son

Jiménez, Barnes, Aguero

The template is beginning to stabilize a bit with the front line now taking shape with the Rashford injury meaning that Barnes and Aguero line up next to Jiménez.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

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

Goalkeeper – 4.5

Defender – 4.7

Midfielder – 8.8

Forward – 7.0

ITB – 1.6

The allocation of funding remained stable, but Granville now joins Torres Magic as the richest manager with 106.9 total value.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

Whilst most went down the safe Salah route the real winners this GW were those who took the plunge with Aguero who rewarded Andy, Niemi and Granville handsomely.

Torres Magic stuck by his man in putting the armband on Aubameyang and his patience was finally rewarded. In fact, the Magician is the only one with the Arsenal hot shot across the teams. Speaking of key differentials Mane was the man for Andy but I suspect it won’t be long before others jump on that bandwagon.

CONCLUSION 

This was a game week to forget for many of the managers and has probably left some of them reconsidering their strategy for the upcoming silly season of doubles and blanks. The good news is there another game week only 48 hours away for them to show they really are The Great and The Good.

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