Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweek 30

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works “

Greed seemed a key word going into this game week whether that be greed for points or greed for starting players for GW31.

It was a difficult balancing act for The Great and The Good who had to maximize what looked like a promising game week with their carefully laid plans for the business end of the FPL season.

The pressure led to one of the managers undergoing a corporate makeover with Az liquidising Salah-la-land and rebranding himself as the Hasselhoff XV, clearly, he felt his season needed resuscitating.

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 wolf of Wall Street was Az this week with a whopping 86 points after hits, which is his highest score since GW2. He held the golden trio of Vardy, Sterling, and his captain Mane who helped him to a massive green arrow with a rise of 150,000.

However, he was not the biggest riser with Jay moving up 175,000 places with Sterling, Vardy and of course Rico!? spearheading his efforts.

Mark continued to prove a corporate raider with a great score of 83 thanks to his Sterling captaincy decision which saw him into the top 1,000 for the first time this season.

Elsewhere in the boiler room Joe struggled to the lowest score of 47 and his seventh consecutive red arrow with his purchase of Mane proving the only highlight. Torres Magic is also having a torrid time with six reds in a row but has acted quickly with two transfers already made for next week.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – H.Barnes, Luiz (Pogba, Bednarek)

Az – Vardy, Brooks, Mané (Jota, Rashford, Son)

David – No transfer

Granville – No transfer

Jay – No transfer

Joe – Mané (Son)

Mark – Chilwell (Bamba)

Niemi – No transfer

Torres Magic – TAA (Kolasinac)

Ville Ronka – TAA (Doherty)

*transfers out are in brackets

Az decided that “without action, the best intentions in the world are nothing more than that: intentions” and so was the busiest in the transfer market taking a hit in the progress. His moves brought immediately profit with Vardy and Mane’s brace contributing to a fine week.

Elsewhere, David, Granville, Jay and Niemi decided that the best commodity is information and carried their transfer to have a better view of the blank landscape.

The Great and The Good seeming to be moving toward the attacking options in the debate over where to focus attention in the Liverpool triple up with only Ronka now holding both TAA and Robertson.

TEMPLATE

After those transfers the template now looks like this:

Fabianski, Patricio/Button/Guaita/Hamer

Wan-Bissaka, Robertson, Doherty, Periera, Alexander-Arnold

Anderson, Salah, Pogba, Son, Mané

Jiménez, Barnes, Aguero

It was a hostile takeover of the template for Liverpool this week with TAA replacing Bednarek and Mane cementing his place.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

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

Goalkeeper – 4.4

Defender – 4.7

Midfielder – 9.1

Forward – 6.8

ITB – 1.0

Difficult decisions this week for these FPL financial sharks with GW31 forcing many to sell, sell, sell and cash in key players with high value. Ville Ronka, Az and Andy decided points were the priority as their moves saw them lose ground in terms of team value.

Meanwhile, Granville is now the richest manager with 107.4m but will he cash in on Pogba, Jiménez, Doherty or Wan-Bissaka?

FORMATION AND BENCH 

Only one manager used his bench this week with Rico trotting on for Button in Jay’s squad for a massive two points.

3-5-2 was the preferred formation over 3-4-3 by a slim margin with Ronka being the biggest fan over the season adopting in 60% of all games.

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

The clamour for Liverpool and City assets was on the rise this week when it came to the armband choice with Salah, Mane, Aguero and Sterling all under consideration.

Jay and Mark proved to have inside information as their choice of Sterling saw their team stock rocket as well as their overall rank. Although Az and Granville’s choice of the inform Mané proved a wise investment – is he now a more secure pick than Salah in GW31?

As previously reported Mark has been king of the captains over the season with an 18.9 average edging out an early season takeover bid from David. In fact, David’s Midas touch has deserted him in recent weeks with an average of 7.2 in the last 5 game weeks. Jay is now the one to watch with a solid 14.8 average during the same time period.

Some key differential picks amongst The Great and The Good this week with Ville Ronka the only one to hold Fraser and Arnautovic, could they bring him a return to form? Elsewhere I think Torres Magic’s pick of Higuaín could also help increase his stock during next week’s blank.

CONCLUSION 

Next week will see whether all the planning and preparation has paid off as we enter the GW31 blank.

Key will be making sure FPL managers have the latest trading information prior to making their moves and will be hoping Klopp, Howe, Rodgers, and Pellegrini are kind in their squad selection.

Now is the time to remember that money and FPL never sleeps if they are to make sure they are more Gordon Gekko than Nick Leeson in these final weeks.

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