Learning from The Great and The Good: Gameweek 34

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”

This week was full of betrayal, torture, conflict, skulduggery, and lots of swearing. I am of course not talking about the Game of Thrones premier but FPL GW34.

The double game week proved brutal as wildcard-mania ran like wildfire over The Great and The Good as they all reached for the chip to end all chips.

Many of the managers ended up like members of the Night Watch waiting for what lay behind the wall or in this case the Brighton double but it proved hard, cold, scary for very little reward.

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

Some old wounds never truly heal, and it will take some time for FPL managers to truly forget what was a disastrous double game week for most.

Even though all The Great and The Good played their wildcards only three scored above the weekly average of 54 in scenes reminiscent of the red wedding.

Granville was the King of The North or at least the top scorer this week with 66 thanks to his maverick pick of Moura, this is his 5th green arrow in a row and he goes above Ville Ronka in the rankings.

Ronka and Torres Magic were the other managers to make it above the average with Ville’s picks of those FPL dragons Pogba and Morrison (?) proving particularly cunning.

Andy had a poor week with only 39 points and is now embroiled in a battle with David for 2nd spot or the hand of the king in The Great and The Good mini-league with Mark continuing to hold the iron throne at the top of the rankings.

TEMPLATE

The wildcard template looked like this:

Ryan, Foster

Duffy, Doherty, Valery, Robertson, Dunk

Son, Eriksen, Mane, Sterling, Jota

Aguero, Jimenez, Deeney

Sweeping changes in the squad as you would expect with only Mane, Robertson, Doherty and Jimenez retaining their places. Andy Robertson is the one remaining player who has been in The Great and The Good template since week one, will he “hold the door” and stay until the end?

Pogba, Wilson and Salah all punished their sellers as they made their way out of the template squad and a few will be concerned that Mo’s return to form has come just as they face Cardiff and Huddersfield.

Brighton and Wolves are now the most represented teams across the squads with 25 players each thanks to their DGW fixtures. Perhaps surprisingly Arsenal only have 3 with no room for Aubameyang with possible rotation overshadowing his nice-looking fixtures.

Also intriguing to note is that two of the managers in Niemi and Ronka have gone without any Liverpool players which is brave with the fixtures ahead, at least the Eliteserien king has money in the bank to remedy that in time for Huddersfield.

WILDCARDS 

The wildcards saw complete overhauls of the squads with most making 11-13 transfers with Joe being the most cautious only making 9 moves.

Wolves and Liverpool players made up most of the survivors, but last week’s Vardy party meant David and Jay kept the faith in the Leicester striker.

Perhaps most surprising was that Ville Ronka held Pogba, remember he has previously been first to jettison the United man back in GW25 and missed out on his GW26 haul, yet this time FPL’s white walker was the one smiling as his double brought him welcome points in a difficult week.

Despite his high rank Mark was the one who strayed furthest away from the template with notable differentials such as Van Dijk, Redmond and Salah immediately proving “that a lion does not concern himself with the opinion of sheep”.

Mark is now the only manager to own Salah and has done for 33 out of the 34 game weeks with only his free hit seeing him miss out. Just like a Lannister maybe he is paying his debts for not captaining him enough last season but whatever the reason Mo has repaid him with a 10.8-point GW average, only Sterling has been more valuable at 11.4-point average.

TEAM INVESTMENT AND VALUE 

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

Goalkeeper – 4.6

Defender – 4.9

Midfielder – 8.6

Forward – 7.9

ITB – 0.9

The wildcards saw a shift towards the forward line with Aguero, Firmino and Vardy all increasing the spend up front with a reduction in midfield and ITB compensating for this surge in striker spending.

Granville still has all the gold and has the highest team value of 105.5 but Niemi’s 3.5 million in the bank is perhaps the most interesting and signals his intent to bring in some Liverpool assets in the coming weeks.

FORMATION AND BENCH 

50/50 split between 352 and 343 in their set up this week and whilst Mark, Ronka have gone for a power 5 midfield, Joe is sticking to 343. He has deployed this 65% over the season and yet it has not been his most successful formation averaging 60.9 versus 442 at 63.7.

Mark left VVD’s points on the bench but also avoided Deeney’s red card although didn’t avoid the dilemma of who to replace him with for the upcoming double.

So, with most looking to play the bench boost in GW35 it’s worth noting that David is the lord of the bench points having left 300 on the woodwork over the season – will this translate into chip success next week?

CAPTAIN AND DIFFERENTIALS 

For the first time this season Brighton assets were prime captain candidates with Duffy the overwhelming favourite, but Granville and Mark choose a different path and went with Murray. However, “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Meanwhile, Torres Magic risked the Poch wheel of rotation and went with Eriksen, but this move proved wise in a game week of turmoil.

CONCLUSION 

A week of disappointment with carefully laid plans appearing to be in tatters with Brighton defenders, Valery’s “injury” and the Deeney red card meaning enforced changes for the next double.

Will they all play the bench boost in GW35 or will their nerve falter?

Or perhaps now is the time to plough on and recognize that “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.”

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