“As flies to wanton boys we are for the gods, they kill us for their sport. Soon the science will not only be able to slow down the ageing of the cells, soon the science will fix the cells to the state and so we will become eternal. Only accidents, crimes, wars, will still kill us but unfortunately, crimes, wars, will multiply. I love football.”
And I think we can all learn something from that….
It was another Frenchmen Martial who was giving many of The Great and The Good a headache leading up to game week 4 with the injury news reported by FPL’s arch nemesis Jamie Jackson.
By the end of the game week we were all trying to work out how to fit three City attackers in our team, Vardy showed us there is no party like a Vardy party and an Abraham brace highlighted that Mount was not the only Chelsea youngster to consider.
As a reminder The Great and The Good are a handpicked group of FPL celebrities (?), FF Scouts or prominent managers who I will follow to see what we can learn as they navigate their way through the season. They are the Scouts (Mark, Joe, David, Geoff and Neale), FPL “celebrities” (Az, LTFPL Andy, FPL General and Jules Breach) and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville Ronka, Matthew Jones and Sean Tobin.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The table below shows current performance/ranking: –
We have a new leader! Neale moves into first place amongst The Great and The Good despite a red arrow and is the only manager who sits in the top 100,000.
In a challenging week he had TAA and De Bruyne to thank for his score of 58 and despite a strike force of Pukki, Greenwood and Andone his investment in midfield appears to be paying off at this early stage. Could we have found someone who can finally topple Mark?
In fact, Mark dropped down to fourth behind Neale, Andy and another newcomer Sean Tobin with only 46 pts after a hit for Mount and Wesley.
Overall, it was a sea of red this week with only half of them managing to equal or better the gameweek average of 57, FPL General scraped a green arrow with a small jump of 13,000 places.
FPL General was top scorer this week along with Jules, they both scored 60 after hits were considered. Much of her success was down to captain choice as whilst everyone else went for Sterling she placed the armband on De Bruyne which paid off handsomely. She now has the highest captaincy average at 15pts after Az’s 100% record came to an end.
TRANSFERS AND HITS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week:
Andy – Barnes (King)
Az – Ceballos, Haller, Mount (Trossard, Jota, Martial)
David – None
FPL General – None
Jules Breach – Pukki, Mount (Giroud, Martial)
Joe – Mount (Martial)
Geoff – None
Mark – Mount, Wesley (McGinn, Jota)
Matthew Jones – None
Neale – Mount (Martial)
Sean Tobin – Haller, D.Silva (Martial, King)
Ville Ronka – Cantwell, Barnes (Dendoncker, King)
*transfers out are in brackets
“Psychic” Sean Tobin took a hit but showed a goal-den touch by picking Haller and David Silva who both scored over the weekend, worth finding out who he has in his crystal ball over the international break.
The move to Mount was the most popular with the injured Martial making way for most although Geoff and Mark have kept faith in the United man.
Mark also continues to own Callum Wilson despite the frankly ridiculous price drops, even though the Bournemouth man has returned in every game. The other manager to retain the Cherries striker is Matthew Jones and when two managers of their quality are showing patience it is a good sign for the 10% who own him at the time of writing.
Matthew Jones is showing remarkable, although not unexpected, restraint having only made two transfers this season, he is proving to be Ice Man to Az’s Maverick who took a -8 this week which paid off for this gameweek at least thanks to Haller.
TEMPLATE
The template for The Great and The Good looks like this: –
Pope (9) Button (7)
Digne (10) Lundstram (10) TAA (7) Zinchenko (6) Robertson/VVD (5)
Salah (11) Sterling (11) KDB (7) Dendonker (6) Mount (6)
Pukki (11) Greenwood (7) Jota (4)
* brackets show number of teams they appear in
Mason Mount joins the template with five of the managers transferring him in this week with Az and Mark even taking hits to secure the Chelsea playmaker.
No player is 100% owned by The Great and The Good with Salah, Sterling and now Pukki all one short.
Matthew Jones has refused the invitation to the Pukki party but one manager who seems to love a celebration is Joe who is dancing the night away with the Norwich frontman and enjoying the bright lights of the Vardy party.
Jules Breach continues to go without Sterling preferring the company of De Bruyne and Geoff believes Mane is enough to cover Salah – Canadians eh?
TOP TEAMS
This week I have dug a bit deeper into how The Great and The Good have selected when considering the Premier League teams their squads represent. Liverpool players are the top choice with the managers having at least 2.4 reds in their teams. Will this last as fixtures start to stiffen?
Unsurprisingly, City and Liverpool dominate with 30% of all players coming from these teams. They have looked to Brighton, Norwich and Burnley to provide the cut price options so far as they sit 3rd, 4th and 5th in terms of most popular teams to pick from.
The Pukki party has had an impact as before season started the managers were happy to avoid the newly promoted teams with only 10% coming from these 3 teams, this has now moved to 18%.
Finally, spare a thought for Arsenal who despite the charms of Aubameyang, Lacazette and possibly Pepe only have one representative in The Great and The Good squads in the form of Ceballos.
CONCLUSION
The first international break is upon us and after a poor gameweek for most (who actually did get a green arrow this week apart from FPL General?) a number are considering the wildcard.
For those who are pushing the reset button there are many questions to answer, Mane vs Salah, Sterling v Aguero and which of your children to sell to get in De Bruyne?
Two weeks of second-guessing our gut and no doubt a mountain of RMTs await but try to enjoy the break and remember “when the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”. Thanks Eric.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.
For those effected by any of the topics raised in the above article they can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19
Likewise, if you want to keep up with the Tweets of The Great and The Good you can find them here
https://twitter.com/FFScout_Geoff
https://twitter.com/matthewpenycae
https://twitter.com/LetsTalk_FPL
https://twitter.com/DavidMunday815
https://twitter.com/ffscout_az
https://twitter.com/FFScout_Joe
https://twitter.com/FPLGeneral
4 years, 6 months ago
Makes me a bit happier seeing it was a rough week all around 😉
Wonder if we'll see that KDB ownership jump now? Form is certainly becoming hard to ignore, wouldn't be surprised to see a few move for him ahead of Norwich.
Cheers again Greyhead, excellent stuff as always!