Learning from the Great and the Good 19/20 – Gameweek 5

“Spartans (FPL Managers)! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty. For tonight, we dine in hell!”

Chaos. Anarchy. Confusion. Not Brexit but gameweek 5 and the current FPL landscape. No one seems to know what to do. Hits are being taken whilst other remain patient. We jump between heavy hitters and move from big at the back to big anywhere as long as we get some points. FPL is hell.

However, let’s all take a knee and reminisce about a happier time before the weekend when hopes were high, and points were being counted in advance of Man City’s much predicted thrashings of Norwich’s reserves. What could go wrong for The Great and The Good?

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 

It was FPL Armageddon for pretty much all of The Great and The Good this week with red arrows aplenty and only 3 making it above the average of 52 points.

Mark regains top spot pushing the cheeky young upstart of Neale back to second place, but both will be pleased with their start, the same can’t be said of Geoff but at least his team value of 102.2 is the highest!?

Four of them now sit outside the top 1 million including Ville Ronka and Matthew Jones which should give us mere mortals hope that such FPL legends are not immune to the difficult start that has befallen most of us.

This week Mark played the role of King Leonidas as he led the Spartans aka The Great and The Good this week with an impressive 65 points and a green arrow into the top 100,000. He captained Salah, played Pukki (take note Az, Andy) and his faith in Wilson paid off as his double propelled Mark up the rankings.

Let’s not forget Jules Breach who also managed that rarest of things this week a green arrow and moved into the top 400,000 thanks to captain Salah, Pukki and Mount. She continues to nail her armband choices and has the highest average at 15.6.

To briefly mention the misfortunes of Az who only scored 32 points this week with the extra pain of 17 points sitting on his bench, but I am sure his fellow Scoutcast members such as Luke will be offering him words of support during this difficult time.

Most captained Sterling this week with only the aforementioned Mark, Jules going Mo along with Ronka, although that was the only decision that went well for the Finnish enigma this week. David decided to go his own way and picked Aguero for the armband which got him a goal and a little comfort as he slumped to 47 points this week.

The table below shows current performance: –

WILDCARD

So at least one of The Great and The Good was busy over the international break as Joe plotted his wildcard, or “mildcard” as Az slightly cruelly labelled his final changes. You can see the transfers he made below: –

IN – Pope, Henderson, TAA, Digne, Söyüncü, Otamendi, Cantwell, De Bruyne, Haller, Greenwood

OUT – Ryan, Button, Robertson, Coleman, Lowton, Diop, Trossard, Dendoncker, Jota, Vardy

Joe was not afraid to overhaul his team and made ten changes to his squad switching to two upfront and bringing in De Bruyne to give him three big hitters in midfield.

He corrected a lot of his mistakes in defence from the start of the season with Digne in for Coleman and TAA in Robertson.

Also, at the back Otamendi looked like an FPL gift but if he continues to gift the opposition goals like he did on Saturday then he may be another one where a receipt and quick return is needed.

Unfortunately, his wildcard was not immune to the natural disaster that was game week 5 but looking forward it certainly looks good on paper and gives him flexibility as this season continues to deliver the unexpected.

TRANSFERS AND HITS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Andy – None

Az – De Bruyne, Matip (VVD, Sigurdsson)

David – Aguero, Norwood (Kane, Trossard)

FPL General – Barnes, Cantwell (Jota, McGinn)

Jules Breach – Maddison (Trossard)

Geoff – Mount, TAA, Haller (Martial, Wan-Bissaka, Rashford)

Mark – None

Matthew Jones – Haller, Iwobi (Jota, Perez)

Neale – None

Sean Tobin – None

Ville Ronka – Robertson, James (Moura, Laporte)

*transfers out are in brackets

The transfers this week reflect the level of bewilderment amongst FPL managers with no real pattern in the moves being made.

Geoff seems to have fallen out of love with United FPL assets as he took a hit to move on Wan-Bissaka, Martial and Rashford, all of which formed a central part of his wildcard a couple of weeks ago. He may live to regret at least one of those as Rashford scored on his exit.

Az took another hit but perhaps more newsworthy was Ville Ronka’s minus four, his third in three weeks to bring in James and Robertson. Is the Finnish enigma turning maverick?

TEMPLATE 

The template for The Great and The Good looks like this: –

Pope (10) Button (6)

Digne (11) Lundstram (10) TAA (9) Zinchenko (6) Robertson (5)

Salah (11) Sterling (11) KDB (9) Cantwell (7) Mount (6)

Pukki (11) Greenwood (8) Haller (5)

* brackets show number of teams they appear in

A couple of changes to the template this week with lovely flowing locks of Cantwell appearing in the squad for Dendocker, he is now the 5th or even 4th midfielder of choice.

Haller moves upfront to replace Jota who as he did last season promised so much in pre-season but has delivered so little in the first few game weeks.

There is still no one player who is 100% owned by all The Great and The Good with Sterling, Salah, Digne and Pukki teetering on the brink of a full house.

Matthew Jones is the one who refuses to join the Pukki party and the Finnish striker must be wondering what he needs to do to get the Welsh FPL legend to join him on the dance floor.

TRANSFER SUCCESS

So, with transfer decision proving even more important this season as we look to rectify a challenging opening a couple of weeks, I have dug a little deeper into the transfer success or otherwise of the managers. The table below gives a view of the transfers and immediate points gained so doesn’t consider longer term benefit: –

Sean Tobin sits atop this current metric with an impressive 21 points gained from his moves, Pukki, Haller and David Silva all provided an immediate reaction to being drafted into the Hall of Fame no.1’s squad.

Az and surprisingly Ville Ronka have taken the most hits so far this season, but less surprising Joe and Matthew have yet to take a minus four. The less said about Geoff’s track record so far the better.

CONCLUSION

These are strange times in FPL as we look for inspiration to get our season back on track. I sense a fork in the road in terms of possible response.

Is this the time to embrace the chaos like Leonidas and his outnumbered 300 by being proactive and targeting the differential? Or is this the time to retreat, lick our wounds and hold firm, keeping faith our teams will deliver eventually?

Remember this day, Great and Good, for it will be yours for all of time.

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

https://twitter.com/julesbreach

https://twitter.com/SkontoRigga