“I used to think that my life was a tragedy. But now I realize, it’s a comedy”
Ha ha ha! Forgive my laughter. I have an FPL condition. After the two-week international break The Great and The Good had almost forgotten the bittersweet nature of the season to date and so hopes were high going into the game week.
After all, goals were guaranteed between the leaky defences of Bournemouth and Norwich, Chelsea would rack up a cricket score against Newcastle and surely Salah would wreak havoc against a De Gea less out of form United. No one’s laughing now.
This week also saw the launch of the splendid Pro Pundit initiative and it will be interesting to see if any of these big-name stars can talk their way into the VIP section of the FPL Community otherwise known as 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
“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?”. The FPL runaway train continues to fly uncontrollably through the game weeks and this weekend proved no exception. The table below shows current performance:-
We may need VAR to determine who was the top performer this week as FPL General and Matthew Jones both scored 41 points. It was their back lines helping them reach the summit with Robertson for General and Rico for Matthew scoring well alongside Lundstram and Tomori who appear in both of their squads.
However, it was a dire week all round with not one single player amongst all The Great and The Good squads achieving a double-digit haul. Andy hit rock bottom with 25 points, and this is the lowest weekly score amongst these managers all season.
The need for a decent bench was highlighted this week with 18 substitutes in total coming off the magic plank with the likes of Lundstram and Rico helping many of them avoid a completely disastrous score. Sean Tobin’s squad was stretched to the limit as he had to use all three reserves with Aguero, Salah and Otamendi all missing from his first team.
“Are you having any negative captain thoughts? All I have are negative captain thoughts”. Yet again The Great and The Good, like most FPL managers, suffered captain fail after fail with the majority going Abraham. Az found himself in good company with Mark and Matthew Jones, but the blank result was the same. Whilst Jules Breach’s crown as Queen of the Captains looks a little less secure as her differential pick of De Bruyne only managed 6 points.
TRANSFERS AND HITS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week :
Andy – No transfers
Az – Wilson (Pukki)
David – No transfers
FPL General – Abraham, Rico (Barnes, Zinchenko)
Joe – No transfers
Jules Breach – Maddison (Mahrez)
Geoff – Wilson, Tomori (Barnes, Digne)
Mark – No transfers
Matthew Jones – Mount, Tomori (Digne, Iwobi)
Neale – No transfers
Sean Tobin – Dendoncker (Cantwell)
Ville Ronka – Abraham, De Bruyne (Pukki, Salah)
*transfers out are in brackets
Hit after hit after hit. “People are starting to notice” the new reckless Ville Ronka has now taken five hits in the first eight weeks more than any other member of The Great and The Good. This week the reborn transfer renegade raised eyebrows by taking a minus four to remove Salah and Pukki, some comfort for him that there was a no Mo show at Old Trafford.
Chelsea players remain all the rage as their mid-price value continue to attract more of the managers to invest with Abraham, Mount and Tomori popular but did they forget about Rotation Alter Ego’s favourite Hudson-Odoi?
Jules Breach and Maddison continue their on-off relationship, she has transferred him in then out then in again over the last four weeks. I suspect she may also have her eye on Alonso as she had previously stated her love (strictly FPL based) for the original marauding wingback.
TEMPLATE
The template for The Great and The Good looks like this :-
Pope (11) Button (7)
TAA (11) Lundstram (10) Otamendi (8) Tomori (8) Söyüncü (5)
Mount (12) Sterling (10) Salah (9) KDB (8) Cantwell (6)
Abraham (11) Pukki (9) Greenwood (5)
* brackets show number of teams they appear in
The template stays the same although “there’s something special about you, Mason Mount, I can tell” as he now is the only player to have the 100% support of The Great and The Good.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
When it comes to team value “you get what you deserve” by jumping on those early season bandwagons and in the case of this season getting off the Barnes train at the right time and crashing the Pukki party before the cool kids leave.
So, who has made it to Wayne manor this year and own the most valuable squads amongst these managers? Geoff is Bruce Wayne with a team value of 103.8 thanks to his early wildcard which saw him pick up Pukki, Cantwell and De Bruyne who have been some of the big risers this season. Mark is not far behind on 103.2 thanks to the Norwich pair and his early purchase of Mount, they also have both benefited from having Lundstram since the start of the campaign.
The poor relations are Matthew Jones, Andy, General and Neale who have yet to hit the 102 million mark although Andy and Neale can consider themselves at a disadvantage due to the hack of their accounts. Matthew Jones is at the bottom with 101.1 as his typical patient approach meant he wasn’t as quick to jump on the bandwagons, worth noting he is the only one not to have owned Pukki this season.
So, the big question is does it really matter? Well the analysis based on The Great and The Good is inconclusive at this early stage with the high earners of Geoff and Mark nowhere near the top of this particular group.
Jules Breach who tops this group only has a modest 102.3 whilst Neale who is hot on her heels is a pauper at 101.5. I suspect those in the money won’t see the benefit until later in the season although in this year of under-performing premium players maybe the impact won’t be so great.
CONCLUSION
The most common words of wisdom in FPL are to stick to your guns, be patient and play your own game but is that still the case?
Many of The Great and The Good appear to be experimenting with different strategies. Mark seems to be less dramatic in his moves this season, Az appears determined to be more balanced in his approach and learn from his black box thinking, even Ville Ronka seems to have changed tact and be playing a more adventurous game this year.
Is this a sign that we should all examine the way we play and try something different this new chaotic world? For now, let’s “smile and put on a happy face” as we await to see what the final punchline will be in this turbulent FPL season.
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
Top stuff as always Greyhead!
Eagerly anticipating a few of these joining me on CHO before his inevitable benching next week. Can you go too wrong when he's 5.9m though...?