“Cause baby you’re a firework. Come on show ’em what your worth. Make ’em go “Oh, oh, oh!”. As you shoot across the sky”
Plenty of explosions, bangs and even a couple of bench howlers this week but unfortunately the FPL firework display sky was filled with as much red as green.
The big pyrotechnics were provided by a Sheffield United “defender” originally priced at 4.0 who now has more points than Salah and Sterling, the Lundstram rocket continues to light up the sky and give plenty of bang for its buck.
The build up to the weekend had been straightforward enough with all the talk over which sparkler from the City attack would gain the armband plus some were wondering whether it was safe to walk away from the lit firework that is Sergio Aguero.
As a reminder The Great and The Good are a handpicked group of FPL celebrities (?), FF Scouts or Pro Pundits 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
Jules Breach continues to show the boys how it’s done with the top score of 77 points and a green arrow up to 27,000, maybe she should be signed up as a Pro Pundit?
The foundation of her success this week was her defence with 51 points coming from her back line thanks to Lundstram, Soyuncu as well as Robertson. She is also one of a few who hold Aubameyang and is the only manager with Maddison who chipped in with nine points including 3 bonus for his assist.
Jules has been Sterling-less all season, will others follow as the City fixtures stiffen and the added jeopardy of the City star only being one yellow card away from suspension?
Joe was possibly the unluckiest manager this week as he had 22 points on the bench, he is the only one to still hold Otamendi and his sixty second cameo blocked Soyuncu’s haul. Geoff suffered a similar fate with 21 points locked inside his bench but a green arrow of 245,000 places will give him some comfort.
Elsewhere Andy was still scrambling to find the matches as the game week bonfire roared with only 33 points scored this week, his decision to play Diop over Soyuncu backfired and he’ll have to hope his transfer of Maguire adds more pop in the coming weeks.
The Great and The Good were drawn to the Etihad firework display this week when it came to captain choice and the majority went with the Sterling sizzler, whilst Sean Tobin and David kept faith with Aguero air bomb. They were rewarded for their oohs and aahs with a goal from the Argentinian front man.
WILDCARD
Mark played his much-anticipated wildcard this week making seven changes overall and interestingly shifting more funds into his defence, does he think big at the back is well, back? He is now has an average of 5.9m per defender which is the highest amongst The Great and The Good.
Please find his transfers below:-
IN – Roberto, Gazzaniga, Robertson, Yarmolenko, Rashford, Connolly, Mane
OUT – Salah, Pukki, Wilson, Mount, Tomori, Pope, Button
Dissecting the squad, it is all about the doubles as he has gone with double City and Liverpool defence along with more controversially the twin United attack of Rashford and Martial. There is no doubt that United have the fixtures, but their stuttering form will impact whether this is judged as a stroke of genius or an error of judgment.
He has freshened up his goalkeepers with Pope moved on and the rotating pair of Roberto and Gazzaniga to replace. Mark also prefers Mane to Salah with the FPL’s 2nd highest scorer looking a better bet as Mo’s ankle injury appears be holding him back from hitting the heights of previous years.
No doubt his wildcard started well with 73 points although some would argue a slice of luck was involved with Robertson and Mane scoring late plus Lundstram coming from second on his bench to join the fray and earn him 21 points.
TRANSFERS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week :
Andy – Maguire (Otamendi)
Az – Vardy, Kelly (Otamendi, Wilson)
David – Henderson (Button)
FPL General – No transfers
Joe – Connolly (King)
Jules Breach – No transfers
Geoff – Vardy, Rico (Wilson, Otamendi)
Matthew Jones – Vardy, Janmaat (Wilson, Otamendi)
Neale – Tomori (Otamendi)
Sean Tobin – Rico (Otamendi)
Ville Ronka – No transfers
*transfers out are in brackets
David’s transfer of Button to Henderson had the crowds gasping, but he probably should have played him over the disappointing Pope whose form is now fizzling away.
The most popular move out was Otamendi with cheap cheerful replacements such as Kelly and Rico being the order of the day.
There was a murmur of excitement for Vardy with Geoff, Matthew Jones and Az going for the Foxes firecracker, Az took a hit to bring him in and now sits alongside Ville Ronka for total hits over the season at five.
TEMPLATE
The template for The Great and The Good looks like this :-
Pope (10) Button (5)
TAA (11) Lundstram (10) Tomori (8) Rico (7) Soyuncu (5)
Mount (10) Sterling (10) KDB (10) Salah (8)Cantwell (5)
Abraham (11) Pukki/Maupay (4) Greenwood (5)
* brackets show number of teams they appear in
The template continues to crackle gently away with Otamendi being the Guy Fawkes stuck on the fire this week as he left the squad whilst Maupay pops his way into the front line.
DOUBLE DIGITS
Explosive returns are key for our captain picks and gaining valuable ground on our rivals but which of The Great and The Good have been the best in picking out the double-digit whizz bangers from the fizzlers?
Perhaps surprisingly Ville Ronka leads this metric with 19 double digit hauls this season and not one benched unlike Neale who would be joint top had he played Lamela in game week 2. Less surprisingly due to the nature of their seasons Az and Andy sit at the other end of the scale with 11 each, you can assess your own performance against The Great and The Good via FPL Statisco.
When looking back over the last 11 weeks it’s interesting to note that Salah and Sterling have not provided the most bangs this season with only two double digit displays, whilst Mane and the overlooked David Silva producing the most at four and the FPL legend Lundstram getting three so far.
CONCLUSION
Yet again City and Liverpool assets dominate our thoughts as they go into a potential title-deciding clash next weekend but for most FPL managers the difficult decision is which combination will deliver the most points?
With the fixture swing towards the Reds do we double down on the attack or defence? Has Mo shown enough for us to sacrifice one of the swashbuckling full backs?
Likewise, with City Mark has doubled up with Mendy and Cancelo but should we trust the defence when we have Sterling and De Bruyne ready to explode? Plus, in all this should we remember remember the double-digit delivering David Silva when he returns from injury?
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/SkontoRigga
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
4 years, 4 months ago
You're a star Greyhead, thank you for this!