Top 10k managers begin to desert Abraham as Vardy is again most-captained

Almost half of the top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League managers handed the armband to Jamie Vardy (£9.8m) for Gameweek 14.

The Leicester City striker was captained by 49.11% of the top 10k ahead of the Foxes’ home match against Everton on Sunday.

The second and third-most-popular captaincy candidates within this elite group of Fantasy bosses were Sadio Mane (£12.2m) and Harry Kane (£10.9m), who both blanked on Saturday afternoon.

Son Heung-min (£9.7m) has already delivered a double-digit haul for the 471 top 10k managers who backed the South Korea international with the armband this weekend.

Just over 1.4 million managers worldwide also made Vardy their captain in Gameweek 14.

The in-form premium forward was the most-backed captaincy candidate among the chasing pack this weekend, with Mane and Mohamed Salah (£12.2m) in second and third.

Looking at the most-owned players amongst the leading 10,000 FPL managers, there has been only one change since Gameweek 13 – Son ousting Raheem Sterling (£12.0m) in midfield.

The Manchester City winger’s ownership has dropped from 35.44% to 19.58% among the top 10k since the Gameweek 13 deadline passed.

Just 2.6% of this leading group of Fantasy managers don’t own Vardy, whose “effective ownership” in the top 10k is 147.14% due to the volume of FPL bosses handing him the armband.

John Lundstram‘s (£5.0m) ownership is also in excess of 90%, with Mane not far behind.

Tammy Abraham (£7.9m) has suffered a significant drop in popularity since suffering a hip injury in midweek, with his ownership in the top 10k dropping from 87.78% to 52.88%.

There are predictably similarities to the overall template, too, with the ‘VAJ’ frontline favoured by both groups of managers.

Just under 200 of the top 10k FPL managers deployed their first Wildcard ahead of this weekend.

Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) is owned by almost one in two of the top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League bosses who used the chip this week, while Christian Pulisic (£7.5m) boasts an ownership in excess of 55%.

Harry Kane (£10.9m) also found himself in favour among these Wildcard squads, with 22.68% selecting the premium Spurs striker.

The overall Wildcard template is very similar to the top 10k one above, with the front eight players identical.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m) has been replaced by Ben Chilwell (£5.9m) in the below graphic, however.

Over three-quarters of the top 10k have now used their first Wildcard, with that figure down at just under 45% overall – although we of course now have many inactive teams further down the rankings.

Around 240 of the top 10k have used all four of the chips available to them at this stage of the season, with 27.4% having used more than one – an almost identical figure among the rest of us, too.

All of the figures above were reproduced with permission from Ragabolly‘s Live FPL site, which has a host of information on ownership and chips beyond the above.

Nominated for ‘Best in Fantasy Football – Editorial’ at the Football Content Awards 2020

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