“So here it is, Merry Xmas. Everybody’s having fun. Look to the future now. It’s only just begun. IT’S CHRISTMAS!”
The festive period is upon us and debate at the annual (fictional as my lawyers have asked me to emphasize) Great and Good Xmas party was dominated by whether to stick or twist on our Liverpool players and a highly contentious game of pin the armband on the captain with an assortment of treats available.
As always at the party things got out of hand, Az was offering everyone tequila shots and considering a -16 hit, Geoff was doing something unspeakable to the office photocopier and David got overexcited and was running around wearing nothing but his Lord Lundstram shirt.
They left the party and the Gameweek with a stinking hangover and nothing but a nightmare before Christmas when it came to their rankings.
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
The star at the top of the tree was Az again this week who has made a remarkable recovery over the last few weeks, this is his sixth green arrow in seven weeks, and he had Ings, Grealish and Vardy to thank this time round.
The Christmas Grinch was Jules Breach who scored only 30 points, she was one to captain Son, plus for six out of seven weeks she has left double digit points on the pine. To further rub salt in the wound she is no longer Queen of Captains as Matthew Jones now takes that honour, but as King obviously.
The Great and The Good were like kids on Christmas morning when it came to captain choice not knowing which one to pick first, Matthew Jones rattled his armband gift the most carefully to know he had true gold in his Jimenez selection.
The rest split themselves between a misfiring Rashford and petulant Son whose sending off saw negative returns for Joe, David, Neale and Jules Breach. Az and FPL General probably expected more from Alli whilst Mark continues to reserve his mistletoe for Sterling, he has now captained him nine times this season.
WILDCARD
Ville Ronka couldn’t wait for Santa and decided to buy himself a Christmas present in the form of a wildcard this week and top of his pile was a triple up on United players! Unfortunately, Rashford, Martial and Maguire are already on the Mr Ronka’s naughty list as they found themselves on the wrong end of a revitalized Watford this weekend.
The other surprise under the tree was that the FPL legend has moved out the game’s leading scorer Vardy as well as Leicester team mate Soyuncu leaving him with no Foxes in his squad, instead he has doubled up on Spurs and City along with those three wise men from United, let’s hope there is myrrh to come from them.
The full ins and outs are below:-
IN – Maguire, Aurier, Sterling, Son, Grealish, Martial, Rashford, Ayew
OUT – Soyuncu, Robertson, Mane, Cantwell, Alli, Tielmans, Vardy, Greenwood
TRANSFERS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week:
Andy – Son, Rico, Kelly, Aurier (Alexander-Arnold, Diop, Tomori, Pulisic)
Az – Grealish, Traore (Saka, Maddison)
David – Richalison, Sterling, Targett (Pulisic, Mane, Lowton)
FPL General – Grealish, Son (Mané, Zaha)
Joe – Grealish, Son (Mount, Mané)
Jules Breach – Doherty, Son (Mané, Van Dijk)
Geoff – Son (Mount)
Mark – No transfers
Matthew Jones – Son (Mané)
Neale – Grealish, Son (Mount, Mané)
Sean Tobin – Grealish, Son (Mané, Zaha)
*transfers out are in brackets
It takes a lot of baubles to take a -8 and unfortunately it didn’t pay off for Andy this week with 3 blanks for four of his new recruits and then there was Son.
Sean Tobin was another to take a hit for the glittering charms of Son, whilst David took another path with a -4 for Sterling, Targett and Richarlison, the move for the Brazilian is intriguing and he must be hoping the arrival of Ancelotti will be good for the Everton midfielder’s elf.
Son was the most popular transfer in this week with Mane making way for the majority, I wonder whether the move will be reversed after the Spurs man received a rotten red Christmas card and the Senegalese sensation returns from his festive break.
Grealish was another popular move but his Villa team looked overwhelmed by Saints, fortunately the well-groomed midfielder had the final sleigh with a great goal and looks set for success with some decent festive fixtures.
TEMPLATE
The template for The Great and The Good looks like this :-
Pope (8) Button (5)
Lundstram (12) TAA (10) Soyuncu (7) Rico (7) Kelly (7)
Son (9) KDB (8) Alli (7) Mane/Cantwell/Grealish (5)
Vardy (11) Abraham (9) Ings/Rashford(5)
* brackets show number of teams they appear in
The template turkey saw Son and Grealish join the squad but whilst the Villa man looks like a cracker the Spurs midfielder’s goose is cooked and has already outstayed his welcome.
WHAT IF?
Christmas is a time of reflection, what might have been and as we are now mid-way through the season now is a good time to remind ourselves and ask what if?
For those new to the what if machine which effectively calculates what your score would have been if you had done nothing since your game week one team, so no transfers or captain choices. It’s snow joke!
Applied to The Great and The Good it reveals the below:-
According to this measurement Neale is celebrating with all the trimmings as he has improved his team by 165 point over the last 18 weeks but, oh deer, Mark and David should have left well alone as they sit at the bottom of the stocking with only points lost from their managerial manoeuvring.
Here is the link to the machine if you dare to see how you would have got on.. What IfMachine.
CONCLUSION
The big decision coming out of this Gameweek looks to be who are the best Son replacements, will they go with the easy switch to De Bruyne, Mane, Sterling or Salah or will they look to use this to bring in some differential picks? Willian, Moura or Richalison?
Whatever The Great and The Good do, I wish them and you, dear reader (readers if I am feeling optimistic) a fantastic Christmas with a green arrow or two along the way.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have Xmas 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/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/GeoffreyDance
