Community

Learning from the Great and the Good 20 21 – Gameweek 2

“Well I don’t know why I came here tonight; I got the feeling that something ain’t right, I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair, and I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am. Stuck in the middle with you”

Take a hit, hold tight, wildcard! A bloody earful of advice, opinion and debate as we entered Gameweek 2 with some of us stuck in the middle as to what we should do.

Many advocated an aggressive hit-based approach to take advantage of the delayed start for United, City and move away from the evolving Spurs soap opera, but there was a plot twist in that drama.

Others suggested a more cautious approach to give us chance to see if the likes of the resurgent Everton were the real deal, one suspects that trepidation has now passed as Calvert-Lewin hit a hat-trick.

A number went all in and threw in their wildcard, like Scoutcast legend Granville, Canadian Kingpin Geoff Dance, winner of Championship Manager FPL Luke Williams and stat man himself FPL Wire’s BigManBakar aka TFF. The latter scored a fantastic 82 points moving him up to 117,000.

So, how did the Reservoir Dogs of the FPL world The Great and The Good plot their first step and did they prove to be jokers or clowns?

For those not familiar with the series The Great and The Good are a select group of prominent FPL managers made up of FF Scouts, Pro Pundits, Celebrities and Hall of Famers who I follow during the season to see what I can learn in order to improve my fortunes.

They are the Scouts Neale Rigg and Joe Lepper, Pro Pundits (Mark SuthernsAzLateriserFabio Borges and Tom Freeman ), FPL “celebrities”, FPL GeneralMagnus Carlsen and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville RonkaMatthew Jones and Sean Tobin

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-2

A criminally bad week for most of the managers with seven of them below the overall average of 59, Fabio and Magnus were the most successful with their weekly heist gaining them 73 points.

Neale and Fabio were in the pink as they were the only Son owners with the other successful managers having a combination of Calvert-Lewin, James Rodríguez and Mitrovic to thank for their above average weeks.

I won’t dwell too much at the bottom end of the table but plenty had a difficult weekend with the average rank change amongst this group a drop of a million places, so if you had a challenging weekend then you were not alone.

The captain call was looking to be a boring affair with everyone expected to go Aubameyang but Lateriser then gambled, going heart over head, by putting his armband on Martial, I suspect he will have better picks this season.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az – Martial, Ayling (Ings, Vinagre)

Fabio Borges – No transfers

Joe Lepper – No transfers

FPL General – James Rodríguez (Pulisic)

Lateriser – Bruno Fernandes (Havertz)

Magnus Carlsen – James Rodríguez (Alli)

Mark Sutherns – Grealish, Digne (Vinagre, Pulisic)

Matthew Jones – No transfers

Neale Rigg – No transfers

Sean Tobin – No transfers

Tom Freeman – James Rodríguez (Pulisic)

Ville Ronka – Rashford (Son)

*transfers out are in brackets

The transfers reflect the split in the community prior to Gameweek 2 with five holding their nerve whilst the Blackbox duo of Mark and Az took hits.

Tom, FPL General and Magnus were rewarded for bringing in James/Hamez/Rodríguez, but whichever way you address him the Everton midfielder looks a canny buy.

There were some less successful moves, Az had to suffer as Ings threw his minus four back in his face as he scored whilst his recruit Martial failed to deliver.

Yet, most of your sympathy should be with Ville Ronka who sold Son for Rashford, which could be considered a mistake or more appropriately just plain bad luck, as the Spurs midfielder hit four goals against Southampton.

TEMPLATE

The template for The Great and The Good is as follows with number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:-

McCarthy (7), Steer (6)

Alexander-Arnold (12), Walker-Peters (9), Mitchell (7), Ayling (6), Justin (5)

Aubameyang (12), Salah (11), Saint-Maximin (8), Bissouma (7), Soucek (6)

Werner (11), Mitrovic (6), Adams/Martial(4)

No major changes this week with only Martial joining the squad competing with Adams for the 3rd striker spot, his appearance could be short-lived unless he performs against Brighton. Will the gloves be off this time?

BACKING THE RIGHT TEAM

One method of gaining a little success is to double or triple down on a team either with good fixtures or pedigree. So, I was interested to see which teams The Great and The Good has focused their attention on at the start of the season.

The table below gives the number of players from the Premier League squads, bear in mind the maximum number would be 36 (12 teams in The Great and The Good x maximum of 3 players):-

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-2 1

No surprise to see Liverpool dominate with only Lateriser from these managers not doubling up and many of them tripling up on their players, the tricky part is which three to pick with Mane reminding us of his quality over the weekend.

Sterling and De Bruyne will no doubt be joining several squads this week but at present, there are no City players in any of the teams. Would also fancy a few more Wolves to be added to the pack this week with a howling set of fixtures ahead, Jiménez and Podence are ones I have my eye on.

To make room for these new additions I can see Southampton players being moved on, they were heavily tipped to have a breakthrough season with some good early fixtures but their high defensive line was cruelly exposed by Son and turned many a Saint into a sinner.

Fascinating to see so much faith put in the newly promoted teams, as conventional wisdom would suggest steering clear of unproven talent at the start of the campaign. Whilst it looks like goals could be plentiful in any game involving Fulham, Leeds and West Brom it would look like any clean sheets from their backline will be a rare occurrence.

CONCLUSION 

A dramatic weekend of FPL with next few days promising major price fluctuations and a little chaos as many of us try to catch up.

I can see panic buying of Son or Calvert-Lewin plus heavy investment in Wolves and maybe even a wildcard or two, with 0.1 drop feeling like 0.5 at this early stage.

My counsel would be to keep a calm head and try to remember your golden rules of patience announced by so many of us before the season began, but most of all enjoy it as riding the FPL rollercoaster is all about relishing all the twists and turns that this game brings.

Finally, just to provide an update on the Community team that will be featured in upcoming articles over the international breaks, first thank you for a great (and good) response – you certainly are a creative bunch.

After much deliberation, well not that much, decision-making was more of the blindfolded dart-throwing variety I have selected the following:

Swanmoretime, AA33, Milvus, Reedy, Dino, Sepp Blattered, Bezzer, Darth Krid, Doy, Pras United, Chaballer and Boris Bodega.

Sorry to those who didn’t get in this time, your details have been kept on file and in some cases handed over to the appropriate authorities and will look to do something similar next season. Thank you again for all the love, it was very touching and the first article on the Community team will be in a couple of weeks’ 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 then you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19

46 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Rotation's Alter Ego
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Cheers as always Greyhead! Excited to see how LR and co change their fortunes around, will be interesting to see how the template changes now.

    Great Community team there as well - lots of very serious names! Looking forward to seeing how they do.

  2. DRIZ ✅
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Wow Lateriser with Werner C and Martial c first two gws

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      He will be back, of that I am sure!

  3. diesel001
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Lateriser and Matthew Jones screwed. Fewer than 100 pts after 2 GWs and the other guys are good so will be hard to outthink them to catch up.

    1. Andy_Social
      • 11 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      I don't think so. The first 2 GWs have been a lottery. Anything could happen GW3 to cause further huge swings.

    2. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Anything could happen in the next 36 gameweeks!

      1. The 12th Man
        • 10 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Thunderbirds are go!

    3. The 12th Man
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      It’s a long season!

    4. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Jumpers for goalposts, insert additional cliches as required

  4. FPL Theorist
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Cheers Greyhead!

    Feels good to already have two Wolves in my team. Won't have to spend transfers bringing them in now.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Dancing with Wolves

  5. The Orienteer - find me in …
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Lovely article, thanks.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Thank you !

  6. Camino Aleatorio
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    It would be cool if FPL could get Ed Woodward to make a team.

    Ed would probably have a career rank of 2M, even after 8 years of playing

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      He would certainly struggle to make a transfer by deadline.

    2. Lukakus Unit
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      He would probably spend the preseason trying to get the players to lower their prices and end up buying the best GW1 players after they'd risen in price.

  7. RedLightning
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    How about changing the name of The Great and The Good mini-league to something like Great and Good Candidates or Great and Good Wannabes, so as to distinguish it from the select group of The Great and The Good that the winner of the mini-league will be entitled to join next season?

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Great suggestion. I’ve gone for The Next Great and The Good. Did you enter?

      1. RedLightning
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • Has Moderation Rights
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 6 months ago

        Yes, I'm in (currently 299th).
        Good name!

  8. AA33
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks for taking me in the community squad Greyhead!

    1. AA33
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      After a big win over the Scout Picks I have got another mission!

    2. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Deservedly so after that Scout Picks result

  9. CDlison265
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Thank you! Very helpful and well documented

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Thank you!

  10. MagnetBPS
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Werner or Kane

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Werner by a whisker

  11. DaisyDaisyDaisyDaisy
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Ronka sold Son. If the greatest can do it I don't feel so bad...

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Exactly, it’s going to be a season of ups and downs with a much wider variety of big hitters this year.

    2. FPL Theorist
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Last year's #1 Josh Bull did too.

  12. Abx19
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Lateriser has his wildcard active can see a big week for him on the horizon.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Yes, I’ve Bielsa’s spies at his training ground to find out who he is bringing in

  13. Whits
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    A. Werner, Reece James and TAA
    B. Kane, Robertson and KWP

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      A for me

  14. Boris Bodega
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Looking forward to showing you guys how to do it right 😉

    Cheers Greyhead

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Cheers Boris! Stay alert - Control the Wildcard - Score points

  15. DazF90
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Another good read, thank you

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Cheers, much appreciated

  16. FPL Virgin
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Why do I enjoy it so much when the big names have a bad gameweek? It's like a guilty pleasure.

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Not sure I enjoy it but their shared pain at least gives me a little comfort

  17. SDC
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Another super article. Thank you 🙂

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Super, smashing lovely of you to say!

  18. Saubi
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Another good read. One of favorite articles for a reason! Thank you

  19. Greyhead
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Do let me know when you find that reason :-). Thanks, very kind.

    1. Saubi
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      You're welcome 🙂
      No need to find the reason, it's simple. An enjoyable topic written by an excellent writer. Thanks a lot 🙂

  20. doy
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 6 months ago

    Another top piece (we don't expect anything different!) and thank you so much for including me as one of the Community team members! Hopefully we do not disappoint ha ha =)

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 6 months ago

      Thank you! The Doy done good getting in the Community team