Metrics

How the top 10k FPL managers set their teams up for Gameweek 8

Tottenham Hotspur’s trip to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday afternoon will play a massive role in how Gameweek 8 plays out among the highest-ranking Fantasy Premier League managers.

Harry Kane (£11.0m) and Son Heung-min (£9.6m) come into the latest round of action heavily backed by the top 10,000, especially for the captain’s armband.

As you can see from the pie chart below, Spurs’ talismanic striker, who scored his 200th club goal in 300 appearances on Thursday, is the skipper for 66% of managers at this level.

That means for the third week in a row, the top 10k have handed Kane considerably more support when compared with Fantasy Football Scout readers, in terms of proportion.

In our latest captain poll (don’t worry, we have counted all the votes now), just 39% said they would be backing Kane with the armband, representing a lead of 18.2 percentage points over Son.

That lead widened to 46.4 percentage points when we considered only managers in the top 10k, who have only handed 19.6% captaincy backing to the South Korean.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah (£12.4m), Jamie Vardy (£10.0m) and Timo Werner (£9.4m) complete the top five skippers at this level for Gameweek 8 but each one of them is very much a differential in comparison to Spurs’ dynamic duo.

As ever the top 10k more emphatic in their backing for Kane than compared to the rest of the world.

The Spurs striker is, indeed, the most fashionable skipper, despite still being on lower overall ownership (45.2%) than Son (60.3%), chosen as captain by 2,060,781.

However, that still only represents 31% of worldwide managers, only 7.7 percentage points ahead of Son, who 1,503,449 managers chose as skipper in Gameweek 8.

With so many armbands handed to Spurs players, their effective ownership in the top 10k is particularly ominous this weekend.

Kane stands at 154.7% while Son is also over 100% with an effective ownership figure of 106.9%.

In total, 74.9% of the top 10k own both of these players for Gameweek 8, a somewhat worrying statistic for the 25.1% who don’t.

That said, considering these two titans of the top 10k both face Manchester City in Gameweek 9, it will be interesting to see how these managers respond to the shift in fixtures.

It is in defence where we see the biggest shifts in the top 10k ownership template.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) has been slipping down the pecking order for some time at this level and Gameweek 8 proved to be when he finally dropped out of the top five defenders.

The Liverpool man was in 24.9% of top 10k teams for Gameweek 7, that figure decreasing to 17.1%.

We see a similar story with Romain Saïss (£5.2m), who managed to become the most popular defender at this level last time out, only to be replaced at left-back by Rayan Aït-Nouri (£5.0m).

The top 10k have responded accordingly, shrinking his ownership among them from 35.9% to 26.4%.

Ben Chilwell (£5.9m) has clearly been a chief beneficiary of those who did not vote Romain, quickly rising to become the most fashionable defender in the top 10k, up 8.3 percentage points on his Gameweek 7 backing.

A 14-point haul against Burnley has helped Kurt Zouma (£5.3m) creep into the top five, the top-scoring FPL defender now owned by 23.1% of the top 10k.

With so many transfer focussed on putting out fires in defence, the midfield and forward positions have remained largely stable, with the same eight attackers featuring in this template in Gameweek 8 as we saw in Gameweek 7.

The exception to that was a massive shift towards owning Jack Grealish (£7.4m). He was in the top-five midfielders last time out, but only just, with 35.7% ownership in the top 10k. His 15-point haul against Southampton was enough to increase that by 22.2 percentage points.

The Wildcard remains the most heavily-used chip among top 10k managers this season, the number of deployers now up to 42.7%.

However, for the first time in 2020/21, the Triple Captain was the most popular of the Gameweek, 2.5% of the top 10k pulling the trigger.

Almost all of these managers trusted Kane with the enhanced armband with 0.3% of the top 10k using it Son, 0.07% on Werner and 0.03% on Salah.

As we hit the half-way stage of the first Wildcard period, the next one available from Gameweek 17 onwards, 39.2% of the top 10k are still yet to use a single chip.

Lessons Learned from FPL Gameweek 8

578 Comments Post a Comment
  1. fish&chips
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Does anyone have a link to the tool that calculates your teams performance vs your starting squad? My GW1 team must be crushing my current team and want to see by how much!

    1. Flair
      • 3 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      https://www.game-change.co.uk/2017/08/28/fantasy-football-what-if-machine/

      Ings, Vardy, KWP+McCarthy all propping up my GW team

      1. the dom 1
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        wow I would have been on 470 and leading my mini league but team value would have been 99.3 lol.

    2. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Cost myself a whopping 57 points. Looking at my team though, pretty much all of them are getting things wrong with Son and falling for Jose bluffs. Doh!

  2. Pukki Blinders
    • 4 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Think Welbeck is as good as essential after that performance today

    1. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Bulls eye

    2. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Like Darius Vassell when through on goal.

  3. davies
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Is Saints defence still worth investment?

    Looking for a 4.5 def...

    1. Pukki Blinders
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Not with upcoming fixtures

      1. davies
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        Who would you recommend?

        1. Pukki Blinders
          • 4 Years
          3 years, 4 months ago

          Whu and Avl

          1. davies
            • 9 Years
            3 years, 4 months ago

            Personally think whu are a massive trap

            1. Pukki Blinders
              • 4 Years
              3 years, 4 months ago

              No more a trap than Sou

              1. davies
                • 9 Years
                3 years, 4 months ago

                Highly disagree

                Sou usually get spanked by the big teams and reliable vs the rest

                Whu seem to be the opposite - they won’t be defending with 11 on their own box from now on

    2. The Knights Template
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Ragnarok

      1. davies
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        Over KWP?

    3. the dom 1
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Coufal

  4. Jinswick
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    1. Which MCY assets are people targeting for GW10, and

    2. Which big hitters are you sacrificing to get them

    For me it’s:

    1. Cancelo & KDB and perhaps one of Mahrez/Sterling/Aguero depending on fitness/form, and

    2. Jimenez and 1/2 of Trent/Kane/Son

    1. chriscosta
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      possibly son for KDB or Sterling as spurs fixture are going to become much tougher.... and i got both son and kane

      1. the dom 1
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        Son & Kane thrive against the top end teams, I say keep Son and Kane, thats imo only 🙂

    2. Pukki Blinders
      • 4 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Dias KDB Sterling for me

    3. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      KDB and Cancelo for me too. Trent and either Kane or Son as well.

  5. the dom 1
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Is IB after GW9 lads?

    1. chriscosta
      • 13 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      no before

      1. the dom 1
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        thanks

        1. chriscosta
          • 13 Years
          3 years, 4 months ago

          yw mate

  6. Karan14
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Wilson injured as soon as I get him in
    This is season just keeps on finding ways to irritate me...

    Hits galore after IB if he's not fit!!

    1. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      finding it hard to keep patience now

    2. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      I took a -8 this week as had 4 injuries plus Saiss to worry about. Then got the news that Trossard was injured too, doh. That bit worked out not too bad at least as had Taylor first sub.

  7. how now brown cow
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    These 50/50 decisions are all going wrong way this season.

    Was a toss up between Adams and Wilson- one has a goal and a price rise, the other a hamstring injury ....

    1. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      true that

  8. SHOWSTOPPERRR
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Kwp last on the bench..started lamptey chilly robbo can't complain right?

    1. Holmes
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      ani

    2. sunzip14
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Let us know the first two on bench as well. Then we can say if you can complain or not 😀

  9. THE SHEEP HUNTERS
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Gawd!
    More charts than a BBC Boris Corona Virus update.

  10. sunzip14
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Didn't expect a red arrow in LMS with 20 from 3 last night.

    1. TorresMagic™
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • Has Moderation Rights
      • 14 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Haha, I sorted by overall rank, back to GW rank today.

  11. davies
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Saints fixtures really aren’t that bad if you’re able to rotate them imo

    Vestegaard/KWP still really good value

    1. Over Midwicket
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Yep, fantastic value. I might get in McCarthy too. Guaranteed clean v trash teams and save points during tough fixtures. The perfect goalkeeper.

      1. davies
        • 9 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        You prefer kwp or vest?

        1. chriscosta
          • 13 Years
          3 years, 4 months ago

          i got KWP and am in no rush to replace

  12. ritzyd
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Morning all. FAN TEAM Q!

    Does the wildcard work the same there as in fpl? So if i activate it now i will have unlimited transfers until the next deadline?

    1. St Pauli Walnuts
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Yep. Great thing with Fanteam widlcard though is you can make some serious dough if you play it well as you get to keep all the rises and aren't penalised for getting rid of ones you've made profit on but want to keep by the end of the WC. So make sure you monitor it daily and work out who you think might drop and rise and keep switching. What is your current team value? I'm at 102.3.

  13. Do I Not Like Orange
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    If Wilson is injured the very week I bring him in for the freshly crocked Ings then Mitro is using some serious blood magic to keep himself in my team...

  14. The Legend Squad
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Anyone disheartened by their rank, don’t worry about it just yet!

    I went from 1,000,000 to 500,000 OR just after 3 clean sheets yesterday...

    Margins are still small!