Just over one-third of the top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League managers are tripled-up on Leeds assets for Double Gameweek 25.
According to LiveFPL.net, 34.9% of them came into the latest round of fixtures with Patrick Bamford (£6.9m), Raphinha (£5.4m) and Stuart Dallas (£5.0m) in their team.
While Friday night was not the best of starts to the Gameweek for this trio, it could still be a powerful combination be against Southampton.
A wave of investment in Raphinha appears to be the main reason for the popularity of that triple-up.
The midfielder has broken into the top 10k’s most-owned players for Double Gameweek 25 having risen to 53.5% ownership at this level.
Ilkay Gündogan‘s (£6.1m) increased from 79.3% to 85.2% suggesting very few pounced at the short-term opportunity to sell him for Leeds’ set-piece taker.
And, despite dropping to the fifth-most top-10k midfielder, Son Heung-min (£9.5m) also earned more backers, rising from 52.2% to 53.3% backing at this level.
It was Jack Grealish (£7.7m) who looks to have been a popular route to Raphinha. He was the fifth-most popular top-10k midfielder for Double Gameweek 24 with 44.2% ownership. Following Friday’s deadline, he sits in just 28.9% of squads here.
There was still some investment in Dallas and Bamford for Double Gameweek 25, solidifying their already strong presence in the top 10k.
The defender rose from 51.9% ownership to 67.6%, becoming the top 10k’s most popular defender in the process.
Bamford was already their favourite forward but still had room to increase his top-10k ownership from 88.9% to 97.9%.
Meanwhile, Danny Ings (£8.4m) has broken into the template ahead of his two fixtures, already the second-most-fashionable forward at this level (41.5%).
Despite a Double Gameweek against Southampton (home) and West Bromwich Albion (away), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.6m) looks to have been one of the fall guys here.
He was in 45.9% of top-10k teams for Double Gameweek 24 but resides only in 13.6% now.
And Michail Antonio (£6.6m) was almost certainly involved in Ings’ transfers considering his massive drop-off too.
65.7% of the top 10k owned the West Ham man for Double Gameweek 24 while only 36.1% still had him after Friday’s deadline.
The captaincy is something of a one-sided story in Double Gameweek 24.
82.0% of the top 10k backed Bamford with the armband, making him one of those most backed in one Gameweek so far this season. His effective ownership for the round stands at 180.7%.
The Leeds striker certainly has work to do after blanking against Wolves on Friday night.
That two-point score will certainly have eased some fears of the 6.4% of top-10k managers who captained Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) for Double Gameweek 25.
Despite playing just once this week, the Manchester United man is preparing to face a Newcastle defence that has conceded twice in six of its last seven outings.
Raphinha was the third-highest for top-10k captaincy backing (5.5%) while Ings (2.9%) and Gündogan (0.9%) came fourth and fifth respectively.
It will certainly be interesting to see what transfers transpire between now and Saturday’s Double Gameweek 26 deadline.
There will be 14 teams enjoying two fixtures making for the biggest Double Gameweek of the 2020/21 season.
For all the heavy investment this week, Leeds are not one of those sides, although have a relatively favourable single Gameweek fixture at home to Aston Villa.
In total, 10 players from the matrix of 15 in the top 10k most-owned matrix have two fixtures in Double Gameweek 26, so many of the managers at this level could be approaching a stacked-enough squad to warrant a Bench Boost.
As things stand, Dallas, Vladimir Coufal (£4.7m), Raphinha, Bamford and Antonio are the five popular top-10k assets scheduled to play just once in Double Gameweek 26.
6.4% of the top 10k have already laid the groundwork for Double Gameweek 26 by playing their Wildcard.
The Free Hit and Bench Boost received very little attention this week, although we can expect a bump for both of them next time out.
Meanwhile, just 1.1% played their Triple Captain for Double Gameweek, most of them handing it to Bamford.
Considering the higher-than-usual attention for Wildcards in the top 10k this week, it is worth looking at the trends they set.
As things stand, there is a slightly higher proportion of players with two fixtures in Double Gameweek 26, with 11 of this template fitting that description compared to 10 in the main ownership matrix.
Interestingly, a large number of Wildcarders still tripled-up on Dallas, Raphinha and Bamford while Alex McCarthy (£4.5m) was also included for Southampton’s Double Gameweek 25.
The most notable differences between this Wildcard template and the rest of the top 10k appear to be 66.8% inclusion for Luke Shaw (£5.0m) and renewed interest in Spurs assets.
55.6% of these Wildcarders selected Son while 62.3% of them went for Harry Kane (£11.1m).
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