Learning from the Great and the Good 20/21 – Gameweek 26

“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender, I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.”

The biggest Double Gameweek in history ended in disappointment for many with heavy hitters failing to hit, bench boost blow outs and a drab set of performances in midweek.

Yet, there was some nostalgia in the air as an FPL legend Gareth Bale took time out from perfecting his short game to remind us of his class, Jesse Lingard became an option again and Chelsea appear to have remembered how to defend, let’s hope they passed some notes on to the Liverpool back four.

The managers in The Great and The Good are the Scouts Neale Rigg and Joe Lepper, Pro Pundits (Mark Sutherns, Az, Lateriser, Fabio Borges and Tom Freeman ), FPL “celebrities”, FPL General,  Magnus Carlsen and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville Ronka, Matthew Jones and Sean Tobin

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

There was at least some excitement amongst The Great and The Good as we see a new leader in this mythical mini-league with Fabio Borges taking bragging rights over FPL General, but it’s tight at the top of this league ladder with only 13 points separating these two and Mark Sutherns in third.

Making up ground this week was Sean Tobin who scored his second century of the season with 105, he was joined in the hundred club by Ville Ronka, both had their defences to thank this week with an impressive 57 points coming from Sean’s back line.

Az’s good form continued with his fifth consecutive green arrow and he now sits on equal points with Tom Freeman as Joe Lepper slips into the danger zone.

WILDCARDS

Two of The Great and The Good brethren played their Wildcard this week and both appear to be following a similar chip strategy with all other chips intact, which clearly influenced their planning for the blank in Gameweek 29.

Ville Ronka

The Finnish maestro wielded the axe to his squad with 12 changes, there was a triple up on Everton and Villa presumably based on the logic of a double for both of these teams in Gameweek 28, although that has yet to be confirmed.

The investment in the Everton defence paid off immediately with Michael Keane one of this week’s top scorers and there may be some regret he didn’t double up with Holgate’s points on the bench.

Elsewhere, we saw a move for the Spurs double act of Son and Kane, although with Mourinho latest move to play the famous four together we might see the goals and assists more spread out amongst the Tottenham players.

The full ins and outs are below:-

IN – Areola, McCarthy, Targett, Keane, Konsa, Holgate, Gundogan, Son, Bissouma, Kane, Watkins, Calvert-Lewin

OUT – Pope, Steer, Holding, Dallas, Coufal, Cancelo, Sterling, Rodriguez, Raphinha, Ings, Bamford, Brewster

Tom Freeman

Tom lived up to his differential reputation with an overhaul that saw several picks with low ownership. He is the first one of this group to bring in Lingard who is only in 6.3% of squads despite an impressive 39 points over the last five weeks.

Maitland-Niles, Pereira, Diagne, Saka and even the relatively unknown Kevin De Bruyne all have been posting good numbers and will certainly boost his rank if they brace over the coming weeks.

Full details below:-

IN – Areola, Johnstone, Pereira, Digne, Maitland-Niles, Dawson, Saka, Lingard, De Bruyne, Kane, Diagne

OUT – Pope, Meslier, Robertson, Mee, Taylor, Coufal, Son, Raphinha, Sterling, Adams, Bamford

TRANSFERS

Let’s check in on this week’s transfers

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az – Kane, Lookman, Targett (Antonio, Rashford, Coufal)

Fabio Borges – Calvert-Lewin (Ings)

Joe Lepper – Son, Kane (Grealish, Ings)

FPL General – Kane, Calvert-Lewin, Barnes (Ings, Bamford, Grealish)

Lateriser – Maitland-Niles, Calvert-Lewin, Barnes (Burn, Ings, Harrison)

Magnus Carlsen – Kane, Calvert-Lewin, Gundogan (Cavani, Grealish, Bamford)

Mark Sutherns – Digne, Kane (Tarkowski, Ings)

Matthew Jones – Kane (Bamford)

Neale Rigg – Kane, Lookman, Pereira, Martinez (Brewster, Grealish, Coufal, Forster)

Sean Tobin – Digne, Watkins (Dallas, Antonio)

Tom Freeman – Wildcard

Ville Ronka – Wildcard

*transfers out are in brackets

The hype of the Double Gameweek made some of them a little giddy with multiple minus fours flying all over the place, even that bastion of transfer austerity Neale used a minus eight, effectively tripling his hits for the season. Although Lookman and Pereira failed to help him boogie boogie up the rankings.

Mark and Sean had the pick of the moves with Digne joining their teams and immediately delivering a double-digit brace. Whilst luckless Lateriser brought back in Barnes, after only selling him last week, just in time for the Leicester highflyer to suffer a long-term injury.

CHIP STRATEGIES

This has been the most fascinating season for chip strategies with multiple paths taken by The Great and The Good, the table below summarizes the chips played and scores as a result.

This was the busiest Gameweek for chips with only Matthew Jones, Joe and Magnus keeping their cards close to their chest. The Bench Boost continues to be the cursed chip with only Lateriser scoring a respectable 24 from his fine pine with Maitland-Niles, Areola and Tete contributing.

The triple captain was played by Mark and FPL General on Kane who did slightly better than Fabio Borges and Sean who had a Mo show from Salah.

As mentioned, Tom and Ville played their Wildcard and look to be in a good position for a strong finish to the season with their three other chips all intact. Mark, Joe, Az, Fabio and FPL General look to be in the Gameweek 30/31 Wildcard camp.

Most intriguing is Magnus as he has both his Free Hit and Wildcard remaining giving him a multitude of options especially with Gameweek 33 looking more and more like a set of fixtures to attack with a Free Hit.

TEMPLATE

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

Martinez (5), Areola (4)

Cancelo (8), Stones (6), Dias (6), Digne (5), Dallas (5)

Bruno Fernandes (12), Gundogan (12), Raphinha (10), Salah (9), Son (6)

Calvert-Lewin (11), Kane (10), Bamford (7)

Shifts in the template with the Double firmly in the thoughts of The Great and The Good as Kane, Areola and Digne join the ranks with Ings, Pope and Coufal making way.

What will be fascinating is whether Bruno will keep his 100% appearance rate in all of their squads next week with fixtures looking less than appealing and United’s success rate against the deep block being called into question.

CONCLUSION

A disappointment of a Gameweek for many after all the hype, for some the relentless schedule and drawn out Gameweeks have led many to question whether FPL is still fun?

I would argue that fun is still there, you have to see the success of Luke Williams and FPL Rhinos who gambled on Bale and in the latter case Mahrez to see you can still make the big moves.

At this stage of the season, maybe it’s time to think about getting some ambition and have a little courage. Don’t have regret and a list of excuses, use the setbacks as a wake up call to make the bold move. Options such as De Bruyne, Lingard and even Aubameyang are there to reward the risk. It’s up to you to decide how far you are willing to go if you want to be a contender.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19