“Choose FPL. Choose early wildcards. Choose captain fails. Choose justifying -12 hits by quoting xG data. Choose planning your trips to the garden centre around FPL deadlines. Choose ranting uncontrollably when your captain scores only to be ruled out by VAR, before going nuclear with rage as Bruno gets bonus points when the football grazes his bottom. Choose the downgrade of your expectations during the first few weeks of the season from a top 10k finish, to a top 100k, to top 1 million to claiming it’s a game of variance not skill. Choose FPL.”
Like trainspotting, our addiction to Fantasy Premier League (FPL) can seem strange to those who have never experienced the joy of a 100-point Gameweek or the discovery of a £4.0m playing defender. Luckily this weekend brought us both.
So, here we are again and as always, we are braced to enjoy the ecstatic highs of a successful transfer as well as the lows of a misplaced armband.
With over-tinkering levels at a dangerous high due to the early opening of the game, Friday night finally signalled the start of the new season and the return of The Great and The Good.
So, who are The Great and The Good? To guide us through the next 38 Gameweeks I will track the fortunes, or otherwise, of a merry band of prominent managers to seek out lessons that can be learned, plus maybe a few mistakes that can be avoided.
Let’s quickly move onto the introductions, but I warn you there is a dramatic twist as a legend departs.
THE CLASS OF 21/22
Magnus Carlsen – The Grandmaster himself. Whilst busy rewriting history in the world of chess, he also knows his way around the FPL board. When others look left, he looks right, when most Free Hit, he Wildcards. He finished in the top 10k last year after his headline grabbing top 100 season in 19/20.
Mark Sutherns – Having rattled a few Brewdog bottles together I have awoken the FPL Godfather from his summer hibernation. The Blackbox co-host had a stormer last season but probably still wasn’t happy that he didn’t finish with a three-digit rank. One question remains, can he beat Fabio?
LTFPL Andy – Sorry seems to be the hardest word to say. He was a notable omission from last year’s squad and my Mourinho inspired reverse psychology worked a treat as Andy finished just outside the top 1k. He’s back to bag himself the title!
Fabio Borges – Top of the class last year, this Portuguese teacher’s pet ended in the top 2k, meaning he has now had six top 5k finishes in a row! This Hall of Fame no.1 is the FPL equivalent of Messi and Ronaldo wrapped into one, he is the man to beat.
Les Caldwell – Proof that dreams can come true, he won the inaugural open to all mini league last year to gain his place in The Great and The Good, thanks to a rank of 922. A star ready to be born or will the media coverage and paparazzi intrusion lead him to a downward spiral of unnecessary hits and captain fails?
Joe Lepper – One of the founding members of The Great and The Good and regular host of the Scoutcast with five top 5k ranks. The Obi Wan Kenobi to many a young FPL Jedit Pro Pundit, a big fan of price points and structure.
Tom Freeman – One of the best readers of the game, a good judge of a differential pick with five top 1k finishes. One of the big Scout transfers as he became Deputy Editor this summer. Knows his stuff and bit more beside. Annoyingly he’s also a really nice chap.
Tom Stephenson – Wanting to put the pressure on Fabio I have bought in one of only a few who can match him for career history. Currently no. 2 in the Scout Hall of Fame, he has finished in the top 2k in the last three campaigns and bettered Fabio last time round.
Zophar– The FPL Wire baton has been handed to Zoph after Lateriser’s sabbatical from The Great and The Good. He is an exceptional manager with seven top 10k ranks and often the cool head in the discussions between the upside chaser and the dancing diva Bakar.
Az – Some people call him the space cowboy. Some call him the gangster of FPL. But most call him Az. For that is his name. He made another extraordinary comeback last year to finish just shy of 100,000 after being well outside the top 2m. If he can get a fast start, then his Blackbox buddy Mark may well be in trouble.
Neale Rigg – The new Big Cheese at Scout. Brilliant writer, excellent editor, FPL hero, great hair, good looking and does loads of work for charity that he doesn’t like to talk about. Coincidentally he also edits these articles.
Geoff Dance – The Canadian Kingpin who makes Scout tick, regular contributor to the FPL podcast with three top 3k finishes including one in the top 50. He is extremely polite, drinks maple syrup all day, plays ice hockey and rides a moose to work. Did I mention he’s Canadian?
FPLMatthew – Took a while to get started last year before he was fully in bloom. Moved from outside the 2m mark in Gameweek 13 to inside the top 30k in a staggering comeback. He has five top 2k finishes and if patience is a virtue then he would be very virtuous, leaving last year’s second Wildcard till Gameweek 35.
FPL General – One of, if not the best-known FPL managers in the game, with three top 500 ranks. He’s been there, done that, got the t-shirt. The only thing which has eluded him so far is winning The Great and The Good. Is that going to change this year?
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF VILLE RONKA
Now, for the more dedicated reader you may have noticed that there is an FPL legend missing from this years squad, as unfortunately the enigmatic myth of a manager Ville Ronka has decided not to participate this season.
Hopefully, he is okay, and this is just a well-deserved sabbatical from the land of FPL but whatever the reason he will be missed.
He was the first manager I followed as part of this series due to his notoriety and mystery, plus he is an amazing player, holding the record for eight consecutive top 10k finishes, along with Richard Millward. Thank you to Andrew Gower for providing me with the data here.
Now, a bigger challenge, who to replace him with? Well, I’ve decided to go big and pick one of the best managers that again you’ve probably never heard of, Yavuz Kabuk
Brought to my attention by FPL Focal he is on the verge of beating Ville’s record as he has managed seven consecutive top 10k finishes coming up to last year, so this could be a record breaking season for him.
Whatever the outcome he should be an intriguing manager to follow as he joins in the battle to become the greatest of The Great and The Good.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Crash, bang, wallop what a start to the campaign with centuries flying around the FPL Community. Despite the overwhelming evidence on Twitter and the comments section the actual overall average was just 69 so it was a Gameweek that rewarded all our pre-season research.
The Great and The Good reaped the benefits with nine of them hitting over a hundred, no doubt helped by the fact that they had all doubled up on Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.5m).
Full scores are below.
Due to the strength of the template, more of that later, the scores were very close in the opening exchanges with only 20 points separating the 15 managers.
The early pace setter is Tom Stephenson who scored 112 and stood out thanks to the eye-catching partnership of Saïd Benrahma (£6.0m) and Michail Antonio (£7.5m), plus his Mason Greenwood (£7.5m) pick. The newcomer has certainly made a good first impression.
He was also one of a number who wisely left 0.5 in the bank to give them flexibility to jump on any price hikes. He was joined by Mark, Matthew, Neale, Zophar and Tom Freeman.
In other news everyone captained Salah, but next week will provide a more interesting debate with Bruno, Son Heung-min (£10.0m) and Manchester City providing some more options.
THE TEMPLATE IS STRONG IN GAMEWEEK 1
Who are the most popular picks amongst The Great and The Good?
The template is as follows with the number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:
Sanchez (14), Steele (8)
Alexander-Arnold (15), Tsimikas (14), Shaw (13), Ayling (9), Veltman (8)
Salah (15), Fernandes (15), Raphinha (7), Barnes (6), Gilmour (6)
Antonio (15), Toney (14), Ings (11)
An incredibly strong core to the template this year with Salah, Bruno, Antonio, and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) in 100% of squads. Also knocking on the door are Ivan Toney (£6.5m), Kostas Tsimikas (£4.1m) and Robert Sanchez (£4.5m).
Tom Stephenson has ignored the crowd and avoided Toney, a wise decision so far but Brentford certainly look like they have not been promoted just to make up the numbers after dispatching a poor Arsenal side on Friday night.
Elsewhere, Yavuz has gone without Sanchez, opting for Daniel Bachmann (£4.5m) and Ben Foster (£4.0m) overdrive instead and surprisingly Fabio was the only one to prefer Diogo Jota (£7.5m) to Tsimikas for his third Liverpool spot.
BALANCING THE BOOKS
Plenty of talk about flexibility, structure and price points before the season started, with the debates ranging from big at the back to preparing our Harry Kane (£12.5m) induction plan, but how did The Great and The Good approach this recurring topic?
Looking at The Great and The Good squads we see the following budget distribution (average price per player):
Remarkable consistency across the teams in terms of spreading the cost with the majority setting up with a 3-4-3.
At the back, Alexander-Arnold and then a cheap defensive line means only an average of £5.2m spent per defender.
Magnus Carlsen has gambled more than most with three difficult to pronounce £4.0m defenders: Tsimikas, Andrew Omobamidele and Timo Livramento. This has given him more funds to afford Riyad Mahrez (£9.0m) and still retain the popular front line of Danny Ings (£8.0m), Antonio and Toney.
The rest of the field have stuck with one £4.0m defender aside from Les Caldwell who has successfully gambled on Daniel Amartey (£4.0m), alongside the very popular Tsimikas.
It appears the age of the rotating goalkeeper has passed with not one of The Great and The Good spending more than £8.5m on their goalies. Will the likes of Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m), Ilan Meslier (£5.0m) or Emiliano Martínez (£5.5m) punish them as the season settles down?
Finally, as mentioned 3-4-3 is the formation of choice, although worth noting Mark, Andy and Tom Stephenson have opted for a 3-5-2 and spent a little more in midfield, allowing Mr Sutherns and Ben Foster’s famous friend to double up on Pep Guardiola’s Man City side ahead of Norwich.
FINAL THOUGHTS
High hopes still intact, the first step has been taken on our path to enlightenment, or hopefully a top 10k finish, but let’s control our expectations and therefore, our FPL experience.
Whilst some will soar up the ranks, others will stumble but we all have another 37 Gameweeks to go, so let’s make it as enjoyable as possible, seek out the fun as we can’t all finish at number one.
Whilst I am here and before disappearing off for another week, a little plug for The Next Great and The Good mini-league which in honour of Ville Ronka I have renamed as The Next Ville Ronka?
You can join via this code 6xwb46 and if you win you will join The Great and The Good next season.
So, if you want to be like Les Caldwell and get some Z-list fame from being involved in these articles then join up, and I will give updates on the leading pack during the season.
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
