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Learning from ‘The Great and The Good’ FPL managers ahead of Gameweek 21

Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead continues with his series of articles analysing the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfers and strategies of some noted Fantasy managers, from serial top 10k finishers to well-known faces.

The Great and The Good this year are the Scouts Joe LepperNeale RiggGeoff Dance and Tom Freeman, FPL Wire’s Zophar, from the Hall of Fame Fabio BorgesFPLMatthewYavuz Kabuk and Tom Stephenson, Blackbox’s Az and Mark Sutherns, FPL “celebrities” LTFPL AndyMagnus Carlsen and FPL General plus last year’s mini-league winner Les Caldwell.


“Yippee-ki-yay!”

Only the die-hard FPL managers truly enjoyed the festive season, with more Covid cancellations, an extra Free Hit chip causing joy and anger in equal measures before the FPL site itself even showed signs of a Boxing Day hangover.

The traditional family dispute centred around the once untouchable Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), whose postponed Gameweek 19 fixture against Leeds United in Gameweek 19 and upcoming AFCON adventures meant he was seen as surplus to requirements by some in their quest to fund Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m), who was bound to score against Newcastle. Wasn’t he?

As with all good festive yarns, there was a twist in the tale as the Siu superstar made amends against Burnley and those who had kept faith in Salah were left with nothing but the feeling of finding a lump of coal and a satsuma in their stocking when he missed a penalty against Leicester City.

LES CALDWELL HACK

On a serious note, there was some sad news over the holiday season as Les Caldwell, who joined ‘The Great and The Good’ this season after winning the feeder mini-league, was hacked and his team spent 604 points in transfers.

Les has shown remarkable dignity in the way he has handled the news and even asked that I use this as a reminder to everyone on the importance of password security.

He is a lovely chap and does not deserve what has befallen him, he will of course remain in ‘The Great and The Good’ and you will see I will be making manual alterations to the league so we can continue to track his progress both including and excluding the erroneous transfers.

Either way, I know we wish him nothing but green arrows for the rest of the season.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Back to the action and the race to be crowned number one is fiercely competitive this season, as Magnus Carlsen was first to make his move by using his Free Hit to claim the top spot after the Boxing Day fixtures of Gameweek 19.

Az roared back in Gameweek 20 with the bad boy of Manchester, Phil Foden (£8.1m), proving an inspired captaincy choice that saw him retake the lead and move into the top 10k.

FPL Matthew was the top scorer in last round of matches with Ronaldo, Jarrod Bowen (£6.6m) and Ederson (£6.0), who has quietly scored the Welsh wonder 30 points over the last five matches.

There are still only 20 points separating the top five and much praise should be heaped on Fabio Borges. The Hall of Fame number one has had nine green arrows in the last ten Gameweeks and an overall rank gain of 225k. It could have been even better for him had he not left Bowen’s points on the bench. Can last year’s champ beat them all again?

In other developments, the captaincy paragraph is now more exciting than me just telling you that they all captained Mo, as we have seen a variety of differential picks. Geoff Dance was the armband king with his choice of Alexandre Lacazette (£8.4m) in Gameweek 19 and, as mentioned, Az nailed it when opting for Foden.

FREE HIT

The early seasonal gift of a second Free Hit led to much debate, with the argument almost as heated as asking whether Die Hard is a Christmas film or not. For those wondering, it is.

However, many of ‘The Great and The Good’ unwrapped the chip with glee after the sparse looking fixture list meant their squads looked as miserable as a Boxing Day turkey. Tom Freeman, Magnus and Les were the ones to gobble up the opportunity.

Magnus used the chip in some style with Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m), Aymeric Laporte (£5.5m) and Martin Odegaard (£5.6m) proving acts of genius as they helped him to the top score of the week at 75 points.

Mahrez was a common factor amongst all the free hitters, as was a decent green arrow; Les scored 60 thanks to Raheem Sterling (£10.7m) and Tom chalked up 51.

Joe decided to take the plunge in Gameweek 20, as the potential hits mounted up. The Scoutcast Svengali took out his paper and pen to plot his way around the Covid postponements. His resultant scrawling gave him a 43k green arrow, so mission accomplished.

TRANSFERS

This is a summary of the transfers for this week :

Az

GW19 – Son (Salah)

GW20 – De Gea, Antonio (Foster, Jimenez)

LTFPL Andy

GW19 – Ronaldo, Bowen (Salah, King)

GW20 – Broja, Son, De Gea (Saka, Lacazette, Ramsdale)

Fabio Borges

GW19 – Son, Bowen (Salah, Raphinha)

GW20 – Maddison (Saka)

Joe Lepper

GW19 – Ronaldo, Martinelli, Reguilon (Salah, Dennis, Tomiyasu)

Geoff Dance

GW20 – Reguilon, Antonio, De Gea (Livramento, Lacazette, Meslier)

FPL General

GW19 – Ronaldo, Martinelli (Salah, King)

GW20 – Son, Broja (Raphinha, Lacazette)

Les Caldwell

GW20 – N/A

Magnus Carlsen

GW20 – King, Gray (Lacazette, Normann)

Mark Sutherns

GW19 – Ronaldo, Martinelli (Salah, Dennis)

GW20 – Broja (Lacazette)

FPL Matthew

GW19 – Ronaldo, Son (Antonio, Salah)

GW20 – Bowen (Smith Rowe)

Neale Rigg

GW20 – Antonio (Lacazette)

Tom Freeman

None

Tom Stephenson

GW19 – Ronaldo, Martinelli, Son (Brownhill, Salah, Lacazette)

GW20 – De Gea (Ramsdale)

Yavuz Kabuk

GW19 – Son (Salah)

GW20 – De Gea, Antonio (Ramsdale, Lacazette)

Zophar

GW19 – Son, Martinelli (Salah, Brownhill)

GW20 – De Gea (Foster)

Ronaldo was the present that the majority of ‘The Great and The Good’ wanted to find under the tree in Gameweek 19 but he turned up without the required batteries, and indeed points, as Man United looked back to their worst against Newcastle United.

FPL Matthew had the transfer of the week in Gameweek 20, with Bowen brought in just at the right time for a double-digit return and a decent green arrow up to 59k.

More hits were flying around with Joe, Andy and Tom Stephenson taking minus eights but perhaps more remarkable in these chaotic times was that Neale Rigg, Tom and Geoff felt confident enough to roll a transfer – or was that the FPL site’s doing…

TEMPLATE

The template for ‘The Great and The Good’ is as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams they appear in:

De Gea (8), Foster (6)

Alexander-Arnold (15), Cancelo (14), James (11), Livramento (8), Alonso (6)

Jota (15), Foden (10), Bowen (9), Son (9), Salah/Martinelli (5)

Antonio (12), King (10), Ronaldo (7)

Turbulence in the template as David De Gea (£5.1m) moves in for Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m), Salah clings on despite a fall from grace – now with the same number of owners as Gabriel Martinelli (£5.4m) – and Ronaldo makes a triumphant return.

INVESTMENT BY POSITION

There was a new feature introduced to LiveFPL this week (run by the fabulous Ragabolly) which measures the average investment by position in your starting XI compared to the top 10k.

I therefore decided to cast my gaze of ‘The Great and The Good’:

It’s worth noting here that the numbers reflect how many managers in the top 10k have invested less than you, so the higher the number the more funds you have put into that position relative to the top ranked managers.

The results show the state of flux in the game right now, the top ranked managers of this group all spending heavily in their forward line, no doubt influenced by the switch from Salah to Ronaldo.

Fabio is most intriguing as he owns neither of the big hitters, preferring to spread his funds equally across his squad and with £1.9m in the bank. He is a man prepared for every eventuality.

Elsewhere, Mark Sutherns and Geoff remain big at the back. Both played five-man defences this week but, with Reece James (£6.4m) injured, is it now time for them to share the wealth and maybe move out the non-playing option of Keinan Davis (£4.5m)?

CONCLUSION

The carnage continues, with the added spice of Double Gameweeks on the horizon. However, before we all get too excited, I would suggest we keep our focus week-to-week, remembering that a lot of the doubles may end up as Covid singles and therefore taking this opportunity to build our squads. It’s going to take fifteen players to navigate the storms ahead.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now, thanks for reading throughout 2021, I wish you a happy new year and remember – don’t have nightmares.

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me here on Twitter.

195 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Simon69
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Captain Antonio or Bowen?

    1. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      It's a coin flip mate.. I've got Bowen for form

      1. Simon69
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Tough innit

        1. Tabasco
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          Aye but at least we've got 'em both!

    2. MagicMessi
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Im captaining antonio just because he was positive covid and thus less likely to get infected soon 😀

      1. fish&chips
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Nice approach!

      2. Simon69
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        My man. Same logic lol

    3. Evil Greg
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      (triple)

  2. Jafooli
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Is White to Coufal or Henry worth -4pts?

    Will mean benching Livramento who is flagged, or Lowton (LEE)

    1. royals forever
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      White to Coufal is worth it

      1. Jafooli
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Cheers Royal

    2. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Can't you swap Livra instead? Henry's injured by the way

      1. Jafooli
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Livramento cheaper and might have a DGW?

        Thanks for Henry update

        1. Tabasco
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          Oh might he? Fair enough. Not great fixtures coming up mind and their defence is rubbish. Either way yeah I'd get Coufal

  3. royals forever
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 14 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Bottomed on last page

    On FH

    What is the best 13m DF/MF combo for this team

    De Gea Ramsdale

    Regulion Dawson Dias Mitchell xxxxxxx

    Son Bowen Saka Gray xxxxxxx

    Antonio Ronaldo Toney

    Any ideas would be welcomed

    1. Jafooli
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Keane & Benrami?

    2. Jamb0
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Cancelo + Benrahma

    3. Dthinger
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      How about Doucoure and Keane? Or Doucoure and Jansson.

  4. jackruet
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Is Foden fit? Any source he wont play?

    1. fish&chips
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Rumour that he had covid but nothing concrete

      1. Jafooli
        • 12 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Which covid variant turns someone to concrete? 😮

        1. fish&chips
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          Welcome to 2022 bro

          1. Jafooli
            • 12 Years
            2 years, 2 months ago

            😆

  5. Salarrivederci
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Need to WC trying to jump the rankings. Can’t play it ‘safe’ this season.
    Any obvious mistakes? Got 1.3ITB. Considering going BJohnson over Coufal to have more ITB.

    Pickford
    TAA - Cancelo - Coufal
    Son - Jota - Bowen - Gray
    Kane - DCL - Antonio
    ——————
    Sanchez, EmersonR, Ramsey, Lowton

    1. Jamb0
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Looks solid

      1. Salarrivederci
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Thanks!

    2. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Good luck.

      Could pay off...

      Kane v Ronaldo
      And DCL v Dennis are the obvious ones but you can easily switch later on.

      1. Salarrivederci
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Yes. Kane will be moved put to bring Salah back.

        Could also start Emerson > Jota this GW. Firmino back and it is Chelsea after all

  6. Stamford B
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Would you bring in a West Ham defender for a hit or play Bavies v Watford? If so who?

    1. fish&chips
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Bavies for sure

    2. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Bavies

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

      Bavies

    4. Stamford B
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Thought so. Thanks

      1. Stamford B
        • 2 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Dgw fever 😆

        1. fish&chips
          • Fantasy Football Scout Member
          • 13 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          Haha we've all got it

  7. panda07
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Bottomed:

    How does this sound for a -4? Bernardo & Broja > Bowen & Dennis?

    1. Stamford B
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Yes

    2. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Sounds good

  8. TheYogaDaddy
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    DDG (Foster*)
    TAA James* Cancelo Dias
    Salah Jota Foden Bowen
    Antonio (C) Watkins

    Foster King Livramento Brownhill

    1 ft, 0.4 itb

    What to do here?

    a. James to WH/Tottenham defender
    b. James to WH/ Tottenham defender and Foden/Brownhill to Gray (-4)
    c. James to Johnson and Foden to Son (-4)
    d. Something else???

    Leaning towards a or b but don’t know who I would play Gray over if I were to get him.

    1. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      A, Reguilon

      1. Tabasco
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Or Coufal

  9. sunzip14
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Better move?

    A) Bilva/Foden> Gray
    B) Dennis> DCL
    C) both for -4

    1. Stamford B
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Bilva

      1. sunzip14
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Thank you

    2. fish&chips
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      A. Dennis could have a very decent double next week according to crellin. Foden out if the covid rumours gather pace

      1. sunzip14
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Thank you

    3. Tabasco
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      A, Bilva
      Assuming you have Bowen

  10. Jamb0
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Thinking of this for free:
    Martinelli -> Gray
    James -> Emerson

    Yay or nay?

    1. Dthinger
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Nay.

      1. Dthinger
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        James to Emerson, sure, but the other is iffy

  11. jackruet
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Ok guys.

    Foden+ESR to
    Bowen +gray (-8)?

    Even if they blank Will cover the -8 and everton, westham have good fixtures plus ESR Isn't really playing

  12. Zenith UK
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    No Kane No Gain - I replied on P1, sorry for delay, was a large response

    1. AC/DC AFC
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Are you tempted to start Dennis?

      I would.

      1. Zenith UK
        • 7 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Re: my team or another team, sorry?

  13. Ginola
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    No clue who to pick between Dawson and Coufal. Who’d you choose and why?

    1. Dthinger
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Dawson more nailed for both games I guess

    2. TKC07
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      I picked Coufal.

      But Dawson feels safer pick and could get a goal from set pieces. Someone here pointed that both DGW opponents are not good at defending set pieces.

  14. Evil Greg
    • 14 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Coufal < Dalot
    Pickford < Ramsdale
    Antonio < Broja
    Gray < Salah
    Kane < Ronaldo
    Keane < Davies

    -20 let's go happy new year dudes.

  15. TKC07
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Start one..

    Galla, Broja, Livra

    1. Evil Greg
      • 14 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Broja dude

  16. Evil Greg
    • 14 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    NEW POST

  17. smix
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Ship out whom for Son?
    A. Mount
    B. Bernardo
    C. Foden

    1. smix
      • 8 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      D. Jota

    2. vaspv
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Bernardo

  18. OD
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    who should I bench out of the following:

    1. Rudiger (vs liverpool)
    2. Saka (vs city)
    3. J. Ramsey (vs bretford)
    4. T. Mitchell (vs west ham)