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 Lepper, Neale Rigg, Geoff Dance and Tom Freeman, FPL Wire’s Zophar, from the Hall of Fame Fabio Borges, FPLMatthew, Yavuz Kabuk and Tom Stephenson, Blackbox’s Az and Mark Sutherns, FPL “celebrities” LTFPL Andy, Magnus Carlsen and FPL General plus last year’s mini-league winner Les Caldwell.
“Don’t you, forget about me”
It’s good to know that it’s not just simple minds like our own that forget an FPL deadline, as we discovered this week that even Chess Grandmasters can have a memory lapse. Yes, Magnus Carlsen revealed this week in a tweet that he has made such an embarrassing blunder.
Yet, despite his tardiness, he had managed to place the armband on a certain out-of-position Liverpool midfielder, not called Mohamed Salah (£12.8m), so not all was lost.
Elsewhere, Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.5m) continues to disappoint with his latest benching, Kevin De Bruyne (£12.2m) owners were thankful for a Brentford goalkeeping mishap and Diogo just keeps on getting Jota with his latest brace.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The wonderfully talented, and coincidentally the editor of these articles, Neale Rigg was the top scorer this week with 84. He moves just outside the top 50,000 thanks to a run of seven out of eight green arrows.
His double-up on the Arsenal defence proved canny, alongside the usual suspects of Jota and Jarrod Bowen (£6.9m). He is also one of only two of the managers to own Son Heung-min (£10.7m), who scored on his return and could prove to be a good pick ahead of Double Gameweek 26.
Az and Fabio continue to duke it out for top spot, both scoring 67 this week, although FPL General appears to be marshalling his troops ahead of a push for the title. Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) continues to be his new best friend with more heroics between the sticks.
At the murky end, Mark will take some comfort that he no longer is in the wooden spoon position, although he probably feared the worst when Gabriel Martinelli (£5.4m) saw red.
TRANSFERS
This is a summary of the transfers for this week :
- Az – No transfers
- LTFPL Andy – Regulion (Alonso)
- Fabio Borges – No transfers
- Joe Lepper – Salah (Mount)
- Geoff Dance – Mahrez (Saka)
- FPL General – Bruno Fernandes (Bernardo Silva)
- Les Caldwell – Bruno Fernandes, Ramsey (Gray, Mount)
- Magnus Carlsen – No transfers
- Mark Sutherns – No transfers
- FPL Matthew – No transfers
- Neale Rigg – Digne, Ramsdale (Alonso, Steele)
- Tom Freeman – Kane (Calvert-Lewin)
- Tom Stephenson – Digne (Alonso)
- Yavuz Kabuk – Edouard, Emerson Royal (Dennis, Rudiger)
- Zophar – Digne (Alonso)
The transfer of the week goes to Les Caldwell, who brought in Jacob Ramsey (£4.7m) at the perfect time to benefit from his haul. Last year’s winner of the feeder mini-league continues to have an eye for the well-timed move.
Zophar and Tom Stephenson seem to be transfer twins, matching each other move for move; this writer is becoming suspicious as I’ve never actually seen them in the same room at the same time?
Neale followed Fabio’s trend of stocking up on goalkeepers with strength in depth in this position: is he preparing for an early Bench Boost?
TEMPLATE
The template for the Great and The Good is as follows, with the numbers in brackets showing how many teams in which the players appear:-
- De Gea (8), Foster (6)
- Alexander-Arnold (15), Cancelo (15), Livramento (9), Dawson (5), Alonso, Coufal, Regulion, Digne (4)
- Bowen (15), Jota (15), Foden (8), Bruno Fernandes (7), Gray (6)
- King (13), Antonio (10), Ronaldo (9)
There are only minor adjustments in the template, with a lack of consensus on who the fifth defender should be, as the Marcus Alonso (£5.6m) sales mean others come under consideration.
There is still no sign of Salah, with Joe the only one to own this sought-after differential. Will we see a scramble for his services this week or can the Great and The Good just grin and bear it with their United heavy-hitters?
In other news, Fabio stands out as the lone manager to hold any Burnley players. Could this change as they double-up on doubles? I imagine it’s worth scouting Wout Weghorst (£6.5m) and Maxwel Cornet (£5.9m) as they soon may be flavour of the week.
READ MORE: Burnley get a Double Gameweek 27
READ MORE: Scout Report – Wout Weghorst
SEASON STATS
Az has retaken the honour of being the armband ace as he overtakes Fabio for the number of captaincy points over the campaign.
Yavuz continues to take hit after hit and is now up to 13 for the season. Contrast that with the cautious approach of Zophar and Tom Freeman, with only three hits so far.
If money makes the world go round, then Zophar is a-spinning with a team value of 106.6m – will this pay off in the latter stages as he builds his Wildcard?
CONCLUSION
Don’t be a Magnus and forget the deadline on Saturday, with another lightning-fast turnaround.
We are entering the business end of the season now, with our faith in United, and soon Burnley players to be tested with the aforementioned doubles. So, plan carefully as there could be some big green arrows to be had over the coming weeks!
Anyway, that’s all from me for 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
