Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses 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 season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper, Tom Freeman, Neale Rigg, Geoff Dance, Pro Pundits Pras, Zophar and FPL Harry, FPL “celebrities” Magnus Carlsen, FPL General, LTFPL Andy, Ben Crellin, from the Hall of Fame, Fabio Borges, FPL Matthew, Finn Sollie and Tom Stephenson and of course last year’s mini-league winner and overall no. 2 Suvansh.
“Here comes the Son”
Son Heung-min (£11.7m) was the king this week with a rapid, regal hat-trick to those who kept the faith, one of which was our very own FPL Grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen.
Prior to Gameweek 8, we had to deal with the non-event that was Gameweek 7, although there was at least some transfer activity and odd captain choices to report – I doubt we’ll see Danny Ward (£4.0m) with the armband again. It also triggered a multitude of Wildcards.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Magnus was filled with Son-shine as he was the high flyer this week with a score of 80 points. As well as the Spurs hitman, he also has Alexsander Isak (£7.1m), Joao Cancelo (£7.2m) and the lesser spotted Lucas Digne (£4.7m) to thank for the dazzling start to his Wildcard.
FPL Harry still remains at the summit with a creditable 71 points and moves to just outside the top 30,000. A certain William Saliba (£4.9m) was his hero with 15 points, which makes him the highest scoring defender in the game.
The YouTuber extraordinaire did lose some conduct points for flagrant bench tomfoolery as he left Kevin De Bruyne (£12.3m), Cancelo and Kieran Trippier (£5.4m) on the sidelines, only for their 24 points to be auto-subbed in at the end of the weekend.
The tables for the last two weeks are below.
WILDCARDS
You wait for one Wildcard and then 10 of the buggers come along at once! It was a right royal queue and the early overhaulers of Az, Mark and Geoff could only look on in envy as the perfect 10 prepared their squads for the Gameweek 8 blank and even keep one eye on the Gameweek 12 Arsenal v Manchester City reschedule.
The good news is that there was a bit of variety in approach but the unanimous decision was that Mohamed Salah’s (£12.9m) services were surplus to requirements. Suvansh has yet to own the Egyptian all season.
I suspect whether to own Salah will be a more difficult decision for those Wildcarding over the international break. Could he even become a differential?
The other majority decision was that three up front was back. After a pre-season bemoaning the forward options, the form of Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.9m), Ivan Toney’s (£7.2m) hat-trick and the fixtures of Isak suddenly made strikers sexy again.
It was a split decision as to whether to go Harry Kane (£11.4m) or De Bruyne, unless you were Ben Crellin in which you had both, as he was one of two to go the ‘threemium route’ with the inevitable Erling Haaland (£12.0m) making up the triple-up of terror.
Magnus has also gone ‘threemium’ but gambled on an out-of-form Son, which worked out pretty well. This meant he doubled up on a couple of £4.0m and below defenders, one of which I had to Google. Toti Gomes (£3.9m), anyone?!
He was not the only one to take advantage of the cheaper defensive options. Joe Lepper and FPL Matthew also went that route to allow them to join a number of The Great and The Good to have a duo of £7.0m-£8.0m midfielders, Jarrod Bowen (£8.1m), James Maddison (£7.9m) and Wilfried Zaha (£7.2m) being the popular choices.
Finn Sollie and Tom Stephenson took it a step further with three midfielders in this price bracket. Finn’s choice of Phil Foden (£8.0m) gave early returns whilst Tom went Bukayo Saka (£7.8m), joining a number of others such as Ben Crellin and FPL General, with his returns this weekend a win for the quality over form argument.
A triple-up on City was obviously popular but a few decided it worth a roll of the dice on the Newcastle defence, with Tom Stephenson, Ben Crellin and FPL General all going with a trio of Magpies at the back. That Phillip Billing (£5.3m) goal must have been hard to stomach.
Talking of FPL General, his decision to leave £2.7m in the bank suggests he has a transfer or two booked in: could Salah or Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) make their return? He also only made seven changes, which was the lowest number along with Joe.
It’s also worth having a look at the Wildcard of Tom Freeman, who has taken bench strength to another level, with the rotation of Digne, Trippier, Andreas Pereira (£4.6m) and Anthony Gordon (£5.6m) looking to be his weekly decision from now on.
With regards to differentials, Ben Crellin’s decision to pick Tyrone Mings (£4.3m) looks inspired after his nine-point return. Finn Sollie will hope for similar from Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) and Zophar will hope that Kurt Zouma (£4.5m) can help turnaround West Ham’s fortunes.
I have listed the full ins and outs because I’m nice like that below.
Ben Crellin
- IN – Pope, Botman, Perisic, James, Mings, Saka, Bailey, De Bruyne, Kane
- OUT – Sanchez, Cancelo, Dias, Cucurella, Estupinan, Gross, Salah, Diaz, Jesus
Finn Sollie
- IN – Pope, Iversen, Trippier, Andersen, Foden, Bowen, Maddison, Kane
- OUT – Sanchez, Ward, Saliba, Alexander-Arnold, Gross, Salah, Rashford, Toney
Joe Lepper
- IN – Pope, Williams, Patterson, De Bruyne, Maddison, Isak, Mitrovic
- OUT – Sanchez, Gabriel, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Gross, Jesus, Archer
FPL General
- IN – Iversen, Botman, Williams, Saka, Gordon, De Bruyne, Toney
- OUT – Ward, Emerson, Fofana, Rashford, MacAllister, Gross, Jesus
Magnus
- IN – Pope, Trippier, Digne, Toti, De Bruyne, Son, Gordon, Mitrovic, Isak
- OUT – Henderson, Walker, James, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Diaz, Colback, Jesus, Greenwood
FPL Matthew
- IN – Pope, Iversen, Trippier, Emerson, Maddison, Bowen, De Bruyne, Mitrovic, Isak
- OUT – Sanchez, Ward, Saliba, Alexander-Arnold, Diaz, Rashford, Salah, Archer, Jesus
Suvansh
- IN – Pope, Iversen, James, Perisic, Emerson, Trippier, Maddison, Bailey, Bowen, Kane, Mitrovic
- OUT – Ramsdale, Ward, Dunk, Estupinan, Cucurella, Alexander-Arnold, Reed, Gundogan, Sterling, Darwin, Jesus
Tom Freeman
- IN – Pope, Digne, Trippier, Perisic, Gordon, Foden, Maddison, Kane
- OUT – Ramsdale, Dunk, Cucurella, Alexander-Arnold, Neto, Diaz, Salah, Archer
Tom Stephenson
- IN – Pope, Iversen, Emerson, Schar, Maddison, Bowen, Saka, Kane
- OUT – Sanchez, Ward, Walker, Cucurella, Murphy, Diaz, Salah, Jesus
Zophar
- IN – Pope, Ward, Zouma, Williams, Maddison, Zaha, De Bruyne, Isak, Mitrovic
- OUT – Ramsdale, Iversen, Dunk, Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Diaz, Reed, Archer, Jesus
TRANSFERS
Away from the madcap world of Wildcards, there were transfers to be made. Mitrovic and Trippier were the most popular of trades but it was nice to see Maddison and his number one fanboy Az finally reunited.
Fabio Borges took his first hit of the season and all three of his new additions returned, although he might have been better waiting on Harrison Reed (£4.5m), his 10 points were left wanting on the Portuguese’ bench.
Az
- GW7 – Trippier (Gabriel)
- GW8 – Kane, Maddison (Jesus, Salah)
LTFPL Andy
- GW7 – Mitrovic, Trippier (Greenwood, Alexander-Arnold)
- GW8 – Bowen, Perisic (Salah, Dunk)
Ben Crellin
- GW7 – Trippier, Mitrovic (Archer, Alexander-Arnold)
- GW8 – Wildcard
Fabio Borges
- GW7- Schar (Dunk)
- GW8 – Kane, Saka, Trippier (Archer, Salah, Alexander-Arnold)
Finn Sollie
- GW7 – Mitrovic, Rashford (Jesus, Reed)
- GW8 – Wildcard
FPL Harry
- GW7 – None
- GW8 – Pope, De Bruyne (Salah, Sanchez)
Joe Lepper
- GW7 – Trippier (Cucurella)
- GW8 – Wildcard
Geoff Dance
- GW7 – None
- GW8 – Pope, Mitrovic, De Bruyne (Salah, Darwin, Sanchez)
FPL General
- GW7 – Wildcard
- GW8 – Wildcard rollover
Magnus Carlsen
- GW7 – Williams (Cucurella)
- GW8 – Wildcard
Mark Sutherns
- GW7 – Trippier (Walker)
- GW8 – Bowen, Kane (Salah, Jesus)
FPL Matthew
- GW7 – Rashford (Neto)
- GW8 – Wildcard
Neale Rigg
- GW7 – Trippier (Robertson)
- GW8 – Pope, De Bruyne (Sanchez, Salah)
Pras
- GW7 – Trippier (Perisic)
- GW8 – Mitrovic, De Bruyne, Botman (Walker, Salah, Plange)
Suvansh
- GW7 – None
- GW8 – Wildcard
Tom Freeman
- GW7 – Mitrovic (Jesus)
- GW8 – Wildcard
Tom Stephenson
- GW7 – Mitrovic, Trippier (Archer, Alexander-Arnold
- GW8 – Wildcard
Zophar
- GW7 – Trippier (Cucurella)
- GW8 – Wildcard
TEMPLATE
A Wildcard whirlwind has ripped through the template with seven new additions, with Nick Pope (£5.2m), Ivan Perisic (£5.6m), De Bruyne, Maddison, Bowen, Mitrovic and Kane (phew) all now part of the squad.
Trippier now enters the exclusive 100% club along with Pereira and Gabriel Martinelli (£6.6m), who join him in the cordoned-off section, safe in the knowledge that everybody wants them.
Pope (13), Ward (10)
Trippier (18), Cancelo (14), James (12), Williams (9), Perisic/Alexander-Arnold (6)
Martinelli (18), Andreas (18), De Bruyne (11), Maddison (8), Bowen (6)
Haaland (17), Mitrovic (15), Kane (8)
CAPTAIN CALLS
Let’s take a quick glance at the captaincy success rate before we end. Az is possibly the surprising leading manager in this metric, a De Bruyne masterclass in Gameweek 2 the major contributing factor.
Salah remains the most popular choice over the season at 45%, based on early-season expectations, but he is slowly being chased down by the inevitable Haaland.
Mark has thrown his captaincy darts far and wide with five different picks to this point; maybe he should just go for the bullseye with Haaland as he currently sits on just 86 armband points for the season.
CONCLUSION
After a slow, template-dominated start to the season, things have picked up with blanks, Wildcards and fixture swings all leading to more diverse approaches.
So, my advice this week is to enjoy the international break as I suspect the weeks following it are going to be both painful and pleasurable in equal measure.
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
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