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.
“Relax, don’t do it, when you want to go to it”
And relax. A delay in FPL proceedings and not one we can blame on the District Line (Fulham fans will explain), faulty refereeing equipment or drones, as cup games enforce a pause in the action.
There’s plenty to ponder over the next few days with a potential Double Gameweek 22 for the suddenly very good Manchester United and the inconsistent Leeds United, all while trying to guess the best triple-up configuration of Arsenal and Manchester City players for the week after.
Many head into the break on a green arrow, especially those who kept faith with the ‘out of form’ Erling Haaland (£12.2m) and had the differential pick of Eddie Nketiah (£6.7m) in their team – suddenly lots of people are interested in when Gabriel Jesus (£7.9m) will be resurrected.
Meanwhile, Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.6m) continues to reward his owners, although not those who dared to play Danny Ward (£4.1m) over him, a decision that will haunt the writer of this article for a while.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Is the ‘Godfather of FPL’ making a comeback? Mark Sutherns was just three shy of a century with a 740,000 green arrow to boot, thanks to a triple Arsenal attack including Nketiah and a bit of good luck/skill as Pervis Estupinan (£4.5m) auto-subbed into his team.
FPL General and Pras also scored in the nineties to continue their revivals, as did FPL Harry who is the closest one to applying pressure on the excellence of Excel, Ben Crellin.
The captaincy call gave us a bit of drama this week, as Az ruled the roost on Saturday with his Kaoru Mitoma (£5.1m) pick before the Haaland hangover hit him hard on Sunday.
Magnus Carlsen continues to throw armband Hail Marys, this time going with the Jimmy Greaves record-chasing Harry Kane (£11.7m). He scored again, in his ongoing efforts to single-handedly carry Spurs to a Champions League spot.
TRANSFERS
As predicted, it was a slow news day for transfers, as the majority rolled theirs into the upcoming doubles.
Martin Odegaard (£6.9m) was the one to tempt a few, subsequently rewarded by an assist. That’s 40 points post-restart and he now looks to be the Arsenal player to own, alongside Ben White (£4.7m), Bukayo Saka (£8.2m) and Nketiah. Wouldn’t it be easier if we had four spots?
Az deserves credit for championing and then putting his money where his mouth is with Mitoma, a ten-point haul proving he may actually know what he’s talking about.
He is still criminally under-owned – Mitoma, not Az – with the potential Blank Gameweek 25 putting managers off.
- Az – Mitoma (Andreas)
- LTFPL Andy – No transfers
- Ben Crellin – No transfers
- Fabio Borges – Odegaard (Andreas)
- Finn Sollie – Odegaard (Foden)
- FPL Harry – No transfers
- Joe Lepper – No transfers
- Geoff Dance – Odegaard (Kulusevski)
- FPL General – No transfers
- Magnus Carlsen – No transfers
- Mark Sutherns – Odegaard (Andreas)
- FPL Matthew – No transfers
- Neale Rigg – No transfers
- Pras – No transfers
- Suvansh – No transfers
- Tom Freeman – No transfers
- Tom Stephenson – No transfers
- Zophar – No transfers
TEMPLATE
Solid as a rock. The most likely new entrants will be Bruno Fernandes (£9.9m) and Odegaard over the next few weeks.
The full details are as follows, with the number in brackets showing how many teams they appear in:
Ward (14), Kepa (13)
Trippier (17), Shaw (15), White (14), Patterson (8), Doherty (6)
Rashford (18), Martinelli (13), De Bruyne (13), Andreas (12), Saka (7)
Haaland (18), Mitrovic (14), Kane (12)
RESTART RENAISSANCE
The pause gives a chance to look at who has hit the restart hard and which of ‘The Great and The Good’ has had the biggest rank gain.
Beware FPL General: he is on the march with 391 points and a 76% rank jump moving up to the 250,000 mark.
Not far behind him is FPL Harry, Tom S and our league leader Mr Crellin.
Unfortunately, Magnus Carlsen’s Wildcard and Triple Captain chip have failed to do much to rejuvenate his fortunes.
CONCLUSION
It’s time to sit back and watch the cup matches roll past, whilst others work out their significance on the blanks and doubles.
I suspect many will be planning some heavy-hitting hokey-cokey between Mohamed Salah (£12.8m), Fernandes and Kevin De Bruyne (£12.5m), which is being whispered in the dark corners of FPL land.
Some have even suggested a Marcus Rashford (£7.2m) Triple Captain option being on the cards but, whatever you do, it may be best to wait until the full landscape is known before making your move. Remember what Frankie said… relax.
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
