Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
This season’s names are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper and Tom Freeman, Scoutcasters Seb Wassell and Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar and FPL Harry, FPL ‘celebrities’ LTFPL Andy and Ben Crellin, FPL champion FPL Gunz, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Finn Sollie, Jan Kepski and Jon Ballantyne, and last year’s mini-league winner Marko Miseric.
“Bench Booster”
The end is nigh, with just the final hurdle to jump before we all retreat to our summer pursuits. Mrs Greyhead is insistent that I creosote the fence, for example. We’ll forget about FPL for a while, although there is always the Euro 2024 game for those who can’t resist scratching that Fantasy itch.
Double Gameweek 37 was the big one, particularly if you owned or indeed captained Josko Gvardiol (£5.2m) – although only the above-average FPL manager did that. As for Bruno Fernandes (£8.5m), his owners don’t want to talk about those missing assists.
In other news, everyone used their Bench Boost. Well, apart from Az and Seb.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The triple-digit scores are on me, as all of ‘The Great and the Good’ hit centuries. Top scorer Tom Freeman was just one shy of the 150. And what a sprint finish Tom has had, moving from 85k to 19k over the last four weeks and averaging 117 points in that time.
With everyone having similar front eights, he’s been smart enough to make his gains at the back, with Gvardiol, Ben White (£6.1m) and even James Tarkowski (£4.6m) helping his cause.
Ben Crellin looks to have the trophy wrapped up and is on track for his first ever top 1k finish – his only threat is last year’s winner FPL Harry, set to grab his fourth top 5k rank in a row.
As mentioned, the majority hit the Bench Boost button and Jon Ballantyne led the way with a whopping 42 from the sidelines, although some may accuse him of bench wizardry by not listing Cole Palmer (£6.3m) or Phil Foden (£8.5m) in his starting XI.
In fact, the biggest surprise was seeing someone not use the chip – although Seb is saving his for the last hurrah in Gameweek 38.
Meanwhile, captaincy was a rather dull affair with Erling Haaland (£14.3m) being the default. Chasers Az and FPL Gunz were the only ones to choose anything different – Palmer and Kevin De Bruyne (£10.6m) respectively – where it turns out they were only a couple of points behind the Norwegian.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TRANSFERS
For once, it was defensive trades that reaped the highest rewards. FPL General and FPL Harry both benefitted from Gvardiol but let’s give a respectful nod to wily Joe who brought Micky van der Ven (£4.4m) at precisely the right moment to boost his bench onto a score of 30 points.
For those who hadn’t Wildcarded in Gameweek 35, there were a few points hits flying around. FPL General took a minus 12 and Andy North spent eight himself to bring in Callum Wilson (£7.8m). Stop sniggering at the back!
- Andy LTFPL – Fernandes > Johnson
- Andy North – Gusto > Porro, Morris > Wilson, Saka > Foden
- Az – Robertson > Romero, Raya > Petrovic
- Ben Crellin – Richarlison > Johnson, Schar > Krafth
- Fábio Borges – van Hecke > Webster
- Finn Sollie – Schar > Livramento, Maguire > Dunk
- FPL General – Solanke > Jackson, Schar > Burn, van Hecke > Gvardiol, Kelleher > Vicario
- FPL Gunz – Fernandes > Bernardo
- FPL Harry – Dalot > Gvardiol, Ederson > Petrovic
- Jan Kępski – Maguire > Tarkowski, Fernandes > Johnson
- Joe Lepper – Maguire > van de Ven, Schar > Burn
- Jon Ballantyne – No transfers
- Mark Sutherns – Aït-Nouri > Romero
- Marko Miseric – Havertz > Gross, van Hecke > Cucurella
- Pras – Schar > Burn, Maguire > Romero
- Seb Wassell – Sarabia > Johnson
- Tom Freeman – Maddison > Johnson
- Zophar – van Hecke > White
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Here is the current template, with their group ownership percentage in brackets:
Petrovic (89%), Ederson (50%)
Gabriel (100%), Porro (94%), Burn (78%), Gvardiol (44%), White (39%),
Palmer (100%), Foden (94%), Son (94%), Gordon (78%), Fernandes (33%)
Isak (100%), Haaland (94%), Jackson (89%)
This remains rock solid, partly due to the similarity of chip strategies. It really is only the fifth midfield spot and the defence when any differences exist. Hats off to FPL Gunz, who is the only manager not to own Haaland.
CHIP CHAMPS
Next up, a fancy table looking at the chip success (or otherwise) of ‘The Great and the Good’:
Looking at Wildcards first, it was those who played it in Gameweek 8 that made the biggest gains, mainly due to the arrival of Palmer as a differential.
It’s been more of a mixed bag in regards to the latter Wildcard. Whilst some of the Gameweek 35 overhauls have worked out well – hello to Tom and LTFPL Andy – there’ve been contrasting fortunes for the Gameweek 30 lot. Zophar is flying but Seb failed to launch, although much of that is due to him not combining it with a Gameweek 34 Free Hit.
Speaking of which, it’s blatantly obvious which group won the Free Hit battle as Marko Miseric, Andy North and Zophar will be dining out for years on that success.
The Bench Boost activations brought good results all around – even for those who accidentally pressed the button!
CONCLUSION
If Gameweek 37 was the big one, then Gameweek 38 is the fun one, offering managers a chance to roll their dice on the most unpredictable Sunday of FPL action.
It’s the FPL equivalent of our last days at school, where the cool kids wear ties around their heads and the teachers let you play ‘Kerplunk’.
So enjoy making some differential picks, safe in the knowledge that at least the temptation of Reece James (£5.3m) has thankfully been taken away from us.
If you want to dig further into the data then do have a read of the Mini-League Mate dossier. Under ‘Join an existing league’, enter your name and email together with league code MLM0001. It’s all free!
Anyway, that’s all from me for now, and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
For those affected by any of the topics raised above, you can find me here on Twitter.
