Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead presents his series of The Great and the Good articles, analysing the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.

The Great and The Good this season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper and Tom Freeman, Scoutcaster Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar, FPL Harry and Lateriser, FPL “celebrities” Ben Crellin, Luke Williams and FPL Fran, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Jan Kepski, Markku Olaja and Seb Wassell, plus last year’s mini-league winner Geraint Owen.

It was the return of the giant Erling Haaland (£14.8m), as he smelled the blood of Southampton defenders. Yet this Gameweek had a twist in the tale, with a less-than-happy ending for those who bought him or, in fact, any Manchester City attacker. Particularly Mark Sutherns, who used his Triple Captain chip on the Norwegian.

In a particularly busy week for The Great and The Good, there was a Markku Ojala Free Hit that took out his Newcastle United defence (ouch), Luke breaking the cardinal rule of FPL of never captaining a defender and FPL Harry taking a minus eight to Bench Boost.

Plus, Fabio Borges finally remembered that he had an Assistant Manager chip, used on Pep Guardiola (£1.5m).

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Our top scorer this week was Andy North, whose 75 points gave him an eighth successive green arrow. That’s boosted his team over 700,000 places during that time.

Some smart differential picks allowed him to soar, such as Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.4m) bagging 12 points against his beloved Manchester United. Of course, he owns Eberechi Eze (£6.9m), fueller of many rank rises, and is doubled up on the Man City defence, at a time when predicting their attack is proving troublesome.

Plenty of chip activity took place, as Markku’s Free Hit was one to remember for all the wrong reasons. Eze slightly saved it but 49 points meant a red arrow, plus Kevin Schade (£5.2m) rubbing salt into the wound by putting 11 points on his bench.

As mentioned, Mark Sutherns took the plunge by activating his Triple Captain but it didn’t pay off. Based on this red arrow, I suspect he won’t be visiting Southampton anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Harry activated The Great and The Good’s final Bench Boost, proving effective with 30 points coming off his sidelines. It’s one of the highest from this group, but the first XI was a letdown, meaning he was another to record a red arrow. Will he stay inside the top 10k?

Madly, the only one to rise thanks to chip usage was Fabio Borges. Even he would have expected more, as Assistant Manager Guardiola gained a mere five initial points.

There were also a few unusual armband decisions. Luke chose Josko Gvardiol (£6.5m) and Lateriser picked Yoane Wissa (£6.8m), whilst Seb can consider himself unlucky with his Kevin De Bruyne (£9.6m) punt.

THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE

Quite a few template changes here, most notably up front. Omar Marmoush (£7.5m) and Jean-Phillippe Mateta (£7.6m) have been discarded for Wissa and Evanilson (£5.8m).

Additionally, De Bruyne enters the fray after a lengthy absence, while Eze takes the place of Cole Palmer (£10.5m). The Chelsea man can now be deemed a differential and, with Man United up next, is one to watch.

Raya (72.2%), Areola (33.3%)
Gvardiol (94.4%), Williams (55.6%), Saliba (55.6%), Munoz (38.9%), Livramento (38.9%)
Mbeumo (94.4%), Salah (66.7%), Sarr (66.7%), De Bruyne (44.4%), Eze (44.4%)
Isak (94.4%), Wissa (77.8%), Evanilson (38.9%)

TRANSFERS

Some last-minute deals came with the news about Marmoush being dropped. Sold en masse, the popular replacement was Wissa, and Mark went even further by taking a hit to sell Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) for Haaland.

Naturally, all three purchases of Harry’s minus eight chose to blank.

THE UNLUCKY ONES

It’s been a sobering season for many with the word ‘variance’ being used a lot. Or what I like to call just plain bad luck. So, who has been the unluckiest?

Well, the table below compares the actual score of The Great and The Good managers, compared with the mighty algorithm.

According to this, Markku Ojala is the one who appears to have broken several mirrors, walked under too many ladders and trampled over a lot of four-leaf clovers, as he is 127 points worse off than if all things had played out as predicted.

In contrast, it suggests that our leader Ben Crellin has been the most fortunate, with a gain of 132. I suspect he would respond by quoting Gary Player: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”

CONCLUSION

There are two Gameweeks to go, and they promise to be incredibly difficult ones to predict. Big budget players are faltering, the Europe-fixated Man United and Spurs have apparently given up on the league, while even the relegated teams are starting to show some belated fight.

Maybe it’s best to just strap in for a bumpy ride, blame variance if it doesn’t work out and highlight your skill if you get lucky.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares. 

Those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article can find me here on Twitter or BlueSky.