Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead is back with his The Great and The Good series, analysing the Gameweek 4 transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.
The Great and The Good this season are the FPL Godfather Mark Sutherns, the BlackBox pair of Az and Andy North, Scouts FPL General, Joe and Tom, the FPL Wire trio of Pras, Lateriser and Zophar, FPL celebrities FPL Harry, Martin Baker, Pingreen, FPL Frasier and Luke Williams, Hall of Famers Ben Crellin, Fabio Borges and Tom Dollimore, and last year’s mini-league winner Huss E.
“Back to Black”
Is it just me, or do the international breaks seem to be getting longer?
There was very little to distract us apart from every man and his dog pointing out that Alexander Isak (£10.4m) was unlikely to start. He didn’t.
Whether it was boredom or one of the FPL algorithmic model influencers, a few also used the time to smash and like the Wildcard button. Expect the Bench Boost and Free Hit to follow in an orderly fashion over Gameweeks 5 and 6.
Fabio Borges was one to make the move.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Fabio Wildcarded into the highest score this week, thanks to Antoine Semenyo (£7.5m) and his DefCon magnets Virgil Van Dijk (£6.1m), Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) and Maxence Lacroix (£5.0m).
In fact, it appears that the trick this week, for non-Haaland owners at least, was the combination of Andersen and Semenyo, as Martin Baker and Zophar were the other managers in the seventies.
As noted, Fabio followed his Free Hit last week with a Wildcard, which suggests it wasn’t the pre-season plan but an adjustment in tactics influenced by injuries to some of his key players, such as Bukayo Saka (£9.8m), Ismaila Sarr (£6.5m) and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.4m).
He has moved to three strikers with Jean-Phillipe Mateta (£7.6m), Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m) and Evanilson (£7.0m). The Bournemouth striker is part of a triple-up on the Cherries.
Elsewhere, Fabio has stuck with the double up of cheap-ish midfielders, with Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m) joined by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.0m). It looks like the plan will be to rotate them with the budget defenders of Andersen and Marcos Sensei (£4.6m).
Finally, he has invested in David Raya (£5.5m) and van Dijk as the bedrocks of his backline. It’s interesting to note that he has no Manchester City players and no Free Hit, so I wonder how he will navigate that juicy-looking Gameweek 6 fixture against Burnley.
TRANSFERS
Sometimes the best approach is to keep it simple when it comes to transfers, and so it transpired with six of The Great and The Good going for Semenyo. I fully expect his price to rise further as he delivered his second double-digit haul of the season.
Elsewhere, the moves were focused on a trip to the Crystal Palace defence, with a split between whether to prioritise DefCon points in Lacroix or the attacking flair of Daniel Munoz (£5.6m).
It’s worth noting that Pras has now jumped on the Gyokeres bandwagon for a hit. He’s just under 50% owned in The Great and The Good, with fixtures about to turn.
TEMPLATE
There is a lot of uncertainty in the template, with only Mohamed Salah (£14.5m), Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) and Pedro Porro (£5.6m) over 80% owned. It’s perhaps a reflection of a season that has been tricky to predict so far.
Semenyo comes in as you would expect for an injured Matheus Cunha (£8.0m), whilst Cristian Romero (£5.0m) is unlucky to be moved on for Chris Richards (£4.5m). Luke Williams was one of his sellers in a week when he delivered a 12-point return.
Still, no one owns Erling Haaland (£14.1m)!
The template and % ownership amongst these managers is:
Dubravka (88.9), Sels (50.0)
Porro (88.9), Andersen (72.2), Esteve (50.0), Murillo (50.0), Richards (33.3)
Salah (94.4), Reijnders (66.7), Fernandes (61.1), Wirtz (61.1), Semenyo (50.0)
Watkins (66.7), J Pedro (55.6), Gyokeres (44.4)
BIG AT THE BACK
With the growing influence of DefCon points, there is a whisper in the wind that big at the back is back!
It’s worth noting that four out of the top 10 FPL points scorers are defenders, and there is even a goalkeeper – Guglielmo Vicario (£5.1m) – in there.
The most used formations this season are below.
- 3-4-3 (10)
- 3-5-2 (41)
- 4-3-3 (3)
- 4-4-2 (16)
- 5-3-2 (2)
Have we seen a shift in the formations used by The Great and The Good? Well, not yet, with 3-5-2 dominating with the managers preferring Salah, a couple of £8-9m midfielders and then the likes of Tijjani Reijnders (£5.7m), Elliot Anderson (£5.5m) or Dewsbury-Hall.
4-4-2 has been the second most selected formation, and more may choose this path with DefCon monsters James Tarkowski (£5.5m) and Lacroix performing well. We also have the Arsenal defence repeating their form from last year, with fixtures looking good from Gameweek 7. They could easily be swapped in for the aforementioned £5-5.5m midfielders.
Others like Fabio have shifted to a 3-4-3 with Gyokeres now in play, safe in the knowledge that a couple of the £4.5m defenders can be rotated and are providing real value, such as Andersen.
Will the DefCon revolution gain more followers with the next surge of Wildcards?
CONCLUSION
The FPL season still seems to be finding its feet. The pre-season template appears to have led us astray, plus a tumultuous transfer window and now the European rotations will no doubt mean at least a few weeks more of uncertainty.
A good time to hold our nerves then, or we could say sod it and Wildcard to bring in Haaland, Salah and a bunch of DefCon hungry defenders!
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 or here on BlueSky.
