Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the 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.
“Everything must go”
In scenes reminiscent of the Hunger Games, there was a frenzy of activity this week, as transfer-thirsty FPL managers roamed the Fantasy world looking for short-term punts as we prepared for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) giveaway.
All this in the midst of back-to-back Gameweeks in seven days was enough, I am sure, to drive many FPL managers to take a sip or two more of mulled wine. Other festive drinks are available.
Once the weekend arrived, a significant amount of drama came from Merseyside-way, with some suggesting Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) should calm down, calm down. Well done to anyone getting that 90s sketch show reference.
Then, onto the football, most of us switched back to an Erling Haaland (£15.0m) armband after the Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) dalliance, only for him to promptly blank and Bruno haul.
Daniel Munoz (£6.1m) mysteriously disappeared, prompting plenty of bench jam, and Declan Rice (£7.1m) – who nobody appears to own amongst the online FPL community – briefly became the game’s leading midfielder, before Monday.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Huss E continues to make a mockery of his rookie status here, as he top-scored again and climbed up to 13k worldwide, helped this time by the holy FPL trinity of Fernandes, Phil Foden (£8.6m) and Anthony Gordon (£7.2m).
Pingreen had a good week and rose almost 400,000 places, but this was nothing compared to FPL General. The latter is loving these Haaland blanks, shooting up over 900,000 spots and lifting himself off the bottom of this table.
General was helped by a Foden captaincy and, overall, it was strange to see none of them plump for Fernandes. I was convinced that at least one of them would have, considering he faced a Wolverhampton Wanderers side that seems ripe for targeting.
TRANSFERS
With all these must-use transfers in hand and Foden running hot, he was unsurprisingly the most popular purchase, and he returned another double-digit score. The main sacrifice? Antoine Semenyo (£7.6m).
We also saw a sprinkle of goalkeeping moves that moved Nick Pope (£5.1m) on, but perhaps the most eye-catching decision was Fabio Borges losing faith in Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m). I suspect many more are about to follow suit.
‘THE GREAT AND THE GOOD’ TEMPLATE
Despite all these transfers, the only change is Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) for Marco Senesi (£5.0m), plus a re-ordering of the deck that saw Foden move up the popularity charts.
Dubravka (88.9%), Raya (44.4%)
van Dijk (72.2%), Timber (55.6%), Andersen (50%), Rodon (44.4%), Munoz (38.9%)
Fernandes (83.3%), Foden (72.2%), Saka (72.2%), Minteh (66.7%), Semenyo (38.9%)
Haaland (94.4%), Mateta (61.1%), Thiago (55.6%)
POSITIONING YOUR TRANSFERS
So we’ve arrived at the Gameweek 16 transfer top-up. Management styles will surely come into play, with the aggressive treating this as a mini-Wildcard, while others hoard them like cautious FPL scrooges.
Where they will target their moves is up for debate, so let’s take a quick look at where the majority of transfers have taken place so far.
Midfield is where green and red arrows are being churned out, with just under 50% of transfers in the middle of the park. Furthermore, there’s been limited activity up front, where Haaland and a 3-5-2 formation are prevalent.
Luke has made the most moves in defence, Mark and Tom Dollimore frequently fiddle about with their forwards, as the likes of Fabio and Harry have stayed away from making any goalkeeping transfers at all. Maybe David Raya (£6.0m) was the answer all along.
CONCLUSION
Plenty of movement took place over the last few weeks, as the more engaged managers start making their gains. And with five transfers now in the pocket, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to continue such progression.
Honestly, the best tactic is just to target Wolves, which places all eyes on Mikel Arteta’s next press conference.
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 BlueSky.
