Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the Gameweek 16 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.
“Buy Buy Buy!”
FPL launched its own version of a personality test this week. You know, those awful ones where, after a few questions, a simple algorithm tells you which muppet you are, how Gen Z you are, what your favourite Christmas food says about your personality etc. I blame Carl Jung.
Anyway, back to the point. Yes, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) five-transfer giveaway gave us a fascinating insight into our FPL management personality.
Are you a cautious planner who reluctantly used one of the five? Annoyed that you had to detour from a carefully laid out 38-Gameweek plan? A crowd follower using a couple to stay in line with the template? Or are you a mad maverick, splashing out all five on pure differentials?
‘The Great and The Good’ were mixture of the above.
Saturday saw everyone join in the #TwoAssist campaign, when it looked like FPL Towers were not going to award the first to Bukayo Saka (£10.3m). Fortunately, a few members of the FPL Cartel are amongst these 18 elite managers, and were mostly happy with the outcome.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Plenty of Gameweek 16 green arrows, but most gains were small as, like small children playing football, we all converged around the FPL template ball.
Mark Sutherns hit a century, taking on the ‘mad maverick’ role by using all five transfers to bring in canny differentials like Harry Wilson (£5.6m) and Jarrod Bowen (£7.5m), also having the in-form Bruno Fernandes (£9.3m) and Phil Foden (£8.8m).
In other news, FPL General definitely liked the decision to award Saka the first assist, as he used his Triple Captain chip on him. And there were a couple of Free Hits from Huss E and Pingreen which failed to fizzle, resulting in red arrows.
TRANSFERS
Meanwhile, Mark was the only one to make five transfers, whereas Zophar and Pras cautiously stuck to one.
A full complement of Arsenal players seemed must-have, as Crystal Palace assets were discarded en masse.
Sutherns had the best moves, although I suspect Az had the most satisfying. He finally got rid of Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.6m), only for him to score.
‘THE GREAT AND THE GOOD’ TEMPLATE
The template became even more locked in, as there are six players with over 80% ownership. Nico O’Reilly (£5.3m) took the place of injured Daniel Munoz (£5.9m), alongside a clear move towards a two-man frontline. Marc Guiu (£4.2m) is clearly seen as the default bench fodder.
Dubravka (88.9%), Raya (50%)
Andersen (72.2%), Timber (66.7%), van Dijk (44.4%), O’Reilly (38.9%), Rodon (38.9%)
Fernandes (94.4%), Saka (94.4%), Foden (83.3%), Minteh (50%), Szoboszlai (33.3%)
Thiago (100%), Haaland (94.4%), Guiu (33.3%)
ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Therefore, with so many transfers to use, it became clear that our teams would start to look the same. But which of ‘The Great and The Good’ have attracted the most clones?
Well, normally we’d now be marvelling at FPL Harry’s appeal, with his legion of adoring fans copying him move for move. 331 teams are the same, yet the most popular Gameweek 16 squad belongs to Pras (731).
Elsewhere, FPL Frasier, Martin Baker, Tom Freeman and Mark Sutherns can feel special that there is no one like them. Of course, there is only one Fabio Borges.
CONCLUSION
Patience. This is the word, as it will be difficult to make major gains over near-identical rivals during the next few weeks.
Of course, you can buck the trend and bring in a random couple of Brentford players, but I suspect most of us will have to bide our time before the next swing.
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.
