In this article series, 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, Tom Freeman and Joe Lepper, the FPL Wire duo of Pras and Zophar, the defending Great and Good champion Huss E, FPL ‘celebrities’ FPL Harry and LTFPL Andy, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Thomas Brønsby, Ben Crellin, Elevenify and Tom Dollimore, last year’s mini-league winner Andrew McKinnon and invitational champ Ben McCrum.

“Take a knee”

Special Announcement: Before we start the update, I want to address the findings of the independent commission that have put into question the last 114 updates of The Great and The Good, suggesting that certain members of the league were involved in FPL points irregularities – although none of them got that Solly March assist. Despite this, I can confirm that no one will be relegated from the league. No, not even him… well, not until the end of the year, at least.

Anyway, on with the show.

A moment of relative serenity has come down upon the FPL world. The early-season chip frenzy has finally calmed down, and The Great and The Good are entering that strange phase of the season where doing absolutely nothing is suddenly considered en vogue.

The new mantra is simple: hoard those free transfers like Tesco Club Card points before the Christmas big shop. Ideally, build up the maximum five before the festive fixture congestion arrives to ruin your carefully laid-out plans.

Of course, two of The Great and The Good had other ideas and played their Wildcards. We will have a look at what Ben Crellin and Tom Dollimore did later.

Meanwhile, the footballing universe continues to get weirder. The heavy hitters aren’t heavy hitting, Brighton are playing like peak 1970s Brazil, and a defender who started at £4.5m is now the top scorer in the game.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Lots of green this week as we begin to see many of the team take the same shape.

Andrew McKinnon just pipped it with 81 points and a 500,000+ green arrow, which almost halved his rank. It was the usual suspects of the Arsenal defence, a Brighton double-up and Erling Haaland (£15.7m) captain, but it was couple of differentials in Marcus Tavernier (£6.2m) and David Affengruber (£4.5m) that made, well, the difference.

Az wasn’t far behind with another impressive green of 400,000. It was his Brighton lads that helped – but not Maxim De Cuyper (£5.3m), who is still grace his team. Instead it was Luka Vuskovic (£5.1m) and Diego Gomez (£5.0m), along with his new signing Pascal Gross (£6.2m), who gave him his boost. He also owns Bryan Mbeumo (£7.8m), who continues to shine in a mediocre Man United team.

Joe Lepper continues at the top despite LTPFL Andy boasting a triple Arsenal defence. This is not a drill but Andy North is third!

WILDCARDS

Arguably the top two FPL managers over recent times, Tom Dollimore and Ben Crellin, both played their Wildcards.

Tom kept it relatively safe, tripling up on Arsenal with Ezri Konsa (£4.6m), David Raya (£6.1m) and Bukayo Saka (£9.6m) plus a trio of Chelsea attackers, Haaland, and the standard Brighton double-up. Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.9m) and Tarik Muharemovic (£5.0m) are his DefCon defenders of choice to give him some squad depth.

Ben’s squad catches the eye a little more as he scored from the halfway line with his well-timed move to have Diego Gomez as a third Seagull. There’s also Antonio Silva (£5.0m) in defence. Interestingly, he ignored Morgan Rogers (£8.0m) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.0m). He does, however, have the usual Arsenal triple plus Cole Palmer (£9.7m) and Joao Pedro (£7.9m).

TRANSFERS

LTFPL Andy and Pras led the charge this week with two free transfers each. With some relish, they booted out this season’s troll Yoane Wissa (£6.1m) for last season’s troll Calvert-Lewin and also Josko Gvardiol (£5.8m) for van Hecke. Great minds think alike, or perhaps they’ve both been reading the same WhatsApp group.

There were some smart moves elsewhere, as Joe Lepper swapped Ben White (£5.4m) for the defender who does assists now as well as Defcon: Muharemovic. Andy North went for Johan Manzambi (£6.0m), and Az finally bought Pascal Gross – yes, I thought he already had him, too.

Tom “frugal” Freeman has amassed five free transfers. I reckon he is saving him for all those Villa players.

TEMPLATE

Another jolt to the template due to the Wildcards.

Saka comes in for Morgan Gibbs-White (£7.9m) in midfield, although you have to start to ask why.

Van Hecke joins for Lewis Hall (£5.3m), and Calvert-Lewin and Thierno Barry (£5.7m) continue to play hot potato with the third striker spot

THE TEMPLATE IS STRONG

After six weeks, things do tend to get a bit ‘templatey’, with many teams looking surprisingly the same. This is indeed reflected by the data below, which captures the template rating from Live FPL:

In fact, 14 of the 18 managers are classed as heavy or moderately template, with Zophar basically the epicentre of cautiousness when it comes to his squad picks.

Thank goodness then for Andrew McKinnon, Fabio Borges, Tom Freeman and Thomas Bronsby, who are classed as differential picks like Harvey Barnes (£6.1m), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£6.6m) and Iliman Ndiaye (£5.8m).

Some of them even still own Bruno Fernandes (£11.8m) and Dominic Szoboszlai (£6.8m). Crazy, eh?

CONCLUSION

So, a more positive week for most managers, as the FPL marathon runners begin to gather as a pack. Still, nothing wrong with being in the contenders jostling for the position; it’s more that if you are lagging at the back with no chip sprints available, you should start to worry.

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

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article, you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19.