Here’s the 8th article in the series. I’ve sought out the teams of 10 top fantasy premier league managers and analysed who they’ve got in their teams. This is not the current top 10 fantasy premier league leaders but 10 managers who are currently successful and have been successful for the last 3 years. It continues to make interesting reading.
fantasy premier league – analysing 10 top fantasy premier league managers teams – GW23
Background
Just to put a bit of context around this if you haven’t seen the article before. In any part of life, sport or business it’s natural to look at the best and see what you can learn. It also helps challenge your thinking and make you question what you’re doing. if the best are doing it and so are you it may also give some comfort. I also know that going on to fantasy premier league sites if you get a bad tip then you can kind of ditch the site. So if you can see that other tried and tested fantasy premier league managers also believe in that player then it can provide some justification for the sites pick
The reason I haven’t just picked the current top 10 leaders is that these top 10 leaders will change over the season so the top 10 now will be totally different at the end of the year. In my mind it means nothing. Its more important to pick people in my mind who’ve consistently finished high in the overall league over the last 3 years.
Here’s some stats on the 10. First remember that there 10 fantasy premier league managers and I’ve looked at the last 3 years overall finish rank. Meaning there are 30 times they have played in the last 3 years. Sorry if you found that insulting, just for clarity. Again, I swapped a couple around and I now have a set of 10 managers with an even more impressive current and historic record. I’m fixing it now with this group though.
1. The average position of the 10 currently at the moment took a big upturn again this week and is now 13,500 from 17,000 in fantasy premier league. That was after GW23 which was very successful for them. 13,500 is top 0.4% of 3,100,000 fantasy premier league managers. No one is currently lower than 50,000
2. The average position over the last 3 years is around 3,500 (this is the top 0.1 % of fantasy premier league teams)
3. 10/10 have finished in the top 1000 in the last 3 years
4 6/10 have finished in the top 100 in the last 3 years
The above is pretty impressive consistency in fantasy premier league. What these teams look like is certainly something to take note of. My average over the last 3 years is 7,900 by the way.
There are 2 issues with doing this though. Firstly just because a player is owned by a fantasy premier league manager doesn’t mean he wants to own him. He could be wanting to transfer him out but can’t due to other priorities, injuries etc. That’s probably more for cheapies though as expensive players are probably ditched earlier. Secondly it obviously s a look back and not forward to the next gameweek
Ok so here’s the break down of their teams (obviously I don’t mention every player just the ones that appear frequently). There’s quite a few changes due to the January Wildcards
What was the average round score?
The average GW22 scored of the 10 fantasy premier league managers was 70 points compared to the average of 52. 18 points and 35% above
What is the average team value?
The average value of the 10 fantasy premier league managers was £110.2m
Interestingly I noted the time when the transfers were done for this week. The average day of the week was the 21st. That was a week before the deadline. Obviously everyone transfers in early to avoid price increases and create value for the team
GK/DEFs by player
There was 1 Jan Wildcards played so the make up of the teams has changed a little.
Coleman is owned by 8 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Chester and Ward are owned by 6 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Koscielny and Mertesacker are owned by 5 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Marshall Boruc Mannone and Gabbidon are owned by 4 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
GKs/DEFs by team
Palace GKs/DEFs appear 12 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Arsenal GKs/DEFs appear 10 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Southampton and Everton GKs/DEFs appear 9 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Hull GKs/DEFs appear 7 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Sunderland GKs/DEFs appear 5 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Chelsea GKs/DEFs appear 3 times as a GK/DEF in the 10 teams
Interestingly Chelsea only appear twice
Midfielders
Hazard is owned by 10 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Lallana and Silva are owned by 5 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Mata is owned by 4 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
YYT and AJohnson are owned by 3 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Mutch and Janzaj are the most owned cheapie at twice
Forwards
Suarez is owned by 10 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Aguero is owned by 9 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
Sturridge is owned by 3 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers
GW23 Transfers
I cant analyse the transfers in full as 1 fantasy premier league manager used their January Wildcard which shows all transfers even if undone. Here’s the summary of the rest of the trasfers
The most transferred in players were in fantasy premier league GW23:
Aguero x 5
Mata x 4
Cabaye x 3 (although the transfer was then reversed on 2 of those occasions)
Johnson x 2
No one else was transferred in more than once.
The most transferred out were:
Ozil x 6
Negredo x 3
Cabaye Coleman Silva x 2
The most popular transfers were:
Negredo – Aguero x 3
Ozil – Cabaye x 2 (then reversed)
GW21 Captain Choices
Suarez was the captain 7 times.
Hazard Mata and Aguero were all captained once
How many took hits?
5 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers took point hits. 1 took a 12 point hit another an 8 point hit
What was the most popular formation
9 of the 10 fantasy premier league managers played 3-4-3
How many have used their Wildcard?
9 people have activated their January Wildcard
So what does this mean?
Here’s a few things which jump out:
- For the gameweek
The season average of 13,500 compared to their last 3 year average of 3,000 shows what a hard year its been for even the best fantasy premier league managers. However the 10 managers are hitting their straps with an average of 70 this gameweek compared to the league average of 52
Ozil being sold in numbers.
The ignoring of the Chelsea and Man City defence. The clear emergence of the Everton Arsenal Southampton and Palace defence as the most used defence.
The gambles on Mata
The first signs of selling Coleman
The spreading of the midfield ownership with only Hazard owned by more than 5 of the fantasy premier league managers
- For the season
An Arsenal and Palace defender look like defensive must haves. Hazard Aguero and Suarez look the must haves elsewhere. Aguero has an injury now to monitor though
The majority used their regular season wildcards. 9 have activated the January Wildcard
These managers take hits
Transfers appear to be done early in the week
3-4-3 is still the most popular formation.
All have created valuable teams.
That’s it I hope you found it interesting. I hope it also challenged your thinking on some fantasy premier league players or provided some comfort if you’re holding on to someone and doubting yourself for doing it.
Here’s a team from their selections for GW23. Valued around £112.0m so slightly more expensive than the average team. Ive also had to put in alternative Hull and Southampton coverage to get the teams represented. To have a similar team most people would have to sacrifice a big name midfielder and rotate 2 cheapies
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