Here’s our fantasy premier league GW3 tips article where we analyse the teams of 10 top FPL managers. These 10 managers have not finished outside the overall rank of the top 10k in the last 3 seasons. Considering how variable the last 3 years have been this is remarkable consistency and shows an ability to adapt strategy in different seasons. It also gives you a view other than my own on strategy and player selection.
fantasy premier league GW3 tips – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
If the article is too long there’s a template team for the top 10 FPL managers analysed towards the end of the article.
Firstly, there are 9 new managers in the 10 this season and I’m delighted to say that one of them is our own FFGeek contributor Keith Spencer. Keith’s last 3 years history are 17/18 (3,940), 16/17 ( 325) and 15/16 (9,280). See his GW2 team here
The criteria I’ve always been looking for is managers who’ve finished in the top 10k for the last 3 years when FPL has become considerably harder due to the anount of people playing and the information available.
It took me hours and hours to track down 10 managers who’ve been so consistent and my opinion after doing so is that there are probably only 20 or so in the world that qualify.
The 10 managers stats
These managers are unbelievable and every bit as impressive as last season
1. The overall average finishing overall rank of the top 10 managers in the last 3 seasons is 3,667
2. The top 10 FPL managers have not been out of the top 10k in the last 3 seasons (ie 30 times playing)
3. 7 of the 10 have finished in the top 1,000 in the last 3 seasons
Gameweek 2 review
The average score of the managers in GW2 was 87 compared to the game average of 60. That’s 27 points and 45% above the game average score. High score of the 10 was 102. The low score was 73. A spread of 29 for a high scoring gameweek.
Although meaningless at this stage. The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 185k. The best overall rank is 10k and the lowest 970k.
The average total points are 171
The average team value is still £100.8m
My score as you may have seen in my early FFGeek team thoughts article was 93. That was higher than all but 2 of the managers and my total of 185 is better than 7 of the 10 managers although again it’s of little relevance at this stage of the season.
The combined total of individual players
I’ve included where there is a minimum of a player in 3 out of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence
Mendy and Wan Bissaka are in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Fabianski and Robertson are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Foster and Peltier are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Boly and Coleman are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Crystal Palace GK/Defs are represented 11 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Man City GK/Defs are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 8 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Watford, West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton GK/Defs are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Cardiff and Wolves GK/Defs are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Man Utd, Brighton and Southampton GK/Defs are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Salah is in of the 10 FPL managers teams
Richarlison is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mane is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Bernardo Silva is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Stephens and Jota are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Aguero is in of the 10 FPL managers teams
Zaha is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Josh King is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 1 captain choice
7 of the 10 FPL managers went with Aguero.
3 of the 10 managers went with Salah
The FFGeek poll was 58% Aguero and 29% Salah.
The Site 1 poll in my GW2 captain choice article was 44% Aguero and 25% Salah.
Formations
8 of the 10 managers played 3-4-3
1 of the 10 managers played 3-5-2
1 of the 10 managers played 4-4-2
Wildcards, chips, transfers and hits
No one used any of their chips this week including the wildcard
Transfers in and out
5 of the 10 managers carried over their free transfer to GW3. I only summarise the transfers when a player is transferred in more than once. This week no player was transferred in more than once
The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers
I won’t be doing this until GW8 when it will have hopefully settled down. The weeks before hand could see too much rank volatility.
The highest ranked manager
This is his team:
The combined FPL managers teams
Here’s a team which tries to make a combination from the most represented players. It fits within the £100m budget. I will use this team as a guide for the template team which is part of the FFGeek alternate strategy teams. The base team is my FFGeek team
So who’s essential?
Anyone or any defensive team that is owned by 7/10 of these managers I would take a lot of convincing not to own irrespective of my thoughts about them. In terms of serious managers likely to finish with high overall ranks I won’t be getting left behind by players that are owned by a large proportion of these managers.
That would mean:
A Palace defender (any of the 3), a Liverpool defender (probably Robertson) and a Man City defender (Mendy)
Salah and Aguero (both owned by the 10 managers)
Richarlison (owned by 8 managers)
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