Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW11 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 team tips GW11 – 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).
We’ve also added Paul Williams to the FFGeek team who is also part of the 10 top managers. His history is 17/18 (412), 16/17 ( 1,382) and 15/16 (7,164). See his last article 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 amount 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 10 review
A good week for the 10 FPL managers. 7 of the 10 had a green arrow
The average score of the managers in GW10 was 75 compared to the game average of 58. That’s 17 points and 29% above the game average score. High score of the 10 was 93. The low score was 61. A spread of 32 for a relatively high scoring gameweek.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 109k. An improvement of rank of 11k from last week. The best overall rank is in the 600’s and the lowest 662k. The low score distorts the average. The median overall rank is better at 44k an improvement of 24k from last week
The average total points are 644
The average team value is £103.0m
My score as you may have seen in my early FFGeek team thoughts article was score was ok at 73. That was higher than only 4 of the managers and my total points of 651 and OR of 29k is better than 6 of the 10 managers.
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
Alonso is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Wan Bissaka is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Doherty is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Bennett(Wolves) Patricio and Robertson are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Hamer, and Fabianski are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Wolves GK/Defs are represented 16 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Chelsea and C Palace GK/Defs are represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 8 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Bournemouth are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Man City, Huddersfield, West Ham, and Arsenal GK/Defs are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Salah is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
Hazard is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Hojbjerg and Maddison are in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Fraser and Richarlison are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Aguero is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mitrovic and Wilson are in 5 of the 10 FPL teams
Ings is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 10 captain choice
10 of the 10 FPL managers went with Salah
The FFGeek poll was 57% Salah and 11% Hazard and Mane 10%
The Site 1 poll in my GW10 captain choice article was 43% Salah and 14% Hazard
The top 10k captain choice (from the excellent free site FPL discovery) was 54% Salah and 14% Mane and 11% Hazard. Again quite close the FFGeek Poll.
Formations
Sorry didn’t get to this early enough
Wildcards, chips, transfers and hits
No managers used their wildcard this week the total remaining at 7 managers who have used it
None have used their triple captain, free hit or bench boost chip
Transfers in and out
I only summarise the transfers when a player is transferred in more than once.
Transfers in
6 of the 10 managers made a transfer.
Salah was transferred in by 4 managers
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Knockaert was transferred out by 2 managers
No one else was transferred out more than once
Hits
2 managers took a 4 point deduction for an extra transfer.
The leading manager of the 10 managers team
A good score of 77 and he stays in the 600’s OR
The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers
The schedule shows the players in the top 10k overall rank teams percentage wise vs the 10 top FPL managers I follow.
GKs | Top 10k | 10 FPL managers |
Patrício | 30 | 40 |
Ederson | 23 | 10 |
Ryan | 10 | 10 |
Alisson | 10 | 10 |
Foster | 9 | 20 |
Fabianski | 4 | 30 |
Begovic | 3 | 20 |
Hamer | n/a | 30 |
DEFs | ||
Wan-Bissaka | 79 | 90 |
Alonso | 73 | 100 |
Robertson | 73 | 40 |
Doherty | 42 | 50 |
Mendy | 39 | 20 |
Bennett | 31 | 40 |
Trippier | 31 | 20 |
Alex-Arnold | 23 | 20 |
MIDs | ||
Hazard | 92 | 90 |
Salah | 56 | 100 |
Maddison | 55 | 60 |
Richarlison | 55 | 50 |
Fraser | 40 | 50 |
Mané | 30 | n/a |
Højbjerg | 18 | 60 |
Pereyra | 9 | 10 |
FWDs | ||
Agüero | 82 | 100 |
Mitrovic | 52 | 50 |
Wilson | 41 | 50 |
Arnautovic | 24 | 10 |
Lacazette | 21 | 10 |
Ings | 11 | 40 |
Jiménez | 11 | n/a |
The top 10k average score was 68 compared to the top 10 FPL managers of 75
I use 30% as a rule of thumb as a significant variation between the two teams and the only player that are different to this extent are
Salah has become a point of difference with 56% of the top 10k owning him vs 100% of the 10 top managers. That also flowed into the captain decision with 100% of the top 10k captaining him vs 54% of the top 10k OR.
Hojbjerg owned by the top 10 FPL managers more but not relevant as a bench warmer for FPL teams.
I’ll say it again that I’m quite shocked at the lack of variation in the 2 sets of teams. Even as recently as last season they would have been very different. Salah is the only battle ground whereas last season there would have been 4 or 5.
All the information is provided by the truly fantastic free site FPL discovery.
The combined FPL managers teams
Here’s a team which tries to make a combination from the most represented players. I’ve returned to making it more of a menu than a team. The TV is £104.4m.
So who’s essential?
Anyone or any defensive team that is owned by 7/10 of these managers or by 7/10 of the top 10k 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 or by a large proportion of the top 10k.
That would mean:
Alonso 10/10 top 10 managers and 73% top 10k) and a Wolves defender (represented 16 times in the 10 managers teams (Doherty for me). A Liverpool defender has hit the 80% of teams of the 10 top FPL managers. Also top 10k teams Robertson 73% and TAA 23%
Hazard (owned by 9/10 managers and 2% of the top 10k) and Aguero (owned by 10/10 managers and 82% of the top 10k)
Salah also now has that status owned by 10/10 of the managers even if only 56% of the top 10k.
Wan Bissaka is owned by 9/10 top 10 managers and 79% of top 10k. However given they Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd next you would argue that they weren’t essential and will most likely be confined to sub benches anyway. I should have said this last week so apologies.
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
Remember to help Sergio out with comments and voting in the poll in his Sergio’s wildcard options article.
Also see our fixture ease article for players with good fixtures coming up and my early thoughts on the FFGeek team article
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