Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW25 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 transfer tips GW25 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
If the article is too long there’s a combined FPL managers 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. You can find Keith on twitter here by the way 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).
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
Just to let you know I’ve taken out the person who was distorting the average very negatively and replaced them with someone else meeting the last 3 seasons less than 10k OR. I haven’t amended the calculations below but they will be improved due to the substitution.
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 24 review
A good week for the 10 FPL managers. 8 of the 10 had a green arrow
The average score of the managers in GW24 was 50 taking into account point deductions for extra transfers. That’s compared to the game average of 42. That’s 8 points and 19% above the game average score. High score of the 10 was 61. The low score was 38. A spread of 23 even for a low scoring gameweek.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 34k an improvement of rank from last week of 42k. The best overall rank is now around the top 100 and the lowest 87k.
The average total points are 1,477
The average team value is £104.7m
You can see my score and rank in the early FFGeek team article which I’ll do today.
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
Wan Bissaka is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Doherty is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Digne is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Robertson, Fabiasnki and Alexander Arnold are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Alonso, Shaw, Bednarek and Patricio are in 3 of the FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Wolves GK/Defs are represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 11 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
C Palace GK/Defs are represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Everton GK/Defs are represented 8 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
West Ham GK/Defs are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Chelsea, Man Utd and Southampton GK/Defs are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Salah is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
Pogba is in 9 of the FPL managers teams
Richarlison is in 8 of the FPL managers teams
Hazard is in 5 of the FPL managers teams
Felipe Anderson and Sane are in 3 of the FPL managers teams
Son HM is in 2 of the FPL managers teams
Forwards
Rashford is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Aubameyang is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Kamara and Jimenez are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Ings is in 2 of the 10 managers teams
Gameweek 24 captain choice
7 of the 10 FPL managers went with Salah
3 of the 10 managers went with Aubameyang
The FFGeek poll was 72% Salah, 14% Aubameyang
The Site 1 poll in my GW24 captain choice article was 43% Salah, 23% Aubameyang
The top 10k captain choice (from the excellent free site FPL discovery) was 86% Salah and 6% Aubameyang. The FFGeek poll this time was in the general area.
Formations
5 of the 10 managers played 3-4-3-
3 of the 10 managers played 3-5-2
1 of the managers played 4-5-1
1 of the managers played 4-4-2
Wildcards, chips, transfers and hits
1 of the managers have used their 2nd wildcard
None have used their triple captain, free hit or bench boost chip.
I suspect alot of managers will have a similar of variation of my chip plan below:
See my double and blanks article on where these are likely to be and my latest article
Transfers in and out
I only summarise the transfers when a player is transferred in more than once.
7 of the 10 managers made a transfer. 1 has used their wildcard previously as I said above.
Transfers in
Aubameyang and Son were both transferred in by 2 managers
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Alli was transferred out by 3 of the 10 FPL managers
No one else was transferred out more than once
Hits
1 manager took a 4 point deduction for an extra transfer.
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 OR | 10 top FPL managers |
Fabianski | 46 | 40 |
Ederson | 14 | n/a |
Patrício | 17 | 30 |
Alisson | 11 | 30 |
Button | 16 | 30 |
Lloris | 5 | n/a |
Foster | 11 | n/a |
Hamer | 23 | 30 |
Speroni | 11 | n/a |
DEFs | ||
Robertson | 73 | 40 |
Digne | 69 | 80 |
Doherty | 59 | 90 |
Wan-Bissaka | 83 | 100 |
Shaw | 18 | 30 |
Alexander Arnold | 18 | 30 |
David Luiz | 17 | 10 |
Kolasinac | 16 | n/a |
Bennett | 15 | 20 |
Bednarek | 12 | 30 |
MIDs | ||
Salah | 97 | 100 |
Pogba | 85 | 90 |
Richarlison | 50 | 80 |
Sané | 49 | 30 |
Hazard | 49 | 50 |
Felipe Anderson | 20 | 30 |
Sterling | 16 | 10 |
FWDs | ||
Rashford | 91 | 100 |
Jiménez | 57 | 40 |
Aubameyang | 31 | 70 |
Firmino | 22 | n/a |
Kamara | 19 | 40 |
Agüero | 15 | 10 |
Ings | 11 | 20 |
Wilson | 10 | 10 |
The top 10k average score was 66 compared to the 10 top managers average of 64.
I use 30% as a rule of thumb as a significant variation between the two player sets.
Only 2 players fit that criteria of difference
Robertson is owned by 73% of the top 10k but only 40% of the 10 top FPL managers
Doherty is owned by 59% of the top 10k but 90% of the 10 top managers
Aubameyang is owned by 70% of the 10 top FPL managers but only 31% of the top 10k
All the information is provided by the truly fantastic free site FPL discovery.
So still very similar but a couple of differences
The combined FPL managers teams
Here’s a team which tries to make a combination from the most represented players. Please note that it is meant to be a menu of players rather than a realistic team and it’s value is nothing like achievable.
So who’s worth considering as essential?
I define this by either 70% of the top 10k own a player or defensive team or 7 of the 10 top FPL managers own him
Liverpool defence (GK/Def represented 11 times of the 10 FPL managers)
Doherty (Wolves defence represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams).
Salah (owned by 10 of the 10 managers)
Richarlison (owned by 8 of the 10 FPL managers)
Pogba (owned by 9 of the 10 FPL managers)
Rashford (owned by 10/10 FPL managers)
Plus maybes
Aubameyang (owned by 7 of the 10 top FPL managers but will possibly be flipped for Aguero in double gameweek 25)
Wan Bissaka (owned 10 of the 10 top FPL managers but is often a bench player so maybe avoidable)
Digne (owned by 8 of the 10 FPL managers but with a 1 match ban and a blank GW27 he’s likely to be sold)
So that’s 6 essentials and 3 maybes. This leaves room for 7 differentials/bench two pointers.
1 managers team focus
His team is currently ranked 32k and has a value of 104.6m. His score in GW24 was 54
Of the template/Essential players he has 7 of the 9.
Salah, Doherty, Pogba, Rashford, Aubameyang, Wan Bissaka and Digne
His template replacements are Luiz for the Liverpool defence and Son for Richarlison. He came out about even on those in GW24.
The bench players are Button, Kamara and Bednarek
His differentials are Snodgrass, Hazard and Fabianski. None of these did anything.
A good gameweek was made by the captain choice which gave him an extra 20 points over the favourite pick of Salah which is the reason for his 10k OR rise.
Hope you found the above useful
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