Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW9 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 GW9 – 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 8 review
A mixed week for the 10 FPL managers. 6 of the 10 had a green arrow
The average score of the managers in GW8 was 67 compared to the game average of 50. That’s 17 points and 34% above the game average score. High score of the 10 was 88. The low score was 47. A spread of 41 for a pretty average scoring gameweek.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 118k. An improvement of rank of 7k from last week. The best overall rank is in the 600’s and the lowest 589k. The low score distorts the average. The median overall rank is better at 75k.
The average total points are 524
The average team value is still £102.5m
My score as you may have seen in my early FFGeek team thoughts article was reasonably good at 70. That was higher than 5 of the managers and my total points of 538 and OR of 28k is better than 7 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
Trippier is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Bennett (Wolves) in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Foster, Hamer, Fabianski and Doherty are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Wolves GK/Defs are represented 13 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Chelsea 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
Bournemouth and Spurs GK/Defs are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Huddersfield, Watford, West Ham and Arsenal GK/Defs are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Hazard is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Fraser, Richarlison, Salah, Maddison and Hojbjerg are in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Aguero is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mitrovic is in 5 of the 10 FPL teams
Zaha is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Wilson and Ings are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 8 captain choice
5 of the 10 FPL managers went with Hazard
The FFGeek poll was 42% Kane and 25% Hazard
The Site 1 poll in my GW8 captain choice article was 45% Kane and 23% Hazard
Formations
5 managers played 3-4-3
3 managers played 4-3-3
2 managers played 3-5-2
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.
Kane was transferred in by 3 managers
Maddison was transferred in by 2 managers
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Aguero was transferred out by 2 FPL managers
No one else was transferred out more than once
Hits
No managers took a hit.
The leading manager of the 10’s team
A massive 88 points scored and he is now 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 top FPL |
| Patrício | 27 | 30 |
| Ederson | 18 | 10 |
| Hart | 15 | 10 |
| Hennessey | 13 | 10 |
| Fabianski | 8 | 30 |
| Foster | 5 | 20 |
| Alisson | 3 | n/a |
| Hamer | n/a | 30 |
| Begovic | n/a | 30 |
| DEFs | ||
| Wan-Bissaka | 90 | 90 |
| Alonso | 78 | 100 |
| Trippier | 58 | 50 |
| Robertson | 51 | 30 |
| Bennett | 38 | 40 |
| Doherty | 25 | 30 |
| Alexander-Arnold | 23 | 10 |
| Shaw | 12 | 20 |
| MIDs | ||
| Hazard | 95 | 90 |
| Maddison | 63 | 60 |
| Richarlison | 49 | 60 |
| Mané | 38 | 10 |
| Fraser | 34 | 60 |
| Salah | 23 | 60 |
| Højbjerg | 21 | 60 |
| Lucas Moura | 18 | n/a |
| FWDs | ||
| Agüero | 68 | 80 |
| Kane | 55 | 40 |
| Mitrovic | 43 | 50 |
| Zaha | 19 | 40 |
| Arnautovic | 17 | n/a |
| Wilson | 17 | 30 |
| Lacazette | 11 | 10 |
| Ings | n/a | 30 |
The top 10k average score was 62 compared to the top 10 FPL managers of 67
I use 30% as a rule of thumb as a significant variation between the two teams and the only players that are different to this extent are
Salah (23% 10k OR vs 60% top 10 FPL managers)
Hojbjerg owned by the top 10 FPL managers more but not relevant as a bench warmer for FPL teams.
I’m quite shocked at the lack of variation in the 2 sets of teams. Even as close as last season this would be remarkably different. There are no real battlegrounds apart from Salah at the moment
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. It fits comfortably within the £101.8m budget of my team although to do that I had to put Ings in the team instead of Zaha.
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:
A Palace defender (Wan Bissaka 9/10 top 10 managers and 90% top 10k) and a Chelsea defender (Alonso 10/10 top 10 managers and 78% top 10k) and a Wolves defender (represented 13 times in the 10 managers teams (Doherty for me)
Hazard (owned by 9/10 managers and 95% of the top 10k) and Aguero (owned by 8/10 managers and 68% of the top 10k)
Salah drops out of that essential status by that definition because now owned by 6/10 of the managers and 40% of the top 10k. I would think about the fact that Liverpool have Huddersfield and Cardiff in GW9 and GW10
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
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