Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW15 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 GW15 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers
Introduction
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. The only repeat manager I’ve found again finished in the top 100 last season
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 a long time to track down 10 managers who’ve been so consistent and I imagine it will get harder and harder
The 10 managers stats
These managers are incredible 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 3,800
2. The top 10 FPL managers have not been out of the top 10k in the last 3 seasons (ie 30 times playing)
3. 3 of the 10 have finished in the top 1,000 in the last 3 seasons
4. 2 of the 10 have finished in the top 100 in the last 3 seasons
Gameweek 14 review
A reasonable gameweek for the 10 managers with all 7 getting a green arrow albeit giving a small average overall rank increase .
The average score of the managers in GW14 was 53 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 2 points and 4% better than the game average of 51. High score of the 10 was 62. The low score was 39.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 382k. That’s improved by 30k from last week. The best overall rank is 76k (821 pts) and the lowest 988k (747 pts). A difference 74 points. That translates to 12k per point. A far smaller gap than a few weeks ago.
The average total points are 786
The average team value is £103.4m.
Given the short gameweek I may not do an early FFGeek team article. You can see my GW14 team selection article here
The combined total of individual players
I’ve generally only included where there is a minimum of a player in 3 out of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by player
Alexander- Arnold, Lundstram and Soyuncu are in 9 of the FPL managers teams
Pope is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Tomori and Rico are in 6 of the 10 managers teams
Button is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Robertson and McGovern are in 3 of the 10 managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 13 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Burnley, Leicester and Sheffield are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Chelsea and Bournemouth are represented 6 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Brighton are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Mane is in 9 of the FPL managers teams
Mount is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Dendoncker and De Bruyne are in 6 the 10 FPL managers teams
Son and Maddison are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Pulisic is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Martial and Hayden are in 2 of the 10 managers teams
Forwards
Vardy is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Jimenez is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Abraham and Ings are in 3 of the 10 managers teams
Aubameyang and Connolly are 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 14 captain choice
6 of the 10 FPL managers went with Vardy
3 of the 10 FPL managers went with Mane
1 of the 10 FPL managers went with Sterling
The FFGeek poll for the GW14 captain choice was 44% Vardy, 25% Mane and 6% Kane.
FFGeek contributors in the same article were 47% Vardy, 21% Mane and 16% Salah.
Formations
Not done this week sorry
Wildcards and Chips
None of the managers used their wildcard this week. 6 have now used the wildcard in total and none have used a chip.
Transfers
9 of the managers made transfers and 1 carried over a free transfer. 2 managers took a 4 point deduction for an extra transfer. 1 took an 8 point deduction
Transfers in
Pulisic, Jimenez and Son were all transferred in 4 times
Ings was transferred in 3 times
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Abraham was transferred out 7 times
Sterling was transferred out 5 times
No one else was transferred out more than once
The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers
Unfortunately the excellent site FPL discovery isn’t going this season. However the livefpl.net does a version which isn’t as extensive but is still very helpful. Live FPL is a must view though for live FPL ranks and live league ranks and I’d recommend anyone to use it on match days.
Here I compare the most popular players in the top 10k and of the 10 top managers and show the difference. Remember the make up of the top 10k will change week to week which is why I’ve left this to now. On the first 2 weeks it does look reasonably stable. A negative means that the top 10k ownership % is higher than the 10 top FPL managers
| Player | Top 10k | 10 top FPL | 10 top FPL – top 10k |
| Button | 35 | 40 | 5 |
| Pope | 47 | 70 | 23 |
| Lundstram | 92 | 90 | -2 |
| Kelly | 38 | 10 | -28 |
| Alexander Arnold | 40 | 90 | 50 |
| Robertson | 35 | 30 | -5 |
| Rico | 35 | 60 | 25 |
| Soyuncu | 55 | 90 | 35 |
| Tomori | 32 | 60 | 28 |
| De Bruyne | 74 | 60 | -14 |
| Mount | 39 | 80 | 41 |
| Mane | 87 | 90 | 3 |
| Maddison | 43 | 50 | 7 |
| Pulisic | 26 | 40 | 14 |
| Martial | 23 | 20 | -3 |
| Son | 31 | 50 | 19 |
| Dendoncker | 15 | 60 | 45 |
| Abraham | 53 | 30 | -23 |
| Vardy | 97 | 100 | 3 |
| Aubameyang | 9 | 20 | 11 |
| Pukki | 4 | 10 | 6 |
| Jimenez | 47 | 80 | 33 |
| Ings | 14 | 30 | 16 |
| Connolly | 5 | 20 | 15 |
The template
I use the 10 managers as a proxy for serious managers teams and have a basic rule of thumb that if 7 of the 10 managers have a player or a team defence then I will seriously consider getting that player in.
Here’s the template on that basis. The difficulty with tracking the template is that you’re 1 game behind it as you obviously can’t see what their transfers are leading up to the gameweek opening.
Alexander Arnold
Soyuncu
Pope
Lundstram
Mount
Mane
Jimenez
Vardy
That’s 8 players. That leaves 7 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team.
De Bruyne is close in 6 teams as are Rico and Tomori.
Of the current template Mount is probably the most at risk with no returns in the last 5 gameweeks. Chelsea playing Aston Villa at home this week may save him for 1 more week.
One managers team
This is the leading scorer’s team for this week. He has 7 of the 8 template players mentioned above. He doesn’t have Jimenez and his template replacement player for Jimenez is Ings.
His bench players are the injured Abraham, Dendocker, Rico and McGovern. That leaves him 2 difference makers in De Bruyne, Son and Tomori.
His team value is high at £103.4m. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are 1k, 700 and 9k. His current rank is 467k and his GW14 score 62.
His transfer in was Ings and Son in for Connolly and Sterling
Here’s his team
The combined 10 top 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 to help you choose your transfer rather than a realistic team and it’s value is not necessarily achievable. This week it is at £102.5m
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
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