Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW17 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 GW17 – 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 16 review
A good gameweek for the 10 managers with 7 getting a green arrow and 3 a red arrow giving a healthy overall rank improvement.
The average score of the managers in GW16 was 64 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 10 points and 19% better than the game average of 54. High score of the 10 was 76. The low score was 57.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 387k. That’s improved by 40k from last week. The best overall rank is 71k (946 pts) and the lowest 1,045k (860 pts). A difference 86 points. That translates to 11k per point. A far smaller gap than a few weeks ago.
The average total points are 908
The average team value is £103.8m.
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
Soyuncu is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
Alexander Arnold and Lundstram are in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Rico is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Pope and Tomori are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
M Kelly, Button and Robertson are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
McGovern is in 3 of the 10 managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Sheffield is represented 11 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Leicester is represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Bournemouth are represented 6 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Chelsea, Brighton and Burnley are represented 5 times in the 10 managers teams
C Palace are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Norwich are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Mane is in 8 of the FPL managers teams
Son and De Bruyne are in 7 the 10 FPL managers teams
Dendoncker and Pulisic are in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mount is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Maddison is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Dele Alli is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Vardy is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Jimenez is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Abraham is in 4 of the 10 managers teams
Ings is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Connolly is in 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 16 captain choice
9 of the 10 FPL managers went with Vardy
1 of the 10 FPL managers went with Son
The FFGeek poll for the GW16 captain choice was 49% Vardy, 17% Mane and 6% Alli
FFGeek contributors in the same article were 53% Vardy, 21% Salah and 16% Mane
Formations
9 managers went 3-4-3
1 managers went 3-5-2
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
8 of the managers made transfers and 2 carried over a free transfer. No managers took a points deduction for an extra transfer
Transfers in
Alli and Martin Kelly were transferred in 3 times
Son was transferred in twice
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Tomori was transferred out twice
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. 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 | 33 | 40 | 7 |
Pope | 33 | 50 | 17 |
Lundstram | 90 | 90 | 0 |
Kelly | 52 | 40 | -12 |
Alexander Arnold | 49 | 90 | 41 |
Robertson | 25 | 40 | 15 |
Rico | 35 | 60 | 25 |
Soyuncu | 52 | 100 | 48 |
Tomori | 26 | 50 | 24 |
De Bruyne | 76 | 70 | -6 |
Mount | 31 | 50 | 19 |
Mane | 91 | 80 | -11 |
Maddison | 50 | 40 | -10 |
Pulisic | 19 | 60 | 41 |
Son | 36 | 70 | 34 |
Dendoncker | 16 | 60 | 44 |
Abraham | 57 | 40 | -17 |
Vardy | 97 | 100 | 3 |
Jimenez | 36 | 70 | 34 |
Ings | 26 | 30 | 4 |
Connolly | 4 | 20 | 16 |
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.
Liverpool defence – Alexander Arnold
Leicester defence – Soyuncu
Sheffield defence – Lundstram
Mane
Son
De Bruyne
Jimenez
Vardy
That’s 8 players. That leaves 7 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team.
One managers team
This is the leading scorer’s team (76 points) for this week and the manager who’s 2nd in overall rank out of the 10 managers (95k OR).
He has 7 of the 8 template players mentioned above. This manager doesn’t have De Bruyne and his template replacement is Maddison.
His bench players are the Rico, Dendoncker and Button. That leaves him 4 difference makers in Mount, Robertson, Ryan and Rashford.
The template replacement player in Maddison as well as his difference makers in Rashford and Robertson were the reasons for his success
Team value is high at £105.2m. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are 4k, 1k and 6k.
His transfer in was Son for Martial and Rashford for Aubameyang.
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 £104.8m
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
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