If you had a bad gameweek, you’re in good company. Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW19 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 GW19 – 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 18 review
A terrible gameweek for the 10 managers with 8 getting a red arrow and 2 a green arrow culminating in a large worsening of their overall average.
The average score of the managers in GW18 was 39 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 1 point and 3% better than the game average of 38. High score of the 10 was 55. The low score was 26.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 483k. That’s worsened by 84k from last week. The best overall rank is 61k (1,059 pts) and the lowest 1,386k (947 pts). A difference of 112 points. That translates to roughly 11.8k overall rank per point.
The average total points are 1010
The average team value is £104.1m.
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, Soyuncu and Lundstram are in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Rico and Martin Kelly are in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Button and Pope are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
McGovern is in 3 of the 10 managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Liverpool and Sheffield United GK/Defs are represented 11 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Leicester is represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
C Palace is represented 8 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Bournemouth is represented 7 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Brighton is represented 5 times in the 10 managers teams
Spurs and Burnley are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Norwich and Villa are represented 3 times in the 10 managers teams
Midfielders
Son is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
De Bruyne is in 8 the 10 FPL managers teams
Alli is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Dendoncker is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Maddison and Grealish are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mane and Pulisic are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Vardy is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Abraham is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Rashford is in 5 of the 10 managers teams
Jimenez is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Connolly and Ings are in 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 18 captain choice
4 of the 10 FPL managers went with Son
4 of the 10 FPL managers went with Rashford
2 of the 10 managers went with De Bruyne
The FFGeek poll for the GW18 captain choice was 41% Rashford, 15% De Bruyne and 14% Son
FFGeek contributors in the same article were 24% De Bruyne, 24% Son and 18% Rashford
Formations
Not that relevant this week due to the benching of Liverpool players but anyway.
8 managers went 3-4-3
2 managers went 4-4-2
Wildcards and Chips
1 of the managers used their wildcard this week. 7 have now used the wildcard in total and none have used a chip.
Here’s his wildcard team:
Unfortunately it was a disappointing 41 score for him.
This manager has finished the last 3 seasons with overall ranks of 3k, 8k and 6k.
He’s currently struggling though on 954 points and an OR of 1,235k
Transfers
9 of the managers made transfers including the wildcard and 1 carried over a free transfer. No managers took points deductions for an extra transfers.
Transfers in
The transfers do not include the wildcard transfers
Grealish and Alli were transferred in 3 times
Kelly and Son were transferred in 2 times
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
The transfers do not include the wildcard transfers
Mane was transferred out 4 times
Mount and Pulisic were 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 during gameweeks 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 | 34 | 40 | 6 |
| Pope | 34 | 40 | 6 |
| Lundstram | 95 | 90 | -5 |
| Kelly | 72 | 70 | -2 |
| Alexander Arnold | 34 | 90 | 56 |
| Rico | 46 | 70 | 24 |
| Soyuncu | 55 | 90 | 35 |
| De Bruyne | 86 | 80 | -6 |
| Mane | 59 | 30 | -29 |
| Maddison | 48 | 40 | -8 |
| Pulisic | 6 | 30 | 24 |
| Son | 58 | 100 | 42 |
| Grealish | 25 | 40 | 15 |
| Alli | 36 | 70 | 34 |
| Dendoncker | 16 | 60 | 44 |
| Abraham | 48 | 60 | 12 |
| Vardy | 95 | 100 | 5 |
| Jimenez | 28 | 30 | 2 |
| Ings | 29 | 20 | -9 |
| Rashford | 45 | 50 | 5 |
| Connolly | 2 | 20 | 18 |
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
Palace defence – Kelly
De Bruyne
Alli
Vardy
That’s 7 players.
Son technically qualifies as he is owned by 10 FPL managers. However his red card and 3 match suspension will undoubtedly lead to transfers out taking him out of the template. Rico also qualifies but is mainly a bench player anyway and is also suspended for 1 match so again possible he moves out of the template.
That leaves 8 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team.
One managers team
This is the leading scorer’s team (55 points) for this week and the manager who’s 2nd in overall rank out of the 10 managers (65k OR).
He has 7 of the 7 template players mentioned above. He also has Son but doesn’t have Rico with Tomori being his technical replacement
His bench players are Hayden and Woodman. That leaves him 4 difference makers in Ings, Jimenez, Grealish and Pope. All of which returned
Team value is high at £105.4m. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are 1k and 6k and 3k.
His transfer in was Grealish for Mane out.
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 £102.1m
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
More content
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