Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW23 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 GW23 – 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 22 review
A mixed week for the 10 FPL managers with 5 getting a green arrow and 5 getting a red. The average rank of the 10 pretty much stayed the same.
The average score of the managers in GW22 was 59 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 2 points and 4% better than the game average of 57. High score of the 10 was 73. The low score was 51.
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 301k. That’s an improvement by 8k over the last week. The best overall rank is 51k (1,299 pts) and the lowest 963k (1,191 pts).
The average total points are 1,258
The average team value is £104.2m.
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 is 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Soyuncu is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Lundstram is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Rico is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Button and Kelly are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Liverpool are represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Sheffield United and Leicester are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Brighton are represented 7 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Bournemouth and C Palace are represented 6 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Spurs and Newcastle are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
De Bruyne is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
Grealish is in 8 the 10 FPL managers teams
Salah is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Maddison and Mane are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Dendoncker and Martial are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Forwards
Vardy is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Jimenez and Ings are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Rashford is in 4 of the 10 managers teams
Abraham is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Connolly is in 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Gameweek 21 captain choice
6 of the 10 FPL managers went with Vardy
3 of the 10 FPL managers went with Rashford
1 of the 10 managers went with Sterling (Vardy vice)
The FFGeek poll for the GW22 captain choice article was 57% Vardy, 13% De Bruyne and 11% Rashford
FFGeek contributors in the same article were 89% Vardy and 6% Salah and De Bruyne
Formations
Not done this week sorry.
Wildcards and Chips
None have used their 2nd wildcard and none have used a chip.
Transfers
3 of the managers carried over a free transfer. No managers took points deductions for an extra transfers.
Transfers in
Richarlison was transferred in by 2 managers
No one was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Alli was transferred out by 3 managers
No one 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 also gives you live FPL ranks and live league ranks during gameweeks.
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 | 50 | 17 |
Ryan | 34 | 20 | -14 |
Lundstram | 92 | 80 | -12 |
Kelly | 65 | 50 | -15 |
Alexander Arnold | 79 | 100 | 21 |
Rico | 34 | 60 | 26 |
Soyuncu | 57 | 90 | 33 |
De Bruyne | 94 | 100 | 6 |
Mane | 80 | 50 | -30 |
Maddison | 47 | 50 | 3 |
Salah | 25 | 60 | 35 |
Grealish | 45 | 80 | 35 |
Dendoncker | 10 | 30 | 20 |
Martial | 14 | 30 | 16 |
Cantwell | 43 | 20 | -23 |
Abraham | 35 | 30 | -5 |
Vardy | 96 | 90 | -6 |
Jimenez | 21 | 50 | 29 |
Ings | 59 | 50 | -9 |
Rashford | 31 | 40 | 9 |
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
De Bruyne
Grealish
Vardy
That’s 6 players.
That leaves 9 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team. The template is very small at the moment which will lead to wide variations of scores weekly.
One managers team
This is the manager who’s 2nd to last of the 10 with an overall rank of 790k. Don’t think because of his current OR that this guy is a mug though. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are 3k and 8k and 6k. This week though he’s on the way back with 73 points.
He has 5 of the 6 template players mentioned above. He doesn’t have Soyuncu.
His bench players are Woodman, Rico and Dendoncker and possibly Kelly as he has Guaita in goal.
That leaves him 5 difference makers in Rashford, Calvert Lewin, Richarlison, Salah and Aurier. 3 of those 5 returned including 1 as captain.
Team value is low at £102.6m
This week his transfers were Calvert Lewin and Richarlison in for Alli and Greenwood out. I suspect that given the transfers and the captain choice that he’s going to implement a very fixture based recovery plan.
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 completely not achievable at £109.4m
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
More content
Geek note: If you join our Patreon site you will get access to an FPL contributor tracker team which combines the contributors individual teams each week to show their favourite players, transfers and captains. It will always be completed on a Friday/Saturday in a normal gameweek. There will also be an accompanying spreadsheet so you can drill down further. Currently 1,298 points 53k overall rank
You also get:
Weekly podcasts with the Geek and the other contributors
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool plus PlannerTeam Currently 1,280 points 105k overall rank
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
NEW Weekly FFGeek contributor imaginary wildcard articles
$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month
FFGeek league codes:
fantasy premier league: fnqq66
Sky Sports fantasy football: fantasyfootball.skysports.com/leagues/join with PIN 8426114
Telegraph fantasy football European Super League: League PIN: 8186902 League Passcode: 2113
Sun Dream Team:
Classic League PIN: SGDKX9Y3
Social Media
For more fantasy premier league transfer tips GW23 follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news