fantasy premier league transfer tips GW27 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers

Here’s our fantasy premier league team tips GW27 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 GW27 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers

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 and I’m delighted to say that one of them is our own FFGeek contributor Keith Spencer. You can find Keith on twitter here by the way 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 latest 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

Just to let you know I’ve taken out the person who was distorting the average very negatively and replaced them with someone else meeting the last 3 seasons less than 10k OR. I haven’t amended the calculations below but they will be improved due to the substitution.

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 26 review

A bad week for the 10 FPL managers. Only 2 of the 10 had a green arrow

The average score of the managers in GW26 was 64 taking into account point deductions for extra transfers. That’s compared to the game average of 57. That’s 7 points and 12% above the game average score. High score of the 10 was 79. The low score was 44. Another big spread of 55 even for an slightly above average scoring gameweek.

The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 41k a worsening of rank from last week of 6k. The best overall rank is now around the top 500 and the lowest 146k.

The average total points are 1,621

The average team value is £105.1m

You can see my score and rank in the early FFGeek team article which I’ll do today (Tuesday).

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

Wan Bissaka is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Doherty is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Digne, Robertson, Fabianski and Bednarek are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Allison, Shaw, Alexander Arnold, Laporte, Button, Hamer and Patricio are in 3 of the FPL managers teams

Goalkeeper/Defence by team

Wolves GK/Defs are represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Liverpool 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

West Ham GK/Defs are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Everton, Man City and Southampton GK/Defs are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Man Utd GK/Defs are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Midfielders

Salah is in 10 of the FPL managers teams

Pogba and Son HM are in 9 of the FPL managers teams

Richarlison is in 8 of the FPL managers teams

Sane and Mane are in 2 of the FPL managers teams

Forwards

Rashford is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Jimenez is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Aubameyang and Aguero are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Gameweek 26 captain choice

10 of the 10 FPL managers went with Salah

The FFGeek poll was 59% Salah, 25% Aubameyang

The Site 1 poll in my GW26 captain choice article was 51% Salah, 14% Aubameyang

The top 10k captain choice (from the excellent free site FPL discovery) was 89% Salah and 2% Aubameyang. The FFGeek poll this time was very different to the top 10k.  However the late illness of Aubameyang would have meant a change from how people voted I imagine.

Formations

Not done this week sorry.

Wildcards, chips, transfers and hits

1 of the managers has used their 2nd wildcard

2 have used their triple captain chip.

None have used the free hit or bench boost chip.

There are a number of options on where to use the chip this season so see my latest double and blanks article on where these are likely to be and some strategy options.

Transfers in and out

I only summarise the transfers when a player is transferred in more than once.

6 of the 10 managers made a transfer.

Transfers in

Son was transferred in by 5 managers

Mane was transferred in by 2 managers

No one else was transferred in more than once

Transfers out

Sane was transferred out by 4 managers

No one else was transferred out more than once

Hits

3 managers took a 4 point deduction for an extra transfer.

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.

The top 10k average score was 70 compared to the 10 top managers average of 64.

I use 30% as a rule of thumb as a significant variation between the two player sets.

Only 1 player fits that criteria of difference

Richarlison is owned by 8/10 FPL managers but only 48% of the top 10k.  I can forsee a situation where he is sold heavily for the blank he has in GW27 although that may depend on the 5th round results.

All the information is provided by the truly fantastic free site FPL discovery.

So the 10 manager template is very similar to the top 10k one.

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 nothing like achievable.

So who’s worth considering as essential?

I define this by either 70% of the top 10k own a player or defensive team or 7 of the 10 top FPL managers own him

Liverpool defence (GK/Def represented 11 times of the 10 FPL managers)

Doherty (Wolves defence represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams).

Salah (owned by 10 of the 10 managers)

Pogba (owned by 9 of the 10 FPL managers)

Son HM (owned by 9 of the 10 FPL managers)

Rashford (owned by 10/10 FPL managers)

Plus maybes

Wan Bissaka (owned 10 of the 10 top FPL managers but is often a bench player so maybe avoidable)

Richarlison (owned by 8 of the 10 FPL managers) but with a blank in GW27 and 1 return in the last 8 games likely to be sold en masse.

So that’s 6 essentials and 2 maybes. This leaves room for 7 differentials/bench two pointers.

Focus on 1 managers team

Here’s the highest scorer of the round at 79.  I would also say he is probably one of the more radical of the managers.  His rank is 28k and his TV is £105.0m.  His transfer this week was Son HM in Bernardo Silva out.

Even though I have called him one of the more radical players as you can see he has all the essential players I mention above.  He only has 3 bench players rather than 4 though.  The 3 being Hamer, Success and Bednarek.

That plus the 8 essentials leaves him with 4 differentials.  Alisson (double Liverpool defence), Sterling, Jimenez and Digne.  In a captain neutral week his differentials were the key.  Sterling plus the double Liverpool defence.

He is placed ok for the blank week of GW27 3 players with blanks plus success.  As for the blank GW31, he only has 3 players with guaranteed fixtures in GW31 and GW33 he is possibly looking to have an alternate strategy rather than work to a full team by transfers.

Hope you found the above useful

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