fantasy premier league transfer tips GW29 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers

Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW29 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 GW29 – analysing the teams of 10 top FPL managers

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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 28 review

A mixed week for the 10 FPL managers with 4 getting a green arrow and 6 getting a red. The average rank of the 10 stayed the same as a result

The average score of the managers in GW28 was 35 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 9 points and 35% better than the game average of 26. High score of the 10 was 48. The low score was 23.

The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 87k. That’s the same as the average at the last gameweek. The best overall rank is 2k (1,695 pts) and the lowest 219k (1,568 pts). I think the median overall rank interestingly is 110k

The average total points are 1,618

The average team value is £104.7m.

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

Jack Stephens and Pope are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Boly and Button are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Rico, Robertson and Doherty are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Goalkeeper/Defence by team

Liverpool are represented 15 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Leicester and Wolves are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Brighton and Burnley are represented 6 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Southampton are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Sheffield are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Bournemouth, and Newcastle are represented in 3 managers teams

Midfielders

De Bruyne and Salah are in 10 of the FPL managers teams

Mane is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Maddison and H Barnes are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Dendoncker, Grealish and Traore are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Forwards

Ings is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Jimenez is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Calvert Lewin is in 6 of the 10 managers teams

Vardy is in 3 of the 10 managers teams

Captain choice

All 10 FPL managers had Salah as captain

The FFGeek poll for the GW28 captain choice was 67% Salah , 19% Vardy and 5% Mane

Formations

Not done this week and not relevant considering the postponed games

Wildcards and Chips

None have used their 2nd wildcard but all 10 have used their triple captain chip

Transfers

1 of the managers carried over a free transfer. 2 managers took point deductions for extra transfers.

Transfers in

Harvey Barnes was transferred in by 4 managers

Doherty and Maddison were transferred in by 2 managers

No one else was transferred in more than once

Transfers out

Martial and Grealish were transferred out by 3 managers

Lundstram was transferred out by 2 managers

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 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

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

Wolves defence – Boly unless you can afford Doherty

De Bruyne

Salah

Ings

Jimenez

That’s 7 players.

That leaves 8 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team. The template is very narrow meaning scores could be pretty volatile going forward

One managers team

This is the manager who’s 6th of the 10 with an OR of 104k. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are an incredible 3k, 8k and 6k. His score this week was a very impressive 47 -4.

He has 6 of the 7 template players mentioned above. He doesn’t have Soyuncu but instead has Gomez.

His bench players are Woodman, Rico and Dendoncker

That leaves him 5 difference makers in Guaita, Stephens, Barnes, Martial and Calvert Lewin. His score saw an increase in rank from 137k to 104k.

His team value is £102.9

This week his transfer were Barnes and Doherty in for Lundstram and Grealish 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 reasonably achievable by anyone at £105.4m

That’s it. Hope you found it useful

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