fantasy premier league transfer tips GW31 – How the 10 top FPL managers dealt with DGW30+

Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW31 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.  This is an early article where we see how they handled the DGW30+ and Chips used.

fantasy premier league transfer tips GW31 – How the 10 top FPL managers dealt with DGW30+

Introduction

This is an interim article.  I hope to add the 10 top managers final gameweek scores later in the gameweek.  This article now is to give you an idea how they dealt with DGW30+

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.

 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

Their basic stats prior to DGW30+

The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers was 101k.

The median overall rank was 83k

The average total points were 1,674

The average team value was £104.7m.

How did the 10 Managers deal with GW30+?

6 used their Bench Boost

3 used their Free Hit (2 of the 3 managers who used the Free Hit chip had already used their 2nd wildcard)

1 did not use a Chip.  That manager had already used their Bench Boost.

The combined Bench Boost team

Please note I have not tried to do a combined Free Hit team as this will revert to the original team GW38 team so is of little interest

I’ve put a team together using the most represented players for those 6 managers who Bench Boosted.  The team value isn’t particularly high

So there are 12 double gameweek players:

Henderson and Leno (all 6 had the same pair)

Targett and Lundstram (5)

Egan (4)

Grealish and De Bruyne (5)

Saka, Sterling and Mahrez (3) I could have put 2 of either of these in

McGinn and El Ghazi (2).  I chose McGinn as cheaper

Aguero (5)

Nketiah and Aubameyang (3).  I chose Nketiah as cheaper

So there are 3 single gameweek players

Alexander Arnold (6)

Doherty (2)

Jimenez (4)

Mount was also (2) but I chose McGinn above

1 Managers Bench Boost team

This is the highest scoring team on 87 after the 1st day of the gameweek.  You can see he’s gone all out with 12 double gameweek players

The Combined 10 top FPL managers teams

Here I’ve looked at the Free Hit teams before the Free Hit chip was used as this is what the team will revert to.  This analysis maybe of little value if the managers start using other chips in GW31 but it gives a starting point

Goalkeeper/Defence by player

Alexander Arnold is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Leno is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Henerson, Targett, Lundstram and Doherty are  in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Egan is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Pope and Charlie Taylor are in 3

Goalkeeper/Defence by team

Sheffield United are represented 19 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Liverpool are represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Wolves are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Arsenal are represented 8 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

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

Midfielders

De Bruyne is in 9 of the FPL managers teams

Grealish is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Sterling is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Salah is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Mahrez, Fernandes and Saka are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Forwards

Jimenez is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Aguero is in 6 of the 10 managers teams

Nketiah is in 4 of the 10 managers teams

Calvert Lewin and Aubameyang are in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Captains

7 managers chose De Bruyne

2 managers chose Aguero

1 manager chose Sterling

Wildcards and Chips

2 managers have used their 2nd wildcard

7 manager has used their Bench Boost

3 have used their Free Hit chip

All 10 managers have used their triple captain chip

The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers

Hopefully Live FPL has collated the ranks like I did above but they could have included Free Hit teams it’s not clear.

Livefpl.net gives the top 10k stats and it 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

The template isn’t as relevant at the moment as I suspect it will be very changeable due to the use of Chips and wildcards over the coming weeks.  Anyway I’ll still outline it.

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.

Sheffield United defence – Lundstram and Egan

Liverpool defence – Alexander Arnold only

Wolves defence – Doherty

Arsenal defence – Leno only

De Bruyne

Grealish

Jimenez

That’s 8 players.

That leaves 7 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team.

The combined 10 top FPL managers teams

Here’s a team which tries to make a combination from the most represented players.  It includes Bench Boost players and the teams prior to the Free Hit Chip as that is what will be the managers teams at the start of GW31+

Again this may not be that relevant given that there will be wildcards etc around and used in the coming gameweeks.

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 not achievable by many at £108.6m

That’s it. Hope you found it useful

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