Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW9 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 GW9 – 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 8 review
A poor gameweek for the 10 managers with 8 getting a red arrow and a reasonable overall rank average drop.
The average score of the managers in GW8 was 35 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 1 point and 3% worse than the game average of 36. High score of the 10 was 42. The low score was 28 -4 = 24
The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 582k. That’s worsened by 95k from last week. The best overall rank is 170k and the lowest 1,061k. So despite their being nearly 900k in overall rank between them there’s only 35 points. We’ve seen that can be wiped out in 1 gameweek. OR is still very misleading.
The average total points are 447
The average team value is £101.7m.
You can see my score and rank in the early FFGeek team article which I will do today or tomorrow.
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, Lundstram and Pope are in 7 of the FPL managers teams
Otamendi is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Button and Soyuncu are in 5 of the 10 managers teams
Digne is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Zinchenko, Robertson and Van Dijk are in 3 of the 10 managers teams
Goalkeeper/Defence by team
Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 13 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Burnley GK/Defs are represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Man City GK/Defs are represented 9 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Sheff Utd and Brighton GK/Defs are represented 7 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Leicester are represented 5 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Everton are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams
Midfielders
Sterling is in 10 of the FPL managers teams
Cantwell is in 8 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Mount and Salah are in 7 of the FPL managers teams
De Bruyne is in 6 of the FPL managers teams
Dendoncker is in 4 of the FPL managers teams
Son, Mahrez and Hayden are in 2 of the FPL managers teams
Forwards
Pukki is in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Abraham is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Greenwood is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Haller is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams
Wilson, Aubameyang and Wickham are in 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams.
Gameweek 8 captain choice
9 of the 10 FPL managers went with Sterling
1 of the 10 FPL managers went with Aubameyang
The FFGeek poll was 45% Sterling, 19% Aguero and 14% Aubameyang
Formations
Not done this week sorry
Wildcards, chips, transfers and hits
Wildcards and Chips
None of the managers used their wildcard or a chip this week. 3 have used the wildcard and none have used a chip.
Transfers
Only 5 managers made at least 1 transfer.
Transfers in
Tomori, Mahrez and Aubameyang were transferred in twice
No one else was transferred in more than once
Transfers out
Salah and De Bruyne were transferred out twice
No one else was transferred out more than once
The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers
At the moment my plan is to do this after GW10 when hopefully the overall rank table settles down a bit as overall rank is still very volatile. This means the set of managers in the top 10k will change drastically each week meaning the information is too changeable and therefore misleading and unhelpful rather than of use.
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.
The template has changed in that now Mount is part of it. De Bruyne is technically out but I imagine will be transferred back in if he’s fit
1 Liverpool defender – Alexander Arnold
Man City defender – Otamendi
Pope
Salah
Sterling
Mount
Pukki
Abraham
That above is the core template.
Cantwell and Lundstram you could also count as well as they fit the criteria technically. Whether you think they will be benched enough not to be a threat is the question you need to ask yourself.
I haven’t counted the Brighton defence as it’s made up significantly by a non playing £4.0m GK.
It’s a strong template at the moment only leaving 3 players as difference makers in your starting 11 if you don’t count Cantwell and Lundstram. If you do then there’s only 1 difference maker. How many will wildcard after the disastrous week is the other unknown.
This week I imagine De Bruyne will come back into the template if fit. I can see Pukki being transferred out and possibly even Salah this week. Cantwell also but I imagine he will just be a bench player.
One managers team
Here’s the leading manager with 466 points and an OR of 170k. His last 3 seasons are 1k, 6k and 3k. He has 7 of the 8 core template players plus he’s effectively swapped Salah for Aubameyang for the remaining position. Also in his team are the peripheral template players in Lundstram and Cantwell and a possible returner to the template in De Bruyne to make it 11.
He has 2 permanent bench players in Hayden and Woodman. His difference makers then as well as Aubameyang replacing Salah are Soyuncu and Digne.
This week he transferred in Aubameyang and Mount for Salah and Ashley Barnes.
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. It’s about £102.2m
That’s it. Hope you found it useful
Other posts
You can also see Rob Reid’s wildcard article as well as Keith and Costas’s , also Kris O’s wildcard drafts and Ben and Kev’s wildcard drafts. There’s also Rick’s cutting through the FPL noise article
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 a spreadsheet of each managers teams, transfers and captains so you can drill down further.
You also get:
Joe’s interactive transfer planner and points projection tool
FFGeek private leagues
Access to the FFGeek Slack channel for discussion with the contributors and members
$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: passcode 8693. PIN code 8000919. The telegraph have also offered a prize of £100 to the winner.
Telegraph fantasy football European Super League: League PIN: 8186902 League Passcode: 2113
Sun Dream Team:
Classic League PIN: SGDKX9Y3
H2H PIN: SGFU3CR9
Social Media
For more fantasy premier league transfer tips GW9 follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news
