How FPL Harry, Mark Sutherns and more did in Gameweek 15

‘The Great and The Good’ are this season’s FPL Godfather Mark Suthernsthe BlackBox pair The And Andy NorthScouts FPL General, Joe And Tomthe FPL Wire trio of Pras, Lateriser And ZopharFPL Celebrities FPL Harry, Martijn Bakker, Pin green, FPL Frasier And Luke WilliamsHall of Famers Ben Crellin, Fabio Borges And Tom Dollimoreand the winner of last year’s mini-competition Hus E.

“Everything has to go”

In scenes reminiscent of the Hunger Games, there was a buzz of activity this week as transfer-thirsty FPL managers roamed the fantasy world in search of short-term points as we prepared for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) giveaway.

All this in the midst of back-to-back Gameweeks in seven days was, I’m sure, enough to prompt many FPL managers to take another sip or two of mulled wine. Other festive drinks are also available.

Once the weekend arrived, a significant amount of drama came out of the Merseyside road, which some suggested Mohammed Salah (£14.0m) should calm down, calm down. Well done to anyone who gets that 90s sketch reference.

Then, in football, most of us switched back to one Erling Haaland (£15.0 million) bracelet after the Bruno Fernandes (£9.0m) flirtation, after which he promptly went blank and took Bruno away.

Daniel Munoz (£6.1 million) mysteriously disappeared, leading to much bank jam, and Declan Rice (£7.1m) – which no one seems to own within the online FPL community – briefly became the game’s leading midfielder before Monday.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Huss E continues to make a mockery of his rookie status here as he once again tops the charts and climbs to 13k worldwide, this time aided by the FPL holy trinity of Fernandes, Phil Foden (£8.6 million) and Anthony Gordon (£7.2 million).

Pingreen had a good week, moving up almost 400,000 places, but this was nothing compared to FPL General. The latter loves these Haaland blanks, shooting up over 900,000 spots and lifting himself off the bottom of this table.

General was helped by a Foden captain and on the whole it was strange to see that none of them favored Fernandes. I was convinced at least one of them would have, considering he was facing a Wolverhampton Wanderers side that looks ripe for the target.

TRANSFERS

With all these must-use transfers in hand and Foden firing on all cylinders, he was unsurprisingly the most popular signing, once again delivering a double-digit score. The most important sacrifice? Antoine Semenyo (£7.6 million).

We also saw some goalkeeper moves that moved Nick Pope (£5.1m), but perhaps the most striking decision was Fabio Borges losing confidence Virgil van Dijk (£6.0 million). I suspect there will be many more to come.

‘THE GREAT AND THE GOOD’ TEMPLATE

Despite all these transfers, the only change is that Joachim Andersen (£4.5 million) for Marco Senesi (£5.0 million), plus a deck reshuffling that saw Foden climb the popularity charts.

Dubravka (88.9%), Raya (44.4%)
van Dijk (72.2%), Timber (55.6%), Andersen (50%), Rodon (44.4%), Munoz (38.9%)
Fernandes (83.3%), Foden (72.2%), Saka (72.2%), Minteh (66.7%), Semenyo (38.9%)
Onland (94.4%), Matheta (61.1%)

POSITIONING YOUR TRANSFERS

So we’ve arrived at the Gameweek 16 transfer top-up. Management styles will certainly come into play, with the aggressive treating this like a mini Wildcard, while others hoard them like cautious FPL lace-ups.

Where they will focus their actions is up for debate, so let’s take a look at where most of the transfers have taken place so far.

The green and red arrows are fired in midfield, with just under 50% of transfers taking place in the middle of the park. Moreover, there was little activity up front, where Haaland and a 3-5-2 formation have the upper hand.

Luke has made most of his moves in defence, Mark and Tom Dollimore often play with their strikers, while the likes of Fabio and Harry have not made any goalkeeping transfers at all. Maybe David Raya (£6.0 million) was always the answer.

CONCLUSION

There has been a lot of movement in recent weeks as the more committed managers start to make profits. And with five transfers under our belt, there are plenty of opportunities to continue this progression.

Frankly, the best tactic is to attack Wolves, leaving all eyes on Mikel Arteta’s next press conference.

Anyway, that’s all mine for now, and remember, don’t have any FPL nightmares.

For those involved in any of the topics mentioned above, you can find me here on Twitter or Blue Sky.