Fantasy football Trends From The Top – GW14
What Are The Leaders Doing? A Look to Gameweek 15.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Fantasy football Trends From the Top. For the first time since writing this piece, I decided to reflect on the trends and the actual outcomes for the following week. Last week, the players which were identified as “must-haves” were Kolarov (7 pts for GW 14), Mahrez (2 pts), Ozil (10 pts), Barkley (13 pts), Lukaku (6 points), and Vardy (9 pts). If I personally had taken the recommendations of the leaders and had these 6 particular players on my team, I would have yielded 47 points (and that’s without the double points of a captain and with 5 additional players remaining!) You too, would have had the same! As you know, the overall average this week was 51 points. So, what did you do and how did you fare? You can probably guess that by my revelation of sorts, I did not have all the above mentioned players on my squad. It does however lead me to wonder the following: If I take this week’s recommendations, how will I do next week if I insert them all into my team? Let’s take a look and see how the trends of the leaders evolved if at all.
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Who was the most captained player by the top ten for Gameweek 14?
This week, 60% of the top ten managers selected Lukaku who wasn’t the best pick but alas, we do not have crystal balls! 2 top managers fortuitously selected De Bruyne (32 points) with the remaining 2 leaders selecting Ozil (20 points).
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Are the Top 10 going to “stick” around?
I know this question was posted in last week’s piece as well but upon doing research, it came to my attention that 4 of the top 10 were new to the leader board which once again shows that the dust has not yet settled. And as discussed on the fantasyfootball247 website, these “chips” are making things less predictable. 5 of the top players have deployed ALL chips while our current leader has yet to exhaust one. Of the top ten, only 1 player has done well in past years. Byron Gillespie, currently in 6th place has finished in the top 1% for three previous seasons (33,974, 36,078 and 39,931); he has however, used all of his chips.
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Who were the most popular players chosen by the top ten for Gameweek 14?
Goalkeepers: For this past gameweek 60% of the top managers selected Cech while 10% had Schmeichel, Butland, de Gea and Hennessey.
Defenders: This week we saw 13 defenders make the cut for top managers. Kolarov had 60% ownership while Bellerin also ranked highly with 50% of managers selecting him. Smalling came in at 40% while Alderweireld, Dann, Clyne and Sagna were the next most popular picks with 30% ownership followed by Coleman at 20% and Monreal, Moreno, Walker, Jenkinson and Koscielny each with 10%.
Midfielders: When you look at midfielders, the top 10 managers only had 10 different picks. Barkley was the most popular pick with 100% ownership followed by Ozil at 80%, De Bruyne at 70%, Mahrez at 50%, Sanchez and Cabaye at 20% and Ayew, Deulofeu, Eriksen and Hoolahan each with 10%.
Forwards: This week, the front line consisted of only 5 picks among the top managers which is the lowest amount of variety we have seen this season. Lukaku came in with 100% while Vardy remained the next popular pick as he received 70%. Ighalo was added to the squad as 7 of the top ten managers chose him while Aguero and Martial were each selected by 10%.
In summation, the Must-Haves for top managers for Gameweek 14 were Cech, Kolarov, Mahrez, Bellerin, DeBruyne, Ozil, Barkley, Lukaku, Ighalo and Vardy as they all had an ownership rate of 50% or higher. And if you are curious, these 10 players tallied up a score of 73 points.
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Other interesting facts:
• The average score for Gameweek 14 among the top 10 was 82.5 points which is 31.5 points above average for the week.
• We almost had for the first time, leaders representative of 10 different countries! Scotland holds the #1 position followed by S. Africa (2), Sweden (3), England (4 and 10), Canada (5), Norway (6), Australia (7), Bosnia-Herzegovina (8), and the USA (9).
• The average team value was £105.2 with £106.9 being the highest team value and £104 being the lowest value.
• 21 points separates 1st place from 10th.
Hope this was interesting.
Best of luck in Gameweek 15.
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Sanchez out for 3 Weeks, Cazorla also out till CL game against Olympiacos with Knee injury
@aguerosergiokun: For everyone asking, I’m fine. It’s just a harmless bump on the heel. Thanks, all of you, for the support!
Good news about Kun, not so good about Sanchez.
Sanchez > Ozil
Lingard > Barkley for a -4, worth it?
I have
KDB, Mahrez and Lanzini as my other 3 mids
with Vardy Kun and Luka up top.
Thanks Beka, great read as always. Hard to believe one of the leaders still has Martial!
Thanks Beka! Answers all the questions in my mind about the top and then some I wasn’t asking. As always, much appreciated!
There seem to be some players returning that are worthy of consideration as they’ve got a history of good FPL returns: Silva, Sturridge, Henderson, other names not here.
Liverpool have begun turning things around and I can only think that Studge (if he stays fit) and Hendo returning to the squad bodes well for their continued climb up the table and also for Liverpool FPL points in general. Thoughts on these three and any others returning to action?
Hi Pancho. Once Silva is fit again then he becomes a great option. See how he goes this weekend i suppose – If he looks good then i’d consider him. As for the other two, err, no
haha thanks for the reply NIN. I seem to remember Henderson being last season’s “Ross Barkley”. Didn’t he start picking up the returns mid season and actually turn into an excellent pickup around the 6-6.5 range?
When/if ever glass legs is fit he seems to score a goal or two. Feels a bit like a great differential. His speed seems to fit Klopp’s style way better than Bentekke does too. With Firmino and Cutinho’s creativity and passing potential he could do really well. If he stays fit… which is a big “if”!
Valid points for both, but i think we need to give each of them a number of weeks before buying. There are so many options available who are doing the business that it seems too risky to punt on these two, for me. Especially Sturridge.
NIN, I think you’re spot on! But Sturridge could be an awesome differential! Did you watch the game yesterday?
Anyone out there watch Sturridge when he came on? How’d he look?
No i haven’t seen anything from the Liverpool game yet. Either way, will a fit Sturridge do better than the current form strikers? I doubt it. Even more so when we have Aguero gaining fitness too. Just cant see room for Sturridge but that may change in a few months if he’s fit. Which he wont be.
Please RMT
Begovic
Kolarov Moreno Janmaat
Ozil Mahrez(c) Barkley KDB
Lukaku Vardy Ighalo
bench- Rudd Mata Francis Oxford
Had to ship out Sanchez
Now am not left with any FT
5.7mn in the bank. 0 FT
1. save FT? start with the same line up
2. take a hit for Janmaat to Alderweireld
3. save FT, start Francis in place of Janmaat
AOA Already played. i know that was the easiest option
help needed guys
Janmaat is an eyesore but i’d leave it this week and sort it next week.
yes he is a serious issue
but i would not blame him, in around 4 or 5 weeks i had him for, he gave me a clean sheet and an assist this week
but at 4.9mn he is waste
just looked for a differential when i had him
Nish, how can you save a free transfer in numbers 1 + 3, you’ve already used it ?
spot on elle
that is a mistake
lol
just delete my post
😉
SAVE THE HIT for both
what would you suggest?
1 2 or 3?
Don’t do a hit for a defender. Pick the defender you feel may get you some attacking returns as both will more than likely concede goals.
You also have an issue with Courtois returning, if he starts you have no playing GK.
If a hit fixes problems in future weeks as well then I’d take the hit.
May pay for itself straight away and will almost definitely medium term.
Absolutely LOVE this article! I only wish I had brains like those that at the top.
I have put myself in a rather tough spot for selection. I brought Hazard in for Deulofeu, completely forgetting I was rotating him with Ighalo. With Ighalo being in such fine form, it seems I have a rather difficult selection choice in the week(s) ahead.
I think Hazard, played up front, will come good over the coming weeks. At least I mightily hope so.
Any thoughts on this and who to pick for my starting XI?
Looks good Shrizz, i’d probably bench Mahrez aswell.
Thanks Elle! Every bit of reassurance counts!