Trends From The Top Gameweek 8
Welcome to this week’s edition of Trends From the Top. It’s always fascinating to see the ways in which the leader board changes as well as the trends that evolve just over the course of a couple of weeks! Did you know for example that for GW 7, only two of the top 10 players had Aguero on their team? So… what trends did we see this week? What are the leaders doing and will they continue to maintain their leads?
Who was the most captained player by the top ten for Gameweek 8?
This week, 100% of the top ten managers selected… AGUERO! As many of you know, captaining him would have brought you 50 points but for the three top managers who decided to play their triple captain chip, kudos to you! At the time of writing only 33.9% of managers have been able to bring Aguero onboard as he carries a very heavy price tag of £13.2m but if this week’s performance is indicative of what’s to come, Aguero may be the one man up front to permanently invest your money in. (Next three matches are BOU (H), MUN (A) and NOR (H)).
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What recent trend have most of the top managers been deploying?
In researching this week’s leaders, it was interesting to see that once again, most managers have used many if not all of their chips! What’s even more fascinating, however, is the fact that Struthious D, currently holding position #2 has neither used a chip nor a wild card! His game play therefore may be more ‘credible’ and reflective of good managerial skills than others. (Struthious D has played for 10 seasons and his highest rank was 39,890). And, as the week’s progress, I do believe we will see the downfall of those who were eagerly ambitious to deploy and exhaust their chips within the first few weeks of the season.
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What are some other interesting findings regarding the leaders?
– NONE of the top 10 for this week were in the top 10 last week! This may be the new norm with all the new additions and modifications to the game but it is indeed very interesting to me as last year’s leader, stayed at the top for the last 15-20 weeks.
– Our leader brought in 145 points (ranked 72nd for GW 8) and was savvy enough to use his triple captain chip. While I do suggest above that they deployment of all your chips so early in the season may not be wise, the use of the triple captain chip for this week was clearly most fortuitous.
– Our leader also ranked 1,505,612 in GW 2! (There’s hope for us all?)
– Our leader went from 896th to 1st in one GW.
– Our current leader finished 408,298 for the 2014/2015 season.
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Goalkeepers: For this past gameweek 50% of the top managers selected Cech while 20% had Hart and 10% had Boruc and Butland.
Defenders: This week we saw 19 defenders make the cut for top managers. Interestingly enough, Kolarov (70%) was the only defender with an ownership rate of over 50%. Azpilicueta came in at 40% while Alderweireld was the next most popular pick with 40% ownership followed by Bellerin with 30%, Dann, Souare and Darmian with 20% and Hangeland, Morgan, Clyne, Williams, Mertesacker, Cedric, Cresswell, Skrtel, Fonte, Gabriel, Walker and Reid each with 10%.
Midfielders: When you look at midfielders, the top 10 managers had 20 different picks with several getting only 10% of the vote such as Morrison, Walcott, Mata, Sinclair, Countinho, Silva, Navas, Bolasie, Wanyama, Hazard, Eriksen, Puncheon, Barkley, Matic and Ozil. Payet was the most popular pick with 90% ownership followed by Sanchez at 40%, De Bruyne, Ayew and Cabaye at 30%. On a personal note, this is the most variety I have ever seen for midfielders while doing this piece over the past 3 years. The fact that only one player has an ownership of 50% or higher suggests that the midfield is ever evolving and/or has yet to plant stable and reliable choices.
Forwards: This week, the front line consisted of a 8 picks among the top managers which again seems to indicate that such spots are not yet solidified. Aguero came in with 100% while Vardy was the next popular pick as he received 70%. Ighalo was selected by 40% of the top managers with Pelle receiving 20% and Jerome, Sakho, Lukaku and Martial each receiving 10% a piece.
In summation, the Must-Haves for top managers for Gameweek 8 were not many. They were Cech, Kolarov, Payet, Vardy and Aguero as they all had an ownership rate of 50% or higher.
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Other interesting facts:
Other interesting facts:
– The average score for Gameweek 8 among the top 10 was an insane 123.5 points which is 68.5 points above average for the week. Yes, that’s 68.5 points above the average!
– England dominated the leader board once again as 50% of the top 10 were from England. The remaining three countries were Turkey (currently in 1st), Scotland, Northern Ireland, India and Indonesia.
– The average team value was £102 with £103.3 being the highest team value and £101.1 being the lowest value.
– 19 points separates 1st place from 10th.
– Best of luck in Gameweek 9 and a special birthday shout out to my #1 fan…
Happy Birthday Dad!
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Quick poll: http://strawpoll.me/5672105
I’m surprised to have one of the only 3-5-2s that I’ve seen, is no-one with me??
3-4-3 for me mate, with the odd 3-5-2 thrown in there.
Im having 3 valuable striker.
Untill one of the striker out of form, then maybe i will take the consideration
Now, 3-4-3 all the way
****GP, come take a look****
Hmmm, interesting this CC. Not seen this done before. Sorry to nab your post for another purpose but this could help GP a lot with his Community Team vote. Polls were suggested and agreed as both ideal but also unworkable for a number of reasons. This looks very simple and easy and basically little work.
If he was to post the same link in another comment I assume it’d pick up the same poll and add to it’s results?
It’s ridiculously easy to set up a new one each time (which is why I suggested it for the community team weeks ago!) so it’s a good option. I just don’t know if there’s a limit to how many options there are so that would need looking at.
And yes, I certainly would assume that multiple links would all add to the same poll.
Must have missed that then mate as the only ones I saw suggested were our normal polls which as I say were the ideal solution but unworkable in reality. First time I’ve seen an off-site one like this with a link. This would work great. Sure GP will be all over this if it’s a goer.
I am looking at 433 this GW if Kompany is back.
Can’t ever endorse that Horse, but good luck to you. Who are the 2 mids you’d be benching?
Ritchie away to Man City and Westwood away to Chelsea.
The defence has much better fixtures.
By the way I do think that 352 could well be the way to go.
There are sooo many options in the middle.
Iggy at 5.3 is better than any midfielders at that price.
Exactly, and I got him at 5.1
He’s just always gonna be on my bench.
I’d just ask Foal what he’d do
He is much better at this game than I am Init
While it’s quiet I’d appreciate everyone quickly taking this poll! At the top of comment 55 :thumbup:
Done CC..Cheers
Hi mates. Im really trying to win this month on my mini league.
My wild card is activated.
So my team, for the next GW looks like this:
What you think folks?
Cheers
A monthly prize going Interman? Barkley over Mahrez is a bit too bold for my liking. I’d also go for Bellerin or Monreal over Mert as some people seem to think Gabriel may often play over him. I’d avoid Bournemouth defence in general if on a WC, and would get in someone from Watford instead.
Finally the lack of a Man City mid is very noticeable, but it would take a fair bit of shuffling to get one in, which is why I imagine you don’t have one haha.
agree with CC there about Man City mid & mertesacker, only other option aswell is instead of Puncheon if you can afford him get in Cabaye, he is just class rather than in and out of form with Puncheon plus he is Palace’s penalty taker
If it’s on WC, you definitely need City mid IMO.
I really want to win my mini league..need advice on my current team
De gea(krul)
Alder-ashley william-ward-dawson-richard
Hoolahan-payet-mahrez-sanchez-KDB
Pelle-aguero-vardy
Any suggestion guys?really desperate to win my mini league and my current pts is 384..really need to make a big gaps on my league to nail it..
Casey that is a fantastic team. Ward will be back soon and you’ll be grand.
Your team is perfect mate.
Klopp at the Kop would make things interesting, eh? Hope it happens. http://i.imgur.com/Pw6abGr.jpg
Aguero in Gameweek 8
FPL points: 25
Goals scored: 5
Bonus points: 3
Captained by 688,533 managers
Triple captained by 20,895 managers
Benched by 18,685 managers
Chips used in Gameweek 8
Wildcard: 107,673
All-out attack: 56,163
Triple captain: 54,516
Bench boost: 28,141
Who the shit would bench Agyero at home to Newcastle??
Bench boost chip users perhaps?
Dead teams most likely.
My H2H this week had a team I assumed was dead, as it had Courtois, Wilson and several other 0s, total of 5 getting no minutes you’d know of 2 weeks ago.
Except it had Bench Boost played !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another team managed 19 points on the bench (mainly Gomes) & 19 points on the pitch!
Now you know how the average was 55.
I hope / assume that’s not your team that’s linked there! Interesting choices for capo and vice
And not a transfer made for weeks.
Hey guys please RMT:
Myhill (McCarthy)
Kolarov, Darmian, Davies, Gomez, Targett
Sanchez, KDB, Payet, Mahrez, Westwood
Aguero, Pelle, Vardy
0FT with 0.4M left in the bank.
I already used up one FT to get KDB in, but if you look at my defence isn’t ideal at the moment. I got Gomez and Targett who doesn’t play anymore. Davies might be a risky but so far he looks pretty good. So I was thinking of taking a hit to get rid of Gomez for a decent 4.5m defender? Any good options? Or is this not really worth a hit? I see a lot of people are high on Watford’s d and Martin from Norwich, but Norwich hasn’t kept a clean sheet so far, so I don’t really know why. I guess Watford’s d is ok but they have terrible fixtures coming up. Any thoughts on Galloway?
Hi niloh, a hit for a defender is rarely worth it. Only times I’d consider that would be if you were down to 2 playing defenders or if it was necessary as part of a switch to bring in say Aguero or another attacker who was a must for that week. You’ve got 3 playing and the options suggested don’t improve what you have. Looking at GW9 in isolation the teams most likely but not guaranteed to get a clean sheet are Chelsea (out of range price wise), Man City (covered), Swansea and West Brom (covered). I can see goals in all of the others. Galloway has Man Utd and the Arsenal. From GW11 onwards he could be a great pick. I wouldn’t bother this week personally.