Here’s our fantasy premier league transfer tips GW17 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 GW17 – 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 16 review

A good gameweek for the 10 managers with 7 getting a green arrow and 3 a red arrow giving a healthy overall rank improvement.

The average score of the managers in GW16 was 64 after taking points deductions for extra transfers into account. That’s 10 points and 19% better than the game average of 54. High score of the 10 was 76. The low score was 57.

The average overall rank of the top 10 FPL managers is 387k. That’s improved by 40k from last week. The best overall rank is 71k (946 pts) and the lowest 1,045k (860 pts). A difference 86 points. That translates to 11k per point. A far smaller gap than a few weeks ago.

The average total points are 908

The average team value is £103.8m.

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

Soyuncu is in 10 of the FPL managers teams

Alexander Arnold and Lundstram are in 9 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Rico is in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Pope and Tomori are in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

M Kelly, Button and Robertson are in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

McGovern is in 3 of the 10 managers teams

Goalkeeper/Defence by team

Liverpool GK/Defs are represented 14 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Sheffield is represented 11 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Leicester is represented 10 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Bournemouth are represented 6 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Chelsea, Brighton and Burnley are represented 5 times in the 10 managers teams

C Palace are represented 4 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Norwich are represented 3 times in the 10 FPL managers teams

Midfielders

Mane is in 8 of the FPL managers teams

Son and De Bruyne are in 7 the 10 FPL managers teams

Dendoncker and Pulisic are in 6 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Mount is in 5 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Maddison is in 4 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Dele Alli is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Forwards

Vardy is in 10 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Jimenez is in 7 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Abraham is in 4 of the 10 managers teams

Ings is in 3 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Connolly is in 2 of the 10 FPL managers teams

Gameweek 16 captain choice

9 of the 10 FPL managers went with Vardy

1 of the 10 FPL managers went with Son

The FFGeek poll for the GW16 captain choice was 49% Vardy, 17% Mane and 6% Alli

FFGeek contributors in the same article were 53% Vardy, 21% Salah and 16% Mane

Formations

9 managers went 3-4-3

1 managers went 3-5-2

Wildcards and Chips

None of the managers used their wildcard this week. 6 have now used the wildcard in total and none have used a chip.

Transfers

8 of the managers made transfers and 2 carried over a free transfer. No managers took a points deduction for an extra transfer

Transfers in

Alli and Martin Kelly were transferred in 3 times

Son was transferred in twice

No one else was transferred in more than once

Transfers out

Tomori was transferred out twice

No one else was transferred out more than once

The top 10k overall rank vs the 10 FPL managers

Unfortunately the excellent site FPL discovery isn’t going this season. However the livefpl.net does a version which isn’t as extensive but is still very helpful. Live FPL is a must view though for live FPL ranks and live league ranks and I’d recommend anyone to use it on match days.

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

Player Top 10k 10 top FPL 10 top FPL – top 10k Button 33 40 7 Pope 33 50 17 Lundstram 90 90 0 Kelly 52 40 -12 Alexander Arnold 49 90 41 Robertson 25 40 15 Rico 35 60 25 Soyuncu 52 100 48 Tomori 26 50 24 De Bruyne 76 70 -6 Mount 31 50 19 Mane 91 80 -11 Maddison 50 40 -10 Pulisic 19 60 41 Son 36 70 34 Dendoncker 16 60 44 Abraham 57 40 -17 Vardy 97 100 3 Jimenez 36 70 34 Ings 26 30 4 Connolly 4 20 16

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.

Liverpool defence – Alexander Arnold

Leicester defence – Soyuncu

Sheffield defence – Lundstram

Mane

Son

De Bruyne

Jimenez

Vardy

That’s 8 players. That leaves 7 difference makers/bench warmers for your FPL team.

One managers team

This is the leading scorer’s team (76 points) for this week and the manager who’s 2nd in overall rank out of the 10 managers (95k OR).

He has 7 of the 8 template players mentioned above. This manager doesn’t have De Bruyne and his template replacement is Maddison.

His bench players are the Rico, Dendoncker and Button. That leaves him 4 difference makers in Mount, Robertson, Ryan and Rashford.

The template replacement player in Maddison as well as his difference makers in Rashford and Robertson were the reasons for his success

Team value is high at £105.2m. His last 3 seasons overall ranks are 4k, 1k and 6k.

His transfer in was Son for Martial and Rashford for Aubameyang.

Here’s his team:









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. This week it is at £104.8m

That’s it. Hope you found it useful

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 an accompanying spreadsheet so you can drill down further. Currently 881 points 75k overall rank

You also get:

Weekly podcasts with the Geek and the other contributors

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

NEW Weekly FFGeek contributor imaginary wildcard articles

$2 and $3 tiers per calendar month. No commitment beyond 1 month

Other posts

GW17 fixture ease schedule

FFGeek league codes:

fantasy premier league: fnqq66

Sky Sports fantasy football: fantasyfootball.skysports.com/leagues/join with PIN 8426114

Telegraph fantasy football European Super League: League PIN: 8186902 League Passcode: 2113

Sun Dream Team:

Classic League PIN: SGDKX9Y3

Social Media

Follow FFGeek on twitter and facebook and instagram for article updates and news