The top 50 FPL managers are top 50 because they have skills, luck and bravery. 64 points separated the champion and the 50th placed manager. I decided to find out some facts about them which I am sure many FPL managers would be interested in. Remember to take these findings with a pinch of salt as it is more important to have your own style and have fun playing the game.

Only the top 50 managers were analysed as I collected the data manually and do not have the time to collect and compute more data. I will be presenting my findings in 3 categories.

General Start of Season Performance Key Milestones Average Overall Rank Number of Managers Who Reached Milestones Transfers Cost

Experience Prior To This Season

Use of FPL Chips

Another area that I will touch is their preferences for DGW/SGW players during the DGWs. This is of particular interest to my friend, @barCOLEYna. As this would need time to compile the required data, I will write a separate article next time.

General

Start of Season Performance

In the first 7 gameweeks, 29 of them had an overall rank (not gameweek rank) of more than 1 million at least once. From GW3 to GW7, 13 managers were still ranked outside the top 1 million at least once. During GW5-GW7, 6 managers were ranked lower than 1 million. All 50 managers did not have a rank lower than 1 million after GW7, with the last manager at 1,148,848th in GW7. I chose 1 million because I want to be generous and show that even with a bad start, one can still finish well at the end of the season. Of course, the chances of finishing in top 50 are much lower if you started badly. Using the same data, it also showed that FPL managers need to catch up quickly (none of them had an overall rank > 1million after GW7) to climb to the very top.

Key Milestones

Average Overall Rank

As mentioned earlier, all 50 managers stayed in the top 1 million overall rank from GW8 onwards. In fact, many of them were in much better ranks. This is reflected in their average overall rank when it fell to below 100k for the first time in GW8. We can tell that many of them were improving fast from the average ranks result in the first 7 weeks.

The next two milestones for them were in GW18 and GW30 when their average rank was below 10k and 1k respectively. GW35 was when their average rank fell below 100.

The average overall rank trend also showed their average rank improved every week except for GW12, GW16 and GW17.

Number of Managers Who Reached Milestones

Almost all the managers reached the milestone of top 1 million from GW6 onwards.

Majority of the managers reached this top 100k milestone from GW8.

Most of the managers reached the top 10k milestone from GW18. But we can also see that between GW15 to GW26, some of the managers drifted out of the top 10k. It was only from GW31 onwards that all of them stayed in the top 10k.

Not surprising, the top 1k was harder and it was only from GW30 that most of them managed to reach this milestone. All of them were in the top 1k by GW33.

This was the most important milestone before the top 50. As seen from the chart, most of them only got there in GW37. In fact, less than half of them were in the top 100 before GW33.

Transfers Cost

The average transfers cost was 27 points and only 1 manager did not incur any transfer cost for the whole season. The highest transfers cost was 64. I personally don’t mind taking hits and the data from the top 50 showed that it’s okay to take point hits.

Experience Prior To This Season

Experience (average 4.24 years)

9 years: 3

8 years: 3

7 years: 4

6 years: 7

5 years: 6

4 years: 7

3 years: 5

2 years: 6

1 year: 6

First season: 3

The histories of the top 50 give hope to all looking to achieve a top 50 ranking next season. Most of this year’s top 50 did not have impressive histories and the champion was even in his first season. Based on their histories and more recent performances, I think the following guys are going to do well for next season.

Robert Cook (10th this season)

Ben Whibley (13th this season)

Runar Anderson (24th this season)

Gintaras Stankus (25th this season)

Nishant Shakya (31st this season)

Neil Murray (40th this season)

Fin Fagan (41st this season)

Alistair Swales (45th this season)

Steve Poulsom (49th this season)

Conclusion

You don’t need to have a lot of experience to get into top 50 but it would be good if you have at least 4 years of experience which was the median.

Use of FPL Chips

All Out Attack

GW8 and GW38 were the most popular gameweeks for AOA

Bench Boost

15 managers used in GW34, 22 managers used in GW37

The managers who used Bench Boost in GW34 did better generally with them getting an average of 160.13 points compared to 105.23 points for those who used in GW37.

Triple Captain

Everyone used it during GW33 to GW37 except for 1 manager who used it in GW4

28 managers used it in GW34 while 16 used it in GW37

Wildcard

Most of them used their first wildcard in GW3 with the next popular week as GW19 which was the last GW to use it

Most of them used the 2nd wildcard in GW33 and GW36

All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain

Highest combined GW score using TC, BB and AOA = 387

Highest combined GW score using TC, BB and AOA (after hits) = 368

Lowest combined GW score using TC, BB and AOA = 188 (did not use AOA)

Lowest combined GW score using TC, BB and AOA (after hits) = 188 (did not use AOA)

Average combined GW score using TC, BB and AOA = 311.22

Average transfer cost when using TC, BB and AOA = 6.56

2nd Wildcard, Triple Captain and Bench Boost

All of them used a chip in DGW34

As expected most of them used their Bench Boost and Triple Captain during the big DGW34 and DGW37

What’s interesting here is that more managers used their wildcard in GW33 than in GW36 but more managers used their bench in GW37 than in GW34. This could mean that some of the managers don’t just use their wildcard to prepare for Bench Boost in the following week.

Comparing the strategy of BB (GW34) with TC (GW37) vs TC (GW34) with BB (GW37)

TC (GW34) and BB (GW37) was more popular 19 managers chose this (I used this approach too) 13 managers chose the other option (I guess more managers outside top 50 choose this) The other 18 managers used other combination for their BB and TC



Results

BB (GW34) & TC (GW37) TC (GW34) & BB (GW37) Average Team Score 262.15 264.16 Average Team Score (After hits) 254.15 259.11 Highest Team Score 292 296 Highest Team Score (After hits) 280 292 Lowest Team Score 188 240 Lowest Team Score (After hits) 188 228 Average BB & TC Points Gained 38.08 46.11 Average BB & TC Points Gained (After hits) 30.08 41.05 Highest BB & TC Points Gained 49 62 Lowest BB & TC Points Gained 23 35 Highest BB & TC Points Gained (After hits) 49 58 Lowest BB & TC Points Gained (After hits) 11 30

In terms of Average Team Score, both strategies are fairly even with TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) slightly better

TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) also has the better Highest Team Score and Lowest Team Score The difference was big for the Lowest Team Score (53 points before hits and 40 points after hits)



In terms of Average BB and TC Points Gained, TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) did better again, more significant than the Team Score results 8 points better before hits 11 points better after hits

In terms of Individual BB and TC Points Gained, TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) got more points again, especially the Lowest BB and TC Points Gained (after hits)

Why is that?

The main reason was that the ALL Triple Captain in GW34 scored 25 or 26 points and they did not do too badly for their Bench Boost too

Triple Captain in GW34 scored 25 or 26 points and they did not do too badly for their Bench Boost too My personal opinion is that this DOES NOT prove that TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) was the “right” choice

prove that TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) was the “right” choice It did get the higher scores in the table above when we compare just GW34 and GW37, whether if it’s team score or extra points from the chips

I feel both options were equally valid

I think a better way to compare the outcome of the two groups is to compare their total team points from GW34 to end of season.

This is supported by the fact that both groups got the same average of 413 points from GW34 to GW38 as seen in the charts below

Interesting Facts

Out of the 32 managers who used either TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) or BB(GW34)&TC(GW37), only 2 did badly with their Triple Captain selection

Just 10% of the managers who chose TC(GW34)&BB(GW37) selected Aguero in GW34 and 90% selected Sanchez I selected Aguero



All Chips (All 50 Managers)

The champion did not use his first wildcard. The 27th and 38th managers also did not use their first wildcard. Two other managers did not use their All Out Attack chip.