Mark Sutherns​ (aka Mark) continued his recent run of excellent form and was again the highest

scoring manager in our Hall of Fame Top Five for each of the past two gameweeks. Avoiding the
disappointment of Manchester United’s Alexis Sanchez and Eric Bailly, he gained 25 points from
Red Devil’s defensive duo Chris Smalling and goalkeeper David de Gea over the double
gameweek. Mark moved to a season high rank of 10,114, a ninth top 10,000 finish is now within
his grasp.

Career Hall of Fame number one ​Peter Kouwenberg​ (aka My Pretty Pony) achieved his best rank
of the season and, amazingly, his highest rank since Gameweek 1. He finally surpassed the
283,827 mark he managed on the opening day, moving to 283,291. Peter made the best start out
of our Top Five, and it’s incredible to think it’s taken a manager with three top 1,000 finishes in row
until the 34​th​ Gameweek of the season to improve upon his Gameweek 1 rank.

While it most certainly hasn’t been Peter’s season, it definitely has been​ ​Jay Egersdorff​’s. The
current ​Live Hall of Fame​ leader recovered from a disappointing Gameweek 33 to move back into
the top 2,000 overall. Luck was on his side as Burnley’s £4.0m makeweight defender Kevin Long
managed a goal against Leicester in their opening double gameweek fixture. Jay is now 1,937 in
the standings.

Flying under the radar somewhat due to Mark’s recent good form is career HoF number four
Matthew Jones​ ​(aka Numb). Matthew is the third of our Top Five to manage his highest rank of
the season this gameweek, moving to 19,991 overall. Matthew is on target for his eight season in
the top 10,000 a remarkable feat in itself but even more so when you consider he was ranked
2,993,511 in Gameweek 5.

Finally career HoF number two ​Graeme Sumner​ (aka Gregor) scored an impressive 97 points in
Double Gameweek 34. Brighton’s Pascal Groß contributing an unexpected goal in his midweek
encounter with Spurs as part of Graeme’s Bench Boost. The Liverpool fan moves up to 224,715.
It’s been an incredibly disappointing season for Graeme in which he hasn’t come close to matching
last season’s astounding rank of 29 overall.

This article focuses on the moves and strategies employed by ​the five elite managers who grace
the upper echelons of this site’s ​Career Hall of Fame​. Between them these managers have
achieved nine top 1,000 finishes in the past three seasons and have ended up in the top 10,000 a
whopping 37 times over the course of their FPL careers.

To help out I have also deployed Fusen’s ​FPL Statistico​ tool to gain an extra insight into their
thinking.
POINTS & RANK

Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark

GW33 points 37 31 34 36 42
GW34 points 81 97 93 97 102
Total points 1,918 1,932 2,109 2,040 2,063
FPL rank 283,291 224,715 1,937 19,991 10,114
FPL ID 36298 345 175574 97282 370

The graph below shows the ranks of the top five managers over the season so far. The vertical
scale is from rank 1 to 3m. The distance between the ranks corresponds to the number of points
separating them. For instance there are ​282pts between rank 1 and rank 100k ​but only ​162pts
between 100k and 1m​. The graph gives an idea of how difficult it is to move up the ranks as you
near the summit.

Overall the biggest gains were made from Gameweeks 6 to 16. Logic would normally tell us that
the more information you have the better decisions you make, therefore you might expect
Gameweeks 17 to 30 to have seen the biggest improvements. That ranks have either decreased
or slowed their rate of improvement over the latter period, perhaps tells us something about how
tricky this season has been.

However the pattern is breaking; the group has managed 18 green arrows out of 20 in the past
four gameweeks. There’s a belated surge up the rankings despite a generally disappointing Bench
Boost, as the Top Five look to finish the season with a flourish.

Rank 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100k 1m 2m 3m

Points
Difference 0 36 81 132 194 282 444 550 662
to First
CAPTAIN

Ave. (c) As % of
Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark
points score
GW31 (c)
12 12 12 12 12 12 34
Points
GW32 (c)
16 20 20 16 20 18 20
Points
Total (c)
503 469 562 536 500 514 26
Points

Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang became the eleventh player to be handed the armband this
season by our Elite Quintet in Gameweek 33. He managed his side’s opening goal against
Southampton although he was then overshadowed by teammate Danny Welbeck.

Tottenham’s Harry Kane is the most popular captain pick having been chosen 44% of the time
followed by Salah on 21%. However it is the Egyptian who has proven a more reliable armband
holder compared to the erratic Englishman – his average 25 point return more than double Kane’s
11.5 points.

In the graphic below I’ve displayed this information for the five most popular captain picks.
Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku, Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and Chelsea’s Eden
Hazard complete the most popular captain picks. Lukaku has been chosen 14% of the time and
averages 14.3 points as captain, Sterling and Hazard have both been chosen 5% of the time.
Hazard averages 14.5 points, while Sterling averages an impressive 24.9 points.

TRANSFERS – GAMEWEEK 33 & 34

Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark

Lukaku, Kane, Kane, Alli, Kane, Kane, Son,

Players In
Kenedy Albrighton Long Gudmundsson Lingard
Salah, Aubameyang,
Aubameyang, Aubameyang, Aubameyang,
Players Out Aubameyang, Son,
Groß Mkhitaryan Son
Monreal Mkhitaryan

Having been the unanimous captain choice in Gameweek 33, Aubameyang was immediately sold
by each member of the Top Five ahead of Gameweek 34. Either Lukaku or Kane, who also
assumed the armband duties, took his position in their squads.

TRANSFER SUCCESS – GAMEWEEK 33 & 34

Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark Average

Transfers 2 2 3 2 3 2

Points Hits 0 0 4 0 4 2
Immediate Points Gained
1 17 29 12 18 15
from Transfers
Minus Points Hits 1 17 25 12 14 14

Rested for Merseyside Derby, Jay made the bold move to sell Salah in Gameweek 33. We all
know how selling Kane worked out for him, but so far selling Salah hasn’t been disastrous - the
Egyptian Messi returning only 8 points over the past two Gameweeks.

Jay, as I assume all the Top Five are, is playing his Free Hit chip this week. He will no doubt
include Salah as part of that line-up, especially as we are reliably informed he starts. He will be
hoping the short rest period between matches around Liverpool’s Champions League semi final
means Salah could be due another rest in Gameweek 36. In fairness starting four matches in ten
days seems unlikely.

It could be that selling Salah works out for Jay much better than Kanexit did.
TRANSFER SUCCESS – SEASON SO FAR

Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark Average

Total Transfers 50 39 40 34 42 41

Total Points Hits 76 32 36 16 44 41

Total Immediate Points
126 130 111 47 145 112
Gained from Transfers
Minus Points Hits 50 98 75 31 101 71

£ Value GW34 103.6 103.8 103.8 104.3 105.2 104.1

Total Benched Points 167 199 202 123 203 179

Caveats to this table:

● It doesn’t reflect that ​Transfers aren’t made with only one fixture in mind
● It doesn’t reflect when ​Patience in an underperforming player finally pays off
● Points from newly transferred in players left on the bench are included.
● Players transferred in and captained have their points counted double.

Mark is the first Top Five manager this season to get more than 100 immediate transfer points
after deducting the cost of the hits. An unusually difficult season in the transfer market for our Top
Five - an average of 71 points is three times less than the 219 point average for last season’s Top
Five at the same stage.

COMPARING LAST SEASON TO THIS SEASON

16/17 Season 17/18 Season

Total Points 1,942 2,012

FPL Rank 21,688 108,010

Transfers Made 44 41
Immediate Transfer Points
219 71
Minus Hits
Captain Points 475 514

Comparing last season’s Top Five to this season’s Top Five reveals some interesting trends.

The average total points for this season is 70 points up. Yet the higher points total has not
translated into better ranks, in fact the average rank is five times worse than it was at the same
stage last year (108,010 vs 21,688).

The higher points total makes the low immediate transfer points even harder to fathom. Although it
might go some way to explain why Peter, a manager who does not shy away from taking a hit – 76
points so far this season, 92 points at this stage last season – has struggled so much this year.

Peter had an impressive 248 immediate transfer points after hits at the end of Gameweek 34 last
season, this year he’s on 50. It simply hasn’t been a season suited to Peter’s managerial style.
FPL & LIVE HOF BATTLES

Since a season high of 48​th​ overall in Gameweek 16, Jay has slipped back to 148 points behind
first place.

At the top, overall leader ​Bharat Dhody​ had his lead eroded down to 12 points after very
disappointing Double Gameweek. Having invested heavily across defence and midfield on his
Gameweek 32 Wildcard, he was let down by Bailly, Leicester’s Wes Morgan, Chelsea’s Marcos
Alonso and Andreas Christensen at the back, with popular picks Mahrez and Willian failing him in
midfield.

He must have seen this coming though, as he kept his Bench Boost chip in his pocket. Wisely as it
turns out - his bench would have contributed a mere 6 points. I expect he will be Free Hitting like
most this gameweek and will play his Bench Boost chip in Double Gameweek 37.

As expected he transferred in Kane for Aubameyang ahead of the Gameweek 34 deadline, and
joined Jay in transferring in Tottenham’s Deli Alli for Salah in Gameweek 33.

Matt Kearney​ (aka Bøwstring the Carp) suffered his fifth red arrow in the last six gameweeks as
he was unable to avoid the dreaded Scoutcast curse. Matt ​appeared on the popular live
broadcast ahead of Gameweek 34​.

Reacting to a series of injuries in his side, Matt ditched his original plan to Free Hit in Gameweek
34 followed by a Gameweek 36 Wildcard, and instead used his Wildcard in Gameweek 33. He
ended up producing a similar side to Bharat’s (minus the non playing £4.5m third forward!), and
therefore suffered at the feet of largely the same players in Gameweek 34.

With his Free Hit chip now in play, Matt will be looking to kick start a surge back into the top ten
following his slump to 68​th​ overall.

Jay’s closest rivals in the Live Hall of Fame ​Grant Barclay​ (aka Jake Donahue), stopped a run of
three red arrows on the trot with a respectable 97 points in Gameweek 34. In a largely template
side, he had Brighton’s Pascal Groß to thank for contributing the highest individual score. He
moved ahead of Jay in the overall standings by four points, his total of 2,113 putting him in 1,649​th
place.

Mark has moved into second place in the Live HoF, meaning former Hall of Fame number one
Ville Ronka​ ​drops to third. However it’s been back-to-back green arrows for Ville for the first time
since Gameweek 25 as the enigmatic Finn moved up to 5,240 overall.

Ville has only once finished outside the top 5,000 since his first season in 2008/09. His end of
season capitulation last year – he finished with a rank of 21,905 – explains why he isn’t higher in
the HoF.

Interestingly Ville picked no Manchester United players on his Gameweek 33 Wildcard, correctly
anticipating rotation amongst their ranks. After playing his Bench Boost chip last week, I expect
Ville will be Free Hitting this week and probably playing his Triple Captain chip in Double
Gameweek 37.

Matthew’s improved performance recently sees him move back into the Live Hall of Fame top five.
He has exactly the same HoF rating – 97.09 – as fourth placed Ville.
TEMPLATE – GW34
Players in ​Bold​ are in 3 teams or more

De Gea, Ryan
Lowton, Alonso, Tarkowski, Morgan, ​Dunk
Salah, Mahrez, Willian, ​Son, Kenedy
Kane, Lukaku, Vardy / Barnes

AVERAGE COST PER PLAYER

*based on GW32 wildcard prices (except for Salah!)

Goalkeeper - £5.2m
Defender - £5.1m
Midfielder - £7.4m
Forward - £9.6m

In The Bank (ITB) - £0.2m

PLAYERS – GW34

Players in 5 Teams Mahrez, Willian, Lowton, De Gea

Players in 4 Teams Kane, Lukaku, Salah, Alonso, Tarkowski, Morgan, Ryan

Players in ​Bold​ are Magic Beans - Attacking players £6m and under

Manager Players in 3 Teams Players in 2 Teams Players in 1 Team

Peter Vardy, ​Barnes Son, Kenedy Bailly

Graeme Barnes Dunk Groß, Albrighton

Jay Barnes Son, Kenedy Alli,​ Kenedy​, Cedric, Long

Matic, Gudmundsson,
Matthew Vardy Dunk
Christensen, McCarthy
Austin​, Arnautovic,
Mark Vardy Lingard​, Smalling,
Maguire

FORMATION

Manager Peter Graeme Jay Matthew Mark

GW33 3-4-3 3-4-3 3-4-3 3-4-3 3-4-3

GW34 5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3

There were no automatic substitutions that caused formation changes in Gameweek 33. Bench
Boost was played across the board in Gameweek 34, hence the unusual 5-5-3 formation.

In Gameweek 33 the fantasy football favourite 3-4-3 was the most popular formation as it has been
for most of the season, having been chosen 45% of the time. 3-5-2 is the second most popular
set-up this season and has been used 28% of the time.

Curiously Jay, who ​espoused the benefits of 3-5-2 last season​, has only used the formation
nine times, compared to the 20 times he’s used 3-4-3.
FREE HIT

The Free Hit chip is now in play and I imagine most of the Top Five will be posting similar teams.

Mark has confirmed his FH side​: Butland, 3.9, Baines, Bellerin, Milner/VvD, Klavan, Long, KDB,
Sterling, Shaqiri, Ozil, Salah, Jesus, Laca, 4.5

Salah is going to be his captain.

This only differs slightly from this week’s ​Scoutpicks​ with Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil in place of Crystal
Palace’s Wilfried Zaha.