Famous People Playing FPL – GW18 Review
A weekly round-up of how footballers, TV personalities, comedian and generally famous people are doing at FPL this season.
The turbulence of Gameweek 18 brought huge amounts of postponements, panic and transfers to the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) world. Only four of the ten scheduled matches took place, following on from the three cancellations of Gameweek 17 just a few days prior.
Yet it wasn’t bad news for all of FPL. Southampton defender Jack Stephens scored 92 points and ranked 760th amongst the near-nine million managers, partly due to an inspired eight-point hit that purchased both Gabriel Martinelli (15 points) and Riyad Mahrez (24 as captain). He was able to field ten men, all of whom delivered a return except for Mason Mount.
However, his lack of Mohamed Salah means Stephens’ overall rank nears three million. Sophy Ridge, on the other hand, continues to excel at FPL. The Sky News presenter ranks 2,634th this season and has remained in the top 5k since Gameweek 9. Her ‘Sheffield Thursday’ side totalled 68, aided by the 18-point haul of Joao Cancelo as well as returns for Marcos Alonso (9), Raphinha (7) and new signing Emile Smith Rowe (6).
Over at Premier League Productions, both Kelly Somers and Olivia Buzaglo scored 61 points. Whereas Olivia took a successful eight-point hit to bring in Mount, Martinelli and Alexandre Lacazette, out went goal scorer Smith Rowe. Both benefitted from the returns of Cancelo, Reece James, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota, with Kelly able to field 11 players (below).
Gameweek 18 was a great chance to justify using a transfer on the very cheapest assets – players who would normally fill the bench but could at least bring appearance points here, in such a chaotic time. Helping enable her five-man midfield commitment, Joe Gelhardt went one better and nabbed an assist for Kelly.
Tennis star Daniil Medvedev activated his Free Hit chip and scored 67 points, although he may be disappointed that only James (6), Lacazette (5) and Gelhardt (4) delivered points from those new players that weren’t already in his squad. He is now up to 140k in the world.
Using a chip was certainly one way to approach a four-fixture Gameweek and – although FPL experts advised against using it here because of the many Blank and Double Gameweeks to come – it really did depend on your own individual team. If eight or nine could be fielded, that felt like the standard. But just four or five? Perhaps this was the optimum time to Free Hit.
Many others felt it was best to attack the situation with points hits, especially if they helped restructure the team for long-term health. Birmingham City defender Harlee Dean continued his tendency to splash out by spending 20 on six transfers, while the more conservative Lynsey Hooper spent 12 points on Lacazette, Mount, Foden and Tyrone Mings. Unfortunately for the broadcaster, her purchased cavalry only brought in eight of their own.
