Double Gameweek 37 was a tumultuous week for our Top Five career Hall of Fame (HoF)

managers. FPL legend Ville Ronka is on the verge of his worst season ever, currently ranked at
16,445 he is 23 points outside the top 10,000. Now in his ninth season of FPL, the enigmatic Finn
has never finished lower than 4,668.

Conversely Peter Kouwenberg (aka MyPrettyPony) is close to having his best FPL season to
date. Almost certainly guaranteed a third top 1,000 finish in a row, he sits at 134 in the FPL
standings after Gameweek 37 only five behind last seasons placing of 129, his best in 10 years
of playing fantasy football.

This article focuses on the moves and strategies employed by the five elite managers who grace
the upper echelons of the career Hall of Fame. Members can see the latest top five via our Live
Hall of Fame update.

To help out I have also deployed Fusens FPL Statistico tool to gain an extra insight into their
thinking.

Before we look at their teams in more detail, here's why they are the best FPL managers:

Lowest rank in the last three seasons for any of the top five 4,324
Highest rank in the last three seasons for any of the top five 49

POINTS & RANK

Manager Ville Marlen Peter Steve David

GW37 points 136 160 180 183 177
Bench Boost 12 22 17 20 17
In the bank 0.0 1.1 0.2 0.7 0.0

Ville was the only Top Five manager to play his wildcard in Gameweek 36 and had 14 Double
Gameweek players. Yet playing his wildcard so late gave him no benefit as he got not only the
lowest Bench Boost total but also the lowest score this week. Sticking with Chelseas Diego Costa
over Tottenhams Harry Kane proving detrimental to his team.

Combining the points gained from the Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips both Marlen Rattiner
and David Meechan top-score with 31. David earned 14 extra points from his triple captain chip by
choosing Arsenals Alexis Sanchez in Double Gameweek 36 compared to the extra 9 points
Marlen received from Manchester Citys Sergio Aguero back in Double Gameweek 27.

Name & HoF FPL ID Point after FPL rank Best FPL rank Worst FPL rank
rank GW37 GW37 16/17* 16/17*
Ville #1 30327 2,196 16,445 8,637 (GW29) 135,324 (GW19)
Marlen #2 60081 2,159 34,246 13,561 (GW20) 101,648 (GW27)
Peter #3 6746 2,359 134 134 (GW37) 243,702 (GW07)
Steve #4 3911 2,212 11,798 11,798 (GW37) 845,911 (GW17)
David #5 45755 2,270 2,778 2,433 (GW32) 73,858 (GW09)
*from GW6 onwards

Only David of this quintet qualified for the cup and he went out in Gameweek 19. All have played
their final Wildcards, Triple Captain and Bench Boost chips, and three have also played their AOA
chip.

In addition to Peter, Steve Poulsom achieved a season high FPL rank. His super-charged end of
season surge has seen him overtake both Ville and Marlen. This is a manager who was ranked at
845,911 in Gameweek 17 and now finds himself on the brink of the top 10,000. Remarkable.
The graph above shows the ranks of the Top Five managers over the 37 Gameweeks so far. The
vertical scale is from rank 1 to 1M. The distance between the ranks corresponds to the number of
points separating them. For instance there are 250pts between rank 1 and rank 10,000, and
357pts between 10,000 and 1M. The graph gives an idea of how difficult it is to move up the ranks
as you near the summit.

CAPTAIN

Sanchez was once again the popular captain choice.

Over the season he has been picked as captain or triple captain 31% of the time, his 54 point
return this week boosting his season average to 19.2pts when chosen. Manchester Citys Sergio
Aguero follows in popularity having been handed the armband 21% of the time, averaging 15.9pts
as captain or triple captain, with Evertons Romelu Lukaku chosen 11% of the time averaging a
mighty 20.7pts. Lukakus average is even more impressive given that it isnt enhanced by a triple
captain chip or double gameweek.
In the graphic below Ive displayed this information for the five most popular captain picks.

Overall the Top Five have known when to put the armband on Lukaku, he has handsomely repaid
the faith placed in him when chosen as captain. You could argue that the trolls in this graphic are
Tottenhams Harry Kane and Uniteds Ibrahimovic. They have not been explosive choices on the
few occasions that they have been trusted with the armband, averaging 11.2 and 13.2 points
respectively.

However the graphic would look fairly different had Kane been chosen as captain instead of
Sanchez this week. Although Sanchez was the universal choice with our Top Five, and favoured by
21% to Kanes 4% in the captain poll, overall FPL leader Uwais Ahmed was bold enough to
captain the golden boot chasing Spurs man.

CAPTAIN POINTS

Ave. (c) As % of
Manager Ville Marlen Peter Steve David
points score
GW (c)
54 54 54 54 54 54 33
Points
Total (c)
567 555 623 541 540 565 25
Points

Peter remains the best performing manager out of the Top Five in his ability to select the right
captain. His 623 points is the top score in this metric by more than 50 points. It is no surprise that
he is also the highest ranked FPL manager of the five.

To help you make your crucial captain decision be sure to read YMAs Form and Fixture analysis
together with the Captain Sensible articles.

TRANSFERS GW37

Manager Ville Marlen Peter Steve David

Jesus Jesus Jesus
Players In Brunt Gibbs
Kompany Albrighton King
Lukaku Benteke Barnes
Players Out Gabriel Gabriel
Gibson Townsend Hazard
TRANSFER SUCCESS

Manager Ville Marlen Peter Steve David Average

GW37 Transfers 1 2 1 2 2 2
GW37 Points Hits 0 4 0 4 4 2
GW37 Immediate Points
3 24 6 14 22 14
Gained from Transfers
Minus Points Hits 3 20 6 10 18 11

Manchester Citys Gabriel Jesus was the popular transfer ahead of the double gameweek. His 19
point total rewarding the faith of our elite quintet.

The boldest move this week belonged to David, who sold double gameweek player Eden Hazard
for single gameweek player Josh King. He was absolutely right to do so with King outscoring
Hazard by 9 points to 5 despite only playing once.

Name Ville Marlen Peter Steve David Average

Total Transfers 36 49 58 52 49 49
Total Points Hits 8 60 96 72 60 59
Total Immediate Points
194 316 349 364 294 303
Gained from Transfers
Minus Points Hits 186 256 253 292 234 244
Value (GW37) 102.6 103.6 108.4 105.8 105.3 105.1
Total Benched Points 319 211 288 276 219 263

Over the course of the season Steve has mustered more immediate transfer points minus hits than
any of his fellow bosses at the HoFs top table. His surge up the FPL standings helped by some
shrewd moves in the transfer market.

Immediate transfer success is not in itself proof of overall success but simply one part of a
complex picture. Steve for instance is 39 points ahead of Peter in this metric, however he is 147
points behind overall.

One obvious result of making more transfers is an increase in Team Value. Not surprising that
Peter has the most valuable squad.

FORMATION

Manager Ville Marlen Peter Steve David

GW
5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3 5-5-3
Formation
Season
3-4-3 3-4-3 3-4-3 3-4-3 3-5-2
Formation
No. of Times
28 30 23 16 20
Chosen
Ave. Points
58.7 57.6 61.5 53.7 61.4
Scored

The unusual Bench Boosting formation of 5-5-3 was the most popular for Double Gameweek 37.

Over the season Ville and Marlen have been strong advocates of 3-4-3, Marlen opting for the
formation 30 times.

Peter, favouring 3-4-3, has the highest average points with 61.5. He narrowly pips David by 0.1
points, David averages 61.4 points with his favoured 3-5-2.

However 3-5-2 has been the most successful formation for Peter, the seven times he has chosen
or defaulted to 3-5-2 he has averaged 69 points.

3-4-3 has been favoured 57% of the time by the career HoF Top Five, with 3-5-2 second with 22%.
4-4-2 is the third most popular on 9%.
TEMPLATE GW37
Players in Bold are in 3 teams or more

Cech, Pickford / Caballero

Yoshida, Stephens, Holgate, (Alonso, Kon)
Sanchez, Eriksen, Alli, San / King / Hazard / Zaha
Jesus, Kane, Costa

PLAYERS GW37

Players in 5 teams Sanchez, Jesus

Players in 4 teams Eriksen, Alli, Yoshida, Stephens, Cech
Players in 3 teams Kane, Costa, Holgate, Pickford, Caballero
Attacking players under 6m King x2, Zaha x2, Albrighton, Can, Fletcher

With twelve players now in over 50% of the teams there is a consistency to the template.

In the sub 6.0 category Bournemouths Josh King continues to offer good value for Peter,
purchased for 5.4 back in Gameweek 28. Crystal Palaces Wilfried Zaha returned a welcome 8
points from his single fixture in Gameweek 37 only a point less than King.

There has been a significant shifting of funds from Defenders to Attackers in recent weeks. The
once universally popular Marcos Alonso is now found in only two teams.

So far only Marlen and Steve have a made transfer ahead of Sundays 2pm deadline. Ville and
David have the option of using their All Out Attack chip should they desire.

Will Ville make up the 23 point gap to the top 10,000? Will Peter bridge the seven point gap to the
top 100?

Its time for the final roll of the dice. Best of luck to all.