Famous People Playing FPL – GW9 Review
A weekly round-up of how comedians, actors, TV stars and generally famous people are doing at FPL, including footballers.
Following last week’s mention of Sophy Ridge’s successful Gameweek 8 Wildcard deployment taking her up to the lofty heights of a 12,606 ranking, the Sky News presenter has followed that with a phenomenal 115 points that now sees her in the world’s top 2k.
Like many, her Jamie Vardy for Romelu Lukaku transfer didn’t go to plan this time, but her selection of Phil Foden (18), Ben Chilwell (12), Trent Alexander-Arnold (10) and Tino Livramento (9) joined the mass captaincy of Mohamed Salah (48) to shoot her up the global ranks.
Former JLS member and current DJ Marvin Humes also overcame the Vardy for Lukaku setback to record a strong week. Ilkay Gundogan (10) and Hwang Hee-chan (8) added some x-factor to his side, with Captain Salah and Alexander-Arnold ensuring the Hit List presenter has an FPL team worthy of that name.
However, not everyone captained Salah for his trip to Old Trafford. Sam Matterface went with Harry Kane, Daniil Medvedev fell for the Kai Havertz idea, Paul Collingwood selected Kevin De Bruyne and Stuart Broad chose Vardy.
Jon Richardson also opted for Havertz and, although Reece James (13) and differential Rodrigo (8) did well for him, he was beaten by ‘Comedians Playing FPL’ co-host Matt Forde for the second week in a row. Forde has now overtaken another inactive team to reach the nose-bleed heights of 24th in their 28-team mini league.
Producer Danny Carr and comedian Chris McCausland scored highest in that league this week with 91 points, although Carr had the agony of leaving Foden’s haul on the bench which would’ve taken him beyond 100. McCausland removed Michail Antonio before his winner against Spurs but at least benefitted from Aaron Cresswell’s assist, clean sheet and three bonus points.
Patrick Bamford had a howler. The transfer and captaincy of Odsonne Edouard didn’t bring a goal against Newcastle so vice-captain Salah was the only player not to blank. He tallied 45 points.
James Tarkowski replaced Diogo Jota (11) for a hit and amassed a paltry 19 points, as Emiliano Martinez scored 24 despite making a dual substitution. Charlie Austin at least has Salah, although Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was his captaincy choice. He’d have tallied 49 points, were it not for the 20-point hit from making six transfers.
Some footballers had a great weekend, though. Micah Richards brought in 106 points thanks to Captain Salah, Emile Smith Rowe (13), Alexander-Arnold and Livramento. AC Me Rollin’ – the team of Andy Carroll – scored 102. Two of his three transfers flopped but the third was hat-trick hero Mason Mount (24). Carroll lost nothing by captaining Mount over Salah, joined by Jota’s 11. Paddy McNair and James Justin also recorded triple-digit points.
Justin’s Leicester team mate Hamza Choudhury will have mixed feelings about his Gameweek 9 score of 110. He took an eight-point hit but new signing Ben Chilwell was captained in time for his third goal from three games. He also had both Foden and Mount. His brilliant score could have been better had he captained Salah over Chilwell, which would have put him on 122.
Norwich’s Dimitris Giannoulis did intend to have Romelu Lukaku be captain against himself, until the Belgian’s midweek injury changed plans.
