FPL tips: Why the game’s top bosses are opting for Ings and letting Lundstram go

When it comes to buying and selling in the Fantasy Premier League transfer market, nobody knows better than the elite managers – or do they?

By analysing a sample of more than 250 managers with five or more top 10,000 finishes to their name, we can get some useful insights in to the actions of the very best bosses.

As the 2019/20 season reaches its business end, the cream of the crop are making big decisions – should you copy them?

The locks

As Liverpool close in on their first Premier League title ever, the FPL elite have closed in on complete ownership of Mohamed Salah (96.5%) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (94.5%).

Salah is the most popular pick among this group, having scored eight goals and three FPL assists in his last 10 outings.

Those numbers mean the Egyptian is averaging nine points a game in his last 10 matches – from an ownership of 5.9% among the elite in GW18, he’s a shoo-in for them nowadays.

Salah’s teammate Alexander-Arnold meanwhile has added clean sheets to his assist threat, which might explain why he is a must-have for this crop of bosses – the right-back only had three clean sheets by gameweek 19, but has earned seven since then.

TAA always contributes, having registered either a clean sheet, goal or assist in each of his last nine games, while he is as popular with the elite as he has been all season.

With six games in a row ranked two or three on the FPL’s Fixture Difficulty Ranking system (FDR), now is the time to do as the FPL geniuses are doing and invest in these Reds.

Saints on song

Leading the rest of the movers and shakers in the FPL elite’s favoured squad is Danny Ings, whose scoring exploits have earned him a place at the top table.

Ings replaces Vardy in the top bosses’ average squad, his 70.6% ownership among them pipping the 69.2% of the Leicester man.

Despite three games without a goal, these managers are sticking by Ings, who saw his overall ownership drop for the first time since GW12 this week – with five FDR two games in a row coming up, it might be worth keeping the faith a while longer.

Ings’ Southampton colleague and goalkeeper Alex McCarthy meanwhile only got his first league minutes of the season in GW11, but with three clean sheets in his last seven games – and a price tag of £4.4m – he has risen to 37.7% among the cream of the crop.

Owned by just 3.4% overall, that run of winnable fixtures for the Saints should be enough to convince general managers to follow the best.

Out of favour

Sheffield United sensation John Lundstram has been the darling of the FPL elite for quite some time, but it seems that time is coming to an end.

The bargain defender put in mammoth performances earlier in the season and saw his price rise from £4m to £5.2m, but 19 points in eight gameweeks has seen his top ownership fall below 90% for the first time since GW10.

The Blades are also due a blank gameweek in GW28, but Lundstram’s overall ownership is yet to fall in the same way with the general public – so dropping the defender might be the best course of action.

Elsewhere Jamie Vardy has gone seven gameweeks without a goal since his effort against Manchester City in December, having enjoyed an eight-game scoring streak earlier in the season.

With Wolves and Manchester City to come in Leicester’s next two gameweeks, the Englishman’s elite ownership has dropped from 92% to 69.2% in one gameweek.

Regular managers might be tempted to drop him too – though do note than six games of either two or three are to follow those two tough ties.

And last but not least, the cream of the crop had cherry picked their own Cherry in Diego Rico, who had a run of assists and clean sheets earlier in the season that managers found irresistable at just £4.0m.

Rico has since managed just 10 FPL points in his last eight games, with no clean sheet in that time.

Bournemouth’s next FDR two game is as far away as April, so it’s little surprise his elite ownership has torpedoed from 65.4% to 46%.