Since the last international break in October, elite FPL managers have sought to sell assets from West Ham and Manchester United, despite the teams’ contrasting fortunes.
By analysing the movements of a group of 1,000 managers with multiple top-10,000 finishes to their names, we can find out what the best of the best do to prepare their sides.
Since gameweek seven, the last gameweek before the previous international break, these are the players who have fallen out of favour with our group.
Hammers to fall
West Ham are flying high in third after four consecutive wins, including triumphs over Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool, but not all their players are soaring in terms of FPL popularity.
Not among our top managers at least – since GW7 Michail Antonio and Said Benrahma have seen elite ownership drops of 96 and 386 respectively among our 1,000-strong sample.
Benrahma was owned by 738 of our managers in GW3 after two goals and two assists from midfield in the first two gameweeks of the season.
Since then he has provided just one goal and one assist, and was owned by just 107 of our managers in GW11.
Similarly priced midfielders such as Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals have taken over as the most effective midfielders at West Ham, from an FPL perspective at least.
Antonio meanwhile could not have hoped for a better start to the season, notching four goals and four assists in the first three gameweeks.
The £8.2m forward remains the top ranked forward for both Threat and Creativity, but has managed just two goals in his last seven appearances.
Antonio’s elite ownership peaked at 96.5 per cent in GW4 and slid to 78.2 per cent by GW11 – still a hefty backing, but one that is certainly declining.
West Ham face Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in their next six games – will these two be the only Hammers to fall?
Shaw no more
From a team that can’t stop winning to another that seemingly can’t find a way to start, Luke Shaw and Mason Greenwood are two of the biggest fallers among our sample since GW7.
Shaw’s popularity has dropped among the elite more than any other player since GW1, the England left-back going from an ownership of 909 of our top bosses in GW1 to just 19 in GW11.
Shaw was still backed by more than 300 of our bosses in GW7, but his and United’s recent form appears to have put the final nail in his ownership coffin.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have won one and lost three of their last four, losing 5-0 to Liverpool, 4-2 to Leicester and 2-0 to Manchester City.
Unsurprisingly, Shaw has failed to score many FPL points in that time, adding just five in four games.
His team-mate Greenwood has similarly struggled – having scored three goals in the first three league games of the season, the young forward has managed just one goal since.
Owned by 231 of our top manager sample in GW7, that number is now just eight.
United do have a run of six fixtures out of seven ranked just two out of five on the FPL’s difficulty rating, but how many of our elite bosses will stick around to see if things get better?
