The Elite XI: Team Reveal feature allows Fix Premium Plus members exclusive access to the greatest Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers. The combined Elite XI boasts an extraordinary 60 top 5k finishes and 80 top 10k finishes. Offering real-time tracking data, push notifications and detailed insight into manager’s strategies, the Elite XI is unlike any other team reveal.
This weekly article will take you deep into the mindset of the world’s best FPL managers, allowing you to match your playing style to individual members of the Elite XI and use their incredible insight to help inform your own FPL decisions.
This week we talked to Paul Marshman, another FPL veteran who has been playing the game since 2006. The record of this manager is quite astonishing. Not only does he boast an unbelievable eight top 5k finishes, but over half of those were actually top 1k finishes! In fact, Paul currently holds the record for the manager with the highest number of 1k finishes; of them all, his best overall rank was 196th in the 2010/11 season.
Paul is one of the more enigmatic members of the Elite XI and, as his nickname (Mr Black) suggests, it can be difficult to get a strong sense of this elusive manager’s playing style. Paul is not a content creator nor does he use social media, and this makes it very difficult to closely map his thinking. Fortunately, as a member of the Elite XI, we can get a rare insight into his mind. When asked about his playing style, Paul said this:
My playing style is generally low risk, with slight variation from template moves. I try to avoid taking hits. Not sure what my stats are but I’d expect around 5 hits in a season, excluding those due to injuries.
As a manager who mainly operates from the shadows, Paul has never featured on any YouTube channels and, as he refrains from social media, is unaffected by the endless stream of noise and opinions, which can often conflict with one another and become a distraction. Instead, he is able to focus on his own game, which he does to great effect. When asked about his favourite chips, Paul said,
I don’t have strong feelings about the chips. Bench Boost is an annoying one because it rarely seems to get me many points and it can hinder your squad for a number of weeks. Wildcard is probably the best, as you can make wholesale changes to your squad.
As regards chip strategy, Paul takes a sensible and straightforward approach each season.
Fairly standard for me: I play my first Wildcard around Gameweeks 8 to 14. I tend to play the Triple Captain in a tasty double, making sure I pick a premium option. I usually Bench Boost in a double Gameweek and with the second Wildcard, I tend to play it in the lead up to a big double.
Paul doesn’t tend to use stats to inform his decisions, instead relying on gut feel and an intuition which has served him incredibly well since 2006. His favourite Fix tool is the Gameweek Live area for keeping track of what is going on when the games are being played.
The Gameweek Live area puts all the data you need at your fingertips, and in real time, when the matches are being played
Paul, like many others, has his current draft set up in a 4-4-2. His first three defensive spots are taken by the template-friendly full-back combination from Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City. The other one is occupied by Kieran Trippier (£5.0m) who has a tasty opening fixture against Nottingham Forest.
In midfield, it is the inclusion of Jack Grealish (£7.0m) which reflects the biggest variation from the template, with the Englishman being selected by just 5.4% of managers.
Ben Chilwell took 2.16 shots per 90 minutes last season - taken from the Opta Player Heatmaps tool
Up front, it is the very popular paring of Harry Kane (£11.5m) and Gabriel Jesus (£8m).
It will be interesting to see what Paul does between now and the Gameweek 1 deadline.
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If you would like to keep up-to-date with Paul’s moves, then head over to the Elite XI area and sign up to his push notifications – this will ensure you can track his moves in real-time and stay one step ahead of your mini-league rivals.
Also in this series:
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