FPL Draft GW 3: Draft Recap, Stats and First Matches

Draft Recap

It was a warm, wintery night when six esteemed FPL managers gathered to kick off the inaugural season of the Baddy Draft League.

The whole league entered with nothing but vibes guiding their picks and boy did it deliver.

With dinner done and dusted (pizza and sushi), and pick order decided through a little trivia, it was time to draft. Vu opened the draft with Haaland as the number 1 pick.

The first surprise of draft night came when Sandra took Reijnders at pick 10, signalling just how much of an FPL Classic mindset she would carry throughout the draft.

Brian added some spice to his forwards by grabbing both Isak and Sesko.

Duy was doing so well with being unbiased until the last few rounds where he selected Yoro and Amad.

Derek secured his team mascot Dan Burn and was last one to start drafting defenders.

Vu followed my guidance throughout the night so I’m hoping he does well as my honorary second team.

Stats

Let’s start with a stat that firmly establishes how great my team is. These two graphs show the total points scored by our drafted players in the 2024/25 season.

For clarity, I included a normalised graph to account for new Premier League players who didn’t have prior season stats such as Gyokeres, Wirtz and Reijnders. Across multiple graphs, this adjustment didn’t change the overall rankings. My team was simply the best, both before and after the normalisation 😎.

Total games played and total minutes played went hand in hand. Derek, Vu and I leaned into more nailed on starters, while Brian and Duy opted for riskier, fringe 2024/25 players like Dorgu, Yoro, and Thiago.

FPL towers provides an average draft rank for each player, essentially showing where they think each player should be picked. Salah is rank 1, Haaland is rank 2, Palmer is rank 3 and so forth.

General consensus from FPL towers is that Derek, Vu and I had a solid draft night.

I’ve also broken it down by position.

Here, Brian was dragged down by the Kelleher selection.

Here, Brian was held back by not having an elite defender above Porro.

Brian started the draft by loading up his midfield with three strong picks: Salah, Semenyo and Wirtz.

Vu also did well, landing Bruno, Rogers and Gibbs-White.

Sandra displayed her FPL Classic bias by going early on Reijnders and picking up Anderson late in the draft.

Duy took a bit of a gamble with a couple newcomers to the Premier League: Bobb and Ndoye.

I’ll admit this one is bit misleading based on the first two weeks of data. Solanke is really inflating my draft rank here.

Duy had a clear gameplan, drafting all three forwards within his first four picks. Richarlison will be interesting.

While Brian and Vu did well in the midfield, it came at the expense of their forward options. Brian, Vu and Sandra all ran out of good forwards to select.

Brian went early on Thiago, took a gamble on Isak, and then got frisky with Sesko.

Vu followed Derek’s recommendation to pick Barry.

Sandra snagged Mayenda from me, which in hindsight has been a blessing because Solanke artificially inflated how good my draft looks.

Top 5 picks by value (60+ minutes played)

Surprisingly, the draft ended up quite balanced. Derek, however, seems to be the biggest winner when it comes to value picks.

Top 5 worst picks (60+ minutes played)

Sandra is channelling her FPL Classic team with Van de Ven, selecting him before Porro, Frimpong and Ait Nouri.

Duy made sure to get his Man United representation late in the draft, and not sure why Brian joined in.

According to FPL towers, Rico Lewis is not a good City defender pick.

Top 5 worst picks excluding defenders and goalkeepers (60+ minutes played)

This simply confirms Duy taking a risk on a couple of new players to the Premier League: Bobb and Ndoye. Also further confirmation Sandra leaned into her FPL Classic instincts, going early on Reijnders and picking up Anderson later.

Thiago is a bit harsh on Brian as he really needed a stable forward to complement Isak and Sesko.

During draft night, Derek mentioned Vu’s huge defenders with Virgil, Konate, Murillo and Milenkovic, and he wasn’t wrong. Vu dominated in terms of height and weight across the team.

Brian and Duy are fielding younger squads, which could explain their earlier stats for total games and minutes played.

My team is old, skinny and short. Not entirely sure what that indicates.

 Just a couple of stats on goals and assists to highlight how great my draft was.

Found a positive stat for Sandra where she clearly leads the pack.

Vu takes this stat, thanks to his Liverpool and Forest defensive combo: Allison, Virgil, Konate, Murillo, and Milenkovic.

Just a quick Dan Burn stat.

The other two own goals came from Ruben Dias and Solanke.

The number of red and yellow cards mirrors the trends we saw in total games and minutes played.

I’m aware that during FPL draft night we didn’t know the results of Liverpool v Newcastle for GW2, but that didn’t affect the results of this graph.

The only surprise for me is how Vu ended up so low on this chart.

(Slightly impacted by price changes)

Mr Moneybags Brian and Vu both went over our Classic FPL budget of $100m.

This was heavily driven by Salah and Haaland being the first two draft picks.

Brian also snagged Isak ($10.5m) later in the draft.

Sandra’s SZ (38) def. by Keven’s The Assets (54)

I backed up all my talk of having the best starting team with a great opening to the season.

Vu’s Laser (52) def. Derek’s Cole Fired Power (47)

Vu’s triple Liverpool defence combined for 22 points came in clutch.

Duy’s Duzor (27) def. by Brian’s The Liabilities (49)

Duy just had one player return, Joao Pedro (9), while Brian’s team cruised.

Keep well and stay swell~

Keven