We've just looked at last season's FPL Champion's team — today I'll do you one better. We're going to look at the teams of FOUR FPL World Champions.
🏆 Jonas Sand Labakk – FPL Champion 2023/24
Jonas Sand Labakk 🇳🇴, FPL Champion in the 2023/24 season, is an analytical manager. One interesting thing you'll notice is these champions have very different approaches to the game, whether it's analytics, playing maximum upside with differentials, or even ignoring certain teams entirely.
Jonas and I went for beers when he was over from Norway a few months ago. He destroyed me at darts, annoyingly good at everything.
He's gone with the following squad:
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Kelleher, Williams, Virgil, Gabriel, Salah, Palmer, Ndiaye, Rogers, Strand Larsen, Solanke, and Welbeck.
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With a really strong bench of Valdimarsson, Sarr, Konsa, and Esteve.
Even the £4.0m Valdimarsson is a smart pick. There are only three teams with a £4.5m keeper and a definitive £4.0m backup GK: Brentford, Leeds, and West Ham. Leeds with Perri and Darlow, West Ham with Areola and Foderingham. So if you have those combos, you're guaranteed a keeper even if the first choice gets injured. Whereas if you've got Sanchez and a £4.0m non-playing GK, if Sanchez gets injured, you need to spend a transfer. Keeper transfers are rare, but it's a consideration.
He also shared some thoughts with us:
Cunha and Mbeumo are potentially worse assets after their transfer so they're a wait and see. Likewise for Frimpong as his minutes are too unstable and I see he's highly owned.
Palmer had a great Club World Cup and has good fixtures early on. I wouldn't be worried about his "poor" form at the end of last season. Welbeck should be nailed to begin with and on pens for Brighton. Williams and NFO I'm unsure about. They massively overperformed last season, but Williams will be attacking and one of the best fullbacks for defensive contributions, if I recall correctly.
Gabriel and Van Dijk will both be nailed for the two best defensive teams in the league, though I'm monitoring Gabriel and Solanke's injuries. Gabriel and Van Dijk probably aren't going to be the best for defensive contribution points, but will still get enough over the season, plus offer corner threat too.
I don't like all the new changes, generally, especially the extra AFCON transfers.
He's done his homework on defensive contributions, and Sarr on the bench is a different approach which I don't hate at all. Only 2% owned, and blows the other £6.5m midfielders out of the water for underlying stats last season, with 17.6 xGI, which only Salah, Palmer, Mbeumo, and Bruno beat. Mitoma is next closest to him with 13.2 xGI. It's a valid strategy to load your team with penalty takers. A fun fact: on average, a pen is awarded roughly every 3.5 matches. The more you have, the more likely you are to get those extra points. He's got potentially six pen takers in his squad.
I'll agree with Jonas on the AFCON transfers. In case you missed it, when the GW15 deadline passes, we'll all be topped up to five free transfers to help navigate AFCON. Though there are not that many notable FPL assets going, the main one is Salah, of course. In past seasons, planners were rewarded by being ready for it; now anyone can deal with it. That said, if we're smart with those five free transfers in other areas, then that will be an advantage. Perhaps we'll only have Salah that needs selling, so one free transfer used and five carried forward to use elsewhere while other less engaged managers might go wasting them like a wildcard. Let's see how it all plays out anyway. Next year there is no AFCON, so this could be a one-off. Amazing team from Jonas, and I look forward to a darts rematch this season.