FPL Gameweek 3 Review: What Went Right And Wrong
The call — GW3 Post-Mortem: The Week the Defenders Ran Riot The best captain in Gameweek 3 was Tyrick Mitchell. A Palace left-back. Owned by about 1 in 20 of us. His 15 points topped every player in the game — and if you're feeling sick reading that, take a breath, because we need to talk about what this week actually meant.
The average manager scored 51. The top score was a monstrous 119. And the gap between those two numbers was built almost entirely on defenders nobody owns. Bogle banged in 14 for Leeds with barely 1 in 100 of us holding him. Vuskovic got 12 for Brighton, Janelt 11 for Brentford, Barnes 12 for Newcastle — all owned by next to nobody. If you had one of those, you flew. If you didn't, you're in the same boat as roughly everyone else. That matters.
Because here's the good news: the template did its job too. Isak's 13 rewarded the 2 in 10 who own him, Gakpo's 11 paid off just over 1 in 10, and Ødegaard chipped in 10 for a similar crowd. Those hauls didn't move ranks much — everybody around you had them — but they kept us level. That's what template picks are for. Owning what everyone owns isn't cowardice; it's insurance.
The captaincy is the sore spot. About 7 in 10 of us handed Haaland the armband, and the hindsight pick was Mitchell. But let's be honest with each other: nobody sane captains a 1-in-20-owned full-back, and nobody should start now. Chasing last week's freak haul is exactly how ranks get burned. The manager who captained Mitchell got lucky; the manager who captains him next week is gambling.
The real lesson from this week isn't "buy defenders who just hauled" — it's that Liverpool's attack keeps paying. Isak and Gakpo both delivered again, and between them they're the most reliable route to points on this list. If you own neither, that's the gap worth closing before Friday. If you own one, hold him and don't blink.
So here's our move: ignore the one-week wonders — Bogle, Janelt and friends can prove it twice before we spend a transfer on them — and use this week's free move to get into the Liverpool attack, with Isak the pick if the budget stretches. And keep the armband on the obvious man. The crowd's captain protects us far more often than it punishes us. One bad week doesn't change that.
The call: buy Isak, resist the punts, captain the template.