Bonus lazy: Doubles and your Wildcard 👀

🚨 Double Gameweek 33 has been announced. Man City, Burnley, Chelsea, Brighton, Leeds and Bournemouth will play twice in Double Gameweek 33.

❌ That means those same teams will blank in Blank Gameweek 34.

👀 There will also very likely chance that Man City and Crystal Palace will double in Gameweek 36.

🍟 Most top managers have their Wildcards active. Their plan is to Wildcard in Gameweek 32, Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33 and Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 34.

🤦 Spurs sacked Igor Tudor. Roberto De Zerbi has been appointed on a five-year contract.

🙄 Enzo Fernández has been ruled out of Gameweek 32 because of comments he made about moving to Real Madrid.

🤞 Gabriel came off during Arsenal’s FA Cup defeat to Southampton after he felt an issue, but he’s trained since.

Alright?

Don’t panic: This email is not the harbinger of a gameweek starting prematurely. You’re reading this because quite a lot has happened during the international/FA Cup/European break so far, and it’s not like your mini-league rivals are gonna fill you in, is it?

It’s an eclectic menu today. We’ll start with a reminder of the doubling and blanking teams. The main will be your Wildcard, with a side of your other chips (triple-cooked, obviously). For those with a sweet tooth, we’ll serve a decent slice of caution to finish.

All courses come are interspersed with a palate cleanser of crap jokes. Bib on.

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Lazy Summary: There are six teams (Man City, Leeds, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Burnley and Brighton) doubling in Double Gameweek 33. These same teams will blank in Blank Gameweek 34.

Double Gameweek 33 is happening, and we know who will be involved. Considering how quiet the news has been over the last few weeks, you’d think this would’ve at least made the papers. Anyway, here’s what it looks like:

Man City - Arsenal (H), Burnley (A)
Burnley - Nottingham Forest (A), Man City (H)
Chelsea - Man United (H), Brighton (A)
Brighton - Spurs (H), Chelsea (H)
Leeds - Wolves (H), Bournemouth (A)
Bournemouth - Newcastle (A), Leeds (H)

Remember, these six teams won’t play in Blank Gameweek 34.

Lazy summary: Wildcard in Gameweek 32, Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33, Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 34.

If you have your Wildcard, Bench Boost and Free Hit, the lazy summary says it all. We’ll talk about who to pick on your Wildcard shortly.

There are some differential strategies out there - particularly given Arsenal aren’t doubling as expected - but these will be for FPL hipsters only.

If you don’t have a Wildcard.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Sure, wildcarding in Gameweek 32 ahead of the Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33 is optimal. But it’s easy to become short-sighted when the blinding lights of a double are burning into your retinas. A lot of Wildcards won’t include Arsenal defenders, for example, simply because they don’t have a double.

Roll your free transfers for the two doubles (DGW33 and 36) on the horizon. Not having a full squad of doublers isn't the end of the world, but you still want to have as many as possible without compromising the dignity of your team.

If you don’t have a Bench Boost.

Just focus on that starting 11. It’s fine.

If you don’t have a Free Hit.

This is tricky. Man City players probably have the best doubling prospects, and getting them in ahead of Double Gameweek 33 ought to be your priority. You can always bench them in Blank Gameweek 34. Elsewhere, you’ll have to target good players that aren’t doubling or blanking (like Man United, Arsenal and Brentford assets).

Lazy summary: Man City are the key team. Leeds for budget picks. Be wary of Brighton’s tricky fixtures after Double Gameweek 33.

To answer this question, we’ve developed an incredibly sophisticated points system based on scoring the following criteria out of 10:

- Gameweek 32 fixture (we’ll rate this out of 5 because it’s not as important).
- Double Gameweek 33 fixtures.
- Fixtures for the rest of the season.
- Whether they have good players. Reliability and price are big factors here.

Let’s do this alphabetically:

Bournemouth (new, LEE) - 21.5 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 1/5. Arsenal away.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 8/10. Newcastle have conceded 14 goals in their last six home games. Leeds have a better defence.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 6/10. Middle of the road but some winnable home games.

Good players? 6.5/10. Some decent defenders (James Hill, Marcos Senesi), Marcus Tavernier on penalties, Evanilson is a solid forward, and Eli Kroupi Jr is an interesting differential at an affordable price.

Brighton (TOT, CHE) - 19 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 4/5. Burnley away.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 6/10. Spurs are an unknown quantity under De Zerbi, but it’ll be a spicy visit to his former club for him. Chelsea at home is anyone’s guess.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 4/10. Some tough games against battling teams.

Good players? 5/10. Bart Verbruggen is their nailed-on goalkeeper with big save points potential, and Jan Paul van Hecke will be a popular mid-priced defender.

Danny Welbeck is interesting, but his minutes are somewhat unreliable. He’s only played two consecutive 90-minute matches once in the entire season.

Burnley (nfo, MCI) - 9 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 3/5. Brighton at home.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 2/10. Forest need every point they can get, Man City are Man City.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 2/10. Includes Man City and Arsenal.

Good players? 2/10. Martin Dúbravka is solid bench fodder for bench boosters, but don’t expect clean sheets.

Chelsea (MUN, bri) - 20 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 2/5. Man City at home.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 6/10. An in-form Man United is a challenge. Brighton could go either way.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 4/10. Some tricky away fixtures at Sunderland and Liverpool.

Good players? 8/10. João Pedro, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernández will all find suitors. Pedro will be a captaincy differential, too.

Leeds (WOL, bou) - 21 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 2/5. Man United away. Though it is a derby.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 7/10. Wolves and Bournemouth have the third-and fourth-worst defences in the league, statistically speaking.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 8/10. The best of the doubling teams, including Burnley at home in Gameweek 35.

Good players? 4/10. This would be higher if not for the injuries to budget favourites Anton Stach and Joe Rodon, but Leeds still have other cheap options. James Justin is a sub-£4.0m defender with reliable minutes, Ethan Ampadu (£4.9m midfielder) gets regular DEFCON points, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the 6th-highest-scoring forward in the game.

Man City (ARS, bur) - 23 points.

Gameweek 32 fixture: 3/5. Chelsea away.

Double Gameweek 33 fixtures: 5/10. The definition of a tale of two halves.

Fixtures for the rest of the season: 6/10. No great teams, no terrible teams either.

Good players? 9/10. Some of the best FPL assets play for Man City. Erling Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly will probably be the most popular players in their respective positions ahead of Double Gameweek 33.

The verdict.

We hope you’re sitting down for this, because according to our advanced scoring model, Man City are the team to target in Double Gameweek 33.

Leeds players are a smörgåsbord of solid budget picks, particularly given their run-in. Bournemouth and Chelsea players will be popular, but whilst Brighton have a great fixture in Gameweek 32, their fixtures after Double Gameweek 33 mean they may not be long-term holds.

Avoid Burnley.

Based on the above, we can put together the bones of a Wildcard draft relatively easily.

It features 11 doubling players, but has a single-gameweek spine (David Raya, Gabriel, Igor Thiago and Bruno Fernandes). Whether you have a Wildcard or not, targeting a team like this by Double Gameweek 33 ought to be your goal.

It’s fine. Nobody is ridiculing you for this.

There are three things you need to remember when you’re playing your Wildcard and Bench Boost:

1) Your team value matters. If you’ve had a few drinks and think it’d be funny to bring in all the Gomezes “just to see how it looks”, be careful about hitting that “confirm transfers” button. Only sell the players you definitely don’t want, because bringing them back in could cost you more money if you’ve accrued value on them.

2) Single gameweek players are still good. A textbook Double Gameweek error is to get rid of your good single gameweek players just because they don’t have two games. The likes of Bruno Fernandes, Igor Thiago and Arsenal defenders should probably remain in your team, unless you have a very clear plan to bring them back in.

3) Focus on reliable minutes. Here’s something you don’t want to hear: Not all of your doubling players will play 180 minutes across their two games. Some will be substituted early. A few might not start. The more you can eliminate this risk, the better.

Pick players who regularly play 90 minutes. The talismanic, we-better-keep-him-on-even-though-we’re-three-goals-up types.

Here’s a live ranking of players based on the number of minutes they’ve played, courtesy of friends of the newsletter, Fotmob.

See you Thursday for Gameweek 32’s newsletter, where we’ll do the usual stuff.

In the meantime, if anyone asks, we were never here.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.