Gameweek 16 | The mystery chip.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Gameweek 16’s deadline is Saturday 14th December, 13:30 GMT.

👀 The mystery chip has been unveiled. It’s called “Assistant Manager”.

📢 The rearranged Everton vs Liverpool fixture has been pencilled in for Gameweek 24. If it’s confirmed, it’ll be a Double Gameweek for those two teams.

🤦 Gabriel still not spotted in Arsenal training but pushing for a GW16 return.

👌 Watkins confirms he “should be fit” for Forest game.

🎁 Shop our FPL mugs if you’re struggling for Christmas gift ideas.

The Prof is making four transfers. Keep reading to find out who comes and goes.

Alright?

Well, the mystery chip has been unveiled. For reasons that still escape us, it wasn’t an actual unveiling with dodgy pyrotechnics and life-threateningly high amounts of dry ice.

Instead, we got a series of tweets and a few articles. The “Assistant Manager” chip is here, and it’s fair the say the response has been…mixed.

Whether you’re more in camp Sripad or camp Ganeshan, one thing is certain: you’ll need to use it to stay competitive this season.

Aside from the usual serving of gruel, today we’ll explore the what, when and WTF of this new addition to the game. Fear not, you’re in safe hands.*

*_{Not exactly “safe” hands, but safer than the hands of your mate who’s trying to beat you in this season’s mini-league.}

Gameweek 16’s fixtures.

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Double Gameweek 24 (nearly) confirmed.

Summary for the Lazy: The rearranged Everton vs Liverpool fixture looks set to take place on February 11th (Gameweek 24).

Remember last gameweek when strong winds forced the cancellation of the Everton vs Liverpool early kick-off? We even sent a panicked newsletter about it.

Well, according to multiple sources, that game has been pencilled in for February 11th, which would be Gameweek 24.

If it’s confirmed, it’ll mean Liverpool and Everton have a Double Gameweek in Gameweek 24.

Liverpool will play Bournemouth away and Everton away, with a 10-day gap.

Everton will play Leicester at Home and Liverpool at home.

This could well impact your chip strategy. We’ll get into the specifics of how shortly.

What is the Assistant Manager chip?

Summary for the Lazy: pick a manager and score extra points based on how his team performs.

“Have you ever fancied bringing Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta into your Fantasy Premier League squad?” asks FPL Towers in the first line of their explainer.

We’ll confess: we haven’t. It’s never occurred to us. But regardless, from Gameweek 24, we’ll be able to.

The Assistant Manager chip lets us pick a Premier League manager to accompany our 15 players. He’ll score points based on his team’s performances.

This chip is the first to apply to multiple gameweeks: once activated, you’ll be playing it for three consecutive gameweeks. You can change your manager during the three gameweeks using a transfer (just like how you’d change a player).

Here’s how the scoring works:

• Team win = 6 points

• Team draws = 3 points

• Goal scored by team = 1 point per goal

• Clean sheet from team = 2 points

• Table bonus: If your chosen manager faces a club ranked at least five places higher in the Premier League table at the start of the Gameweek, you get an EXTRA 10 points for a win, so 16 in total, or an additional five points for a draw, so eight in total.

So if you activated your Assistant Manager chip in Gameweek 12 and picked Arne Slot, here’s what you would’ve scored:

Southampton 2-3 Liverpool: 9 points (6 for the win, 3 for the goals)

Liverpool 2-0 Man City: 10 points (6 for the win, 2 for the goals, 2 for the clean sheet)

Newcastle 3-3 Liverpool: 6 points (3 for the draw, 3 for the goals)

Total = 25 points.

Let’s use another example that requires a bit more computation, and go with Wolves manager Gary O’Neil between Gameweeks 12-14.

Fulham 1-4 Wolves: 20 points (16 for the win, 4 for the goals). Fulham were more than five places higher in the Premier League table at the start of Gameweek 12.

Wolves 2-4 Bournemouth: 2 points (2 for the goals)

Everton 4-0 Wolves: 0 points.

Total = 22 points.

Right, let’s talk about some nuances.

Assistant Manager: the deep lore.

Summary for the Lazy: This is a Q+A section: questions are in bold if you want to skip to a particular query.

To get into the minutiae of the Assistant Manager chip, we needed a special guest. Ladies and gentlemen: Cystic Greg returns.

Q: Do I have to pay for an Assistant Manager?

A: Yes - out of your existing budget. Managers will cost between £0.5m - £1.5m but a price list hasn’t been released yet.

Q: Can I play another chip once my Assistant Manager is activated?

A: No. You won’t be able to play any other chips during the three-gameweek period in which your Assistant Manager chip is active.

Q: What happens if the manager I pick literally gets sacked in the morning?

A: Say you activate your Assistant Manager chip and pick Gary O’Neil on Wednesday. On Thursday, he gets sacked. You’ll still be awarded the points Wolves score on Saturday. In many respects, the manager himself is merely a husk: it’s the team you’re picking.

The same applies to managerial red cards.

Q: Can I change my manager during the three-gameweek spell?

A: Yes. You can swap managers by using a transfer.

Q: Let’s say I already have three Liverpool players. Can I pick Arne Slot too?

A: No. You’d need to remove one of your Liverpool players in order to pick Slot. You can have a maximum of three assets from a club, including the manager.

Q: Can I use this on a Double Gameweek?

A: Yes. Theoretically, you could use it on three Double Gameweeks if the stars align. But remember, you can’t play any other chips whilst the Ass Man is in play.

Q: What if my opponents are at least five positions above my Assistant Manager’s team when I activate the chip, but they play in the early kick-off and end up less than five positions above my Assistant Manager’s team by the time my Assistant Manager’s team kicks off?

A: Pardon?

Q: I said what if my oppon-

A: It’s the standings at the start of the gameweek that matter. Any table changes during the gameweek itself won’t impact the way points are allocated.

Q: Can I use it right now?

A: No, it will be available from Gameweek 24.

Q: What if I activate my Assistant Manager chip in Gameweek 38?

A: Then you’re a moron.

Cystic Greg has spoken. That’ll be £300 please.

SWAT (Stupid Workarounds and Tactics) analysis.

Summary for the Lazy: Here we cover DGW/sBGWs, the potential virtues of mid-table managers, relegation battles and using transfers to switch managers.

That the Assistant Manager chip is (relatively) complex already works in our favour.

As (relatively) committed managers, we’ll at least attempt to engage with the rationale behind this chip, which is more than can be said for the bloke in your work’s mini-league who hasn’t looked at his team since Gameweek 3 but is still, somehow, knocking on the door of first place.

The other elephant in the room here is that there aren’t actually that many opportunities to play it. It’s a 3-gameweek chip, so playing it at any point after Gameweek 36 is nonsensical (unless one of Gameweek 37 or 38 is a Double Gameweek).

Given we can’t use it until Gameweek 24, that’s a pretty small window of opportunity.

What does Ben Crellin say?

Fixture guru and top manager Ben Crellin is a reliable place to start. His chip strategy is usually the smartest because it’s shaped around the Double and Blank Gameweeks.

He shared a calendar in a tweet on Wednesday (before the Everton vs Liverpool rescheduling announcement):

It was accompanied by the following:

If Everton vs Liverpool is rescheduled before GW30 then my chip strategy will probably be:

• Triple Captain Salah in the EVE vs LIV DGW

• Wildcard in GW30

• Assistant Manager in GWs 31-33 (inc. DGW33)

• Free Hit in BGW34

• Bench Boost in DGW36

The conventional wisdom is that timing your Assistant Manager chip over a Double Gameweek and after a Wildcard makes sense.

The Wildcard ensures you have the additional budget to afford an Assistant Manager without needing to make surplus transfers.

The Double Gameweek maximises the potential points.

That windy weekend in Gameweek 15 might just be a blessing in disguise for managers with a Triple Captain, Bench Boost and Assistant Manager all to play.

Suffice it to say, we’ll tell you exactly when it might be a good time to play your Assistant Manager chip nearer the time.

A top manager or a struggling manager?

Should you pick an Arne Slot or a Sean Dyche?

The tactics here are fairly obvious: a manager like Arne Slot offers reliability but has a lower points ceiling. A manager like Sean Dyche is high risk but offers a higher reward.

Let’s say we pick Arne Slot across three games, and Liverpool win all three, keeping one clean sheet and scoring 6 goals.

In this scenario, Slot’s points tally is a decent 26 points.

But let’s imagine we pick Sean Dyche for a three-game stint instead. Everton manage to beat Brentford at home, scrape a draw at home against Nottingham Forest and beat Leicester on the road.

They keep one clean sheet and score four goals in the process.

Dyche’s tally in this fictional run is 36 points.

The answer might be somewhere in the middle. We’ll explain:

The intriguing numbers behind mid-table managers

OfficialFPL published this table as part of a flurry of posts about the new chip:

Whilst Arne Slot has the highest points tally in total, it’s the likes of Andoni Iraola, Eddie Howe and Ange Postecoglou that have enjoyed the most fruitful three-gameweek stints.

At the time of writing, these managers occupy positions between 8th and 12th. Anecdotally, it feels like the teams battling it out in this region of the table are the more likely to upset those above them, particularly given how congested mid-table can be.

For example, there are currently five places between Manchester United and Bournemouth, but backing United in that contest doesn’t feel like a huge stretch. The same can be said for Newcastle (12th) and Brighton (7th).

Do we just back Sean Dyche with three games to go?

Teams battling for relegation at the end of the season can do incredible things, particularly against teams that have nothing to play for. This phenomenon is nothing new for FPL managers, but it takes on extra significance now.

Backing the manager of a relegation-threatened team with favourable fixtures is a viable tactic.

What about switching your manager each gameweek?

There might be a neat three-gameweek combination of managers that have favourable home fixtures against higher-placed teams.

But there are two big issues with planning for this sort of scenario:

1) the table changes every gameweek. Your best-laid plans for “table bonus” points might not come to fruition.

2) you have to spend a transfer on swapping managers, and transfers are valuable. Particularly if there are Double Gameweeks involved.

As things stand, we like the idea of picking and holding one manager for the three gameweeks, with a plan to be flexible if circumstances force our hand.

Penetrative Stats.

Summary for the Lazy: Evanilson.

This newsletter has been wordy enough, so we’re keeping this bit brief. Bournemouth’s Evanilson has caught our eye.

He’s blanked over the last two games, but he has excellent fixtures on the horizon: WHU, mun, CRY, ful, EVE.

His xG over the last six games puts him in esteemed company:

But Evanilson’s points scoring potential is as much about his ability to get assists as it is goals: indeed, he has four of each this season.

The truth is, the Brazilian is a pest. He wins penalties, he puts himself about and, over the last six gameweeks, only Erling Haaland has more shots on target amongst forwards.

If you’re looking to move away from Chris Wood, Danny Welbeck or any of the other trendy budget forwards, Bournemouth’s man could be your new squeeze.

The best captain for Gameweek 16.

Summary for the Lazy: It’s Cole Palmer.

Tough one this week. Mohamed Salah hosts Fulham and, given how excellent he is this season, there’s every chance he returns.

But Fulham have conceded the joint-fewest goals away from home this campaign: a fact reinforced by the second-lowest expected goals allowed on the road too.

Cole Palmer, meanwhile, hosts a Brentford side who are only bested by Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton for expected goals allowed away from home. They’re leakier than a garage roof.

With both midfielders in mercurial form, luck will likely play a big part in which player happens to score the most FPL points in Gameweek 16.

It’s also worth noting that Fulham will be without two starting defenders (Joachim Andersen and Calvin Bassey).

Still, to pick Salah is to do so in spite of the stats, not because of them.

Barring any last-minute news, The Professor will make four free transfers prior to the deadline.

Mykolenko → Gabriel

Lewis → Timber

Mazraoui → Alexander-Arnold

Haaland → Isak

The armband is currently on Cole Palmer, but The Prof is torn. To find out what decision he lands on, along with his extensive analysis of why he’s made these four transfers, you’ll need to be a LazyFPL Premium member.

Overall rank: 865k.

The key stats.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• Federico Chiesa and Diogo Jota back in training for Liverpool.

• Nick Pope is a doubt for Leicester.

• Since the start of November, Man City have conceded more goals (21) than any team in any of Europe’s top five leagues.

• Callum Wilson out for two months with a hamstring issue.

If you made it this far, we appreciate you. See you next week for what we’re confident will be a shorter newsletter.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.