Gameweek 22 | More football.

Everything you need to know ahead of Gameweek 22.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Gameweek 22’s deadline is Saturday 18th January, 11:00 GMT.

🦗 Not much has happened because Gameweek 21 ended about 10 minutes ago.

Keep reading for a conclusion on one of the season’s trickier captaincy dilemmas.

Alright?

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like Gameweek 22 has come around a little too Swiftly.

It means that, aside from the occasional Taylor Swift reference, there isn’t a great deal for us to say. As proud lazies, that’s fine by us.

If you’re sitting down to read this on the toilet, you’d better hope it’s a ghost poo, because we’re only covering the absolutely essential stuff today.

Gameweek 22, it’s time to bend over and cough: let’s see what you’re made of.

Gameweek 22’s fixtures.

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Penetrative Stats.

Summary for the Lazy: Daniel Munoz.

One of the irrefutable laws of Penetrative Stats (there are many, by the way) is that we can only talk about differentials.

You can imagine our solemnity when Daniel Munoz’s underlying stats passed across our desk. Gosh darn, we can’t talk about him, we thought. He must be at least 20% owned.

How wrong we were.

Somehow just 6% owned, today Crystal Palace’s £4.8m defender is getting the penetrative treatment. We’re sure he’s thrilled.

The stats

Let’s start with the big one: expected goal involvements (xGI).

Over the last 10 gameweeks, no defender has a better xGI than Danny M. As Tina Turner famously sang, he’s simply the best attacking defender in the game at the moment.

Stats courtesy of Fantasy Football Hub

This is surprising, perhaps, given his recent performances. In his last five games, he’s racked up 2.68 xGI but has failed to notch a single goal or assist.

In other words, he’s a sleeping giant.

But "The Noz” (as he’s known to his mates…including us) has more than just attacking stats going for him.

Since the start of December, Crystal Palace have improved on a generally underwhelming season defensively - conceding less than Liverpool and sitting 6th in the Premier League table for goals conceded.

That clean sheet potential is only amplified by his upcoming fixtures:

The fixtures

Sometimes a picture paints a thousand words. Other times it paints seven mediocre teams.

Nah, plenty of these teams will trouble Crystal Palace, but there’s opportunity there too, both from an attacking and a clean sheet perspective.

The summary

With two goals and two assists this season, D-Munny (as his mother calls him) has managed to float under 94% of radars. But eight big chances this season hints at a player who finds himself in attacking situations more frequently than any defender should.

He’s played every minute possible so far (aside from the game he was suspended from) and could serve as an excellent third or fourth defender for the hipster FPL manager.

The best captain for Gameweek 22.

Summary for the Lazy: It’s Cole Palmer.

Ooft, another tricky one in Gameweek 22, and it’s a similar predicament to last week:

Mohamed Salah, the best FPL player in the game, is once again playing away to a Brentford team that, as discussed in a previous newsletter, usually does pretty well at home.

Meanwhile, Cole Palmer and Alexander Isak - the second and third-best players in the game - have better fixtures at home.

We could make a compelling case for all three. They’re all in good form, they’re all on penalties and, intriguingly enough, the defensive rigidity of their opponents has been almost identical since Wolves’ new manager came in:

The argument for Isak is obvious: he’ll play an injury-ridden Bournemouth, and he’s in the form of his life. But two full days of rest isn’t much, even for the most in-form striker in the league.

While Salah playing away from home is a mark against him, he should always be in the conversation, particularly against a Brentford side that have looked more vulnerable at the Gtech Stadium in recent games.

But two things edge it for Palmer, and none have to do with form and fixtures:

  • Unlike Salah, Palmer has less fixture congestion.

  • Unlike Isak, Palmer plays on the Monday night, not the early kick-off.

Unfortunately for us, xFun isn’t a metric. But we firmly believe that, sometimes, if a captaincy decision really does feel like a 33/33/33, going for the player who plays after everyone else is the best move. Contrary to popular belief, we’re allowed to enjoy our weekends too.

And for that reason, we have a 33/33/34. Cole Palmer is the 34.

The Professor enjoyed a medium green arrow last week, taking him to 336k overall.

This week he’s rolling his transfer. The captaincy is currently on Cole Palmer, though that might change.

Incidentally, The Prof didn’t end up removing Antoine Semenyo last week, and instead played him in his starting 11. To get real-time updates on his decisions, you’ll need to join LazyFPL Premium.

The key stats.

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Other stuff we found interesting.

  • European competitions continue next week, so keep an eye on those transfers.

  • Chelsea recalled Trevor Chalobah from on loan at Crystal Palace.

  • Erling Haaland has signed a long-term deal with Man City that keeps him there until 2034.

  • Diogo Jota “hasn’t trained yet” and is a doubt for Brentford.

There hasn’t been much news yet, but that doesn’t legislate for the next 24 hours.

Stay alert and, if you’re too lazy to stay alert, follow us on X. We share the important stuff there.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.