Gameweek 23 | Tasty fixtures

Everything you need to know ahead of Gameweek 23.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚹 Gameweek 23’s deadline is Saturday 25th January, 13:30.

đŸ€• Diogo Jota out “for weeks”.

đŸ€ Man City sign defenders Abdukodir Khusanov (ÂŁ5.0m) and Vitor Reis (ÂŁ4.5m) and forward Omar Marmoush (ÂŁ7.0m).

👋 Kyle Walker set to leave Man City for AC Milan [Romano].

👀 Next Gameweek is a double, which is informing some of this week’s moves.

Keep reading for The Prof’s response to a big red arrow.

Alright?

It was Blink 182 who made the dubious assertion that nobody likes you when you’re 23.

Despite claims to the contrary by some of the more zealous corners of the FPL community, it’s unlikely they were referring to Gameweek 23. Particularly this season’s Gameweek 23.

Ladies and gents, this gameweek gives us reason to be optimistic. Liverpool will play Ipswich at home. Newcastle travel to Southampton. Perhaps Palmer has the easiest fixture of them all with a plum visit to his former club.

But as any seasoned manager will tell you, optimism is dangerous in this game. We should approach this gameweek in the same way that Indiana Jones might approach a valuable artefact: with a healthy amount of trepidation.

Consider this email your guide to avoiding the traps.

Gameweek 23’s fixtures.

A quick word about these. Based on current ownership stats, there’s a decent enough chance that you’ll only have 0-2 players featuring on Sunday.

It’s worth considering if you’re the sort who occasionally makes transfers based on being able to watch them on telly.

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Penetrative Stats.

Summary for the Lazy: Sorry, but it’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Right, you’re going to have to hear us out on this one.

This week we’ve picked out Dominic Calvert-Lewin. DCL. Big Dom. Is this as stupid as it first appears? Perhaps. But there’s method to the madness.

The stats

Despite just three goals and two assists this season, Calvert-Lewin is the nearest thing Everton have to an attacking talisman. He leads the way in basically every interesting attacking stat.

Being talismanic for Everton this season is a bit like being the smoothest shite in the loo, but DCL’s stats really aren’t that bad. He keeps company with the likes of Liam (not Rory) Delap and Cody Gakpo, which is pretty good going for someone whose career is over according to some pundits.

Let’s slather some extra butter on this toast - look at his underlying stats since David Moyes took over:

Incidentally, that newsletter that picked out Mateta a few gameweeks ago really nailed it.

It’s the smallest of sample sizes (just two games), but might it be the first ripples of a change in the tide for the Englishman?

The fixtures

This is where it gets particularly interesting. Calvert-Lewin has a Double Gameweek next week. Whereas a month ago that felt like a relatively uninteresting prospect, the Moyes-ish hue paints it in a different light.

Leicester at home and Liverpool at home is oddly tantalising, particularly given DCL is on penalties.

The fixtures after that are tepid, but DCL doesn’t need to be your soulmate. We’re looking for a good time, not a long time here. With the Wildcard cocked and loaded and plenty of fixture swings between now and the end of the season, nobody is expecting you to hold Calvert-Lewin forever.

The summary

Dominic Calvert-Lewin could be the feel-good pick of the winter. Plenty of time has passed since his 16-goal season in the 19/20 campaign, but recent matches have shown a glimpse of that player once again.

Double Gameweeks have an odd way of creating unlikely FPL heroes, and whilst most of your transfer action should rightly be focused on Liverpool players, the blue team isn’t a total write-off either.

Preparing for next week’s double.

Summary for the Lazy: Don’t get carried away.

We love a Double Gameweek, and Double Gameweek 24 is the first of the season.

Two Liverpool players - Cody Gakpo and Trent Alexander-Arnold - currently sit in the top five most transferred-in players this week.

Part of that is because they play Ipswich this weekend. The Diogo Jota injury news no doubt feeds into the Gakpo hype too.

But we’re also seeing the seedlings of Double Gameweek 24 preparation.

The Professor talked at length about Liverpool assets in this week’s premium newsletter. You can read that right now by signing up to LazyFPL Premium.

Alexander-Arnold feels like as easy a pick as you can hope for, but Gakpo is a little trickier. Even with Jota’s injury, he could share minutes with Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez. Federico Chiesa is also in the conversation.

The Prof’s conclusion is that Gakpo is probably the safest pick of the bunch, but part of this decision also comes down to your team structure. If it’s easier for you to get rid of an underperforming midfielder, Diaz is the best option.

What about Everton?

We’ve already talked about the virtues of DCL, but Jordan Pickford might also be an interesting option across these games. He tends to thrive in tough fixtures - look at this little three-gameweek run around Christmas:

:

Despite playing for a struggling team, Pickford has once again found himself among the top points scorers for goalkeepers so far this season. He’s solid set-and-forget material.

The virtues of doing nothing at all

Double Gameweeks are exciting, but they’re often anti-climactic too. Some managers will desecrate their teams for six doubling players, only to be stung by unexpected rests, weird own goals and pesky yellow cards.

Liverpool have two tough away fixtures - let’s not forget that. Bournemouth are always difficult this season, and Everton always tend to turn up for this fixture. It’s almost like it’s a derby or something.

Have fun with the double, but don’t pin your season’s hopes on it. As I had to tell my mate after his girlfriend left him, there will be bigger and better doubles than this.

New signings.

Summary for the Lazy: Wait and see.

Some FPL managers can’t resist a new signing. They’re like kids in a candy shop, only instead of candy, it’s obscure youngsters from South America and various recalled loanees that really get them salivating.

But even in cases where clubs have spent large sums, it’s worth approaching new signings with a healthy level of caution. Rarely do new signings slot right into a new team, and even if they are given minutes, the likelihood that they’ll hit the ground running is even slimmer.

This goes for Man City’s new signings, Abdukodir Khusanov (£5.0m DEF), Vitor Reis (£4.5m DEF) and Omar Marmoush (£7.0m FWD). Whilst both could feature this season, the extent of their involvement remains ambiguous at best.

Btw, not an ad, but we use the Done Deals page of the Sky Sports Transfer Centre to track confirmed signings.

The best captain for Gameweek 23.

This one shouldn’t require much explanation. Mohamed Salah gets the armband.

Ipswich have just haemorrhaged six goals against Man City at home. In Gameweek 23 they’ll travel to arguably the best team in the world at the moment.

Alexander Isak away at Southampton is a worthy vice-captain, but the fact he plays away from home tilts this in the Egyptian’s favour. Also, Newcastle’s Friday night flight has been cancelled due to weather, which means an early start on Saturday morning.

A tough week for the Prof means he sits at 412k at the moment.

His response? Do absolutely nothing. He’s rolling a transfer, giving himself another week of info before he moves on Liverpool players. Vintage prof.

Mohamed Salah gets the armband.

The key stats.

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Other stuff we found interesting.

  • You can now view managers in the “transfers” tab, but the chip can’t be activated until next week.

  • European games happened this week. No major news: Man City conceded a two-goal lead, Aston Villa lost, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Man United won and Chelsea didn’t play.

  • There’s bad weather in parts of the UK this morning. It’s already impacted Newcastle’s commute to Southampton, and it’s worth keeping an eye on. Make sure your captain and vice aren’t playing for the same team.

We’re back next Friday morning. Better make it a double.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.

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