Double Gameweek 24 | Here comes double.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Double Gameweek 24’s deadline is Saturday 1st February, 11:00 GMT.

😍 Liverpool (bou, eve) and Everton (LEI, LIV) will play twice.

👀 The Assistant Manager Chip can now be activated.

🍟 Many managers expected to play a chip this week.

🔮 There’s a very small chance that Gameweek 25 is also a double.

The Professor is playing his Triple Captain, but he’s also making a triple transfer. Keep reading to find out who.

Alright?

The Professor made a lovely point in a recent LazyFPL Premium newsletter. It was something to the effect of, “The first half of the season is won by picking good players, the second half of the season is won by picking the right strategy.”

Double Gameweek 24 is, in some respects, a bit like Gameweek 1. It marks the start of a new phase of the season: one in which FPL managers need to pick good players and oversee the holy matrimony between double/blank gameweeks and their suite of chips.

And just like the start of the season, it feels as though there are infinite permutations.

Fear not: in this newsletter, we’ll be talking through those permutations in language that only the truly lazy can understand. By the end of it, you’ll be ready for Double Gameweek 24 and the chaos that follows.

Let’s get cracking: the doubles are on us.

Double Gameweek 24’s fixtures.

Note: there’s a whole 9 days between the Chelsea vs West Ham game and the Everton vs Liverpool game.

They’re not rest days either.

On Thursday 6th February, Liverpool will play Spurs in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-final.

But the real test comes on Sunday 9th February, where they’ll play Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup 4th round.

Everton, meanwhile, have Bournemouth at home in the FA Cup 4th round.

Your Double Gameweek assets are by no means guaranteed to be fit and healthy for their second fixture.

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Assistant Manager, Triple Captain or none?

Summary for the Lazy: The Triple Captain on Mo Salah is the safe play, but the Assistant Manager has strengths too.

The Great Library of Alexandria could not hope to house the vast amount of content that has been written and recorded about Double Gameweek 24’s chip conundrum.

In this section, we’re going to triple-distill it into something you can slam at a cheap bar.

The conventional wisdom

Most top managers are playing their Triple Captain chip on Mohamed Salah this week. If you’re not doing that, you’re going against the conventional wisdom.

Whether you decide to conform to this wisdom will depend on a multitude of factors, but boils down to your appetite for risk. Deciding not to Triple Captain Salah exposes you to more risk, but has a greater upside.

Playing the TC on the Egyptian is a safer, more defensive move.

Your decision should be based on your season’s aims and how close you are to achieving them. If you’re already top of your mini-league, it’s probably best to play it safe. If you’re looking to make up a 100-point deficit, a differential strategy might help to get you there.

The TC is popular amongst good managers this week, but it’s by no means a unanimous agreement.

Another chip is also in the conversation…

The Assistant Manager - Pros and Cons

Somewhere in the deep, dark corners of FPL Towers, a manic web developer is screaming “IT’S ALIVE” as forks of lightning light up the sky around them.

But just because we can use the Assistant Manager chip, does that mean we should?

The pros

Again, most top managers - including The Professor - would argue for a later deployment of the AM.

Firstly, there will be other, bigger Double Gameweeks (DGW33 and DGW36), and playing it over one of those will give us more opportunity to prepare our teams for the £0.5m - £1.5m outlay that a manager demands.

Secondly, playing it later in the season gives us the chance to capitalise on the late-season upsets that can happen when a relegation-threatened team faces an opponent whose season has already concluded.

But the most compelling reason to play your Ass Man chip later in the season is the promise of more doubling options to choose from. There’ll likely be more tantalising prospects than Everton’s DGW24 combo.

The cons

Those who’re contemplating their Ass Man are looking at Everton’s David Moyes. He ticks plenty of boxes: a returning manager to a struggling side who has already inspired a mini-rejuvenation.

He’ll have four fixtures across the next three gameweeks: LEI, LIV, cry, MUN. Of course, managers needn’t stick with him throughout that run. They can use a transfer to change their manager if they like.

There’s also the very slim possibility of a Double Gameweek 25, which would significantly strengthen the power of the Ass Man. We’ll talk about that soon.

Warning: Once you’ve activated your Assistant Manager chip, you have to spend a transfer on changing your manager (even before the deadline). So be sure you’re happy with your pick before you click “activate”.

Should you save your chips?

No. If you have your Bench Boost, Free Hit, Triple Captain and Assistant Manager, you should use one of the latter two in Double Gameweek 24. Otherwise, you’ll likely need to use one during a single gameweek.

The faint whiff of Double Gameweek 25.

Summary for the Lazy: It’s unlikely and we won’t know until after the Double Gameweek 24 deadline.

Earlier this month, Ben Crellin floated the possibility of a Double Gameweek 25 for Spurs and Fulham.

The conditions were based on three unlikely outcomes:

• Spurs beat Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final (they’re 1-0 up on aggregate).

• Spurs finish in the top 8 of the UEL group (they finished 4th).

• The powers that be decide to move the game to Gameweek 25.

Double Gameweek 25 has moved from the “lol, good one” category to the “shit, this might actually be on” category. There’s still plenty that could happen to prevent it, but for us, the very possibility of a Double Gameweek 25 is surely a tick in the Assistant Manager column.

The best captain for Double Gameweek 24.

This week’s captaincy discussion isn’t really about the best player to pick (spoiler: it’s Mohamed Salah) but more about whether or not to use the Triple Captain.

We’ve already discussed the fact that the Triple Captaincy is the conventional move this week. But whilst the decision might’ve been concrete in December, it’s liquified in recent weeks.

That’s owing to three key shifts in the Premier League narrative:

• Bournemouth are playing the best football they’ve ever played.

• Salah - and Liverpool - have not been at their fluid best.

• David Moyes has had an immediate impact on Everton’s form.

A mouth-watering Triple Captaincy in December has arguably morphed into a reluctant obligation for some managers. “I can’t wait to use it” gives way to “well, when else am I going to use it?”.

Salah’s form

Salah’s form remains exceptional. If he doesn’t score a single point between now and the end of the season, he’ll still have beaten last season’s tally.

But for his (albeit lofty) standards, things have been tough recently. Two blanks in his last three coincide with a drop-off in his underlying stats. Indeed, in his last three games, he’s had zero big chances.

The prevailing argument for a Triple Captain is “he’s Salah, he’s still an excellent player, let’s not overthink it.” Those statements are true, but are they enough?

A note on Bournemouth and Everton.

Bournemouth are undefeated in their last 12 games, with the sixth-best expected goals allowed in the league.

Everton’s underlying stats are less impressive, but the fact remains that they’ve only conceded 28 goals this season: just one more than Nottingham Forest and Newcastle. This will be their last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park too.

Look, triple-captaining the best FPL player we’ve ever seen against 7th and 16th in the league is never going to be a terrible decision. There’s a reason why most of the world’s best managers are doing exactly that. No mockery here.

But we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t point out the opportunity for those of you who need to make up ground. This isn’t Ipswich and Southampton at home: it’s two tricky away fixtures against inspired opposition.

Opting to deploy your Assistant Manager chip instead might just be the swing that gets your season back on track.

Sat at 308k, The Professor is playing his Triple Captain on Mohamed Salah.

For insight on why he’s choosing to play it now, as well as a compelling explanation as to why Łukasz Fabiański’s benching last week means it’s foolish for him to bring in Alisson this week, sign up to LazyFPL Premium for less than a pint a month.

He’s also making a triple transfer:

David Raya → Jordan Pickford

Anthony Gordon → Bryan Mbeumo

Nicolas Jackson → Cody Gakpo

The key stats.

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So now that all is said and done, what should you do?

Summary for the Lazy: Chill.

As this girthy newsletter has demonstrated, there are plenty of forces acting upon Double Gameweek 24. But the elephant in the room - the thing that few FPL pundits would like to admit - is that stats, fixtures and cold, hard logic can only get you so far.

In reality, much of your short-term FPL performance is determined by luck. A dodgy penalty decision might be the difference between a sensational gameweek and a mediocre one.

And so our advice is thus: don’t flatter Double Gameweek 24 - or any gameweek, for that matter - by giving it too much gravitas. Double Gameweeks are fun, but they’ll seduce you into making stupid decisions if you’re not careful. They’re like mermaids, only incredibly dry.

Think about where you want to be by the end of the season, manage your exposure to big red arrows and keep hits to a minimum. Oh, and try to enjoy the footy, too.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• This matchday policeman with his priorities in check:

• Jhon Duran set to go to Al Nassr (David Ornstein).

• Myles Lewis-Skelly’s three-match ban was overturned after an appeal.

• Iliman Ndiaye has been spotted in normal training.

The next deadline is Valentine’s Day, so we’ll be in your inbox the day before. How romantic.

Enjoy the double and remember…

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.