Gameweek 28 | The important stuff.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Gameweek 28’s deadline is Saturday, 8th March, 11:00 GMT.

🤕 Lewis Hall is out for the rest of the season with a foot injury.

🟥 Anthony Gordon (until GW31) and Matheus Cunha (at least 4 matches) are suspended.

🤦 Jean-Philippe Mateta needed 25 stitches on his ear and will miss at least Gameweek 28.

➡️ Check out 1440 and support LazyFPL!

⛔️ Next gameweek is a blank (CRY, NEW, AVL and LIV miss out).

Keep reading to find out if Erling Haaland is back.

Alright?

Gameweek 28 hasn’t even started and already it’s screwing over FPL managers. Injuries, suspensions and a Blank Gameweek on the horizon mean we need to tread around this weekend like one might carefully circumnavigate a turd on the pavement.

This newsletter is here to keep your shoes clean. Not today, errant chunklets of brown. Not today.

Pop a squat: it’s time to squeeze out Gameweek 28.

Gameweek 28’s fixtures.

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What do you do with your red flags?

Summary for the Lazy: Your move partly depends on your chip strategy.

You’ve probably got a red flag you need to deal with, and for once, it isn’t the fact that you’re unwilling to talk about your feelings.

It’s probably one of Lewis Hall, Anthony Gordon, Matheus Cunha or Jean-Philippe Mateta. Or maybe a combination of the four.

Let’s deal with each in turn.

Lewis Hall

Hall, or “Clean Sheet Lewis” as he was known to Narnia fans, is out for the season. Who you bring in is weirdly dependent on your chip strategy.

If you’re playing your Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 29, you can afford to look at replacements who play for one of the blankers (because you can replace them in Gameweek 29 anyway). The obvious pick is Crystal Palace’s Daniel Muñoz, a former star of our Penetatrive Stats section. He doubles in Double Gameweek 32 and is basically a forward at this point.

If you’re not playing your Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 29, you’ll likely need to pick a player who will feature in BGW29. There are three suggestions doing the rounds:

1) A Nottingham Forest defender (Nikola Milenković if you already have Ola Aina)

2) Josko Gvardiol. Great fixtures and a likely double in Gameweek 33.

3) Rayan Ait-Nouri. Look at these fields of green:

You might also consider another Newcastle defender. They’ll double in Double Gameweek 32, so reinvestment in their backline could be worthwhile. Dan Burn is a reliable pick.

Anthony Gordon

Things go from bad to worse for Newcastle owners. Anthony Gordon will return in Gameweek 31 and would’ve missed Blank Gameweek 29 anyway. So if you own him, you miss out on Gameweek 28 (away vs West Ham) and Gameweek 30 (at home to Brentford).

The ever-popular troupe of affordable Bournemouth midfielders all make for suitable replacements, Ethan Nwaneri is still a viable pick, and, if you can stretch, Bryan Mbeumo provides a reliable source of points.

Cunha, Mateta (what a wonderful phrase)

Contrary to the Lion King’s famous lyrics, Cunha Mateta actually means “plenty of worries for the foreseeable future” where their FPL owners are concerned.

Chris Wood (if you don’t already have him), Yoanne Wissa and Joao Pedro are our favourite replacement options. In that order.

Penetrative Stats.

Summary for the Lazy: Minteh is interesting for £5.0m.

Penetrative stats is back. This week, we’re looking at Yankuba Minteh, the £5m Brighton midfielder who’s quietly putting in excellent stats, great performances and is just 1.4% owned.

Minteh might sound like the answer Ned Stark would give if asked to describe the taste of a polo, but he’s becoming harder to ignore.

The stats

We’ll start with an old favourite: Expected goal involvements over the last six gameweeks.

When we consider that Liverpool have played two additional games in that time, it’s remarkable that Minteh makes the top five here. Remember, this guy is cheap. He’s cheaper than Spurs’ Wilson Odobert.

He’s also joint-second for shots on target during this same time frame, behind you-know-who (no, not Voldemort: Mohamed Salah).

The fixtures

His next nine fixtures are…alright. Let’s face it, Brighton is the sort of team that could comfortably win or comfortably lose to any of these sides.

Conclusion

Until recently, Minteh has been a bit-part player. Explosive, promising and fun to watch, but lacking the necessary consistency to be given a starting berth.

That’s changing. He’s started the last four Premier League games, notching one assist and two goals in the process. He also scored against Newcastle in the FA Cup last week.

As with any of these budget midfielders, you shouldn’t be weighing up Minteh as a starting player. He’s in your squad because, right now, he offers outstanding value for a ridiculously cheap price. That doesn’t mean you have to play him every week.

A great bench player with the potential to haul, Minteh gets the certified fresh rating from us.

Is Haaland back?

Summary for the Lazy: there’s a case for the Norse God.

There’s a murmuring in the wind. Erling Haaland, whose ownership has plummeted to 26% after highs of nearly 80% earlier in the season, might be a pick again.

The reasoning here is based on three core pillars:

1) After Nottingham Forest this week, he’s got good fixtures until the end of the season.

2) He’s third for xG (expected goals) since Gameweek 20, behind only Jean-Philippe Mateta and Yoanne Wissa.

3) He has six returns (4G, 2A) in his last five games.

There might be a case here, y’know. Amongst active teams, Haaland is a differential. Once upon a time, the idea of an in-form Haaland being a differential with great fixtures on the horizon would’ve seemed nuttier than fat bastard’s turds.

Of course, there are macro circumstances to consider here. Man City aren’t doing the thing that Man City do, and Haaland’s 10 goals since Gameweek 6 are below the outrageous par he’s set for himself.

But here he is, looking a bit like his old self. £14.7m is hefty. But could a rejuvenated Haaland be the catalyst that dislodges you from FPL stagnation? Crazier things have happened.

The best captain for Gameweek 28.

After the theatre of last week’s captaincy pick, it’s nice that this one is so straightforward.

Or is it?

The only thing that goes against Mohamed Salah at home to Southampton is that Liverpool will play PSG in a finely balanced second-leg the following Tuesday.

Arne Slot has spoken about this, and it’s not exactly confidence-inspiring:

“If I make the choice to play other players, that is because I think that's the biggest chance to win the game tomorrow [Southampton], and not because I want to rest them for the game against PSG.

So the only way I make a change is because maybe it's only 2 days in between, and then I might feel that playing someone else is a better option because we have many players that are of equal quality.”

You still captain him. You just clench your anus a little more than usual when Liverpool release the team sheet.

Sitting at 190k, The Professor is doing…nothing.

No transfers, and Mohamed Salah regains the armband after The Prof’s brief flirtation with Cole Palmer last week.

LazyFPL Premium members get the inside scoop on The Prof’s moves. You can join for the cost of a pint a month.

The key stats.

Other stuff we found interesting.

• Eddie Howe has confirmed that Alexander Isak is “fine”.

• Kaoru Mitoma is also confirmed as available.

• Jean-Philippe Mateta and Matheus Cunha were the 1st and 2nd-most transferred in players earlier this week.

No early kick-off for Blank Gameweek 29, which means we’ll be back into your inboxes next Friday at 13:00 GMT.

Enjoy the 10 fixtures whilst they last and remember…

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.