🚨 The stuff you should know.
⏰ Gameweek 7’s deadline is Saturday, 17th October, 11:00 BST.
👀 Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo were all excluded from Liverpool’s UCL squad this week. Iraola has said all three will be assessed in Friday’s training.
🤕 Reece James will undergo knee surgery after picking up a training injury.
🤦 Schade was withdrawn with a shoulder injury in Gameweek 6. We don’t know how serious it is, and no timeline has been given at the time of sending.
🏆 There were midweek European fixtures this week, and there will be next week as well. Expect some rotation amongst the teams involved.
Alright?
We’re still at a point in the season where every gameweek feels like a world-changing event. The current world we live in - the one born out of Gameweek 6 - is a strange place.
It’s a world where the promoted teams might qualify for Europe, Brighton might win the league, and Man City might - just might - be even better now than they were before everyone hated them.
It’s a world where Spurs and Man United's mediocrity is so consistent that, even when playing each other, they somehow still manage to sustain it.
And it’s a world where Jordan Henderson is king.
The beauty of this strange, preheating phase of the season is that by this time next week, we’ll live in a completely different world. Perhaps, in next week’s world, we’ll all be bullish about Spurs assets. Maybe Jordan Henderson will have been usurped by some other veteran midfielder.
When each gameweek is such a significant chunk of the season so far, everything feels important. In today’s look ahead to Gameweek 7, we’ll try to be more discriminating.
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📅 Gameweek 7’s fixtures.
What happened in midweek?
Summary for the Lazy: It looks like everyone you care about got through unscathed.
Nearly half the league (nine teams) played in a European tournament this week. We won’t go through all nine games, because it’s tedious*. But here are some things we noticed:
UCL
Teams involved: Man City, Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool and Aston Villa.
No notable injuries we didn’t already know about.
Saka, Havertz, and Ødegaard started on the bench and changed the game when all three came on in the 65th minute. Calafiori was an unused sub.
Haaland scored a brace against PSG, Jackson scored a brace against Fenerbahçe, and Barcola scored a hat-trick against a weak LASK.
Barkley took Aston Villa’s penalty, even with Jackson on a hat-trick.
Isak, Gakpo, and Szoboszlai weren't in the Liverpool squad. Iraola said they were “not far” from a return but didn’t commit to a timeline.
Europa League
Teams involved: Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Bournemouth.
No notable injuries we didn’t already know about.
Brobbey was on the bench for Sunderland, but wasn’t used, even when Sunderland needed a goal.
Conference League
Teams involved: Brighton.
No notable injuries we didn’t already know about.
Hinshelwood played 57 minutes - his first appearance since August. He scored and racked up 0.66xG.
Groß started and played 57 minutes. De Cuyper didn’t start but came on at half-time. Brighton won the game 4-0. Neither player made a goal contribution.
*We aim for a medium amount of tedium in these free emails, but if you do want a more detailed account, you’ll get it with Premium.
What are the top managers doing this week?
Summary for the Lazy: Not a great deal, if they can get away with it.
The early-season flurry of chip usage has ended, ushering in a period of relative calm for most good managers.
The aim now is to stockpile free transfers in case of a Doomsday scenario, and this gameweek is as good a week as any to start hoarding those tinned foods. Ideally, you want the maximum of five free transfers going into the Christmas period, which will be more congested than you’ll be when you inevitably catch a cold just in time for the big day.
Schade owners will wait for more news before getting rid of him. Brentford play Liverpool next, but Hull in Gameweek 8, and if Schade’s injury is short-term, they’ll be glad they kept hold of him for that.
So, if Gameweeks 1-5 were defined by aggressive chip usage ahead of the first international break, gameweeks 6-10 will likely be defined by patience, calm and letting those Wildcard teams mature.
Well, that’s the theory, at least. FPL is rarely calm for long.
On De Cuyper and Groß.
Summary for the Lazy: They’re not bad picks, but take caution if you’re transferring them in this week.
The two most-transferred-in players this week are Brighton’s De Cuyper and Groß. We talked about Groß last week, and how, even if he’s significantly overperforming, he’s still worth his price tag (which, btw, is now £6.0m - a whole £0.5m more than he was in Gameweek 1).
He duly rewarded our recommendation with a rather fortuitous assist (his expected assists were 0.19 for the whole game).
De Cuyper, too, reminded us why he’s still the highest-scoring defender in the game, with a goal, a clean sheet and 15 points.
Clearly, these are good players. You don’t transfer out these players, and nobody will judge you for bringing them in.
But they’re the two most overperforming players in the game.
Here’s a bonus graphic, courtesy of @CryptoTan01 on X.
Interesting note: 5 of the 8 underperformers are Bournemouth players.
Somewhere, deep in the bowels of LazyFPL HQ, an alarm goes off whenever the two most-purchased players in a gameweek also happen to be the two biggest overperformers. The alarm is one of those talking ones, and it repeats “Possible Trap, Possible Trap, Possible Trap”. It’s actually really annoying.
Brighton face Crystal Palace next, but after that it’s Liverpool away, Man City away, and Brentford at home. These fixtures are peppered with European matches, which puts so much strain on the calendar that it’s in serious danger of being confused for a colander.
De Cuyper played the second half in their 4-0 thrashing of FK Kauno Žalgiris. Groß started, but was withdrawn in the 57th minute. If that game is anything to go by, it doesn’t look like the Conference League is going to have an immediate impact on the Premier League minutes of these players.
But fatigue is cumulative. Would Groß have stayed on if the game was still 0-0? Might De Cuyper start against different opponents? Will we continue to ask rhetorical questions that we can’t possibly answer at this point?
This doesn’t mean either player is a bad pick, but those rushing to buy them should proceed with caution: statistically, these players are the luckiest in the game so far this season, and luck tends to balance itself out over time.
The best captain for Gameweek 7.
Summary for the Lazy: It’s Haaland.
The Norse God at home to Ipswich is clear and obvious. Captain him and relax.
The Professor is still trying to hoard free transfers, like a mad, medieval king hoarding riches. Here’s his current team:
Like a club under a transfer embargo, the Prof is putting faith in the lads he’s got.
It’s not the prettiest bench in the world, but in theory, their main job is to sit down and keep warm, so he’s hoping they’ll get it done.
Haaland gets the armband, and not because he’s a weak swimmer.
Player stats.
Team stats.
Other stuff we found interesting.
20 of Arsenal’s 21 goals this season (all competitions) have come from open play - the highest ratio of any Premier League side.
Jaissle (Newcastle manager) backs Fernandez-Pardo at No. 9, which probably isn’t great for Wissa owners.
Arteta says Saka should be aiming for “two to three” goals per game.
Gameweek 8 brings back FNF (or Friday Night Football, if you’re not fluent in bellend parlance), so we’ll be back in your inbox next Thursday evening.
We’d wish you good luck for Gameweek 7, but since when has that ever made a difference?
Stay lazy,
The LazyFPL Team.