šŸ“ˆ GW10 - what you need to know šŸ§ 

Everything you need to make Gameweek 10 a banger.

šŸšØ The stuff you should know šŸšØ

ā° Gameweek 10ā€™s deadline is 18:30 BST on Friday 27th October.

šŸ§¢ Possibly the trickiest captaincy decision of the season.

šŸ¤• Isak and Jesus both off injured during UCL fixtures.

šŸ¤¦ā€ā™‚ļø Udogie in training after ā€œtightnessā€, but still a doubt.

šŸ‘€ hereā€™s a Reddit thread that lists every FPL asset and how many minutes they played midweek.

Stick around for reasons not to own Haaland, Salah, Watkins, Saka, Trippier or Son.

Alright?

Gameweek 10 is often cited as the point in which we must start taking our FPL ranks seriously.

Presumably, this is because weā€™ve finally reached double-figures.

But as we often explain to newcomers, we should treat the FPL season like we would a person. This season is about to turn 10 gameweeks old. Itā€™s still a child.

Would you take a 10-year-old seriously? Perhaps in some areas, but not where any serious decision-making is concerned. 10-year-olds arenā€™t allowed to vote. They canā€™t drive. Theyā€™re basically lunatics, fuelled by copious amounts of Prime, Xbox Live and pure impulse.

Itā€™s not until a person reaches their late teens that we can seriously start to judge their virtues and flaws.

All which is to say, if youā€™re not having a good season, thereā€™s still plenty of room to turn it around. Gameweek 18/19 is a much more reliable measure of how your season has started.

Letā€™s crack on.

What happened in Europe?

Thursday nightā€™s European fixtures are yet to conclude, but hereā€™s whatā€™s happened in this weekā€™s Championā€™s League fixtures.

Man United 1 - 0 FC Kobenhavn

Harry Maguire continued his redemption arc by scoring the only goal of the game. Andre Onana, another unlikely hero, saved a late penalty too. Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford both played 90.

Sevilla 1 - 2 Arsenal

The two Gabriels (Martinelli and Jesus) scored, with the latter also getting an assist. Jesus went off injured on ā€˜81, and Bukayo Saka needed treatment on ā€˜33 (but remained on the pitch until ā€˜81 too). Jesusā€™ injury isnā€™t thought to be serious.

Newcastle 0 - 1 Dortmund

Alexander Isak went off on ā€˜15 with an injury. Josh Murphy (shoulder) was also replaced by the returning Joe Willock. Kieran Trippier and Anthony Gordon both played 90.

Young Boys 1 - 3 Man City

Erling Haaland bagged a brace, Manuel Akanji also scored. Ruben Dias and Rodri bagged an assist and Rodri won a penalty too. Julian Alvarez only played 20 minutes but had a goal disallowed.

This team, is coming like a ghost team.

Incase the endless aisles of orange and black tat in the supermarkets werenā€™t enough of a hint, itā€™s Halloween soon.

Whilst weā€™re deeply cynical of Halloween here at LazyHQ (fancy dress is a lazy managerā€™s worst nightmare), we felt this week was as good a week as any to talk about ghost teams. Particularly because of this weekā€™s captaincy situation.

Hereā€™s where the land lies:

  • Haaland will almost certainly be this weekā€™s most popular captain.

  • But he will probably not be the most popular captain amongst active teams.

  • Thatā€™s because of ghost teams.

In Gameweek 1, every FPL team is an active team. But as the season ticks on, and people start to realise that managing a fantasy team is a relentless pit of misery and despair, some teams get abandoned. We call these ghost teams.

Most ghost teams arenā€™t a threat. But just like a jockey-less horse at the Grand National, sometimes the best thing for an FPL team is to be abandoned by its manager. No matter where youā€™re ranked, itā€™s highly likely there are ghost teams above you at the moment.

Like this one discovered by @FPLFocal:

It hasnā€™t made a move since Triple Captaining in Gameweek 4.

Thereā€™s no tactic - nor is there a need - to mitigate for ghost teams, but itā€™s worth bearing them in mind, particularly when youā€™ve had a bad gameweek. If youā€™re captaining Mohamed Salah this week and Haaland scores a hat-trick, itā€™s likely youā€™ll get a red arrow.

Just remember this: you wonā€™t be losing ground to that many active managers. Some of the teams thatā€™ve leap-frogged you will be ghost teams. Hollow corpses, roaming the land of the living, destined to fade into obscurity eventually.

Salah, Haaland, Son, Watkins, Saka, Trippier.

These are the six players that most FPL pundits agree are ā€œessentialā€ - or as close to essential as an FPL player can be.

All have:

  • good form

  • solid underlying stats

  • FPL pedigree

But this is FPL, not the Saudi Arabian royal family. We canā€™t just buy everyone.

The current combined value of these six players is Ā£60.1m, leaving around Ā£40m to fill the other nine slots (or a near-impossible average price-per-player of just Ā£4.4m).

Just like Henry VIIIā€™s wives, a few of these six will need to be dispensed of. But who?

The reality is that it could be any of them. You see, whilst some might call these players essential, it turns out all of them have at least one compelling reason why theyā€™re not:

Haaland - the most expensive, but not the highest scoring. Has only racked up 0.32xG in his last three Premier League games. Not great fixtures.

Salah - stats are incredibly average without penalties. Heā€™s managed just 1.5 non-penalty expected goals from the last 4 games, despite scoring 5. Are penalties sustainable?

Watkins - one of the most over-performing players in the game. Has 13 attacking returns from an expected goal involvement of just 4.7.

Son - trickier fixtures than the others. Next seven: Palace (A), Chelsea (H), Wolves (A), Villa (H), Man City (A), West Ham (H) and Newcastle (H).

Saka - injury prone recently, shares points (and penalties).

Trippier - tough fixtures on the horizon. Has six assists from just 2.97 expected assists.

Trippierā€™s expected stats arenā€™t nearly as good as his actual returns.

The decision of who to omit rests on the type of manager you are, and what your team currently looks like. Do you prioritise great fixtures or great underlying stats? Do you prefer recent form or season-long consistency?

It turns out none of the ā€œbig sixā€ tick every box. None are essential.

The best captain for Gameweek 10.

Haaland (away vs Man United)
Saka (home vs Sheffield United)
Watkins (home vs Luton)
Salah (home vs Nottingham Forest)
Son (away vs Crystal Palace)

There are five viable captaincy options this gameweek. This is a rare event, like a total solar eclipse, or Sheffield United keeping a clean sheet.

We published an article that analyses this predicament in more depth on our sister website, FPLTips.

TL;DR: The Professor is backing Mohamed Salah.

Whilst Haaland is still the bookiesā€™ favourite to score, weā€™d guess that most of Salahā€™s owners will be captaining him - fresh off the back of consecutive braces - at home against Nottingham Forest.

But itā€™s a good week for a differential. Armbands will be spread more thinly than the last sheet of toilet paper this weekend, meaning anyone who does decide to take a captaincy punt does so with less risk than usual.

Given his form, his popularity, the fact heā€™s on penalties and his fixture, Mo Salah gets our nod.

The key stats.

Here are the most important numbers going into Gameweek 10.

The Professorā€™s team.

You might remember that last week the Professor extolled the virtues of Kostas Tsimikas in our last newsletter. Well, now heā€™s seriously considering bringing him in for Destiny Udogie, who is a doubt for Gameweek 10 after picking up a knock.

Much of his decision will depend on any line-up information prior to kick-off. Spurs play first, which makes it more likely heā€™ll have news before the deadline.

Captain - Salah.

Hereā€™s how his team currently looks:

Fantasy Football Hubā€™s MyTeam gives the Profā€™s team a very decent 92% rating and a predicted points of 63.8.

Want to find out what it makes of your team? Click here to try it for free.

Other stuff we found interesting.

  • The clocks change this weekend in the UK, which means Sundayā€™s kick-off times in non-clock-changing countries might be weird.

  • Sandro Tonali has been banned for 10 months due to gambling.

  • Watkins starts in the Europa League.

  • Estupinan is back in individual training, but wonā€™t be ready yet.

Thatā€™s all for today.

Normal scheduling resumes next week, so weā€™ll be back in your inbox on Friday morning (UK time).

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.