🏆 What to do in Gameweek 2 🤫

The stuff you should know 🚨

⏰ Gameweek 2’s deadline is Friday 18th August, 18:15 BST.

⛔️ It’s a Blank Gameweek (but not a proper one).

👋 Harry Kane leaves Spurs.

🤕 Kevin De Bruyne out for up to 4 months, Reece James has a hamstring issue.

🤦 Jurrien Timber could be out for most of the season.

Keep reading for the £4.0m defender who could become a regular in Chelsea’s starting line-up.

Alright?

Noel Gallagher is not usually the first voice we’d turn to when in need of sound FPL guidance, but his immortal “Don’t Look Back in Anger” refrain is perhaps the most salient piece of advice we can offer in the wake of Gameweek 1.

Some things will have gone your way in the 23/24 season’s opening track.

Other things won’t have gone your way. Like poor old Jon Moss here:

But come nice and close, because we’re only going to whisper this once: it doesn’t really matter anymore.

The only thing that matters is what you do next.

Stand up beside the fireplace, take that look from off your face. Let’s look ahead in hope to Gameweek 2.

A new hire for LazyFPL

We’ve hired someone.

But it ain’t just anyone. This guy is top brass. In fact, he’s 17th in the FPL Hall of Fame, which is the universal measure of a manager’s FPL career.

The name’s Cooper. James Cooper. In the last seven seasons, he’s finished in the top 10k six times. Imagine being that good.

His job? To hang out in our Premium WhatsApp chat and dish out expert advice to anyone in need.

Want in? Get access to our WhatsApp communities AND two extra emails every gameweek from The Professor for the price of a cheap pint per month. 100% of our members said it was good value last season but, if you don’t agree, we’ll refund you immediately.

Join here.

Gameweek 2 is a Blank Gameweek

Don’t panic, it’s only Burnley and Luton. Their game has been postponed because of a delay to Luton’s stadium improvements.

Quite why they’d want to do anything to Kenilworth Road is beyond us:

We consulted with our experts and ran various simulations to determine how to navigate this blank. After days of deliberation, a conclusion was finally reached:

1. Don’t buy Luton players.

2. Don’t buy Burnley players.

And you’ll probably be alright.

What to do about Gameweek 2

There’s a high chance you’re looking to take action after Gameweek 1.

Perhaps you want to consolidate your great start. Maybe you want to rectify a miserable opening weekend, like this unfortunate Twitter user:

But in any case, you’ve likely read somewhere that the best FPL managers are always one step ahead. Right?

Wrong.

Wanna know a secret? The best FPL managers usually sit and wait to see what everyone else is doing, and then decide whether they want to copy it or not. In other words: they’re lazy.

Unless your player is certain to miss Gameweek 2, you probably shouldn’t transfer him out. The conditions that made him a good pick last Thursday almost certainly still apply today.

The most valuable thing you can do for your team is to relax, close the FPL tab on your device, and roll a transfer into Gameweek 3.

This is the lazy way, and it works.

Our takeaways from Gameweek 1

Nope, this isn’t the part where we tell you about the Chinese we ordered on Saturday (it was lovely, btw).

We mean FPL insights. Heck, just because you probably shouldn’t be doing anything to your team this week, doesn’t mean you can’t consider the virtues of other players. After all, you’ll need to make a transfer eventually.

Here are four quick takeaways we plucked from the bushy brow of Gameweek 1:

1) Ben Chilwell is a winger in disguise

Only Raheem Sterling was more advanced for Chelsea. Chilwell was effectively a winger. He picked up an assist and a disallowed goal for his troubles.

2) Jarrod Bowen is still good

Yeah, it turns out the lad can play. But even better, Moyes has hinted at him playing as a forward.

Probably just Moyes’ infamous post-match buzz, but still worth keeping an eye on.

3) Wilson and Barnes don’t need long 

Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes only played for 11 minutes in Gameweek 1, but both made a big impact.

Wilson’s xG of 1.22 was fourth overall for Gameweek 1, whilst Barnes’ xA of 1.11 was enough to earn him the silver medal (if medals existed for underlying stats which, thankfully, they don’t).

It’s the best cameo we’ve seen since Carole Baskin roared me a Happy Birthday message back in 2020.

But Man United need time

Just like Beckham’s barnet in the 90s, Man United need time to gel.

Their rather fortuitous 1-0 win over Wolves has caused pandemonium: Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes have been transferred out by a combined 200k+ managers already.

Our advice? The same as always. Be patient, stick to your guns, stay the course (or any other cliché that’ll prevent you from making silly decisions).

Kevin De Bruyne’s injury

Kevin De Bruyne has been ruled out for the time-being, and Guardiola himself has suggested a four-month return window. Since when has Pep ever lead us FPL managers astray?

It's rubbish. FPL aside for a second, he’s an excellent player to watch.

But this is the LazyFPL newsletter, and there are fantasy implications for other City midfielders that should be discussed.

The two most obvious beneficiaries are Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez, both of whom have previously filled the Belgian-shaped hole in De Bruyne’s absence.

Indeed, it was Foden who played in the central midfield role against Sevilla in Wednesday’s Super Cup.

It’s unclear whether he’ll retain that role, but the absence of yet another midfielder makes his minutes more assured than ever.

mmkNote: City have been heavily linked to Lucas Paqueta. It’s worth keeping an eye on those developments when judging the FPL merits of other City midfielders.

Do you even bench, bro?

The biggest predicament facing you this gameweek is probably who to bench.

Your Gameweek 1 team was strong. It ate protein bars and drank pre-workout shakes that are definitely full of carcinogenics but it’s fine because Marco Arnautovic was pictured necking one before a Stoke game in 2015.

And now you’re paying the price for those gains. Or are you?

There’s a common misconception in FPL that having a bench that scores a lot of points is a bad thing.

But as The Professor explained in his most recent Premium email, the opposite is true.

Once the deadline has passed, one of two things can happen:

1) your benched players perform poorly.
2) your benched players perform well.

In scenario (1), you might feel pleased that you benched the “right” players, but ultimately, performing poorly means they’re more likely to drop in price, fall out of favour with their managers and generally cause you more headaches.

In scenario (2), whilst the short-term pain might be more acute, the long-term implications are far more beneficial for your team.

You’re aiming for scenario 2, even though every fibre of your being is yearning for scenario 1.

We’re not here to tell you who to bench (that’s impossible unless we can see your team), but we are here to say this: if your benched players perform well in Gameweek 2, don’t be too upset. Your starting XI scores the same regardless.

The best captain for Gameweek 2

It’s this guy if you own him:

And this guy if you don’t:

Btw, the artist who paints these beautifully haunting pictures of Erling Haaland is RoryPaints, who is a bit of a sensation.

We got in touch with him and, ridiculously, he’s agreed to give away a custom piece of his art to our mini-league winner. It’ll be you, riding into the sunset on a Haaland-faced centaur, clutching a trophy. That’s absolutely priceless.

Join here if you haven’t already.

The Professor’s Team

The Professor is not doing anything to his team this gameweek, because the Professor is smart.

Captain = Erling Haaland.

[The Professor uses Fantasy Football Hub’s MyTeam, which gives him an AI-powered team rating, suggested transfers, predicted points, fixture difficulties and loads more. It’s currently half price to join. If you do, please use this link.]

The key stats

We’re not showing the expected stats until a few gameweeks have passed, because our view is that they’re totally useless in the short-term.

Instead, here are the bookies’ odds, and the most transferred in/out players.

Other stuff we found interesting

• Aymeric Laporte looks set to leave Man City for - you guessed it - Saudi Arabia.

• Chelsea are currently awaiting the results of a scan on Reece James’ hamstring. In the meantime, Malo Gusto (£4.0m) is the most likely replacement.

  

• Luton have signed Tim Krul who, with years spent at Norwich City, can only be a good omen for the newly promoted side.

• John Stones has picked up a hamstring injury in training and is unavailable for Gameweek 2.

• Harry Kane’s FPL obituary.

We’ll be back in your inbox next Thursday.

In the meantime, we’re hellbent on improving these emails so, if you have a few seconds, please consider responding to the quick poll below.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL team.