📈 GW24 - the cheat-sheet for success 🔥

Summary for the lazy

⏰ Gameweek 24's deadline is 11:00 GMT, Saturday 18th February

😐 It's a regular, boring-bastard 10-fixture gameweek

🤯 Gameweek 27 is a double, BUT one of those doubles could be cancelled 

⛔️ Nathan Jones sacked by Southampton

🥚 Guardiola ascends into near-ludicrous levels of line-up horseplay

Stick around for some differentials with remarkable stats that nobody seems to have noticed.

G'day,

Gameweek 24 is neither a double nor a blank gameweek. It is prefix-less.

That should be the norm, but given the gluttonous nature of this overfed, truncated season, a regular gameweek feels rather odd.

In this email, we'll be prodding Gameweek 24 with a long, nobbly stick to see if there's any sign of life in it.

Is it - as some managers claim - merely a featureless stepping stone between the grassy embankments of Double Gameweek 23 and Dank Gameweek 25? Or is it a hidden gem, filled with intriguing opportunities for savvy FPL managers?

It's probably just a regular gameweek in FPL, but grab your stick and let's give it a poke nonetheless.

Fantasy, but with actual prizes

Did you know that neither last season's overall FPL winner (hey Jamie, if you're reading) or the winner prior to him (Michael, are you a subscriber?) have received their prizes yet? 

It sucks.

Sorare, meanwhile, gives out prizes all the time. In one of this weekend's fantasy tournaments, they're giving out over $15k in prizes (plus 630 rare cards).

I've joined Sorare since they signed their deal with the Premier League, and I'm yet to win anything. But that's because I'm crap at fantasy football. You might have a better chance if you know your stuff.

I did, however, get my free card, and that's because I joined via our sponsor, Sorare Starter.

If you sign up to Sorare via Sorare Starter, you'll get an unbeatable sign-up bonus and access to loads of handy resources. I've used them, and they're really helpful.

Best of all, it's totally free to get started.

Double Gameweek 27

Hours after we sent last week's email, it was announced that Gameweek 27 would play host to doubles for Brighton, Brentford, Crystal Palace and Southampton. Because apparently the previous fixture schedule was just too easy for FPL managers to navigate.

Friend of the newsletter FPLFocal made an excellent graphic to illustrate the announcement:

But hold your horses, because apparently even that was too simple.

Now there's a very real chance that Brighton's already-rearranged fixture against Crystal Palace will have to be rearranged yet again.

This is one to keep an eye on, and we'll endeavour to keep you updated if/when we get more news.

For now, we should probably assume that Brighton et al will play two fixtures in Gameweek 27. We'll discuss the players to target nearer the time.

Here's how the current schedule looks, according to Ben Crellin:

Another one bites the dust

Last week we told you that Leeds had parted ways with Jesse Marsch.

This week, Nathan Jones' tenure at Southampton comes to an end after his side were on the receiving end of a 10-man comeback against the hardly-free-scoring Wolves.

For a moment, it looked near-certain that Jesse Marsch had taken the M1 down from Leeds to replace him, but talks have "broken down" in the last 24h.

It means The Saints are likely to be in the custody of caretaker manager Ruben Selles for the time being.

The consensus amongst Saints fans is a heady mix of anger and "I suppose it could be worse" - i.e. the view that literally every football fan has towards their club.For further reading, Lucy Highnett tends to be spot-on when it comes to anything Southampton-related.

Pep up to his old tricks

There was a brief moment - somewhere between Gameweek 3 and Gameweek 16 - where Pep's team selection was almost - almost - predictable.

We got used to it. A few of us might've even taken it for granted. 

We were fools.

Presumably bored with happy FPL managers, Pep waited for a Double Gameweek to unleash this monstrosity upon the world:

No Akanji, no Lewis, but virtually every attacker in his repertoire. 

But it didn't stop there. With Haaland on the pitch, City were awarded a penalty. Triple Captainers rejoiced until it was Mahrez that stepped up to bury it.

Pep later confirmed that yes, Haaland is still the number 1 penalty taker. He just...fancied messing with everyone, I suppose.

That alarm that used to sound whenever you contemplated bringing in a City asset? It might just need dusting off and testing.

The bald fraud is back.

The key stats

The important digits you need for Gameweek 24.

Not the social type?

We've added a new feature to our Premium subscription: The LazyFPL Broadcast WhatsApp group.

We realise that some people would rather not be in a massive WhatsApp group full of notifications, so we've created a second group exclusively for need-to-know FPL news that only a select few admins can post in.

If you want easy and noise-free access to stuff like team leaks, injury news, press conference summaries, price rises/falls and loads more, as well as two extra emails per week written by the Professor, join LazyFPL Premium here for the price of a cup of coffee.

The best captain for Gameweek 24

A regular gameweek usually means a picture of Haaland in this section. But such has been the freakishness of Rashford's recent form that, for a change, you're actually going to get a bit of captaincy discussion. It feels like the 17/18 season all over again.The exceptional @LazyFPL twitter account posted this yesterday:

It's pretty compelling, and begs an important question we should always be asking ourselves: is captaining Haaland this week the sensible pick, or the sentimental pick?

It's highly likely that Haaland will be the most captained player in your mini-league. Whilst it's boring, this fact alone means - if you're winning your mini-leagues - it probably makes sense to pick the Norse God. 

He also scored a hat-trick last time City played Forest, though Forest seem to have turned a defensive corner since then.

But form-wise, it's hard to ignore Rashford, who also scored against Barcelona on Thursday evening. The United man could be the perfect pick for those wanting to gain ground on their mini-league leaders without sticking their necks too far above the proverbial parapet. 

The fact remains that, whilst Rashford's form is superior right now, it's Haaland who still tops the expected goal involvement charts going into Gamweeek 24. In fact, Rashford doesn't even make the top 10.

I'll be captaining Haaland, but I won't blame anyone who takes a punt on Rashford.

The Professor's Team

Here's the Prof's team. He - like most - is planning to roll a transfer this week. He may yet start Dunk over Trippier.

OR: 63k

The Prof is using the BetterFPL chrome extension, which is why his team view looks so much more sophisticated. Try it free for a month with the rather outdated code [FPLTIPS].

Some bonus differentials

We usually hate differentials in these parts, but as the season ebbs on, differentials make more sense for managers who need to gain ground. And besides, today we've got some absolute gems, courtesy of our Twitter account:

What a stat.

In fact, there are three players from Leicester that deserve some attention: Kelechi Iheanacho, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison. 

Maddison is averaging 6.3 FPL points per start this season, with an expected goal involvement of 0.99 per 90 (which is huge). 

Barnes, meanwhile, has started every game this season. According to The Professor:"For the first season ever, Harvey Barnes isn’t being rotated. He’s started every single game this season for Leicester.

And on top of that, out of all ‘nailed’ on midfielders, Harvey Barnes is only behind Mohammed Salah and Marcus Rashford for non-penalty expected goals per 90."

Blimey. Leicester have only been good for two games, so they're worth monitoring for now, but they're likely to have a good double in Gameweek 29 and will probably avoid a blank in Gameweek 32 too. Intriguing.

Most of your mini-league rivals will be rolling their transfers this week, and you probably should too. Expect a couple of rogues to go for Joao Felix, who, with a relatively low 180k transfers in at the time of writing, is still this week's most transferred in player. 

It's the calm before the storm.

Speaking of the storm, we'll see you next Thursday evening ahead of Dank Gameweek 25.

Make sure you bring your brolly and a decent pair of wellies.The LazyFPL team.