Gameweek 4 | Everything you need to know.

The Stuff You Should Know

🚨 Gameweek 4’s deadline is Saturday 14th September, 11:00 BST.

💙 Haaland trained on Thursday but will be afforded compassionate leave if he needs it after the death of close family friend Ivar Eggja.

🤕 Odegaard returns from international break on crutches.

🦶 Elliott fractures his foot.

🤦‍♂️ Calafiori, Ake, Konsa and Mosquera also pick up injuries.

🎮 It’s a good time to join us on Sleeper because our monthly prize resets. Win an Xbox Series X by predicting some results (it’s free!). Click here to play.

Keep reading for an optimal Gameweek 4 Wildcard team.

Alright?

If you’re reading this, it means you’ve survived the first international break of the 24/25 season.

Did you enjoy it? Of course you didn’t. The first rule of shite club (you join shite club the moment you register an FPL account, btw) is an easy one: nobody enjoys the international break.

The good news is that unless you own one of a few fringe defenders, Martin Odegaard or Harvey Elliott, your team probably got off scot-free.

In this week’s newsletter, we’ll talk briefly about what happened over the international break, share an optimal Wildcard team and look at why everyone is getting rid of the likes of Alexander Isak, Bukayo Saka and Josko Gvardiol.

(btw, I’m in Turkey at the moment so this week’s email will be particularly brief. Anyone been to Turkey or from here? Please reply with recommendations).

Gameweek 4’s fixtures.

I calibrated my laptop to BST just so the times of these fixtures wouldn’t give you a panic attack. You’re welcome.

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Will Erling Haaland miss Gameweek 4?

Ivar Eggja, a father of three and a very close family friend of Erling Haaland, passed away at the age of 59 on Wednesday.

It’s always uncomfortable to talk about the FPL implications of something tragic like this, but we exist only to give you information that will impact your FPL team, so that’s what we’re going to do.

Haaland trained on Thursday, but has been offered compassionate leave should he want it. He was given a similar offer when his grandmother passed away earlier this year and did not take it, choosing to focus on the football instead.

It’s obviously unclear whether he’ll opt to take it here, but the fact he was at training on Thursday has been interpreted by some as a sign that he’ll choose to play this weekend.

Either way, we’d recommend keeping him, starting him and captaining him. He’ll either start against Brentford or miss the game altogether - this is why vice captains and solid benches exist.

What happened over the international break?

Summary for the Lazy: some injuries, none to any highly owned players.

The most significant (severity-wise, not FPL-wise) injury over the international break was to Harvey Elliott, who has reportedly fractured his foot. There’s a growing theory that his absence could benefit Dominic Szoboszlai, who should now be nailed as Liverpool’s Number 10.

Martin Odegaard was probably the highest profile loss: he was subbed off in Norway’s 2-1 win against Austria with an ankle injury. He was later photographed boarding a jet on crutches, which, if nothing else, must surely have impacted his ability to squeeze in a pre-flight Wetherspoons. The Guardian has reported that he’s expected to be out for at least three weeks.

Ezri Konsa was also subbed off early with a knee injury against Finland. Early reports suggest it’s nothing serious, but at the time of writing he’s not a certainty for Villa’s Gameweek 4 fixture against Everton.

Injuries to Yerson Mosquera (who went off on a stretcher), Nathan Ake (muscle) and Riccardo Calafiori (calf) may be irritating for owners, but none sound particularly serious based on initial reports.

Why did some players miss out?

You might’ve seen that Cole Palmer, Ollie Watkins and Phil Foden pulled out of international duty due to injury and illness.

Cue some more FPL lore: the mysterious Two-Week-Ankle-Twinge (TWAT).

In a phenomenon that still baffles the medical community, these injuries only occur during international breaks, and heal as soon as club football returns.

Owners should take heart from the fact that all three were photographed in their club’s most recent training sessions.

The peril of a late return

Sometimes players return late from international duty - particularly those who have to commute from the further reaches of FIFA’s ecosystem.

New Zealander Chris Wood is one such example - he’s being assessed ahead of Gameweek 4’s clash with Liverpool. Joao Pedro is another - he flew back on Wednesday after playing 45 minutes for Brazil. Hurzeler confirmed that he and Brighton’s medical team are doing what they can to be ready for Saturday.

There isn’t a huge amount we can do to legislate for late returns. It would be short-sighted to remove a player on this basis unless they’re categorically ruled out before the deadline. Besides, unlike previous international intervals, all games were wrapped up by Tuesday evening this time around, which bodes well for us chumps.

The anatomy of a kneejerk.

Summary for the Lazy: maybe don’t get rid of good, fit players so hastily.

There are a number of fit, nailed players who, after the first three gameweeks, are now being judged as surplus to requirement. It’s sort of like when you spend months researching a hotel, only to cancel your booking five minutes into your stay because the reception hasn’t been hoovered.

Getting rid of an out-of-form (but still very good) player to bring in an in-form trendy pick is sometimes called a kneejerk.

Kneejerks are particularly common at this time of year. For reasons unbeknownst to us, most managers give their Gameweek 1 picks three weeks to germinate. If they’re still not showing signs of life by Gameweek 3, they get binned.

It’s why Josko Gvardiol, Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon, Diogo Jota and even Bukayo Saka are amongst the top 10 most transferred out players this week. Remember when those players felt essential? Of course you do, because it was like 180 minutes of Premier League football ago.

The thing is, three gameweeks is way too small a sample size to judge the merits of players who, historically, have been very good picks. Watkins didn’t score any goals until Gameweek 5 last season: by the end of Gameweek 6 he had four goals to his name and he ended the season on more points than Erling Haaland. 

It’s an extreme example, but one that illustrates the dangers of premature evacuation. The Lazy methodology is to give these players more time so long as they remain likely to play.

Besides, surely you have bigger fires to put out first?

The optimal Gameweek 4 Wildcard squad.

Some of you are playing your Wildcard this week.

We talked about whether the Wildcard was a good option last week, and the key takeaway was that it’s a good option if your team needs it and a bad option if it doesn’t.

If you fall into that former category - or if you’re just Wildcard-curious - we turned to The Professor for an optimal Wildcard draft ahead of Gameweek 4.

This is what he produced:

He goes into some deep analysis on this team - why he’s opted for certain picks and the transfers he’d make in subsequent gameweeks - in his post-Gameweek 3 premium email.

If you want to sign-up to LazyFPL Premium so you can be on the receiving end of the good stuff (and support the newsletter, and get loads of other benefits too), click here.

The best captain for Gameweek 4.

Summary for the Lazy: it’s Haaland.

Erling Haaland at home to Brentford is the pick.

If he doesn’t play due to the aforementioned compassionate leave, your vice-captaincy will come in clutch, and that ought to be on Mohamed Salah if you own him.

The Egyptian will be the second-most popular pick for obvious reasons. We don’t encourage captaincy experimentation this early in the season, so any pick outside of these two should be taken with extreme caution.

A green arrow for The Professor in Gameweek 3 means his rank remains somewhere between #1st and #5,000,000th. His rank really doesn’t matter at this point which means - you guessed it - neither does yours.

Erling Haaland gets the armband and he’s rolling yet another transfer.

The key stats.

We just sent out a PS5 - this month it’s an Xbox.

We gave out a PS5 in August thanks to Sleeper, a free-to-play Premier League results prediction game.

This month we’re sending an Xbox Series X to one of you too.

All you have to do is predict Premier League results. Not the scores, but just which teams win/draw.

One correct prediction = one point. The most points in September = Xbox.

This is an invite to join our league. It’s a great time to start because it’s the start of the month, so you have an equal chance of winning even if you’re just starting.

Click it for the funny league name, stay for the good times.

Other stuff we found interesting.

1. Palmer is one of three Chelsea players omitted from Chelsea’s Conference League group stage squad to manage his workload.

2. Isak spoke of how he feels when FPL managers back him. Watch the clip.

3. This Guardian article about FPL obsession.

Right, in the words of Andrea Bocelli, it’s time to say goodbye. We’ll see you at the same time next week.

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.