🚨 GW32: The FPL cheat sheet 🧠

⏰ Gameweek 32’s deadline is Friday, 10th April, 18:30 BST (Note: The UK has swapped time zones from GMT to BST).

🚨 Double Gameweek 33 and Blank Gameweek 34 have been announced. Man City, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Leeds will play twice in DGW33 and blank in BGW34.

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👀 Most managers will be playing their Wildcard this week ahead of a Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33. This is not the only strategy, but the most popular.

🤝 We published a bonus newsletter earlier this week that outlines the conventional approach to chips and provides a Wildcard draft.

Alright?

Poor old Gameweek 32. It didn’t deserve this. On paper, it’s a perfectly normal gameweek: 10 fixtures, Friday to Monday…the sort of gameweek that pays its taxes, has a roast on Sundays and chooses a smoothie as part of its meal deal to maximise value. Standard issue stuff.

And yet, for reasons outside of its control, it will likely be the least-talked-about gameweek of the season. Sure, plenty of managers are playing their Wildcard this week, but it’s not to capitalise on Gameweek 32’s twists and turns - it’s to increase the effectiveness of a Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33.

But these stepping-stone gameweeks are just as important as the others, and overlooking them can be perilous. So in today’s newsletter, we’re going to underlook Gameweek 32, which, for the avoidance of doubt, means we’re going to examine it with the same sort of scrutiny usually only seen when your Dad has to check a rental car for hidden dents.

Right. So the LazyFPL experts are torn.

It looks like half of them (including the Prof and our resident Hall of Famer, Cooper) are opting to Wildcard this week, while the other half, including this season’s highest-ranked pundit Chris (currently top 5k), are planning to save it for Gameweek 35.

A month of LazyFPL Premium will see you through to GW36, giving you access to every expert team reveal along the way and allowing you to follow the strategy that best matches your own.

Going Premium will give you access to:

Blank Gameweek 31 was so long ago that it feels like it happened in the 90s. Eiffel 65 is on the radio, John Virgo is on the telly, and Morgan Rogers is finally getting an assist.

A lot has happened since. Here’s a lazy breakdown:

Spurs sacked Igor Tudor and hired Roberto De Zerbi.

For FPL managers, Spurs' decision to get rid of Igor Tudor makes them an unknown quantity again. Whilst the new manager bounce is real (as demonstrated by a study by the Premier League itself), it didn’t exactly work for them last time.

The Professor dedicated a lot of words to this topic in a recent premium newsletter, and concluded that whilst De Zerbi’s Premier League record isn’t exactly sparkling, it may not be the terrible appointment that some outlets are making out.

The FA Cup quarter-finals concluded.

Man City, Leeds and Chelsea progressed, but Arsenal were knocked out against Southampton. Check out Fotmob for the scores, line-ups and goal scorers, if you’re that way inclined.

International games happened.

There were also international fixtures during the break - friendlies for some, crucial World Cup qualifiers for others. England were characteristically disappointing and nearly every Arsenal player managed to find a way to return to the club earlier than scheduled.

European quarter-finals started.

Arsenal beat Sporting 1-0 in Lisbon thanks to a stoppage-time Kai Havertz winner, though the bigger FPL takeaway is that neither Jurrien Timber nor Bukayo Saka travelled and both were absent from training again today. Liverpool, meanwhile, were beaten 2-0 by PSG without registering a shot on target, with Alexander Isak returning from injury off the bench while Mohamed Salah remained unused.

If one serving of quarter-finals wasn’t enough, there’s more tonight: Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest are both in Europa League action, while Crystal Palace host Fiorentina in the Conference League.

Lazy summary: Arsenal’s failure to beat Southampton has unlocked a perfectly viable alternative to the current chip strategy. But it’s a risk to go against the grain.

In seasons gone by, a double gameweek announcement is a reason for jubilation. FPL managers would fill the streets, unfurling banners from their windows and air-guitaring the bassline to Rush’s Double Agent as it blasts from thousands of speakers in unison.

But some managers are angry that Double Gameweek 33 has only six doubling teams, and not eight. An Arsenal win against Southampton would’ve meant they and Newcastle would’ve doubled as well.

It’s enough to deter some from following the chip strategy that, up until now, has been unquestioningly considered the best route: Wildcard in Gameweek 32, Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33, Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 34, and Triple Captain (if you still have it) in Double Gameweek 36.

Other strategies - like Free Hitting in Double Gameweek 33, surviving Blank Gameweek 34 and then Wildcarding and Bench Boosting later in the season - are being flirted with. Let’s see if they’re marriage material.

The argument for the alternative strategy.

If you don’t have a huge number of doublers ahead of Double Gameweek 33, that also means you don’t have a huge number of blankers for Blank Gameweek 34.

Which will mean you can probably navigate Blank Gameweek 34 with free transfers alone.

So, Free Hitting next week to bring in 11 doubling players might be feasible for you. Then you’ve got your Wildcard and Bench Boost to use for the run-in.

The other issue with Wildcarding now, with Double Gameweek 33 in mind, is that it probably means picking a relatively poor team for Gameweek 32, given how the fixtures fall. You’ll want Man City, Chelsea, Bournemouth and Leeds players for the double, but they all have crap fixtures this weekend.

The problem with the alternative strategy.

Having said all that, there are two glaring issues with saving your Wildcard and Bench Boost for later in the season:

1) The Wildcard is most effective when it has time to marinate. Playing it in Gameweek 35, for example, only gives you a small window in which to enjoy the fruits of your new team.

2) The Bench Boost is naturally more effective (and more fun) when a large number of your squad have double gameweeks. Whilst Gameweek 36 will likely see Man City and Crystal Palace double, Double Gameweek 33 is by far the biggest and best opportunity to field close to 15 doubling players.

The lazy verdict.

At Lazy HQ, we encourage everyone to play however they want. Different strategies can work. But generally, the most popular approaches in FPL are popular for a reason.

Our advice remains the same as it did before the FA Cup quarter-finals: If you want to walk the risk-free path between here and Gameweek 38, your best bet is to stick to the conventional approach - Wildcard this week, Bench Boost next week, Free Hit the week after that.

Again, in case you missed it, we published a whole newsletter earlier this week about the doubles, blanks, chips and teams to target.

We shared a passable draft in this week’s bonus newsletter, but here’s another one for those too lazy to click the link above.

Dubravka in goal for those lacking in team value, a Stach gamble in the hope he’s fit for Double Gameweek 33 (maybe wait for presser news from Farke), and some single Gameweek options for those who believe doubles are overrated.

Lazy summary: It’s beach season soon. This handy graphic is worth a look.

Are you beach body ready?

Nope, don’t check in the mirror - we’re obviously talking about the number of bodies you have in your team who may be on the beach before long.

For the uninitiated, teams and players are “on the beach” when their fates for the season are sealed. An already-relegated team is on the beach. An uncatchable league winner is on the beach. A mid-table team with no prospect of European qualification or relegation is also on the beach.

Does being “on the beach” actually impact performance?

The common wisdom is that teams on the beach are more likely to rotate their line-ups, concede silly goals and generally fail to fight for a game with the same vigour as the teams with something still to play for.

This feels intuitive. In an article released in 2023, The Guardian argued that “on the beach” is a myth. Even if a team has checked out, the individuals within the team still have too much to play for, such as bonuses, awards, and general standing in the squad.

But this video demonstrates that there is, in fact, a small drop-off in performance, based on average points gained whilst “on the beach” vs when there’s something to play for.

If you’re the sort of FPL manager who loves a marginal gain, X user robtfpl put together an excellent graphic which shows the odds of a team being on the beach.

Lazy summary: It’s Bruno Fernandes.

Those of you who backed Bruno Fernandes in recent tricky captaincy picks have been rewarded with the sort of consistency we’ve come to expect from the Man United man. He now has seven attacking returns in his last four games.

Leeds at home is a nice enough fixture for him to continue his form. Leeds aren’t exactly pushovers, and they’ll be particularly fired up for this derby given the precarious league position they find themselves in, but Bruno has returned against better teams in recent weeks.

An honourable mention to Igor Thiago, whose home fixture against Everton is worth a mention. His form isn’t good enough to back him over Fernandes, but he’s a worthy vice-captain. I’m sure he’s thrilled at that assessment.

The Prof is looking to hit more doubles than Luke Littler in Gameweek 33, so he’s Wildcarding now to set up a monster Bench Boost.

He’s picked up a Brighton mid despite the rotation worries, is holding just one single Gameweek player, and has his concerns about a certain popular pick.

But like your auntie eight proseccos deep at a wedding, things are a bit blurry.

Why is the Prof’s team blurred?

A fair question.

This newsletter is free and always will be. There’s never any obligation to upgrade, and while we do occasionally run ads, we’re very deliberate about it. We only include things we genuinely think our readers will like, and we turn down plenty that would make more money but worsen the experience.

LazyFPL is an independent business, and it only exists because some readers choose to support it through Premium.

In a week as important as this one, it would feel like a disservice to those Premium members to reveal the Prof’s team to more than 100,000 managers. The whole point of paying for LazyFPL Premium is to gain an edge, and revealing his team in one of the most important chip weeks of the season would undermine that.

So on big decision weeks like this, we blur his team.

If you’ve ever found the newsletter useful, or even just tolerated our terrible jokes, please consider supporting us by going Premium.

👀 There’s a good chance you’re wildcarding this week, but keeping good single-gameweek players (like Bruno Fernandes and Gabriel) feels prudent for Gameweek 32.

🤞 Remember, the European quarter-final second legs take place next week. Some of your big players may be withdrawn early or rested altogether.

We’re back in your inbox next Friday morning ahead of the biggest double gameweek of the season. Until then, try not to pass out from all the excitement.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.

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