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- Merseyside Derby cancelled.
Merseyside Derby cancelled.
And what it means.
The Stuff You Should Know
🚨 Everton vs Liverpool has been called off due to bad weather.
🤦 Any players involved will now have a blank gameweek.
🔄 The game will be rescheduled later in the season.
Alright?
The Merseyside Derby has been officially called off owing to heavy wind. As in, the movement of the air due to atmospheric pressure, not excessive flatulence.
In this emergency bulletin, we briefly explain what it means for your FPL team.
What happens now?
Assuming we don’t hear any more fixture news, Gameweek 15 will continue as normal. Everton vs Liverpool will effectively be treated as a blank, with the players involved unable to score points.
The fixture will be rescheduled, though it won’t be within Gameweek 15. Reorganising football matches is logistically complex.
This means Liverpool and Everton will have a Double Gameweek this season.
If you have Everton (unlikely) and Liverpool (highly likely) players in your starting 11, they’ll be automatically substituted out, and points scored in the rescheduled fixture won’t contribute to this gameweek’s tally.
In other words, it sucks. But there’s nothing we can do.
When will the game be rescheduled?
It’s unclear, but Ben Crellin, the fixture guru, posted this on Bluesky last night:
According to the ever-reliable Ben, even January 1st could be too soon for the rearranged fixture, which makes a DGW25 or DGW33 the most likely time for a double, depending on Liverpool’s performance in the EFL Cup.
Who’s the best captain now?
Mohamed Salah was a straightforward captaincy pick this week, so his absence complicates things.
Those with Erling Haaland might be tempted to opt for him away at Crystal Palace. If they’re not, they ought to ask themselves why they still own him in the first place.
Ollie Watkins at home to Southampton is an intriguing pick for his owners: the Villa man registered 12 points in his last fixture, but with fixture congestion and a UCL game next week, 90 minutes aren’t assured.
Cole Palmer away at Spurs and Bukayo Saka away at Fulham are the other two premium options.
Of these two opponents, Fulham have the better defence by some margin. Combined with Palmer’s superior attacking stats, and the fact he almost certainly won’t be handing any penalties over, he gets the nod for us.
Should you sell your Liverpool players?
Whilst it might be tempting to sell the likes of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold with a view to buying them back ahead of Gameweek 16, we’d generally advise against this.
transfers are precious and we can bank more of them this season
these scenarios are what your bench is for
we know with certainty that they’ll only miss one gameweek
you’ll probably lose money on this transaction
there aren’t really any super-tempting replacemnts this week
If you have a significant number of transfers already saved and there’s a high risk you won’t be able to field 11 players this weekend, a one-gameweek switch might be worth your while.
Otherwise, it’s time Salah and his colleagues finally meet your bench.