Liverpool and Everton will both get a Double Gameweek 24 after last month’s postponed Merseyside derby was rescheduled for Wednesday 12 February.
The initial fixture was set to take place in Gameweek 15 but adverse weather conditions led to the match being called off.
The new date is subject to Liverpool not being involved in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off round.
That’s an unlikely scenario: they need just one point from their final two games – against Lille and PSV Eindhoven – to be absolutely sure of bypassing the play-offs. Other teams dropping points will do the job for them.
WHAT DOES DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 24 LOOK LIKE NOW?
Liverpool face two trips in Double Gameweek 24. There’s a long one to Bournemouth, then a short hop across Stanley Park for the derby.
Everton are at home to Leicester City before entertaining their cross-city rivals.
CUP TIES IN BETWEEN
As the above image from Legomane shows, there are cup ties in between the two clubs’ Gameweek 24 matches.
Both sides contest FA Cup fourth-round fixtures, while Liverpool are in EFL Cup semi-final, second-leg action, too.
You’d imagine Arne Slot rotates heavily for the Plymouth Argyle game but Liverpool will surely go full strength against Tottenham Hotspur with a place at Wembley at stake.
It remains to be seen how David Moyes handles his squad for the cup clash with Bournemouth.
All of which is not ideal for Fantasy managers. Players could quite easily pick up injuries or bans before the Merseyside derby.
CHIP USAGE
Gameweek 24 is, coincidentally, the first week that we can use the new Assistant Manager chip.
There will be a few takers in Arne Slot (£1.5m), and even in David Moyes (£0.5m), as a result. Moyes would get extra points if the Toffees get a result against their local rivals.
- READ MORE: Assistant Manager chip: FPL prices revealed
It’ll also be a popular week for Triple Captain usage. Just under 75% of managers still have this intact:
EARLY THOUGHTS ON FPL TRANSFER TARGETS
It’s only four Gameweeks and 19 days till the ‘double’.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of unknowns and lots that can still happen in the interim.
EVERTON
For starters, Everton are under new stewardship after Sean Dyche’s exit. We’re not expecting a revolution under David Moyes (not a man known for tiki-taka football) but we haven’t yet seen the Toffees under their new manager.
He may have his own ideas about shape and personnel. He also may not prove to be as competent at eking out clean sheets, which was a real speciality of Dyche’s. Could he get Iliman Ndiaye (£5.4m) closer to goal after Dyche’s insistence on playing him on the left wing – or will he be a Benrahma-type pariah?
In a nutshell, a fortnight of watching the Toffees is probably the best bet before we make any moves for Everton assets anew. There’s not a great deal to gain by going early on Moyes’ mob anyway, with three tricky fixtures to come:
Providing Moyes hasn’t reinvented himself as McBielsa in his downtime and doesn’t unsettle a defence that’s more than the sum of its parts, the usual suspects of Jordan Pickford (£5.0m), Ashley Young (£4.7m) and Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.3m) will likely be the ones appealing come Gameweek 24. Pickford, who can compensate for a clean sheet loss with save points, probably tops the list.
LIVERPOOL
As for the Reds, virtually everyone bar the odd maverick and Liverpool-dodger Ben Crabtree will have Mohamed Salah (£13.7m).
Again, ‘don’t buy, don’t sell’ is the mantra ahead of Gameweek 21. Nottingham Forest are the only team to have defeated the league leaders this season, while they have also kept more clean sheets than any other club. It’s not the week to be jumping the gun on Liverpool attackers especially.
After Gameweek 21, Slot will have all six of his attackers – we’re including part-time footballer Federico Chiesa (£6.8m) in that – at his disposal. Rotation will ensue. Diogo Jota (£7.2m) especially will be a lot fitter come the turn of February, likely eating into the minutes of the current front three.
At the moment, Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) is the attacker who looks best placed for xMins after Salah – but that could change by then. Five more fixtures will have passed by the time we get to February:
You would think that Slot turns to his second string against PSV (assuming qualification is assured in the Champions League) and against Plymouth in the FA Cup. That would leave the first choices, if we can presume, say, Gakpo is one, to play on Saturday 25 January (Gameweek 23), Saturday 1 February (Gameweek 24 part one), Thursday 6 February (EFL Cup semi) and Wednesday 12 February (Gameweek 24 part two). It’d be nice if life, and FPL, were that simple…
Another subplot is Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s (£7.2m) future. The English and Spanish transfer deadlines close on Monday 3 February – that’s two days after the Gameweek 24 deadline. Could we see Real Madrid testing Liverpool’s resolve after the Bournemouth game, if not sooner?
If you want to eliminate much of the minutes’ risk at the rear, of course, then Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) and Alisson Becker (£5.4m) are the go-to guys.
