Manchester United will have a Triple Gameweek 35 after the Premier League announced that their postponed clash with Liverpool will take place next Thursday.
The Red Devils will also face Aston Villa and Leicester City in the next set of fixtures, with all three of their Gameweek 35 matches taking place in little more than 100 hours.
Jurgen Klopp’s troops will also have a Double Gameweek as a result of today’s announcement.
The soon-to-be-deposed reigning champions will take on Southampton on Saturday before they visit Old Trafford.
United will still blank in Gameweek 36 as a result, while Liverpool will be at home to Championship-bound West Bromwich Albion.
REVISED GAMEWEEK 35 SCHEDULE
MANCHESTER UNITED
Sun 9 May: Aston Villa (A)
Tue 11 May: Leicester City (H)
Thu 13 May: Liverpool (H)
LIVERPOOL
Sat 8 May: Southampton (H)
Thu 13 May: Manchester United (A)
REVISED GAMEWEEK 35 FIXTURE MATRIX
*Thanks to moderator Legomane
WHICH UNITED AND LIVERPOOL ASSETS STAND THE BEST CHANCE OF STARTING ALL OF THEIR GAMEWEEK 35 MATCHES?
Earlier in the week, we had a two-part look at which Double Gameweek 35 players stood the best chance of avoiding a benching in the upcoming set of fixtures.
The article linked below has been revised after today’s announcement and now includes Liverpool, along with an amended entry for Manchester United.
CHANGE OF CHIP STRATEGY/TRANSFER FOCUS?
Today’s announcement was seismic but it doesn’t change some things.
Manchester United, for example, will still blank in Gameweek 36, so the situation remains that any Fantasy managers going all-in on the Red Devils in Triple Gameweek 35 will have to either have a strong bench, an exit plan (possibly involving hits) or an unused chip up their sleeves.
Those on a Free Hit, of course, will have no such worries.
What it does perhaps alter is a greater chance of two or more starts for most of their key players in the upcoming Gameweek, even allowing for a benching along the way.
Liverpool players suddenly become even more attractive – although that was immediately the case as soon as Sunday’s match was postponed and it became clear that the game wouldn’t be rescheduled for Gameweek 34.
A double-header against Southampton and West Bromwich Albion, as had been mooted in some circles, would have been dreamland territory with regards to the Gameweek 35 captaincy and triple captaincy. The fact that United now play thrice, and one of Liverpool’s fixtures is at Old Trafford, may temper interest in Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) and co when it comes to the armband discussions.
But the Reds being one of just five teams who have two fixtures in Triple Gameweek 35 and an unaffected match in Blank Gameweek 36 is a boon for chipless FPL managers and Wildcarders alike who are investing in players for the entire run-in, not just a one-off Gameweek.
While the addition of Liverpool to the Double Gameweek 35 contingent does give chipless managers a greater chance of getting more players out with two games, those FPL bosses with Free Hits and Wildcards in hand still have the advantage of focusing mostly on the next seven days without being too concerned about the decimated schedule in Blank Gameweek 36.
IMPLICATIONS FOR OTHER TEAMS
Today’s shock announcement will not just affect Liverpool and United.
It could, first and foremost, also be good news for Leicester City assets.
The Foxes now have an extra day of recovery ahead of their FA Cup final appearance on Saturday 15 May, which could alleviate some of the rotation risk – if there ever was any – for that clash with United. The temptation for Brendan Rodgers to hand some of his key players a breather may partly depend on the results of the weekend fixtures, however, and where they leave his side in their ongoing push for a top-four place.
The game against the Red Devils is also the second of United’s three fixtures (or four, if we include tomorrow’s UEFA Europa League tie against Roma). Would Ole Gunnar Solksjaer perhaps rotate against the Foxes with one eye on Thursday’s clash with Liverpool, then?
Aston Villa, United’s first Triple Gameweek 36 opponents, will also be hoping for similar favours from Solskjaer on Sunday.
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