With the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Double Gameweek 32 deadline fast approaching, we’re back with another Assistant Manager guide.
There are plenty of “table bonus” opportunities this weekend, including for one of this weekend’s doublers. We’ll assess the best options for this week as well as the rounds ahead as we enter Double Gameweek season.
Let’s get into it.
- READ MORE: What is the Assistant Manager chip + when can FPL managers play it?
- READ MORE: New Assistant Manager points projections in our Rate My Team page
WHICH MANAGERS COULD GET A TABLE BONUS IN GAMEWEEK 32?
Table bonus points are a key source of potential hauls with the Assistant Manager chip.
Premier League bosses, when chosen as an Assistant Manager in FPL, earn extra points if they beat (+10) or draw with (+5) a team five or more places ahead of them in the table at the start of the Gameweek.
In Gameweek 32, there are eight such managers eligible for table bonus points across nine (!) fixtures – all but one of which, interestingly, are away games:
- Oliver Glasner – Manchester City (6th) v Crystal Palace (11th)
- + Newcastle (5th) v Crystal Palace (11th)
- Ruud van Nistelrooy – Brighton (9th) v Leicester City (19th)
- David Moyes – Nottingham Forest (3rd) v Everton (15th)
- Ivan Jurić/Simon Rusk* – Southampton (20th) v Aston Villa (7th)
- Thomas Frank – Arsenal (2nd) v Brentford (12th)
- Kieran McKenna – Chelsea (4th) v Ipswich (18th)
- Graham Potter – Liverpool (1st) v West Ham (16th)
- Ruben Amorim – Newcastle (5th) v Manchester United (13th)
*Ivan Jurić (£0.5m) has been dismissed following Southampton’s relegation, leaving interim boss Simon Rusk (£0.5m) in charge. FPL is still showing Juric as an option at the time of writing.
Rusk drew 0-0 with Fulham in his previous match in temporary charge. The bookies even think they’ve got the best chance of getting a Gameweek 32 result of three relegation-bound sides. But even if a Champions League-distracted Villa rotate as expected, few will be backing Saints given that they’ve lost 25 of their 31 league fixtures.
Speaking of Europe, the fact that Manchester United are in the middle of a Europa League double-header cools interest in Ruben Amorim (£0.8m). He has overseen positive results against the likes of Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool this season but Newcastle’s focus, unlike United, is firmly on domestic matters, so this doesn’t feel like a good time to back Amorim.
Someone who could benefit from said Europe-led rotation is Thomas Frank (£0.8m). As we predicted, he was a good Assistant Manager shout last weekend – his Brentford side capitalised on the continued away day struggles of a rotated Chelsea side to split the points one apiece and give Frank his first-ever table bonus points. Could he better that in Gameweek 32? Opponents Arsenal will likely choose to focus their energy on their Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid. On their own merit, the Bees have also been much better away from home recently, winning five of their last seven league matches on the road.
While few will be backing Graham Potter (£0.5m) despite Liverpool’s malaise and his previous table bonus win at Arsenal, David Moyes (£0.5m) may hold a bit more appeal. Moyes secured table bonus points last weekend by drawing against Arsenal. The Toffees have drawn five of their last six league matches, and lost just once, to Liverpool, in their last 11 – so Moyes has earned table bonus points on three occasions since the Assistant Manager chip first became available in Gameweek 23. He could do the same against Nottingham Forest, who may be without a few key players.
Finally, there’s Oliver Glasner (£0.8m). The Crystal Palace boss already holds the advantage over the aforementioned options of having two fixtures in this Gameweek – and to make his selection even more enticing, he is eligible for table bonus points in both of them. We’ll discuss him in more detail below.
WHAT THE BOOKMAKERS SAY
Here are the odds for each of the table bonus-eligible managers in Gameweek 31:
| % chance of home win | % chance of draw | % chance of away win | |
| Oliver Glasner – Manchester City (6th) v Crystal Palace (11th) | 62.4% | 20.2% | 17.4% |
| Oliver Glasner – Newcastle (5th) v Crystal Palace (11th) | 53.8% | 24.8% | 21.4% |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy – Brighton (9th) v Leicester City (19th) | 74.1% | 15.9% | 10.0% |
| David Moyes – Nottingham Forest (3rd) v Everton (15th) | 45.4% | 28.9% | 25.8% |
| Ivan Jurić/Simon Rusk* – Southampton (20th) v Aston Villa (7th) | 15.9% | 22.7% | 61.4% |
| Thomas Frank – Arsenal (2nd) v Brentford (12th) | 59.2% | 21.9% | 18.9% |
| Kieran McKenna – Chelsea (4th) v Ipswich (18th) | 72.8 % | 14.6% | 12.6 % |
| Graham Potter – Liverpool (1st) v West Ham (16th) | 72.5% | 15.7% | 11.8% |
| Ruben Amorim – Newcastle (5th) v Manchester United (13th) | 57.2% | 22.7% | 20.1% |
CURRENT ASSISTANT MANAGER POINTS PROJECTIONS
The betting market heavily influences these points projections, so the odds of each Assistant Manager capable of earning table bonus points are factored in.
Make sure to check this page later in the week for any revised projections.
HOWE V GLASNER: GAMEWEEK 31
Newcastle and Crystal Palace are the two teams enjoying Double Gameweek action over the next week, which immediately pits Eddie Howe (£1.5m) and Oliver Glasner (£0.8m) – the top two predicted scorers based on our RMT tool – against each other as stand-out Assistant Manager options for this round (and the coming ones, but we’ll discuss that shortly).
Let’s start with Howe.
The Englishman is in the premium price bracket, which may be a deciding factor for some FPL bosses. He costs £0.7m more than his Austrian counterpart, so there’s a chance that extra outlay could limit upgrades elsewhere in your squad for the duration of the Assistant Manager – or, particularly if you’ve recently Wildcarded, you may not even have those sorts of funds in the bank at this moment in time.
That being said, Newcastle have an appealing pair of fixtures to complete their Double Gameweek 32, facing both Manchester United and then Palace – two sides they’ve already taken a total of four points off of this season – at St James’ Park. They’re favoured by the bookies in both of those matches, too.
Howe isn’t eligible for table bonus points but if you don’t already have three Magpies players in your squad, you could definitely do worse than banking on Howe to deliver a pair of home wins.
As for Glasner, the Palace manager has the advantage of being eligible for table bonus points in both of his Double Gameweek 32 outings – and he’s already proved himself capable of excelling in such situations.
From 15 matches against sides 5+ places above Palace this season, he has won four and drawn seven, getting results against both of his Double Gameweek 32 opponents. Those (home) ties against City and Newcastle came before the Assistant Manager chip was introduced to the game but since it was made available, Glasner has blanked just twice, winning five of eight matches including back-to-back 20-point, table bonus-fuelled hauls.
Palace also have an extra day and a bit of rest between their Double Gameweek 32 fixtures than Newcastle do, which could prove pivotal amid this busy season run-in.
Aside from the Eagles having to travel for both of those matches, though, there is one other notable drawback to selecting Glasner over Howe – which we’ll get into after we’ve assessed the other potential candidates for this weekend.
FINAL THOUGHTS: GAMEWEEK 31
Howe and Glasner are the obvious candidates this week, then.
If you’re already maxed out on Magpies and Eagles, you can probably label the likes of Unai Emery (£0.8m), Arne Slot (£1.5m) and Fabian Hürzeler (£1.1m) as “bankers” to win their respective Gameweek 32 matches against Southampton (A), West Ham (H) and Leicester (H).
Enzo Maresca (£1.5m) could probably be in that conversation, too – despite Ipswich having beaten his (admittedly rotated) Chelsea side earlier this season, the Blues are heavily favoured by the bookies to take all three points at Stamford Bridge, where they’ve won their last five league matches in a row and kept clean sheets in the most recent three of those.
Picking out a top option from the table bonus-eligible managers (excluding Glasner) is relatively tricky but David Moyes (£0.5m) and Thomas Frank (£0.8m) are our favourites.
Frank faces Arsenal, and could snatch some points off the Gunners whose primary focus will surely be on their European exploits. Moyes will undoubtedly make life difficult for Forest, having only lost one game during his tenure.
Looking to our points projection tool for some clarity, Moyes is predicted to score highest.
FINAL THOUGHTS: LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD
Given the Assistant Manager chip is active for three Gameweeks in total, some of you may have one or two more weeks to plan for.
If that sounds like you, the appeal of Howe may be raised given he features twice this Gameweek but – crucially – is also around in Blank Gameweek 34, when he faces Ipswich (H).
Gameweek 33 is tougher, given Villa have been beaten at home just twice in all competitions this season, but that match does come four short days after their Champions League quarter-final second leg against PSG.
Most importantly, this all means Howe can give you four matches worth of returns (with three home fixtures) from three Gameweeks, and won’t require a transfer to swap him for a different Assistant Manager at any point.
The same is not true of Glasner, who features four times over the next two Gameweeks but then blanks in Blank Gameweek 34 due to Palace’s FA Cup semi-final.
He therefore looks like a promising selection for Gameweeks 32-33, if you don’t already have three Eagles players of course, but will necessitate a transfer in the near future for an Assistant Manager whose team does play in Blank Gameweek 34.
That also goes for Emery, Mikel Arteta (£1.5m) and Pep Guardiola (£1.5m) – who will all benefit from playing twice Double Gameweek 33 and blank in Gameweek 34.
Sorting our colour-coded Season Ticker by fixture difficulty across Gameweeks 32-34, Maresca, Slot and Hürzeler look like pretty safe bets if you want a “set and forget” Assistant Manager selection. None of them will be eligible for table bonus points, but all three should be capable of at least two wins in that upcoming stretch.
Moyes has three cracks at the table bonus (the same as Glasner).
