Here’s our FPL double gameweeks and blanks article in preparation for the FA Cup 5th round. We’ll use this article as a base to amend the blank schedules for GW31 and GW33 as the weekend progresses. Here’s the final update of the GW31 and GW33 schedules after the Man Utd win over Chelsea. I will do a separate article next.
FPL double gameweeks and blanks – updating the information during the FA Cup 5th round – Monday’s games updated
Friday saw Watford beat QPR 1-0
Saturday saw Brighton beat Derby 2-1 and Man City beat Newport 4-1
Sunday saw Wolves beat Bristol City 1-0 and Palace beat Doncaster 2-0
Man Utd beat Chelsea 2-0
Here’s the quarter final draw:
Swansea City v Man City
Watford v C Palace
Wolves v Man Utd
Milwall v Brighton
I have put the majority of these schedules in my early FFGeek team article but it makes more sense to have a standalone article which I can update as the weekend goes on
Some background
Here’s the background to blanks and doubles in 3 sentences
The FA Cup quarter finals and semi finals will be played on the weekends of the premier league gameweeks of GW31 and GW33. They will therefore require postponements outside of the current gameweeks. With UEFA rules requiring no clashes with European fixtures the only options as GW32 and GW35.
The 5th round FA Cup draw
The 5th round results this weekend will determine who has quarter finals clashing with the premier league GW31 fixtures and will therefore require postponements.
After those results we will have to determine our strategy for dealing with the doubles
Here’s a screenshot of the BBC football site showing the 5th round draw using UK times:
The current Blank GW31 and GW33 schedules
These will be updated within this article after each days games involving a premier league team.
GW31
The fixtures in green will not be postponed as each team has been knocked out of the FA Cup. Orange are the ones that will be postponed.
GW33
The fixtures in green will not be postponed as each team has been knocked out of the FA Cup. Games involving the semi finalists will be the only ones postponed and hence we will not know these until after the quarter finals. That’s except for Wolves v Man Utd which is a quarter final match so one must progress.
Now 8 teams have games guaranteed in GW31 and GW33. They are Chelsea, Everton, West Ham, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Burnley, Huddersfield and Leicester.
Options to navigate the FPL double gameweeks and blanks
These options assume you have a wildcard and a free hit and one of a TC or BB. I’ll add to these through the weekend in italics.
One thing which is high in my mind is whether the GW31 postponements go to GW32 and the GW33 postponements go to GW35. It’s possible that there will be no announcements until after GW31 as the TV companies mix and match postponements to maximise TV viewing figures. Interestingly they’ve made no announcement of the Chelsea v Brighton EFL final postponed fixture.
Option 1
Option 1 means you prepare for GW31 through transfers and then maximise double GW32 through the wildcard. You free hit GW33 while having 2 transfers to prepare for GW35.
Depending on the state of your team now you may find it difficult to field 11 players in GW31.
It has the advantage of full visibility for the postponements before you use a chip but a free hit in GW33 seems a bit of a waste if you’ve prepared for GW31.
I hear the argument alot about having to bring in players from poorer teams to fill GW31. I think that has been over played. In GW31 you would have 3 Liverpool players, 4 on the bench of the likes of Pogba, Rashford, Aubameyang etc leaving 4 players from the other teams only in the lead up to GW31. 2 of which could have been transferred in on GW31 itself. That doesn’t seem too bad to me.
In terms of the TC chip. You have 3 possibilities:
The first is hope Chelsea get through to the FA Cup semis and therefore need an additional postponement as they still have their EFL final fixture to be played. Secondly, play it in GW36 and hope Salah starts v Huddersfield. Thirdly hope the weather creates postponements which looks less likely as we get through winter.
Option 2
Option 2 means you prepare for GW31 through transfers and then maximise double GW32 through the free hit. If you have representation of the 5 teams that have fixtures in both GW31 and GW33 you should be able to transition easily between the 2.
However, depending on the state of your team now you may find it difficult to field 11 players in GW31.
Like option 1, it has the advantage of full visibility for the postponements before you use a chip
As I said above, I hear the argument alot about having to bring in players from poorer teams to fill GW31. I think that has been over played. In GW31 you would have 3 Liverpool players, 4 on the bench of the likes of Pogba, Rashford, Aubameyang etc leaving 4 players from the other teams in the lead up to GW31. 2 of which could have been transferred in on GW31 itself. That doesn’t seem too bad to me.
Again, in terms of the TC chip. You have 3 possibilities:
The first is hope Chelsea get through to the FA Cup semis and therefore need an additional postponement as they still have their EFL final fixture to be played. Secondly, play it in GW36 and hope Salah starts v Huddersfield. Thirdly hope the weather creates postponements which looks less likely as we get through winter.
Option 3
This option allows you to play as normal up to the GW30 and prepare for the the double 32 and 35 through a wildcard in GW30. You sort blank 31 out through a free hit and hope you can transition into GW33 with minimal damage.
It has the advantage of not having to prepare in advance but the disadvantage of the GW32 and GW33 transition. It also doesn’t allow you to have visibility of the dates of the postponements if they aren’t announced until after GW31.
Option 4
With option 4 you prepare for double gameweek 32 through transfers leading up to GW32 and free hit your way out of avoiding the blanks. You then hope you can transition into GW33 with minimal issues and you obviously maximise GW35.
This again means you can avoid the likes of Burnley in the lead up to GW31 but it also assumes you know which postponements go into GW32 and that you can transition into GW33 from that with minimal pain.
Option 5
This is another option I’ve seen floating around and is the reverse of the Yaniv option where you wildcard for GW31 and GW33 and then free hit in GW32.
This is a good option in that you know exactly what you’re dealing with when you use your wildcard and your free hit for the double. The difficulty is the transition afterwards. You have to transition between GW32 GW33 and GW35 without any chips and that could be tricky.
FFGeek team thoughts
As I write this I’m not committing myself to an option. The 5th round results will determine this. All things being equal I would like to do option 2 but when I put Son in as opposed Mane and Morgan lost his place I’m now in a position where my maximum team for GW31 is 8 unless things go my way in the 5th round results.
I may change my view if the postponements for GW31 are announced before the GW27 deadline but if that doesn’t happen I’m in for some hard decisions.
Future articles
So I’ll update this at the end of each day, hopefully, over the weekend and then I’ll do a refresher article with my thoughts. I hope to do a simulation with my team using the different strategies to see how they work.
I’m also hoping to put together a contributors FPL double gameweeks and blanks special for next Wednesday and Thursday where the contributors say how they are going to deal with the doubles and blanks. Some have used their wildcard so you’ll get that perspective.
I’m also running a separate team where I’ve deliberately used the free hit chip so to do a separate article on how to navigate the doubles and blanks without the free hit. I’ll introduce that next week as well. I’m also hoping to get hold of one where you have no chips to see how that could work.
So plenty more to come.
Joseph Crilleys team planning spreadsheet
Here’s link to Joseph Crilleys excellent team planner spreadsheet plus his explanatory notes. You can use this to navigate your way through the blanks
Just remember that you have to make a copy by using the drop down of the file tab to where it says make a copy
Here’s the google spreadsheet link
That’s it, hope you’re enjoying the break
See underlying stats on players from GW26 the early FFGeek team article and the 10 top FPL managers we follow
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