If you didn’t own Foden in GW 23, this is a safe space. By that, I mean I will heavily indulge in Foden jokes to help me drown out my own pain.
20 points, Phil? Do you have no shame? A certain team based in Sheffield won’t even get that many come the end of the season.
But this article is all about avoiding such pain. So here’s everything you need to know to get a green arrow in GW 24.
But before I get into that, subscribe to the free LazyFPL newsletter. It only takes a few minutes to read and covers everything you need to know every gameweek.
Easiest decision of your life.
Who to Buy in FPL Gameweek 24?
Alfie Doughty
Shakespeare said, “Our doubts are traitors.” Well, he clearly hasn’t met Alfie Doughty.
I won’t sugarcoat it: Luton has the worst defence in the league and blank in gameweek 26.
But there are positives: he plays Sheffield United (H) this week and has a double gameweek in gameweeks 25 and 28. Oh, he also costs only £4.6m, has a npxG+xAG/90 of 0.21, and has an average positioning higher than Snoop Dogg.
No, seriously, he plays like a left-winger.
Virgil van Dijk
Suggesting van Dijk in an FPL realm consisting of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Robertson is like choosing “Just ham, no mayo” in your meal deal.
van Dijk faces Burnley (H) in GW 24, and bre + LUT in DGW 25. Coupled with Liverpool’s excellent defence (third in the league for xGA) and his nailedness, you have an excellent asset.
Yes, he’s pricey at £6.3m, but I really like Liverpool’s defence over the horizon. This is assuming you can bench him in GW 26, of course.
Other good options include Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gabriel, and Walker.
Phil Foden
![](https://fpltips.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/foden-fpl-differential.png)
Not owning Phil Foden for DGW 25 terrifies me. Like it scares me more than some of Foden’s haircuts in the past. And that’s hard to do.
Foden’s npxG+xAG/90 sits at a lively 0.50, and he has a DGW 25 of CHE + BRE. Furthermore, he has an excellent fixture (bou) when Liverpool, Chelsea, Luton, and Tottenham blank in GW 26.
Rumour has it that Foden got Pep a wig for Christmas, which is why his minutes look relatively secure now.
I expect a large chunk of it to be a right-winger, followed by some in the midfield, because boy, oh boy, did Pep look happy to get his Barbara Streisand hairdo.
Diogo Jota
Here I am, telling you to buy a full-time Fifa player and a part-time footballer. Who’d have thought it?
Look, there’s an obvious issue with Jota: what happens to his xMins when Salah returns? Salah isn’t back for GW 24, though, and I expect his minutes to be heavily restricted in DGW 25.
That’s as valuable to Jota as are Fifa points.
He has excellent fixtures, a npxG+xAG/90 of 0.58, and has consistently overperformed his underlying data.
As long as you have an exit route out of Jota near GW 26, he’s a great pick.
Ivan Toney
I went for a run last week. After a very strenuous 35-minute run (I ran three kilometres and chased after an ice cream truck for the rest), I stopped.
“Ouch!”
I hurt my toe and knee. My… toe, knee. Okay, this sounded funnier in my head.
Toney’s DGW is extremely hard—LIV + mci—but two fixtures are always better than one. Furthermore, he plays in BGW’s 26 and 29.
Nailed, 90, on penalties, on some set pieces, and an npxG+xAG/90 of 0.60. He’s a good Darwin alternative if high xG misses are something you are averse to.
Darwin Nunez
You know, I’ve always found it ironic that Charles Darwin was considered the face of evolution when his successor and namesake showed us that evolution is far from linear.
Seriously, how can one man accumulate an xGI of 1.80 in a single game, return, and still finish with only 2 points?
Okay, now that I’ve gotten the masochistic foreshadowing out of the way, let me tell you why you should buy Darwin:
His fixtures? Excellent. His npxG+xAG/90? 1.01, and it’s the second-highest in the league. I also think he’ll be on penalties without Salah on the pitch.
I don’t mind doing Watkins -> Darwin, only to reverse it in 26. If you can afford it, Solanke -> Darwin is great too.
Watkins, Solanke, Cunha, and Adebayo are also all decent options.
Who to Captain in FPL Gameweek 24?
![](https://fpltips.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/haaland.png)
Erling Haaland
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re back to our regularly scheduled service. So fasten your seatbelts and ready your jokes on Pickford’s T-Rex arms.
I expect Haaland to start and get at least 75 minutes.
Yes, Everton’s xGA is excellent away from home, but Haaland’s underlying data is the best in the league. I wouldn’t overthink this; just trust the big Nordic meat shield.
Darwin Nunez
I implore you not to shoot the messenger.
We all know how good Darwin’s underlying data is, but how’s Burnley’s? They’re a bottom-half defence, while Liverpool has the best attack in the league (at home).
If you think Darwin gets 80+ minutes, I believe he’s even better than Haaland this week.
Sit back and enjoy the chaos, eh?
Alternatives
I’m not a huge fan of the alternatives this week, but Jota, TAA, and Saka are all decent options.
As always, I’d like to end with a story. You see, Ederson’s smiley face tattoo has been haunting my dreams. I see it as a punishment after I’ve stood by him for another blank.
So I DM’d him on Instagram, “Why can’t you stop the ball?”
He simply sent me a selfie of him smiling, captioned, “I’m a part of the Lazy Revolution.”
And you should be too. Join over 49,000 FPL managers by signing up for the free LazyFPL newsletter.