Fantasy Premier League

FPL Challenge: Assistant Manager for Gameweek 24

31 Jan 2025
FPL-CHALLENGE-ASSISTANT-MANAGER-SERIES-EDITORIAL_GW1

Fantasy expert Sam Bonfield picks her 10-a-side team as well as her Assistant Manager for Double Gameweek 24

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The theme of this week's Fantasy Challenge is "Assistant Manager". In this Gameweek, managers have £100.0m to spend on their 10-a-side team, as well as on an Assistant Manager. For Fantasy managers not playing the chip in the main FPL game, it provides the perfect opportunity to experiment. When deciding which players to invest in, it is important to look at how they rank in the key stats, as well as the fixtures.

Here, FPL expert Sam Bonfield reveals how she’s tackling Double Gameweek 24 (DGW24).

Pick your Fantasy Challenge team NOW!

Using a new chip for the first time is always a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Excitement for the thrill of a chip and the potential for a big points haul. Nervousness over getting it wrong, playing it at the wrong time or on the wrong player, or in this case manager. That's why this FPL Challenge is perfect. It is an opportunity to test the workings of the chip and how best to use it. 

When deciding on an Assistant Manager for this week, it feels sensible to target the Double Gameweek managers, so in this case Arne Slot (£1.5m) and David Moyes (£0.5m). As I want this to be as reflective as possible of what it will be like to play the chip in the main game, I have decided to pick the 10 players first and then select the manager last. I have also opted to, if at all possible, limit the budget myself as if I had to select a bench in the main game. 

Goalkeepers 

Jordan Pickford (£5.1m) kept a clean sheet against Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, his first shutout since Gameweek 17. Pickford has made 67 saves this season and picked up 14 save points. The Everton goalkeeper has also saved two penalties this season, more than any other 'keeper, while only Matz Sels (£5.0m) has more clean sheets than Pickford.

England international Pickford has two matches in Double Gameweek 24 and while I don't foresee two clean sheets, there is plenty of potential for additional save points. On the other side of the Double Gameweek is Liverpool's Alisson (£5.5m). Although Alisson has kept six clean sheets this season, he has also only made 14 starts in 2024/25 due to injury, eight less than Pickford and nine fewer than Sels. Both Double Gameweek 'keepers could be good picks, however Pickford has more potential for additional save points based on the data from the opening weeks of the season. 

Defenders

Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) has now registered attacking returns in Liverpool's last two Premier League matches. Indeed, in the last five Gameweeks he has one goal, two assists, two clean sheets and five bonus points to his name. Alexander-Arnold has registered 27 attempts on goal this season, second only to Pedro Porro (£5.4m) and Josko Gvardiol (£5.9m). He is also top across defenders for chances created, with 43, while his 14 big chances created is also the most. The Liverpool man has also supplied 128 crosses - another total that is again only bettered by Porro. Alexander-Arnold also has set-piece responsibility having taken 46 corners and had 10 attempts on goal from free-kicks. His route to points is therefore good.

Alongside Alexander-Arnold I decided not to double up on the Everton defence, and have instead opted for two single Gameweek players. Normally Gabriel (£6.4m) would have been a really easy pick. However, with a fixture against a Man City side who have found their rhythm, I have opted for two cheaper, more budget-friendly defenders with attacking threat. Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.7m) faces Aston Villa in Gameweek 24, meanwhile Daniel Munoz (£4.8m) plays Manchester United. Both these players offer an excellent attacking threat. Ait-Nouri has had 19 attempts on goal this season, also creating 19 chances. The Wolverhampton Wanderers' defender has scored three goals, second only to the five of Gvardiol, while only Antonee Robinson (£5.1m) and Alexander-Arnold have more than his three assists, with nine and six respectively. Munoz has created 29 chances for his Crystal Palace team-mates, and registering 22 attempts on goal. He, like Ait-Nouri, also has three assists this season. 

Trevoh Chalobah (£4.4m), who has returned to Chelsea from his loan at Crystal Palace, was a player I nearly plumped for. Chalobah faces a West Ham United team who have struggled defensively this season and he has registered three assists. Chalobah has the potential for returns at both ends of the pitch. 

FPL Challenge DGW24 line-up
Midfielders 

Into midfield and Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) picks himself, while he will also be my captain. Alongside him team-mate Luis Diaz (£7.5m). Diaz has registered eight goals this season, only four midfielders in the game have scored more goals than Liverpool's Dutchman in 2024/25. Unlike in the main game in Challenge managers are allowed to pick five players from each side, so I didn't have to choose between selecting Diaz and Gakpo - and therefore have opted for both! The final midfielder slot goes to Cole Palmer (£11.3m). The Chelsea star hasn't returned in the last two Gameweeks, but he does have three double-digit hauls in the last six Gameweeks. Palmer has had 78 attempts on goal this season, only Salah and Antoine Semenyo (£5.6m) have had more. Of these 18 have been classified as big chances, only injured Bukayo Saka (£10.2m) can better that. Palmer also has the added benefit of penalty and set-piece responsibility. His eight double-digit hauls are bettered only by Salah. 

Other midfielders that have good potential in DGW24 include Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9m) who could easily exploit Tottenham Hotspur's injury-hit defence. Mbeumo has had 45 attempts on goal and created 44 chances, and he also has penalty responsibility. Spurs, meanwhile, have not kept a clean sheet since Gameweek 16, conceding 18 goals across those seven matches. Anthony Elanga (£5.3m), who was top for chances created in Gameweek 23, also has good potential in DGW24.

Forwards 

Playing a 3-3-3 formation also means three forwards. Cody Gakpo (£7.6m) makes it four Liverpool assets for DGW24. Gakpo registered his biggest FPL return of the season in Gameweek 23. His two goals and an assist have nudged him ahead of Diaz if you're picking just one Liverpool attacker alongside Salah. However, with extra slots per team in Challenge, it makes perfect sense to have them both. The injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.4m) means he isn't an option for DGW24, so Iliman Ndiaye (£5.5m) is the standout pick from Everton's attackers, especially while Dwight McNeil (£5.1m) remains sidelined. Ndiaye has now returned in both of Everton's back-to-back wins registering seven and eight points respectively. My final pick is Alexander Isak (£9.5m). With the exception of the blank in Gameweek 22 Isak has now returned in every fixture since Gameweek 14. In that time the forward has registered 13 goals and three assists. 

Assistant Manager 

With this team, there is £23.0m in the bank. As mentioned at the beginning of this article I wanted to test this chip as if fitting it in to a 15-man squad. As such, both Slot and Moyes were affordable. I am unlikely to ever want to play a chip cautiously, and handing it to Slot feels like that would be very cautious. Slot can't register any of the additional table bonus points as a result of Liverpool sitting at the top of the Premier League. This means that he could earn a maximum of 12 points for two wins. In addition, Slot would be able to pick up points for goals and clean sheets. However Moyes has the potential for the table bonus to apply vs Liverpool. This means that he could potentially gain 22 points for two wins because a win over Liverpool in the Merseyside derby would bring 16 points.

There are four other managers who have the potential for a table bonus return in DGW24:

- Andoni Iraola (£1.1m) and AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool
- Marco Silva (£1.1m) and Fulham v Newcastle
- Vitor Pereira (£0.8m) and Wolves v Aston Villa
- Graham Potter (£0.5m) and West Ham v Chelsea 

However, none of these have the benefit of a Double Gameweek. Therefore to chase upside, I have opted for Moyes. 

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