BGW and DGW 20/21 Discussion thread

Benimar · 15-12-2020 5:44pm #1

The following fixtures have been moved from GW18 to GW19, creating a BGW and a DGW:

Fulham v Man U
Leicester v Chelsea
Liverpool v Burnley
Leeds v Southampton
West Ham v West Brom

Let the fun begin!

F1ngers · 15-12-2020 5:58pm

It's the winter break.

*Matchweek 18 fixtures have been split between 12-14 January and 19-21 January and are signified by an asterisk.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/1933136?sf241106154=1

shmeee · 15-12-2020 6:01pm

https://twitter.com/BenCrellin/status/1338885871232290819?s=20

Benimar · 15-12-2020 6:06pm

F1ngers wrote: »

It's the winter break.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/1933136?sf241106154=1

Yes, and it creates a BGW and a DGW for FF purposes.

Ace2007 · 15-12-2020 6:06pm

I thought they scrapped the winter break this season due to the shorten schedule?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53767120#:~:text=The%20Premier%20League%20has%20scrapped,late%20end%20to%202019%2D20.

It's not a break if it's only affect 10 teams or am i missing something?

That's a killer for anyone that used their FH already

Benimar · 15-12-2020 6:15pm

Ace2007 wrote: »

I thought they scrapped the winter break this season due to the shorten schedule?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53767120#:~:text=The%20Premier%20League%20has%20scrapped,late%20end%20to%202019%2D20.

It's not a break if it's only affect 10 teams or am i missing something?

That's a killer for anyone that used their FH already

10 teams get one midweek off, the other 10 get the following midweek off.

F1ngers · 15-12-2020 6:15pm

Benimar wrote: »

Yes, and it creates a BGW and a DGW for FF purposes.

Seems so.
Will edit thread title to a generic BGW/DGW instead of just this instance.

ThunbergsAreGo · 15-12-2020 6:23pm

Ace2007 wrote: »

I thought they scrapped the winter break this season due to the shorten schedule?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53767120#:~:text=The%20Premier%20League%20has%20scrapped,late%20end%20to%202019%2D20.

It's not a break if it's only affect 10 teams or am i missing something?

That's a killer for anyone that used their FH already

Is it?

I think I'll just ride it out and keep the FH for later in the year, always spend too much time getting ****e players in to plan towards this like this.

Like it's s consideration, but one of many.

But that all might because I am just worn down by this year...

Morzadec · 15-12-2020 6:28pm

With so many teams having a blank then followed by a double, loading up on DGWers and then using a FH in the BGW probably seems the best play on first view?

Currently I have 9 players from the group that blanks/doubles and 6 from the group that doesn't. So think FH to cover the blank GW18 makes most sense...

Then again we're all going to want our FH for the blanks/doubles at the end of the season so not really sure if there's another way to navigate this!

Ace2007 · 15-12-2020 6:29pm

Benimar wrote: »

10 teams get one midweek off, the other 10 get the following midweek off.

So take Man City for instance - when is there break?

dsmythy · 15-12-2020 6:32pm

Ace2007 wrote: »

So take Man City for instance - when is there break?

They don't play in the midweek games scheduled between the 19th and the 21st.

Benimar · 15-12-2020 6:34pm

Ace2007 wrote: »

So take Man City for instance - when is there break?

The midweek of 18th to 22nd Jan. All teams are getting one midweek off.

Ace2007 · 15-12-2020 6:46pm

Benimar wrote: »

The midweek of 18th to 22nd Jan. All teams are getting one midweek off.

Sorry I understand you now, from a FF point of view they don't have a blank, they just don't have a double. Whereas Man Utd have a blank followed by a double.

Benimar · 15-12-2020 6:49pm

Ace2007 wrote: »

Sorry I understand you now, from a FF point of view they don't have a blank, they just don't have a double. Whereas Man Utd have a blank followed by a double.

Yes. 10 teams have a single fixture in both weeks, 10 have a blank in GW18 followed by a double in GW19.

Dr. Bre · 15-12-2020 7:35pm

Will the wildcard be available by then ?

Scorpion Sting · 15-12-2020 7:37pm

Dr. Bre wrote: »

Will the wildcard be available by then ?

Yeah from GW17 onwards.

CSF · 15-12-2020 7:52pm

Is there going to be further DGWs later in the season actually with the FA Cup or League Cup? Its a rare year that I haven't been obsessing over this.

shmeee · 15-12-2020 8:26pm

Why are people so confused?

10 teams will blank in GW18, and then have DGW in GW19?

Dr. Bre · 15-12-2020 8:32pm

shmeee wrote: »

Why are people so confused?

10 teams will blank in GW18, and then have DGW in GW19?

It’s not rocket science

Shedite27 · 15-12-2020 10:01pm

Its a bit different to usual to be fair, and I'm not sure what it achieves. Nobody gets any more time off do they? There's no need to create this DGW. They could have just left everyone have a midweek game on 13th/14th Jan and then give them all the midweek off on 19th/20th.

It's the first DGW that's been created that I remember that either cleared a backlog of fixtures, or was created to avoid a cup game. Looks created purely to get more games on TV

Ace2007 · 15-12-2020 11:41pm

Shedite27 wrote: »

Its a bit different to usual to be fair, and I'm not sure what it achieves. Nobody gets any more time off do they? There's no need to create this DGW. They could have just left everyone have a midweek game on 13th/14th Jan and then give them all the midweek off on 19th/20th.

It's the first DGW that's been created that I remember that either cleared a backlog of fixtures, or was created to avoid a cup game. Looks created purely to get more games on TV

I agree that it serves no purpose at all, and shows the strength of the TV companies, and the the FA/PL will bow to any pressure. If this was planned, it would have been set in stone from the off, instead of clearing stating there was no winter break. Why not just give everyone the week off.

We all plan for busy xmas period, and now we have 4 GW's close together, and then all of a sudden 10 teams are not playing in a GW.

For those who have used their FH, TC or BB even, they have been put at a disadvantage with a slight change in the goalposts. As you say Shedite, this DGW is not to clear a backlog of games or to move games because of a cup. It's purely because of TV companies.

Whose to say this won't happen again come week 30 for instance?

From the FF POV would it not make sense to just move off Games in GW18 to GW19, and have a free week? We've seen from last year that they can change the rules as they like for unexpected events.

ArmaniJeanss · 15-12-2020 11:53pm

That's a mental way of doing it for the official game.
Seeing as the EPL themselves originally referred to it as GW18a and GW18b, I'd just assumed that it would be treated as one complete gameweek in the game.
Maybe the software would have struggled with it.

Shedite27 · 16-12-2020 12:03am

At the very least, Fulham V Chelsea on the Friday should be part of the midweek GW18 rather than the weekend GW19. Seems like they’ve given them a double and blank for no good reason.

Benimar · 16-12-2020 12:12am

Ace2007 wrote: »

I agree that it serves no purpose at all, and shows the strength of the TV companies, and the the FA/PL will bow to any pressure. If this was planned, it would have been set in stone from the off, instead of clearing stating there was no winter break. Why not just give everyone the week off.

We all plan for busy xmas period, and now we have 4 GW's close together, and then all of a sudden 10 teams are not playing in a GW.

For those who have used their FH, TC or BB even, they have been put at a disadvantage with a slight change in the goalposts. As you say Shedite, this DGW is not to clear a backlog of games or to move games because of a cup. It's purely because of TV companies.

Whose to say this won't happen again come week 30 for instance?

From the FF POV would it not make sense to just move off Games in GW18 to GW19, and have a free week? We've seen from last year that they can change the rules as they like for unexpected events.

In fairness this was flagged at the start of the season. The idea is to have games for the TV companies to have access to games both midweeks.

The FPL website made it clear there would be games moved, we just didn’t know which ones until today.

Ace2007 · 16-12-2020 12:22am

Benimar wrote: »

In fairness this was flagged at the start of the season. The idea is to have games for the TV companies to have access to games both midweeks.

The FPL website made it clear there would be games moved, we just didn’t know which ones until today.

The official website calls them 18a and 18b.
It doesn’t say anywhere what games would be moved or that there would be a DGW.

And why is it not possible given the situation that we don’t just have a blank GW18 for FF and all games in a DGW - would that not make a lot more sense?

Benimar · 16-12-2020 12:26am

Ace2007 wrote: »

The official website calls them 18a and 18b.
It doesn’t say anywhere what games would be moved or that there would be a DGW.

And why is it not possible given the situation that we don’t just have a blank GW18 for FF and all games in a DGW - would that not make a lot more sense?

I can’t find the link now, but it was announced before the season started that this was going to be the situation. FPL made it clear that they would treat it as two separate weeks (so there would be 38 GWs) and the games moved would create a double in GW19.

I’m actually a bit surprised that people didn’t know this. I’ve seen it mentioned a few times on other FF related sites and assumed it was fairly common knowledge.

sheroman01 · 16-12-2020 2:12am

The three L’s looking like good DGW picks - Leicester, Liverpool and Leeds.

Klonker · 16-12-2020 10:06am

Morzadec wrote: »

With so many teams having a blank then followed by a double, loading up on DGWers and then using a FH in the BGW probably seems the best play on first view?

Currently I have 9 players from the group that blanks/doubles and 6 from the group that doesn't. So think FH to cover the blank GW18 makes most sense...

Then again we're all going to want our FH for the blanks/doubles at the end of the season so not really sure if there's another way to navigate this!

I think I'll do like this, Free Hit for the BGW and load up in advance for the DGW and use Bench Boost.

Shedite27 · 16-12-2020 11:56am

Just looking through the calendar, to see how much messiness we need to contend with this year:

Still have DGW's from GW1 for 4 teams Man City, Man U, Burnley, Villa - Could fit in as DGW26 or DGW37
GW26 clashes with League Cup Final - nothing midweek so league fixtures could be moved to the following Wed and stay in same GW
BGW28 for whoever makes the FA Cup QF - international window after so will need to be accommodated elsewhere (possibly in GW26 also)
GW32 clashes with the FA Cup SF - nothing midweek so league fixtures could be moved to the following Wed and stay in same GW
GW37 clashes with the FA Cup Final - nothing midweek so league fixtures could be moved to the following Wed and stay in same GW

So points 2, 4, and 5 should have no impact on BGW/DGW's. Looks like the fixture guys have it fairly well lined up, so that each time a Cup game potentially clashes with the League game, they've left the following midweek free from fixtures (incl Europe). So there is no need for Blanks and Doubles for anything apart from GW28 (FA Cup QF), when there's an international window after it.

I suspect DGW26 will be as big as DGW19, and it's anyone's guess what happens if any of MU/MC/AV/Burnley make it to the FA Cup Final - they'd likely be on some European midweek.

TL:DR - there's an equally big BGW likely in GW28, and equally big DGW in one of 26/37

Morzadec · 16-12-2020 12:28pm

Klonker wrote: »

I think I'll do like this, Free Hit for the BGW and load up in advance for the DGW and use Bench Boost.

Yeah looking a this too. Doesn't necessarily need to be 15 DGWers either as the likes of City and Spurs have nice single fixtures in the DGW.

I have 6 SGWers currently and I've identified 4 that I'd like to probably phase out in advance of the blank/double, for a combination of having a bad single and a bad lead in to the doubles.

This is where you need to balance the reward of the double GW with the risk of tearing up your team or focussing all your transfers on preparing for the blank/double. Ignoring the blank/double will kill you, but getting too obsessed with it and throwing everything into it rarely pays off either.

For example the likes of KDB (Palace at home), and Kane (Sheffield away) both have great lead-ins to the blanks/doubles and a fixture in the double where they could potentially outscore many doublers, so they might be players we want to buy/keep

Shedite27 · 16-12-2020 11:12pm

Injurys pending, think I'll be looking at Grealish, Son, DCL and 13 DGW'ers for the Bench Boost

BGW and DGW 20/21 Discussion thread

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