While Blank Gameweek 29 has shifted many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers’ attention towards whether or not to activate their Free Hit, there are still plenty of Assistant Manager chips in play elsewhere.
Around 650,000 from Gameweeks 27 and 28, in fact, with more to follow this week.
Accordingly, we’ve put together a guide that will hopefully help those of you deliberating the pros and cons of each available option to decide which Assistant Manager is most worthy of your selection this weekend.
A few of the most popular picks from previous Gameweeks are non-options this time around, but there are still a few theoretical “bankers” as well as managers capable of turning in a sizable score by upsetting the odds.
Without further preamble, let’s dive in.
- 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
MOST SELECTED MANAGERS IN GAMEWEEK 28
| Name | Team | Total |
| Slot | LIV | 254,081 |
| Moyes | EVE | 162,366 |
| Glasner | CRY | 101,748 |
| Maresca | CHE | 90,025 |
| Arteta | ARS | 62,551 |
The majority of FPL managers again played it safe when it came to selecting their Assistant Manager in Gameweek 28.
Arne Slot (£1.5m) earned the most backers as his table-topping Liverpool side faced – and beat – 20th-placed Southampton. That result earned the Dutchman a nine-point score last weekend, which followed a pair back-to-back 10-point hauls against Newcastle and Manchester City from his previous two outings.
Behind him was David Moyes (£0.5m), who could only come away from the Molineux with a draw and subsequent four-point score – his second in as many weeks, from what was a third straight stalemate for Everton.
The significant backing of the two Merseyside bosses is understandable given neither man has lost since this chip was first introduced back in Gameweek 23, and may also be explained by FPL managers not wishing to use a valuable transfer to swap out their Assistant Manager each week.
Oliver Glasner (£0.8m) being third on last weekend’s popularity list also makes sense, given the Crystal Palace head coach had just secured consecutive 20-point hauls. Even without table bonus points being available to him last weekend, he still duly delivered a wholly respectable nine0point return by beating Ipswich to nil.
And while some of Chelsea’s most popular on-field assets failed to deliver once again last week, Blues boss Enzo Maresca (£1.5m) rewarded his backers with nine points of his own by beating Leicester.
MARKET MOVES IN GAMEWEEK 29
Nottingham Forest have a bigger gap between themselves and their Gameweek 29 opponent than any other club. That, as well as their resolute 1-0 win against the defending league champions last time out, will undoubtedly be a driving force behind the heavy backing of Nuno Espírito Santo (£1.1m). He has been transferred in by far more FPL bosses than any other Assistant Manager at the time of writing.
As his third-placed Forest crew prepare to face relegation-threatened Ipswich, Nuno is still selected by just under 5% of all FPL teams with this chip active. This is far fewer than the second most transferred-in option ahead of the Gameweek 29 deadline: Moyes.
As mentioned, the Toffees boss is yet to blank in his seven matches since the introduction of the Assistant Manager chip. He’s back at Goodison Park this weekend to face West Ham, who have won two of their last three league matches but delivered a lacklustre display in their loss to Newcastle on Monday night.
Pep Guardiola (£1.5m) and Vítor Pereira (£0.8m) are next on the ‘transfers in’ leaderboard. Their respective Gameweek 29 fixtures are against Brighton (H) and Southampton(A).
WHICH MANAGERS COULD GET A TABLE BONUS IN GAMEWEEK 29?
There are plenty of gains to be made with the Assistant Manager chip, not least from “table bonus points”.
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.
There are only two managers eligible for table bonus points in Gameweek 29:
- Kieran McKenna – Ipswich Town (18th) v Nottingham Forest (3rd)
- Ruud van Nistelrooy – Leicester City (19th) v Manchester United (14th)
It’s tricky to tell which of these managers stands a better chance of an upset this weekend, as their respective teams are both sorely lacking form-wise.
Examining the reverse fixtures doesn’t help a ton either, as Ipswich and Leicester both lost to their upcoming opponents.
In the case of the latter, van Nistelrooy was of course Manchester United’s interim manager at the time, so it’s perhaps tough to draw too direct a comparison. But the Foxes’ recent form – including the fact they’ve failed to score in five straight league matches and are without a clean sheet in 21 games – suggests even this hot-and-cold Red Devils side will surely be too much for the hosts to handle at the King Power Stadium.
At a push, McKenna may therefore be the more likely of the two to take some points from Gameweek 29 – a view our points projection tool seems to agree with.
His Ipswich crew only lost by a goal at the City Ground back in Gameweek 13, and while their overall record lately is nearly as bad as Leicester’s, their home form isn’t quite as woeful. The Tractor Boys have lost four straight at Portman Road but they did beat Chelsea there before that run.
WHAT THE BOOKMAKERS SAY
Here’s who the bookies think have the best chance of prospering in Gameweek 29:
| % chance of home win | % chance of draw | % chance of away win | |
| Kieran McKenna – Ipswich Town (18th) v Nottingham Forest (3rd) | 25.3% | 27.2% | 47.5% |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy – Leicester City (19th) v Manchester United (14th) | 21.1% | 27.2% | 51.7% |
As you can see, McKenna’s Ipswich have a better percentage chance of winning against Forest than van Nistelrooy’s Leicester have versus United.
Do with that what you will! But if you don’t fancy taking a punt on the off chance of some table bonus points…
THE BANKERS
Nuno Espírito Santo
Given the aforementioned gulf in points, table position and quality between Forest and Ipswich, it’s fair to lump Nuno into the ‘banker’ category this weekend.
The Tricky Trees have slipped to a few defeats recently but have also taken four points and two clean sheets from back-to-back matches against Man City and Arsenal. They also won 7-0 not so long ago, and now face an Ipswich team with just one win in 12.
Forest have Champions League football well within their sights and have proven to be among the hardest units to beat this season, so expect the Tractor Boys to have their work cut out for them.
Ruben Amorim
United’s mixed results this season show that anything is possible, but Leicester’s own form suggests this should be somewhat of a banker win for Ruben Amorim (£0.8m), who accordingly is among the most transferred in Assistant Managers ahead of the Gameweek 29 deadline.
The Red Devils managed to take a point off Arsenal last weekend having beaten Ipswich a match before that. They now face a Foxes team that have lost 12 of their last 13 Premier League matches, conceding 32 times and failing to score on 10 of those occasions, including six straight home games.
A pretty damning streak, which van Nistelrooy will hope to snap against his former club but will probably struggle to do so.
CURRENT ASSISTANT MANAGER POINTS PROJECTIONS
FINAL THOUGHTS
GAMEWEEK 29
This week, Nuno Espírito Santo (£1.1m) and Ruben Amorim (£0.8m) are the two men aiming for what should be ‘banker’ wins against a pair of relegation-threatened sides. Forest are the better of the two teams, but United face arguably the worse of the two opponents.
In the dugouts opposite them, Kieran McKenna (£0.5m) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (£0.5m) are the duo capable of securing table bonus points if they can take points off their respective visitors. According to bookies odds and based on this season’s form, McKenna has a slight edge over the Dutchman in terms of likeliness to nick a result of some kind.
Really, though, this doesn’t feel like the week for chasing table bonus – especially looking at both clubs’ records this season.
| Games in which they would have been eligible for table bonus in 2024/25 | Won | Drawn | Lost | |
| Ipswich | 17 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Leicester | 13 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
Our vote goes for Amorim, then, especially after a confident-boosting victory on Thursday night.
It doesn’t feel like a great week in general for successfully anticipating results of any kind. The bookies have Man City and Arsenal as odds-on favourites for their home fixtures (the odds help shape our points projections) but their matches are far from straightforward.
LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD
As you will almost certainly know by now, the Assistant Manager chip lasts for three Gameweeks after you first activate it. So, some of you will have another one or two bites at the apple after Gameweek 29 is all said and done.
With more blanks, doubles and chip-playing opportunities in the near future, free transfers may be increasingly valuable. If that’s the case for your squad, and you’re hoping not to spend any on future Assistant Manager swaps, then one of Andoni Iraola (£1.1m), Pep Guardiola (£1.5m) or Vítor Pereira (£0.8m) could be solid long-term selections given their decent fixtures over the coming rounds of matches:
That same set-and-forget strategy may not work as well for someone like David Moyes (£0.5m), who faces Liverpool (A) and Arsenal (H) in back-to-back outings after this coming weekend. Still, the Scot has secured table bonus points twice already this season, including against Everton’s cross-city rivals.
Spurs, meanwhile, have the best fixture of the bunch in Gameweek 31, and Ange Postecoglou (£1.1m) could be in line for table bonus points if his group can get a result against Chelsea in Gameweek 30. They’ve got Fulham to contend with first, though, with no such incentive on offer.
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