After holding her nerve, Gameweek 31 is Wildcard time for FPL Family’s Sam. Here, she shares her thoughts as well as her first draft.
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Heading into this midweek round of fixtures, I’m not ashamed to admit there was a huge fear of missing out. Everyone else seemed to be activating their Wildcards. I kept hearing about Lee’s at home, Az’s on the Q&A and Julien’s on the Official FPL Pod.
When so many brilliant managers are using the same strategy, it makes you strongly assess yours. Am I being stubborn? Should I just play the chip? Is waiting for more information really worth it? Is my team good enough to play straight through?
Different ways to play
With all this Wildcard noise, I reminded myself that others are on different paths for different reasons. Both Lee and Juls still have their Assistant Manager chip to play, therefore playing the Wildcard in Gameweek 30 made sense.
It frees Gameweeks 31 to 33 for the former ‘Mystery Chip’ and doesn’t impact a Gameweek 34 Free Hit. I already played mine between Gameweeks 24 and 26, so needing a three-week clear block wasn’t an issue.
For other managers, difficult fixtures and multiple flags made Gameweek 30 look very challenging. Some players had only been recruited to help with Blank Gameweek 29.
This wasn’t the case with my team. The only flags were on Chris Wood (£7.2m) and Cole Palmer (£10.7m). I could either hit the Wildcard button or spend four points to play through and wait for important information. I picked the latter.
Now, many of you may think that’s mad because the hit only has one chance to pay itself off. And I fully agree! Despite this, Omar Marmoush (£7.5m) against Leicester City and Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.6m) against Southampton both felt irresistible. Sure, I could have just bought one of them, but I wanted both.
Deciding on the Bench Boost
For those wondering how different a Gameweek 31 Wildcard looks to a Gameweek 30 one, I’m asking myself this a lot. In the drafts I drew up before Wednesday, two players were different. They either had or lost the Bournemouth guys. Yet things varied a bit more when considering the Bench Boost chip.
Finally, we know the Double Gameweek 33/Blank Gameweek 34 picture.
So, the choices for the Bench Boost are Gameweek 32, 33 or 36.
Ideally, it’ll be as close to the Wildcard as possible, making the earlier two preferable. We know for certain that Newcastle United and Crystal Palace both play twice in Gameweek 32, so six players from those teams would make an attractive boost.
If I choose Gameweek 32 for an active 15-man squad, then my second Wildcard goalkeeper will be Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m), as Brighton and Hove Albion face Leicester.
On the other hand, if I choose Gameweek 33, it’s Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) for West Ham United at home to Southampton. Deciding on this and budget defenders makes the delay worthwhile.
My current draft is based around a Gameweek 33 Bench Boost.
Just to give you a full insight into my chip strategy, I’m then going to Free Hit in Blank Gameweek 34. I wanted to avoid this ideally, but there’ll be three from Palace, three from Arsenal, two Manchester City assets and maybe a Villan or two.
Whilst David Raya (£5.5m) can move to the bench, there’d be seven to nine blanking players and a maximum of three free transfers. So I’d struggle to field an XI without multiple hits. Then again, if 10 can be reached from just a four-point hit, I’ll consider saving the Free Hit for a fun Gameweek 38.
Current Wildcard Draft
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