FPL Family’s Sam: Gameweek 33 Bench Boost plans

The Bench Boost chip has been activated by FPL Family’s Sam for Double Gameweek 33. Here are her thoughts and transfer plans for the week, as well as her likely team.

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I’ve been playing FPL for a long time. I don’t ever remember feeling as stressed as I did heading into Gameweek 32.

My team looked good on paper, but the reality felt really uneasy. I was concerned about the minutes for so many individuals, such as Anthony Elanga (£5.4m). He was carrying a yellow flag and Nuno Espirito Santo spoke about there being a last-minute check.

“We are still assessing all of them. They are struggling with problems – some small, some not so small – but we have to assess them. We have one more day and then we’ll see if they can be available for the game.

“On all of them [I am hopeful]. It can be all of them, it can be none. We don’t know. It depends on how they recover and how they feel. It’s about that.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Elanga, Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi

Meanwhile, Bukayo Saka (£10.5m) felt unlikely to start due to his recent injury being managed carefully around the Champions League. I wanted to add Morgan Rogers (£5.6m) back into the squad but all the community chatter seemed to think he’d be benched.

In the end, I followed my gut and sold Elanga for Rogers. I also benched both Saka and Josko Gvardiol (£6.2m) – when you spend £16.7m of your budget on two players, sidelining them feels all kinds of wrong.

On Saturday, Lee and I had planned a fun day out with our children. As mentioned on last week’s Q&A video, I decided to turn off all notifications until we got home. Because a Manchester City clean sheet, Saka start, or Rogers benching would certainly ruin my mood.

Gameweek 32

Thankfully, all three of those went in my favour. Gvardiol conceded, Saka was just a cameo and Rogers registered an assist.

Admittedly, I wasn’t able to switch off successfully. Once Lee told me that Crystal Palace had scored at the Etihad, I calmed down. Then, a donut-making afternoon was made easier once I heard Rogers was in Aston Villa’s XI.

So Gameweek 32 hasn’t treated me badly so far. I’m on 49 points and a little green arrow, which – given I haven’t got a chip active – feels good. Six players go again on Wednesday evening, although I’d like a captaincy blank given Alexander Isak‘s (£9.5m) high effective ownership based around Triple Captain usage.

Time to Bench Boost

You see, Gameweek 33 is the one I’ve been waiting for. It’s finally time to Bench Boost. Where possible, I always like to play this chip in a Double Gameweek.

There have already been times this season where I felt my substitutes could do well – and they have – but it feels good to use it with a second goalkeeper who actually starts and a squad that’s fresh from a Wildcard.

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