In addition to the recent raft of player price reveals, earlier today Fantasy Premier League announced that they have introduced a new chip ahead of this week’s launch.
While the two wildcards, Triple Captain and Bench Boost chips remain intact, All Out Attack has belatedly been given the elbow, replaced by a brand new “Free Hit” chip.
Essentially, the Free Hit can be used once in a season and allows you to make unlimited changes to your entire 15-man squad for a single Gameweek.
Once the deadline for that Gameweek has passed, though, you squad immediately reverts to the previous line-up.
It’s important to note that you cannot use this chip to play the market to your advantage.
Any value gained/lost by those players drafted in as temporary new additions will not effect your squad.
This only applies to new players acquired on the Free Hit chip.
Ie, if you already have Alexis Sanchez in your original squad and choose to keep him on your Free Hit Chip, then his price would still be subject to fluctuation.
So if you have any players plummeting in value in your original squad, playing the Free Hit chip won’t stop their price drops from being taken off your budget.
Of course, if you choose to use transfers or the Wildcard instead, you’d avoid those drops in cost and earn the appropriate value from any rises.
Arguably, then, the Free Hit chip could be used to help temporarily trade out injured and/or banned players that you ultimately want to retain. If they’re seen as expendable, a transfer out is perhaps the best solution.
Like the second Wildcard, Triple Captain and Bench Boost chips, the Free Hit chip could be used when planning for Double Gameweeks in order to maximise the number of players with two fixtures.
A specific example of this would be Double Gameweek 27 last year, where Stoke City and Manchester City were the only teams to play twice.
Despite knowing that both sides blanked in Gameweek 28, many managers took points hits to bring in the likes of Sergio Aguero and also played their Triple Captain chip on the Argentine.
The Free Hit chip would have allowed us to temporarily acquire City and Stoke assets without the need to tear apart our teams, while also navigating the upcoming blank more efficiently.
However, it could also be used as a reactionary chip.
Although this may be a helpful tool as a quick fix when your squad is hit by injury and suspension, it could ultimately come in handier when utilised on those Gameweeks hit hard by FA Cup postponements.
We witnessed this last season in the afore-mentioned Gameweek 28, where only four fixtures went ahead.
Bournemouth’s Josh King was the star turn that day, serving up a season-high 18-point return at home to West Ham.
The Norwegian had bagged four goals in as many matches prior to that fixture but, with many managers choosing to be prudent with their points hits, he was drafted in by just over 141,000 for Gameweek 28 and selected by only 252,000+.
With the option of a Free Hit chip, King would surely have been a major player in far more squads for a Gameweek that also saw the likes of Everton and Liverpool participate.
As this comment from Lateriser in this morning’s Hot Topic also pointed out, though, the Free Hit Chip could also help take advantage of big fixture swings and help you load up on sides with very appealing fixtures.
In that respect, it could be viewed as more subjective and dependent on the players you hold and state of your squad in any given Gameweek.
Certainly, when assessed against the merits of the All Out Attack chip, the new Free Hit chip looks a far more useful addition and one that should afford a greater degree of tactical variety from FPL managers over the course of 2017/18.
