Chip Strategy

FPL chip strategy: When to play the Free Hit, Bench Boost and Triple Captain?

Learn to choose your battles. Battles not fought are not lost; simply battles not worth fighting for.

Chips are on the minds of a lot of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers. No, I’m not talking about the ones where just one is not enough (clearly FPL has adopted this line of thinking after their Christmas gift) but the ones that could potentially lead to big gains in FPL if lethally deployed.

When I’m looking around, I’ve seen a lot of FPL managers play their chips simply because of ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) or because they are presuming their better opportunities will not arrive in the future. Within this article, I aim to cast an eye on what opportunities might arrive in the future and what factors you should think about while deploying your chips. I just want to reiterate at this point that what you should do with the chips is fully dependant on your team. I just want to give more FPL food to chew upon. That’s about it. At this point, I want to just take this opportunity to thank Legomane, Ben Crellin, Talha Nadeem, Planet FPL, Pras and Sonaldo who have been doing excellent work on this topic and serve as the basis of my research.

First off, let’s quickly look again at Double Gameweek 22.

As I already cited in my article last week, no team has a standout pair of Double Gameweek 22 matches on paper with the exception of Watford. In addition, popularly owned ‘single’ Gameweekers like Liverpool, West Ham United and Everton have good fixtures on paper and there is a strong chance you could miss out on some hauls if you Free Hit these players out. There has been enough conversation around Gameweek 22 so I am not going to dwell further on it. Let’s look ahead at potential future opportunities and factors to consider.

Blank Gameweek 27

The Carabao Cup has now concluded there are two games that are going to be postponed because of it:

  • Arsenal vs Liverpool
  • Chelsea vs Leicester City

At this point, I would like to thank regular FFScout contributor Legomane for the planning charts he makes available for us, which help visualise the free midweeks and what is scheduled for the team in play.

There is a chance that Liverpool could have a Double Gameweek 26 (which I will touch upon later). Also, these four teams are not guaranteed to blank in Gameweek 27; one of their outstanding fixtures could potentially be moved to the midweek of Gameweek 27, although that would require them and their opponents not to reach the FA Cup fifth round.

For the purposes of this piece, let’s assume that these four teams blank in Gameweek 27. The ownership from these four, especially Liverpool, is considerably high, which does tell me that there is a potential opportunity to play a Free Hit chip in this week. There are some good targetable fixtures in Gameweek 27 with your Free Hit, too, in my opinion. I’ll just list them down here:

  • Everton vs Manchester City
  • Manchester United vs Watford
  • Crystal Palace vs Burnley
  • Southampton vs Norwich

Blank Gameweek 30

As we can see above, Gameweek 30 is where the FA Cup quarter-finals take place, meaning that a lot of teams should blank. At the moment, we have one confirmed fixture in Gameweek 30 and that is Aston Villa vs Arsenal. This confirmed fixture is also quite important to note, as you can have an overview of things and a little bit of shrewdness with transfers can go a long way.

Given the way the FA Cup draw has fallen so far, we could potentially see a considerable number of teams blanking in Gameweek 30. So the Free Hit chip could be handy to tackle this Blank Gameweek if your team is hit hard by postponements.

Why I mention Arsenal and Aston Villa here is that we know for sure that they have a fixture in Gameweek 30 and both teams have good fixtures (and a potential double or triple for Aston Villa) in the weeks beforehand, which is something to keep in mind before selling players from these teams. It could potentially lead to you dead-ending your team in Gameweek 30 instead of deploying the Free Hit chip that week and then using the Wildcard in Gameweek 31.

Again, there is no straightforward chip strategy that I’m aiming to bring to light with this article. These are simply factors to consider and think about when planning when to deploy your chips. Like I mentioned at the top of the article, there will be many battles to fight until Gameweek 38 and you can avoid ‘FOMO’ by picking and choosing your battles wisely. For example, I am loosely thinking about holding onto Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m) and Bukayo Saka (£6.4m) with the view of maybe saving a Free Hit for Gameweek 30. Aston Villa are also something to think about.

Potential Double or Triple Gameweek 23

There could be a Double or Triple Gameweek 23, with the potential for games to be scheduled during the FA Cup fourth round or during the international break.

There are free TV slots on Saturday at 5.30pm and Sunday at 2pm in the first weekend of February, which could signal a Double Gameweek (likely for Aston Villa and one of Burnley or Leeds United) – although it’s worth noting that there is a big England rugby game at 5pm on that Saturday.

Additionally, as per The Athletic, Premier League teams could schedule games during the winter break but you would think that this break is for international teams outside of Europe that have matches. Teams with important players from South America (for example) might have a problem with their blanks getting scheduled here.

This is just speculation, of course. But Aston Villa definitely have a game in Gameweek 30 and these are their fixtures in the mid-term.

They have home games against Leeds United, Watford and Southampton and an away trip to Newcastle United in the mid-term. This makes me think that instead of using Free Hit on their assets in Gameweek 23, I’d much rather spend points, take some hits and buy their players because they have good mid-term fixtures and a confirmed match in Gameweek 30 which might help me save a Free Hit there as well. Again these are just food-for-thought musings from my end and you can choose to do what you want with this information.

Potential Liverpool Double Gameweek 26

As we can see in Legomane’s chart above (click to expand), Liverpool have a free midweek in Gameweek 26 in which they play Norwich at home. They also have a home game against Leeds United still to be scheduled and if it falls in Gameweek 26, I don’t think there is ever going to be a better opportunity to deploy the Triple Captain chip with Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) facing Norwich City and Leeds United at home. The one caveat is that Liverpool are likely to blank in Gameweek 27.

Situation after Gameweek 30

At this point, without going into too much detail, I just want to touch upon what happens after Gameweek 30.

Gameweek 33 is where the FA Cup semi-finals take place. The midweek after this is free, giving potential for a large Double Gameweek. Also, teams that are in the FA Cup semi-final could either blank or have their one Gameweek 33 fixture pushed to midweek. So Gameweek 33 is one where some teams could double, some would have a single match and some could have none. A good week for chip deployment, primarily your Free Hit, Bench Boost or maybe Triple Captain.

Similarly, the midweeks after Gameweek 36 and Gameweek 37 are also free and traditionally the former is a big Double Gameweek where a lot of managers look to Bench Boost. You can even think about using your Free Hit chip here should you wish to.

I don’t want to delve too much into post-Gameweek 30 but hopefully this helps you with some planning and primarily your decision with what to do in Gameweek 22. I quickly want to say thanks to Pras and Zophar for skimming through this article. The point I really wanted to make is there will be many opportunities to be aggressive during this season and it won’t be possible to do so all the time. Pick your battles based on your team and based on potential upside.

If you want to know more, you can view our latest episode of The FPL Wire below:

1,115 Comments Post a Comment
  1. RogDog_jimmy
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    i always forget that making a plan is a good thing sometimes - even with covid.
    So here's my team and plan keeping in mind getting Salah back in gw24.

    DDG*
    TAA, Alonso*, Reguilon*
    Gray, Jota, Bowen, Maddison*
    Ronaldo*, Watkins, Dennis*

    Foster, Foden, Cancelo, Johnson

    1ft, 1.8itb

    GW22 - Gundogan & Antonio > Maddison* & Dennis* (-4)
    GW23 - Alonso > Coady
    GW24 - Jota & Maddison > Salah & Saka (-4)

  2. Rainer
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Trent shite, attack shite...

    Worth the dodge if on FH.

  3. Wensink
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Expected price rise for Maddison tonight and a fall for Salah. Has there been any chatter at all about possible postponements for Leicester? I’m so wary now about making any transfers before deadline day.

    1. Diedhiou See That?
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Holddd

    2. Eh, just one more thing ...
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Hold … it’s frustrating but just not worth going early

    3. Snake Juice
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Hold if you can

    4. WHUFCSmith23
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      They get tested the morning of the game. Any game could be off at any time. If you are losing 0.2 then maybe just make the move tonight.

      1. Wensink
        • 6 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Thanks, chum. Taking the plunge on MF tonight, gonna hold on my -4 hit for tomorrow.

        1. rokonto
          • 8 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          Wth is mf

  4. Assisting the assister
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    -4 will get me a bench of Sanchez Davies (or Emerson) Bernardo Watkins. Viable for BB do you think?

    1. Starskyb
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      For sure i think.

  5. Junglist95
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Alonso Son Broja
    To
    Lamptey Maddisson Kane???

    Have exact money for it!

    1. 2999 - Lady of Legend
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Always seems like fate when it's an exact money transfer!

  6. Fpl_Ludwig
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    According to fplstatistics.co.uk son is likely to drop in price tonight

    Will that affect his selling price?

    Got him at 10.6 and if he drops tonight he’s back there

    1. KingRichud
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Won’t change for you.

  7. DIMITRIS
    • 5 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    What are the chances of Leicester vs Burnley game going ahead?

    1. KingRichud
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      80/20 my best guess

      1. DIMITRIS
        • 5 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Cheers

    2. DARE TO BISCAN
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      My guess is 78%. Means nothing. But, there it is.

    3. griffzinho
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      100% imho after reading Burnley Fc forum and listening to Rodger’s presser.

      1. KingRichud
        • 4 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        What’s the news from forum?

        1. griffzinho
          • 11 Years
          2 years, 2 months ago

          That a team will be available to play but it will take some tactical shifts from the boss. All very down beat from a woods departure understandably.

      2. DIMITRIS
        • 5 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Cheers

  8. grooveymatt65
    • 10 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    hey guys this is my team:

    Ramsdale Elliot

    TAA Cancelo Alonso Livramento Johnson

    Salah Jota Son Bowen Brownhill

    DCL Antonio King

    1.8 itb 1ft

    what could I do from the below?

    1. Salah, Son and Antonio to Maddison, Moura/Mount and Ronaldo for -8

    2. Son and Antonio to Maddison and Ronaldo for -4 (bench Salah)

    3. Salah, Son and Ramsdale to Maddison, Mount and De Gea for -8

    4. Ramsdale, Son and Antonio to De Gea, Tielmans and Ronaldo for -8 (bench Salah)

    5. Other

    thanks!!!!!

    1. Starskyb
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      I'd go 4

    2. ZimZalabim
      • 7 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      1 or 2

      but if u have 2 FHs id FH this team

  9. waldo666
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    2 FT and 1.1 ITB (**=DGW *=flagged)

    Really unsure how to attack this week. Tricky with my SGWers having good fixtures.

    DDG**
    TAA Reguilon** Cancelo Lamptey**
    Jota Bowen Son* Maddison**
    Ronaldo** Antonio

    (Bachmann Gray Broja* Livramento*)

    A) Son to Bruno (exact change)
    B) Broja to Dennis
    C) B + Son to Mount
    D) Something else

    1. Bobby Digital
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Great team. I'd do A.

      1. waldo666
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Cheers, lucky I can absorb Son's impending drop and wait.

    2. KingRichud
      • 4 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Would need to do A tonight as son likely to drop

      1. waldo666
        • 13 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        That drop won't affect me.

  10. Random Name
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Allison getting bored and complacent. If Arsenal nick one it will be because of him

  11. MikeS
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Anyone doubling up on king and the main man Dennis?

    1. Stranger Mings
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      No think will add ronaldo

    2. Silecro
      • 6 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Yeah, me certainly. Great next 3 games

  12. Nate(U)dog(ie)
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Looks like a lot of price changes will happen tonight, don't know why I ever hold hope people will chill a bit especially when we probably have at least two games that are close to being at risk now

    1. Ajax Hamsterdam
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      what is the other game please?

      1. Nate(U)dog(ie)
        • 3 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Leicester v Burnley and Spurs v Arsenal, Burnley were very low on numbers a few days ago and Leicester look like they're only scraping the 13, Arsenal seem to have a few cases and lots of injuries and now Xhaka suspended

  13. Junglist95
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Bavies or Lamptey?

    1. Junglist95
      • 2 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Have 4.5m to spend

    2. Eh, just one more thing ...
      • 12 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Lamptey

      1. Junglist95
        • 2 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Davies "more" nailed isn't he?

        Lamp never plays it seems

      2. Junglist95
        • 2 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Lamp gave Alonso a torrid time last time. Makes me wonder if Alonso is benched for it

  14. Eh, just one more thing ...
    • 12 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    The worries over postponement for Leicester are making me lean towards Bruno in for Son until Salah is back from AFCON … I know Man U are pish and Bruno hasn’t done anything … but are there better options?

    1. Solanke
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Rather get bench fodder than Bruno

    2. Red Red Robins
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      I was thinking Moura, but i dont really want another Spurs player, they have Chelsea next too. Cant see Spurs going gung ho in these 2 fixtures either

      Quite stuck too

    3. waldo666
      • 13 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      It's not the worst idea at all and am considering it myself (above).

  15. Starskyb
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Had a plan to FH 22 but serious doubts now following all the thoughts online. Would, really, really appreciate help choosing between these two options...

    A) FH Team of
    De Gea (Bachmann)
    Cucarella, TAA, Alonso (Davies, Lowton)
    Jota, Mount, Maddison, Bowen, Moura
    Kane, Ronaldo, Dennis

    or B) - 8 to get
    De Gea (Foster)
    TAA, Cancelo, Royal, Dawson (Targett)
    Bowen, Jota, Maddison, (ESR, Bernado)
    Kane, Dennis, Antonio

    Still got both FH

    1. LC1
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      Are you going to play 3-4-3 with fh team?

      1. Starskyb
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 3 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Yeh probably. Would you make any changes to it?

    2. DARE TO BISCAN
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      I think I'm going to FH to a similar team. Need to do it tonight, due to price changes

  16. Random Name
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Saka has got to bury that

  17. Ajax Hamsterdam
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    sanchez*
    taa cancelo dawson
    jota bowen* madison* foden
    ronaldo* antonio dcl

    steele silva livra white

    gtg? only 3 dgw players(marked *) but not sure i want to lose anyone for a hit (silva maybe?) 0.4 itb

    cheers

  18. EL tridente
    • 6 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Crazy to start Gallagher over B Silva?

  19. We Go Again
    • 9 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Yeah I think I'm captaining Bowen over Jota...

  20. Rainer
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Two defenders & Ox 😆

    This depth is awful!

  21. DandyDon
    • 5 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    How’s my Freehit team looking??…0.0 itb

    DeGea
    Emerson Lowton Robertson
    Fernandes Jota Bowen Maddison
    Kane Ronaldo Dennis

    Carson Thomas Sissoko Marcal

    1. Revival
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 11 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      If I was using a FH I would get 2 or 3 Brighton players in.

  22. 2999 - Lady of Legend
    • 3 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Trent safe 🙂

  23. Rainer
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    If that's not Saka cramp Spurs might not have a DGW.

  24. Fish up a tree
    • 2 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Saka off see ya later NLD!

  25. circusmonkey
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Who should I bench out of Dias, Rudiger, Bernardo, Watkins?

  26. Snake Juice
    • 7 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Saka off; goodbye NLD

  27. Revival
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Oh No Saka! 🙁

  28. Milk, 1 Šuker
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    You just wonder what Arsenal might have achieved tonight with 11 men. How they’ve kept a near full strength Liverpool at bay is beyond me.

    1. RogDog_jimmy
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      lol - no Salah and Mane is pretty far from near-full strength.
      Firmino working back from a long absence too.

      Not to say it's not an impressive performance from Arsenal - but this ain't the 96 Bull they're playing.

      1. Milk, 1 Šuker
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 11 Years
        2 years, 2 months ago

        Yeah sorry I meant to include without Salah and Mane it is a near full strength team

  29. KingRichud
    • 4 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    Is Maddison on a price rise tonight? Has he had a rise already this GW?

  30. Redcat1
    • 8 Years
    2 years, 2 months ago

    I know there’s a lot of the season still to go and anything can happen fixture wise but I’m worried I won’t use all my chips.

    I’ve got my wildcard and all chips (2 free hits) available.
    I’ve got enough doublers this week so no need to use anything.
    Was thinking of bench boost but my subs are single gamers, also thought of triple captain but no player feels me with confidence

    Should I be concerned ?

    1. Ajax Hamsterdam
      • 9 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      absolutely not

    2. RogDog_jimmy
      • 3 Years
      2 years, 2 months ago

      going to be blanks & doubles almost every week from here on out. a couple of big ones. you'll find weeks to use chips.

      i really like the idea of FH gw38 myself for maximum fun.