The past few weeks in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) have seen plenty of Wildcards, Free Hit and Assistant Manager chips in operation. Now, a pair of back-to-back Double Gameweeks means plenty more managers will be eyeing up the best way to maximise the potential of their Bench Boost and Triple Captain.
When the season run-in initially began to take shape, the prevailing strategy seemed to lean towards using the latter chip first, allowing for a Bench Boosted squad in the bigger of the two ‘doubles’ – but is that still the case?
In this piece, we’ve examined a few different strategies for when to play each chip, based on the evidence we now have available to us heading into the Gameweek 31 deadline.
Triple Captain Gameweek 32, Bench Boost Gameweek 33
Pros
Isak’s appealing Double Gameweek 32
When Gameweek 32 was confirmed, Alexander Isak (£9.5m) immediately jumped out as a prime Triple Captain candidate with his pair of home fixtures against Manchester United and Crystal Palace.
Newcastle’s frontman was enjoying a blistering run of form around that time, which overall this season has seen him reach an impressive tally of 20 goals (and five assists) from 26 starts.
If he’s fit to start both matches in his upcoming double – and we’ll discuss that big “if” shortly – there are few players you’d trust with the Triple Captain armband more than him.
Maximise Double Gameweekers on Gameweek 33 Bench Boost
FPL managers still holding both chips could then choose to deploy their Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 33, when four teams – Arsenal, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City – will feature twice, rather than two.
Particularly for those who are on or have just played their second Wildcard, this presents the opportunity to line up as many as 12 doublers for that round.
If a Bench Boost in Gameweek 33 is your preferred strategy, it’s likely you’ll want a triple-up on Arsenal – probably Bukayo Saka (£10.4m), and perhaps two of the Gunners’ defensive troops.
You may already have three Palace players from their double in Gameweek 32.
Omar Marmoush (£7.5m) presents excellent value as City’s stand-in striker, Joško Gvardiol (£6.0m) likely remains their stand-out defender, and then there are the likes of Savinho (£6.2m) or Ederson (£5.3m) depending on which slots in your team need filled.
As for Villa, rotation around Champions League and FA Cup semi-final commitments could be an issue, but you’d expect Emi Martínez (£5.0m) to start both Double Gameweek 33 matches regardless. Ezri Konsa (£4.4m) is probably the safest outfield defender to go for, while further forward it’s a bit of a lottery between Morgan Rogers (£5.5m), Marcus Rashford (£6.6m) and Marco Asensio (£6.1m) as to who can do the most with the minutes they get in the league.
Then, assuming Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) is included given he plays Leicester that week, you’re looking for a few (ideally budget-friendly) players with appealing fixtures to flesh out the rest of your squad. Ibrahima Konaté (£5.3m) will, of course, also face the Foxes, who have failed to score in 12 of their last 15 league matches. If you’re in need of a cheap goalkeeper or defender, West Ham’s Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) and Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m) face Southampton at home – a match which could also spark some interest in Jarrod Bowen (£7.6m) as a differential fifth midfielder.
Cons
Isak’s fitness
One possible point against Triple Captaining Isak in Double Gameweek 32 is that his underlying attacking numbers have dipped a little recently. However, much more of a concern is his fitness.
The Swede was withdrawn early in Gameweek 30 with a recurring groin injury, which Eddie Howe played down in his pre-Gameweek 31 presser as “a very minor problem that will go away quite quickly” – but the fact that injury niggles keep resurfacing for Isak places a question mark over whether we can trust him to start both matches in Gameweek 32 with a Sunday-Wednesday turnaround. It does help that both of those games are at St James’ Park, but that won’t matter if he gets injured in the first match – or, god forbid, against Leicester on Monday. A trip to Aston Villa then quickly follows, meaning there’s little time to rest and recover as the Magpies pursue a Champions League spot.
- Newcastle’s upcoming fixtures:
- 7 April (GW31): Leicester (A)
- 13 April (DGW32): Man Utd (H)
- 16 April (DGW32): Crystal Palace (H)
- 19 April (GW33): Aston Villa (A)
Lack of Triple Captain alternatives
Of course, there’s every chance Isak is fine, makes it through Gameweek 31 and delivers the goods across both his scheduled Gameweek 32 appearances.
If anything were to happen before then that further diminishes his appeal as a Triple Captain, there are few stand-out options that we would comfortably trust with that special armband. Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) could well share minutes with Harvey Barnes (£5.9m), or both men could theoretically start if Jacob Murphy (£5.1m) needs a rest.
There’s Oliver Glasner’s troops like Mateta or even Muñoz or Sarr/Eze, but Palace’s Gameweek 32 fixtures – Man City (A) and Newcastle (A) – appeal far less than Newcastle’s do. That lot aside, you’re then on to players who play just once that week – and while the likes of Villa, Chelsea, Brighton and Liverpool all have good fixtures, it may just be worth holding onto your Triple Captain chip for a later date… (we’ll get to that).
Cup-focused rotation in Double Gameweek 33?
Another “con” of this approach is possible rotation ahead of the FA Cup (or even following on from European cup competitions, in some instances) that could impact the likelihood of some Double Gameweek 33 players starting twice.
If that were to happen, the ceiling of a Bench Boost in Gameweek 33 could obviously take a hit.
Here’s the fixture schedule (in all competitions) around Gameweek 33 for each team that plays twice:
- Arsenal
- 8 April (UCL QF1): Real Madrid (H)
- 12 April (GW32): Brentford (H)
- 16 April (UCL QF2): Real Madrid (A)
- 20 April (DGW33): Ipswich (A)
- 23 April (DGW33): Crystal Palace (H)
- + 29 April (possible UCL SF1)
- Aston Villa
- 9 April (UCL QF1): PSG (A)
- 12 April (GW32): Southampton (A)
- 15 April (UCL QF2): PSG (H)
- 19 April (DGW33): Newcastle (H)
- 22 April (DGW33): Man City (A)
- 26 April (FA Cup SF): Crystal Palace @ Wembley
- + 29 April (possible UCL SF1)
- Crystal Palace
- 12 April (DGW32): Man City (A)
- 16 April (DGW32): Newcastle (A)
- 19 April (DGW33): Bournemouth (H)
- 23 April (DGW33): Arsenal (A)
- 26 April (FA Cup SF): Aston Villa @ Wembley
- Man City
- 12 April (GW32): Crystal Palace (H)
- 19 April (DGW33): Everton (A)
- 22 April (DGW33): Aston Villa (H)
- 27 April (FA Cup SF): Nottingham Forest @ Wembley
Bench Boost Gameweek 32, Triple Captain Gameweek 33
An alternative strategy to the one outlined above is, of course, to simply switch the two chips around and go for a Bench Boost in Double Gameweek 32, and Triple Captain in Double Gameweek 33.
Pros
Avoid cup rotation and possible injuries or suspensions
One key “pro” of following this approach to the early Bench Boost is that it avoids any FA Cup-focused rotation mucking up the minutes played by you squad. If you’re Wildcarding ahead of Gameweek 31, or already have, then Bench Boosting earlier also reduces the likelihood of unexpected suspensions or injuries in intermediate matches that could force you to take unwanted hits to get back up to 15 starters.
Many of us will have three Palace and three Newcastle assets, given we’ve known about their Double Gameweek 32 for some time, so that’s a third of your team sorted.
Salah fills another slot (unless you’re brave enough to go without him!), while a glance at the Season Ticker suggests you’d probably want to fill out the rest of a Bench Boost Gameweek 32 squad with as many players as possible from the likes of Villa, Brighton and Chelsea to target the relegation-bound sides.
We discussed Villa’s top assets further up this page, with Ollie Watkins (£8.9m) the main one we are yet to mention as the England international has been managing a knee issue since the last international break.
Brighton have sourced their goals from across the pitch in recent weeks, making it hard to ascertain which player could be their most reliable source of FPL points. If you need an attacker then one of Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) or João Pedro (£5.6m) could do the trick, otherwise Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) will be hopeful of keeping Leicester out of his net. The most budget-friendly option is captain Lewis Dunk (£4.2m), who returned from injury to the starting line-up in Gameweek 30.
As for Chelsea, if Cole Palmer (£10.7m) is out of reach, you could consider goal-scoring defender Marc Cucurella (£5.3m) or cheap midfielder Enzo Fernández (£4.7m), who is enjoying another purple patch having registered four attacking returns in his last seven appearances.
More Triple Captain Gameweek 33 options?
If you’re of the opinion that Isak can’t be trusted with the Triple Captain chip anymore, then the larger pool of doublers in Gameweek 33 means there are more potential candidates for that armband.
Of course, the aforementioned cup-focused rotation could raise similar issues to a Triple Captain Gameweek 33 strategy as with Bench Boost Gameweek 33, in that the expected minutes of some options may be reduced.
However, someone like Saka – up against Ipswich (A) and Crystal Palace (H), and with no FA Cup semi-final to worry about – is definitely worthy of consideration.
Cons
Naturally, the main “con” of this approach is essentially the inverse point of a “pro” from our first potential approach: you’ll probably have fewer total doublers on a Bench Boost Gameweek 32 than a Bench Boost Gameweek 33.
Other windows
Alternatively, FPL managers could pick whichever of Gameweek 32 or 33 that their squad is best set up for, Bench Boost then, and save the Triple Captain chip for one of the final weeks of the season.
This could either be when a team with something to fight for faces one that’s already “on the beach”, or it could be Gameweek 36 – which could end up being a Double Gameweek for whichever clubs make it to the FA Cup final.
Of course, this latter approach could itself present similar issues to the Triple Captain Gameweek 33 strategy in that the FA Cup final will fall a couple of days after this possible Double Gameweek 36 concludes.
Which strategy are you following in the coming week? Let us know in the comments below.
