Many Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers still in possession of their first Wildcard might be weighing up the best time to hit the reset button.
Gameweek 12 will be a popular choice, as it marks the start of a favourable fixture swing for several clubs. The November international break also gives FPL bosses plenty of time to tinker.
But Gameweek 13 is also a convenient window, with Manchester City embarking on their own appealing-looking run of games from this point and Chelsea’s fixtures stiffening up.
So, to help with the ‘Gameweek 12 v 13’ conundrum, we’ve compiled a list of some pros and cons for each.
GAMEWEEK 12 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS FOR + AGAINST
| Arguments For | Arguments Against |
|---|---|
| React to international break injuries: A key advantage of using your Wildcard in Gameweek 12 is that you can respond to any injuries that may spring up while players are away on national team duty during the break. | Wait a week on Chelsea + Sunderland? These two sides have iffy medium-to-long-term fixtures. However, the Blues do have a more appealing match against Burnley (a) still to play in Gameweek 12, when Sunderland also face an enticing trip to an out-of-sorts Fulham (a). Given the desire, when on a Wildcard, to set our teams up for the foreseeable future, having to still book in transfers to replace popular players like Joao Pedro (£7.5m) by choosing to keep them for one extra game isn’t necessarily ideal. |
| Catch two weeks of price changes: Given said international break is two weeks long, activating the chip as early as possible after Gameweek 11 also enables managers going down this route to react to two weeks’ worth of price changes, building team value, which could prove crucial to making desired moves later on in the season. | Man City’s swing begins in earnest in Gameweek 13: City have Newcastle away in Gameweek 12, a fixture that you may want to avoid (the Magpies are much better on home soil and tend to be up for the bigger occasions). We will likely want to load up on the Citizens after that, given their form and the upcoming fixtures, so waiting a week isn’t the worst idea. |
| Big fixture swings: Gameweek 12 also happens to bring notable fixture swings for several teams, including Liverpool, Manchester United and Bournemouth. The Reds, for example, have got their trip to the Etihad out of the way and now face the likes of Nottingham Forest (h), West Ham (a), Wolves (h), Leeds (h+a) and Fulham (a) in a Fixture Ticker-topping run through the New Year. It’s a similar story with the Red Devils, who sit behind only their old foes on the Ticker between Gameweeks 12 and 20, with games against West Ham (h), Wolves (h+a) and Leeds (a) to come in the near future (plus no midweek action to spark rotation worries!). With a slightly narrower scope of Gameweeks 12-18, Bournemouth – having put recent tests against Crystal Palace, Manchester City and Aston Villa behind them – are second in our Ticker to Liverpool. | Liverpool uncertainty: Just when they were looking like they were back on track, with wins to nil over Aston Villa and Real Madrid, Liverpool go and serve up a performance like that against Manchester City. Are we sure we want too many of the Reds’ players and, if so, which ones? There aren’t too many sticking their hands up at present. Mohamed Salah‘s (£14.2m) underlying numbers are on the up but he’s very pricy, while Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) is a good bet for DefCon points – but then so are countless others who are cheaper and perhaps even likelier to keep clean sheets. Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.6m) has been Liverpool’s best player this season but he’s not someone who gets a whole lot of gilt-edged chances; his last shot in the box was in Gameweek 7! We could give the Reds another week to see if City (a) was just a blip, then, with a clash against Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest (who will almost certainly defend deep) and a Champions League tie with PSV perhaps a better audition for the calibre of opponent to come. |
| Hop off Sunderland + Spurs? Teams like Sunderland and Tottenham, meanwhile, have enjoyed spells of good form in this early stage of the season, leading their players to become ingrained in many FPL squads, but both teams sit in the bottom four of the Fixture Ticker when looking at the foreseeable future. The Lilywhites are hard to trust from an FPL perspective, too, although Sunderland are looking increasingly reliable. | Blocks a Bench Boost: Lastly, and this is of course the case every week, but playing your Wildcard in Gameweek 12 blocks any other chips from being used that week. A Bench Boost would be off the cards even if your squad looks particularly well set up for one, should it feature cheap defenders from the likes of Sunderland, Chelsea, Palace or Manchester United, who all have good fixtures. Even Leeds – whose budget-friendly picks managers may own – are at home to Aston Villa, who have allowed the joint-most defender DefCon points to be scored against them. |
| Prepare for the rotation ahead: We’re about to experience 10 Gameweek deadlines in the space of 46 days. Many Premier League teams will play midweek, every week, from now till mid-January, so rotation will likely ratchet up a notch. So, getting your benches in order will be important. Having playing substitutes (and not unreliable fodder like Josh Acheampong (£3.9m)), which shouldn’t be hard given the raft of £4.0m-ish defenders available, is a must going into a period when big names could be handed breathers. |
GAMEWEEK 13 WILDCARD: THE ARGUMENTS FOR + AGAINST
| Arguments For | Arguments Against |
|---|---|
| Better time to load up on Man City: As discussed above, City will now be clear of the potential banana skin posed by their St James’ Park visit – where they’ve won just one of their last four matches – and instead enjoy a run through Gameweek 20 that sees them sit behind only Liverpool on the Fixture Ticker. | Is a Free Hit better in Gameweek 13? Would, perhaps, a Gameweek 12 Wildcard + Gameweek 13 Free Hit be the better strategy? A Gameweek 13 Free Hit would allow managers to move off, or reduce representation of, Arsenal and Chelsea assets for one week, as the two sides meet each other. Similarly, Palace and Man Utd play one another, while Bournemouth have a not-so-straightforward test against Sunderland. These are sides whose players you may want for the long term but whose Gameweek 13 entry point is not the best. |
| Good time to ditch Chelsea: On the flip side, Chelsea will by Gameweek 13 have moved past their match against newly-promoted Burnley, and instead sit second-bottom of the Fixture Ticker through to Gameweek 20. In that time, the Blues, for whom rotation in their bloated squad may also become an increasingly prevalent issue as the schedule becomes even more congested across all competitions, face Arsenal (h) immediately as well as all of Bournemouth (h+a), Newcastle (a), Villa (h) and Man City (a). Even the good fixture, at Leeds (a) is the middle match in a Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday Premier League run, so it’s a good bet that Enzo Maresca will rest a few bodies at Elland Road. | Closer to the AFCON transfer top-up: To help deal with the impact of players leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which runs from FPL Gameweek 17-22, every squad will have their tally of free transfers fully stocked to the maximum of five in Gameweek 16 – regardless of what you’ve accumulated by that point on your own accord. Given only two Gameweeks come between that point and Gameweek 13, you may feel as if you’re not maximising the use of your Wildcard given you could make as many as five more changes for free shortly afterwards. |
| One week more of information before the three-match week: Our first midweek Gameweek is in early December. That means Gameweeks 13-15 take place over the course of a week, and will likely signal an increase in rotation. Could the extra week be beneficial for second-guessing any tinkering? For instance, a rest for someone like Salah or Szoboszlai in the match against PSV on November 26 would surely heighten their chances of starting all three Premier League fixtures that follow in quick succession. |
HOW DIFFERENT DO THE GAMEWEEK 12/13 WILDCARDS LOOK?
GAMEWEEK 12
Van Dijk comes into the thinking on a Gameweek 12 Wildcard but how would we accommodate a Liverpool attacker? Salah is prohibitively priced if Erling Haaland (£14.8m) is sticking around, so one possible route is to upgrade Yankuba Minteh (£6.0m) to Szoboszlai and go with the cheaper Ibrahima Konate (£5.4m) over van Dijk.
Antoine Semenyo could also be omitted at Szoboszlai’s expense, too, with his numbers dipping and less straightforward tests beyond the West Ham game.
Jean-Philippe Mateta (£8.0m) is an uneasy omission but with Ismaila Sarr (£6.7m) as Palace coverage and Igor Thiago (£6.3m) in red-hot form (plus having fairly good fixtures), it may be a necessary, reluctant trade-off.
There are five DefCon machines at the back, including van Dijk, all of whom have made 100+ defensive contributions this season.
GAMEWEEK 13
A Gameweek 13 Wildcard team isn’t going to be radically different, in truth.
But how to include other City assets beyond Haaland? The Bournemouth boys could potentially make way, with their fixtures perhaps not looking as good once West Ham are out of the way. Sunderland away certainly looks a lot tougher these days:
We’ve moved David Raya (£5.9m) to Jurrien Timber (£6.1m) to accommodate the (hopefully) safest route into the City defence, Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.7m), but Josko Gvardiol (£5.8m) is, of course, an alternative. The downside to City defenders is a shortage of DefCon points, while Donnarumma seldom gets save points. Both could be avoided if desired.
As could a City midfielder, what with the week-to-week rotation risk. Phil Foden (£8.0m), on a run of eight straight league games, is included here at Semenyo’s expense as an example.
There’s not a whole lot of difference between the two Wildcard drafts – so your decision may come down to, amongst other things, just how much you fancy City assets beyond Haaland for their upcoming run.
