FPL Chip strategy – Fantasy Football Ticker
Everyone and their dog, it seems, has a plan to Wildcard in either GW4 or GW6.
Or they just don’t have a plan, but that’s obviously not a good idea.
Most people have chosen GW6 as it’s just after the international break, giving us the ability to endlessly tinker with our teams to pass the time.
It also allows us to plan around unexpected injuries, one of its key benefits.
However, in FPL, flexibility is king. And looking at the Fixture Ticker, Gameweek 7 might actually be a better entry point.
It depends a lot on your team, so let’s go through the template teams that would struggle for a good GW6 without flipping it all up, or if GW7 is actually a better Wildcard option.
FPL when to wildcard, using the template team
If you want to skip the team viewing and go straight to the pros and cons, click here. Pros and cons
Here’s a template team estimated from engaged managers only. It’s a bit overbudget, but let’s not worry about that.
It includes double City and triple United. This makes a Free Hit in GW4 almost certainly the best option.
And then we get to GW6.
Now, it doesn’t look terrible. It’s the Man City vs Liverpool game that puts people into the Wildcard. Plus, Man United face Spurs.
However, this team is over the 100m budget cap, and FPL managers have sacrificed mainly either Mbeumo, Szoboszlai, on one of the pricy 5.5m defenders to fit it all into a £100m team.
So the WC6 vs WC7 boils down to which of those players you have.
If you have Everton, Sunderland, or a Crystal Palace player, you are likely better off delaying by a week:
While Leeds, Bournemouth or Brighton, or a weak bench, can be a call for using the Wildcard in GW6.
Pros and cons of waiting till GW7
The pros:
Not acting immediately – you will be able to gauge how the international break has affected each team’s performance.
You can capitalise on the easy fixtures of Sunderland and Everton before hopping off to the season’s in-form players afterwards.
Haaland plays Liverpool away, while Bruno has Spurs at home. You may be looking to get rid of Bruno on Wildcard, but he’s likely the best GW6 captain, so you’ll want him.
The cons:
If you have a lot of City and Liverpool, your team will be in a mess – it would be better to use the Wildcard in GW6.
Calvert Lewin plays Arsenal away, and your bench may be already filled with Liverpool players.
One more week of a squad that will likely lag behind Wildcard teams. The idea is to catch up afterwards, but still.
Overall
Overall, it highly depends on your team, but WC7 is certainly being overlooked.
Often in the early weeks of the season, each gameweek’s ‘Wildcard template’ can look quite different. One week of information can change your whole team – although not necessarily for the better, as we saw last year, when WC4 teams absolutely smashed it compared to WC6, WC7 and WC8 teams.
Another option is to just Wildcard in GW4, or not plan for using the chip at all. The latter is simply unoptimal, but a GW4 Wildcard is certainly an option.
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