FPL: When Should You Use Your Chips?
The nerve-racking game Fantasy Premier League causes both frustration and happiness for lots of players all over the world. During the last few years, the number of users has been surging. Last season, 8.3 million users registered a team and aimed to win their local league.
No matter if you’re playing fantasy football just for fun or to win the league you have together with your friends, you want to gain all advantages possible that can take you to a high-scoring gameweek.
One of the biggest advantages to use is the chips. However, all players have them. So, for them to actually be an advantage, you have to know how to use them in the best way. That’s why we’ve put together this article.
What Chips Can be Used?
Let’s take it from the top. Every FPL manager receives four chips at the beginning of each season.
• Triple captain – your team captain earns three times the point he scores in a GW.
• Bench boost – you earn points from all 15 players in your squad.
• Wildcard – make as many free transfers as you want during a GW.
• Free hit – same as wildcard, except your squad goes back to “normal” after the GW is finished.
These chips are used simply by pushing a button in your app or website of choice. However, it’s a lot more difficult to use them in the best way possible.
Triple Captain
To use the triple captain takes a lot of courage. You always wonder if the future will offer a gameweek where this chip might be better suited. Therefore, many managers tend to hold on to this chip for a long time. Maybe a little too long.
The best choice is to use your triple captain during a double gameweek, when your player is in form and faces lower-ranked teams. However, it’s not certain this scenario appears every season. Therefore, it might be risky to wait for the perfect opportunity to use your TC. If you do, you might end up with your chip unused and no DGW:s left for your star player.
Bench Boost
Many managers focus a lot on their starting eleven, resulting in the players on the bench most often being stuck there in the real-world games as well. Before you use your bench boost, you want to make sure all 15 players at least have a chance of scoring points.
However, if your budget does not allow you to have 15 starting players, you want to use your bench boost during a gameweek where many players have multiple fixtures. This way, the chance of your bench players appearing at least once is increasing. If you’re lucky, they may even play both games, resulting in you earning twice as many points as you normally would.
Wildcard
If you use your wildcard during the first half of the season, you will receive a new one in the second half. This results in lots of managers using this chip quickly, without having a carefully conceived strategy. It’s tempting to use the wildcard chip in an early gameweek to buy two or three in-form players. However, you are recommended to be more patient than that.
There will be times when some of your players have a gameweek off, or when others are in poor form or facing a difficult opponent. Therefore, the better alternative is most often to hold on to your first wildcard until you’re forced into making whole-sale squad changes.
Free Hit
The free hit, together with the second wildcard, doesn’t require as much patience. This chip is perfect to use ahead of double gameweeks. In GW 28, for example, both Chelsea and Aston Villa played two matches each. The free hit made it possible to transfer in a total of six players from these teams.
Over the last seasons, we’ve gotten used to postponed fixtures. Also here, the free hit is a perfect choice. You can collect many points although few teams are playing. And in the following gameweek, when fixtures go back to normal, your squad does the same.
