When to Use Your Free Hits and Other Chips in FPL

Scout evaluates the best chip strategies for managers Fantasy Premier League Ahead of the upcoming double and blank game weeks.

Free win

The free hit chip allows managers to temporarily replace their entire 15-man squad for a game week.

This is especially useful in empty gameweeks when many clubs are out of contention.

The current Empty Gameweek 29 (BGW29), which coincides with the FA Cup quarter-finals, has historically been the most popular time to play the chip due to the limited number of matches.

In fact, there are only four matches taking place at BGW29 this season.

BGW29 devices
Burnley v Brentford
Fulham at Spurs
Luton v Nottingham Forest
West Ham v Aston Villa

As a result, 229,000 managers currently have their free hit chip active Son Hyung-min (£9.9m) emerges as Gameweek's primary target.

More than 153,000 flocked to bring the Tottenham Hotspur star on the back of his 17-point haul against Aston Villa. Sun scored in double figures against his BGW29 hosts Fulham earlier this season, scoring 14 points in Gameweek 9, and will be a key captain for the match at Craven Cottage.

Son's teammates Pedro Boro (£5.7m) and James Madison (£7.9m) was one of the top three most bought players, while at Brentford Evan Toney (£8.1m) has collected more than 53,000 new owners for his visit to Burnley.

Indeed, there is no dearth of attacking options in the form; Midfielders Jarrod Bowen (£7.9m), Mohammed Kuduz (£6.8m), Douglas Lewis And Leon Bailey (both £5.7m) boast strong form Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), John warned (£5.6m), Carlton Morris (£5.2m) and Rodrigo Muniz (£4.5m) provides upfront solutions.

Those managers using only transfers to navigate BGW29 will need to field seven or eight players without necessarily winning, although if you do, a -4 can easily be justified if you bring a key pick like Sun. I am going to captain him.

This season in Fantasy, more managers are choosing to be patient and keep their free-hitting past BGW29. This tactic allows them to wait until more double gameweeks are announced and use it later in the season to fill their XI with players who have two matches.

A wild card

The wild card chip can be used twice a season and allows managers to completely overhaul their 15-man squad.

The second wild card is available from Gameweek 20 and can be played in any Gameweek until the end of the campaign.

While the optimal time to play a wildcard chip is a team-specific decision, waiting until the end of a reduced BGW29 seems to be the most efficient strategy since there aren't many owned players that week.

In fact, many managers who choose to retain their free hit chip past BGW29 plan to use the wildcard in Gameweek 30 or Gameweek 31 instead.

Playing at that time allows them to load teams and players that were without a team at BGW29, as they are likely to get a double game week if their match is rescheduled.

Gameweek 34 or Gameweek 37 have both been popular times in the past because they can be double gameweeks.

Once they decide when to play the wild card, managers must „dead-end” their team before using the chip, taking a short-term hit on players with good fixtures who have no intention of keeping them long-term. Then they completely overhaul their teams with a wild card.

Triple Captain

The Triple Captain Chip allows managers to collect three times the total points scored by their captain rather than the usual double points.

To maximize the potential of the triple captain chip, managers should aim for double gameweeks to take advantage of the output of players with two matches.

Due to postponements caused by the later rounds of the FA Cup, more double gameweeks may be scheduled later in the season. Historically, these are Game Week 34 and Game Week 37.

Bench boost

Like the Triple Captain Chip, the Bench Boost Chip is best suited for Double Game Week to profit from the output of players with two matches.

This chip is good until matches removed from BGW29 due to the FA Cup are rescheduled for later in the season.

Typically, this bumper double has multiple sides in gameweeks, with Gameweek 34 and Gameweek 37 being the key dates to watch out for.

The bench boost should be scheduled in combination with the wild card on chip basis.

By filling your Wild Card squad with 15 players ready to play twice in a bumper double gameweek, managers can use the Bench Boost chip to earn points from 30 matches in a single gameweek.