The 2nd wildcard comes into play after December 30. With that the next gameweek I thought it was a good time to put some thoughts out on the 2nd Wildcards optimum use and the other chips. This is especially the case if you didn’t play last season
fantasy premier league tips – thinking about the 2nd wildcard and the other chips
At this moment in time this isn’t a detailed post on tactics for the 2nd wildcard just a general discussion on options for the 2nd wildcard and various chips. At this stage I haven’t researched when they might occur and the detailed implications. I just thought that with it being available after 7pm December 30th then it would be a good idea to put something out before anyone rushes into using it without fulling thinking the options through. This is particularly for anyone who didn’t play last year when the concept of a 2nd wildcard was introduced as well as the chips. The article is more of a “wait and think whether you really need to use the wildcard straight away” rather than directing you to a specific time and justification for using it then
Lets just remind ourselves firstly of what the 2nd wildcard is and the chips from the rules on the official fantasy premier league site:
Chips can be used to potentially enhance your team’s performance during the season.
Only one chip can be played in a single Gameweek. The chips available are as follows:
Name Effect
All Out Attack Allows you to play a 2-5-3 formation in the next Gameweek.
Bench Boost The points scored by your bench players in the next Gameweek are included in your total.
Triple Captain Your captain points are tripled instead of doubled in the next Gameweek.
Wildcard All transfers (including those already made) in the Gameweek are free of charge.
The All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips can each be used once a season and are played when saving your team on the my team page. They can be cancelled at anytime before the Gameweek deadline.
The Wildcard chip can be used twice a season, once in the first half of the season (before 30 Dec 19:00) and once in the second half of the season. The Wildcard chip is played when confirming transfers that cost points and can’t be cancelled once played.
THE 2ND WILDCARD
There is a temptation to use it straight away to refresh your squad and get out any dead wood. Also, if your squad is like mine it’s looking at a few injuries and other issues. Also with Aguero back for GW30 but away to Liverpool you may also be tempted to use it for getting him back in for GW20 when Man City are home to Burnley. There’s also the temptation to use it at the end of the January transfer window to bring in any new players.
Personally I’m going to hold it for the double gameweeks ie gameweeks where teams play twice due to postponements. Those being the postponements for the EFL Cup semis, the FA Cup quarters and FA Cup semis. My recollection is that these were around GW26, GW34 and GW37 last season. GW34 seeing a number of postponements going into that gameweek and therefore it being the largest double gameweek. The other 2 being smaller scale
Last season a commonly used tactic was to wildcard before the double gameweek and then use the bench boost in the double gameweek itself with the aim of getting up to 15 players playing 2 games in that gameweek. This tactic was generally adopted in some form by the top 10 FPL managers I followed last season and resulted in big gains. However it did come with risk and issues. The gameweek many used their wildcard to transfer out Spurs players who only had 1 game saw Kane and Alli get a large number of points at Stoke. Liverpool also rotated alot of players last year and many only played once. In addition GW35 had significant numbers of teams not playing which caused planning issues.
Overall though as I said the managers who followed this principle benefited greatly.
However this isn’t meant to be a detailed sell of the tactic. It’s just meant to be a watchout to say that if you are going to use your wildcard make sure you really do need it as there are other options
BENCH BOOST
This was used often as I said above with varying degrees of success. Getting any value out of it does require alot of planning and having money sitting on the bench which isn’t being used on your playing squad. This has yet to be used by any of the top 10 FPL managers I follow
THE ALL OUT ATTACK CHIP
A few of the top 10 FPL managers I follow have already used this. It’s mainly there for when you either can’t put out a full defensive team or if you have an effective front 8 all with good prospects (rather than say Darren Fletcher as a 5th mid to save cash). That can be anytime during the season.
It’s a case of you’ll know when you need to use it when you need to use it.
TRIPLE CAPTAIN
Again last season this was generally saved by the top 10 FPL managers I follow for one of the other double gameweeks and not GW34 in order to have a captain who played twice rather than once. Again this has yet to be used by any of the top 10 FPL managers I follow
Thats it I hope this gives you a pause for reflection even if the article is a bit general at the moment
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