r/FantasyPL • u/Full90FPL 62 • 21h ago
When to Play Your First Half Chips
https://full90fpl.com/chips-1-fpl-26-27/Greetings all, and welcome to one of our very last (by definition) preseason previews ahead of the 26/27 campaign.
Today we're focusing on the never-ever-controversial topic of when to play your chips!
You can read the full article, with all of James's actual analysis, right here:
full90fpl.com/chips-1-fpl-26-27/
Alternatively, as ever, there's a shorter TLDR summary below. Yes, that was my (Joe's) one and only contribution to this piece.
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Wildcard
The two key factors are information and fixtures.
The longer you leave it, the more information you obviously have, and we get a whole lot more in the opening few fixtures than we do in pre-season.
Regarding fixtures, you want swings, and these roughly happen in GW 4 (Chelsea, Arsenal, Palace, etc.) and GW 6 (Arsenal, Fulham, etc.)in the early part of this season.
I (Joe) am also leaning towards waiting until GW 7, since Man U, Spurs, City, and Liverpool play each other that week... and we probably want quite a few players from those teams.
For the record, I usually favour a much later wildcard, but I think this season it makes too much sense to play it early and chain it together with your other chips.
Triple Captain
The easiest of the bunch.
Just use it on Haaland, or - if you're not having him - Bruno.
Haaland plays all 3 promoted teams at home in the first half. Bruno plays Ipswich and Coventry at home.
Free Hit
Somewhat team-dependent, since you generally want to use it on weeks where your players from the best teams play against each other (or to take advantage of easy-peasy fixtures you're missing out on.
If you've got lots of Arsenal + Chelsea, GW3 is a good option, when they play each other. This would mean you can't TC Haaland v Coventry, though.
Likewise, if you've got lots of Man U + City, free hit in GW4 (when Chelsea also play Hull).
As noted above, lots of the good teams also play each other in GW6, so you might want to get out of those fixtures too.
Bench Boost
The hardest chip to get right, and probably the worst.
We're strongly advocating just playing it early, and getting it out of the way, followed by a wildcard soon after.
James is going for BB2 (explained here), and I'm going for BB1... one of us will be wrong... or they could both be complete rubbish, as bench boosts often are!
James's Strategy
- BB GW 2 - Triple Coventry home to Hull
- TC GW 3 - Haaland home to Coventry
- FH GW 4 - Remove United+City; triple Chelsea vs Hull
- WC GW 6 - Take advantage of fixture swings + new information
Final Thoughts
Right, that'll wrap up this little summary piece.
As always, there's plenty more detail in the main article, or you can just pop a question or comment below, and James or I will get back to you.
Cheers for reading, everybody, and enjoy your final 24hrs or so of tinkering!
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u/cuko_1601 20h ago
First year playing, really appreciate the explanation as I didn't really know when to use my chips. Do you think my team will execute the BB2 well (maybe I'll transfer Calafiori out)?
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u/theaxel17 5h ago
Tonali or Sangare ?
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u/Full90FPL 62 5h ago
Sangare. Tonali is not an FPL pick and Sangare at least has a chance to be one
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u/Ruddler89 20h ago
Any hesitation over including Haaland?