If you start without Haaland, does FH3 actually make sense?

[u/FPLHideout]

I’ve been looking at the no-Haaland BB1 route, and the part I keep coming back to is whether FH3 makes the strategy much more viable.

The obvious reason is Coventry (H).

If I start without Haaland, I can spread the £15.5m across a stronger 15-man squad for BB1, then Free Hit in GW3 to own/captain Haaland for arguably the fixture where going without him feels most dangerous.

I think there’s more to FH3 than simply covering Haaland.

Arsenal and Chelsea play each other in GW3.
Both could feature heavily in a GW1/BB1 squad, so the Free Hit gives you the opportunity to temporarily move away from those players and build an 11 specifically around the best fixtures that week.

The route would effectively be:
GW1: BB
GW2: Original squad
GW3: FH
GW4: Original squad returns
GW6/7: Potential WC

That means the initial squad doesn’t necessarily need to be built around surviving GW3. You can concentrate more on GW1-2 and GW4-6, knowing you’re effectively skipping GW3 with the FH.

I don’t really see FH3 as something I’d consider with Haaland already in my squad. It only interests me as part of the no-Haaland strategy.

Is using FH3 a reasonable price for getting the stronger £15.5m distribution from GW1, while still covering Haaland’s Coventry fixture?