Cole Palmer & Erling Haaland are both preparing for double gameweeksplaceholder image
Cole Palmer & Erling Haaland are both preparing for double gameweeks | Getty Images
Our Fantasy Premier League expert puts together his perfect Gameweek 32 wildcard team - and explains chip strategy ahead of double and blank gameweeks.
The results FA Cup quarter-finals didn’t just have a big impact on the eight teams involved – it’s also had a significant knock-on effect on the way that the rest of the Fantasy Premier League season will play out, with a slew of double and blank gameweeks now confirmed after the weekend’s football.
The changes to the schedule caused by the FA Cup semi-finals towards the end of April means that six teams will get a double fixture in Gameweek 33 before blanking immediately afterwards in Gameweek 34. That’s going to change how FPL managers use their chips and how they plan their transfers over the coming weeks.
Ahead of Gameweek 32, our resident FPL expert has taken a look at the best way to navigate the rest of the season, and offered us a look at his ideal wildcard team now that the fixtures have been determined.
How the blank and double gameweeks affect FPL planning
Now that the FA Cup quarter-finals are in the books, we know which teams will get doubles in Gameweek 33 and blanks the week after – and that gives us a starting point for planning our moves over the coming weeks. Here are the six teams, and the two fixtures they face in GW33:
Bournemouth: Newcastle (a) & Leeds (h)
Brighton: Spurs (a) & Chelsea (h)
Burnley: Nottingham Forest (a) & Manchester City (h)
Chelsea: Manchester United (h) & Brighton (a)
Leeds: Wolves (h) & Bournemouth (a)
Manchester City: Arsenal (h) & Burnley (a)
While this is something I’ve gone over in more detail in this recent article, the blanks and double gameweeks caused by the FA Cup semi-finals mean that there are two ‘best options’ for FPL managers in terms of how to use their chips to navigate the next few weeks: Plan A is to wildcard GW32 to set up for the doubles, bench boost in GW33, and free hit in GW34; and Plan B is a free hit in GW33 to get the most out of the double and then wildcard in GW34.
Plan A has the advantage of maximising the bench boost chip, which always pairs well with a wildcard and a double gameweek, but as there are only six teams doubling up – one of which is Burnley – it’s debatable as to whether the ideal GW33 team even has many more than 11 players on doubles. You have to use transfers up to get rid of the suboptimal players you’d be left with, after all. Triple Brighton and Bournemouth would only make sense for a very short period of time.
Because the timing of the bench boost is rendered somewhat less important by the nature of the fixtures, the decision as to whether you should wildcard into or out of the double gameweek really boils down to how well your team can handle GW32. If it’s well set up for the coming weekend’s matches, it may make more sense to go for Plan B - hold fast and free hit into GW33. If it’s all looks a bit dicey for the coming games, then perhaps it’s best to drop the wildcard now and go with the first of those two pathways.
You need to work out what your team looks like in each of the next four weeks, essentially, as you use your various chips, and you want to make sure that you come out of the blanks and doubles in GW35 with a functioning team for the run-in. There’s a lot of homework for competitive managers to do between now and Friday’s deadline.
If you don’t have your wildcard or free hit left (and remember you get two this season) then you’re going to have to plan your transfers very carefully, but however you work your chips, the ideal way to handle the coming weeks is to maximise the number of players you have doubling up in GW33 without compromising your team too much afterwards. So which teams are we targeting, and which players are in or out?
What does the perfect FPL Gameweek 33 wildcard team look like?
Clearly, it’s impossible for me to put together an ideal team for every combination of possible chip usages players might come across – but we can look at which players become essential as the schedule takes shape.
The starting point is that anything less than triple Manchester City at the start of GW33 is simply a mistake. Granted, they have a potentially challenging (and title-deciding) match against Arsenal in that double, but they also have another double gameweek coming further down the line in GW36 or 37, and loading up on their players for the run-in seems like a fundamental requirement.
It would be inexcusable to leave Erling Haaland or Antoine Semenyo out at this stage, and while one can argue about the identity of the third player, that pair will be the first names on my teamsheet. I’ll also be looking to maximise my Chelsea attacking players. Sure, their form hasn’t been great and I’ll steer clear of their defensive assets, but João Pedro is surely unavoidable, and I’ll want Cole Palmer for the sheer height of his ceiling.
I’m less excited by Brighton players, but I’ll want one or two. They’re on good form, have a couple of interesting fixtures against Spurs and Chelsea in the double and a mixed bag in the run-in, but also a game against Burnley in GW32 which makes wildcarding into their players more appealing. Danny Welbeck seems like a very safe inclusion, Kaoru Mitoma is fit again, and Yankuba Minteh is a cheap gamble with some decent recent form under his belt. I don’t like their defenders – they’re just not keeping clean sheets.
I will happily take a defender or two from Leeds. They’ve only conceded two goals in the last four matches and have a home match against Wolves in the mix. Karl Darlow is perfectly poised to be a back-up goalkeeper for the rest of the season. Burnley have a couple of cheap £4.0m defenders that are solid bench-filler for the rest of the campaign, but that’s as deep as I’m willing to go in a team I don’t expect anything from, even in a double gameweek. Those bench boosting in GW33 can make a case for having both Darlow and Martin Dúbravka, but it’s a thin one in my mind. Dúbravka just can’t keep clean sheets in that team.
Bournemouth are an odd team right now. They’re heading into the GW32 with five consecutive draws under their belts and none of their assets have been consistent. A trip to Arsenal makes their players even less appealing heading into the double, but I don’t mind defenders like Álex Jiménez or Marcos Senesi after that game. They can always be benched for GW32. Eli Kroupi Junior is a reasonable cheap striker, although I’d rather have Welbeck.
In terms of players who don’t have doubles coming up, managers on both Plan A and B should focus primarily on players who have good fixtures in 32 and 33, to get the most out of the bench boost on Plan A and to fill slots this weekend, and to maximise points before the wildcard on Plan B. I like Brentford assets a lot, and would have no particular qualms about keeping Igor Thiago ahead of Welbeck if you don’t fancy Brighton players, while Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester United players are tempting too.
With all that in mind, here’s a GW32 wildcard team which meets all the requirements to be fine this weekend, to go big in GW33, and then to require relatively little adjustment for the run-in which comes it at £99.9m at current prices. Obviously different teams will have different financial constraints or be able to spend more, but this is a sensible place to start:
Goalkeepers: Kelleher (Brentford, £4.8m), Darlow (Leeds, £3.9m); Defenders: O’Reilly (Man City, £5.0m), Kayode (Brentford, £4.5m), Jiménez (Bournemouth, £4.5m), Struijk (Leeds, £4.3m), Bijol (Leeds, £3.9m); Midfielders: Palmer (Chelsea, £10.6m), Fernandes (Man Utd, £10.3m), Semenyo (Man City, £8.2m), Ouattara (Brentford, £6.0m), Minteh (Brighton, £5.5m); Forwards: Haaland (Man City, £14.3m), João Pedro (Chelsea, £7.6m), Welbeck (Brighton, £6.2m).
With a little more cash, I’d prefer Mitoma or Moisés Caicedo to Minteh and there’s a strong argument to avoid rolling with two Leeds defenders and one from Bournemouth to maximise points in GW32, but this should be a strong starting point – and it’s a team which contains 11 players who will have doubles and nobody you wouldn’t be happy to put in a bench boost even if they only play once.
Importantly, by the time you get to GW34, it’s also a team you won’t have to adjust much to avoid being embarrassed by. Save up a few transfers and this turns easily into a perfectly strong side when normality resumes, and which maximises Manchester City assets for their second double.
As the week goes by, injury news filters in and I continue doing my homework, my final wildcard team may end up looking a little different – but this should give you an idea of how I’m approaching a crucial week. Hopefully it offers some helpful inspiration.
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