Our resident FPL expert puts together his perfect wildcard templates ahead of Gameweek 30.
With the international break and the FA Cup quarter-finals out of the way, the Fantasy Premier League is finally back – and it’s crunch time for thousands of FPL players, with a wildcard imminent ahead of a string of double and blank gameweeks.
Thankfully, our resident FPL expert, fresh off a Top 2,000 global ranking last season, has also survived the break and is here to guide you through all of the key decisions by showing you his process for putting the perfect wildcard together – in spite of all the injuries. Before we hand you over, a reminder that the Gameweek 30 deadline is on Tuesday 1 April at 18:15 BST, so make sure you get your transfer done in time…
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Best wildcard draft as Arsenal, Manchester City and others eye doubles
Last time I was called upon to offer some advice ahead of an FPL deadline, I put together what I consider to be the ideal chip strategy for the final weeks of the season – and if you’re following my template, you’ll want to drop your final wildcard over the next couple of weeks.
Complicating matters, however, is the fact that quite a few key players are either injured or doubts for Gameweek 30: Erling Haaland, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Chris Wood and quite a few more could easily miss out. That might push a wildcard into next week for quite a few players, but whether you bite the bullet now or later, it’s time to map out what the ideal wildcard should look like.
Now that we know the outcome of the FA Cup quarter-finals, we can say with a fair amount of confidence that Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Arsenal will have double gameweeks in GW33 (the position of Nottingham Forest’s double is less clear), and that means that players from those clubs become priorities.
Palace are likely to have doubles in both GW32 and GW33, although unfortunately their fixtures over those weeks are extremely hard – I want players like Eberechi Eze and IsmaÏla Sarr in there, but I’m skipping defenders. The teams I’m prioritising higher due to doubles and relative fixture difficulty are Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United (who double in GW32) and Aston Villa.
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By the same token, I’m ignoring players from teams like Everton, Brentford, Fulham and Manchester United where I can, because they have no forthcoming doubles and tougher fixtures. Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes are fine FPL assets in a vacuum, but their ceiling is much lower than that of players who are getting extra games in.
While focussing on players from certain teams because of the way the gameweeks pan out, you should still get high-performance players in while ignoring those out of form. So even though Liverpool have “normal” fixtures, I’m not letting Mohamed Salah out of my sight.
Of course, injuries are an issue now as well. For weeks, I’ve been getting ready to wildcard into Haaland, only for him to get injured against Bournemouth. The Norwegian was spotted leaving the Vitality Stadium in a protective boot, so I’m going to come up with two drafts – one with Haaland, and one without, with my choice coming down to Pep Guardiola’s press conference and any news reports that emerge about Haaland’s condition.
Similarly, I really want to bring Saka back in, but it’s not clear whether he’ll be ready to start against Fulham. I don’t think that should stop you signing him, but you need to be prepared for a low score on his first week back (if he does indeed play, which isn’t certain).
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All in all, if you have a good team for GW30, I really don’t blame you for waiting a week before popping the wildcard – but with injuries affecting my current team, I’m very probably going for it, and I don’t think my ideal team will change much over the next week outside of injury updates, so it seems reasonable to offer up my suggestions now…
Two wildcard templates for FPL Gameweek 30
Let’s dive right in, with a quick caveat to start things off – every player will have a different amount of money available, and that means that while the templates below work for me, you may need to make adjustments if you have less cash. To help out, I’ve also suggested some players who I have down as considerations but who didn’t make the cut for these teams.
First up, here’s what my team with Haaland looks like, should we get some good news about the robotic striker’s availability before the deadline:
An FPL wildcard team with Erling Haaland up front.An FPL wildcard team with Erling Haaland up front.
An FPL wildcard team with Erling Haaland up front. | Fantasy Premier League
For those who prefer a written list of players - Goalkeepers: Raya & Aréola; Defenders: Williams, Livramento, Burn, Torres & Lewis; Midfielders - Kluivert, Saka, Sarr, Salah & Nwaneri; Strikers - Isak, Pedro & Haaland.
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As is always the case, I’ve prioritised spending on the midfield and attack, keeping it cheap elsewhere to accommodate three premium players. I think Saka is a must-have unless he proves to be further away from playing than we thought, and Salah is non-negotiable.
Other cheap enablers I would consider include Morgan Rogers, Matz Sels, Anthony Elanga, Jacob Murphy and Ollie Watkins and Omar Marmoush up front in place of Alexander Isak, although Isak is also nailed on for me, as I intend to triple captain him in GW32 barring injury.
Next up, here’s what my team looks like if Haaland isn’t going to be playing for a few weeks:
The No-Haaland wildcard template.The No-Haaland wildcard template.
The No-Haaland wildcard template. | Fantasy Premier League
Again for those who might need it - Goalkeepers: Raya & Aréola; Defenders: Aina, Livramento, Burn, Torres & Saliba; Midfielders - Kluivert, Saka, Eze, Salah & Rogers; Strikers - Isak, Watkins & Wood.
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I personally prefer the more proven Ollie Watkins and Chris Wood to Omar Marmoush in this scenario, but I don’t blame anyone for making a change to create spending room elsewhere. Jean-Philippe Mateta, Levi Colwill, Ola Aina, Ibrahima Konaté and Kaoru Mitoma are all players I’m interested in, along with other Arsenal defenders – although not Jurriën Timber, as it’s unclear whether he will keep his minutes with Ben White coming back to full fitness.
One question some players may have is why I’ve spent above the minimum on my reserve goalkeeper and my final defender – that’s because I want 15 starters to bench boost into for GW33, using my template chip strategy. Pau Torres is a cheap defender who is coming back from injury and will probably get starts by the time Villa are playing twice, and Alphonse Aréola is the cheapest starting goalkeeper I can reasonably expect a clean sheet from.
If you’ve burned your bench boost already, I would absolutely take the cheapest players I could and spend that money on upgrades elsewhere – and of course, if injuries tell me to move in a different direction then I won’t hesitate. I think Saka is the only doubt for GW30 that I will sign regardless.
There’s an argument with my first template that Saka’s return will eat into Ethan Nwaneri’s minutes, but I think the ceiling on the youngster is high enough that it’s worth taking a chance there. I’ll also add that I’m out on Cole Palmer – you simply can’t ignore his poor form, and Chelsea don’t have doubles coming up to provide me with excuses.
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By that logic, Palmer to Saka is an easy move for me, even if I lose out on for the first gameweek should Saka be benched or miss the match day squad entirely. I could just make a transfer in GW31, but with injuries likely to be a factor as you dance between blanks, doubles and chips, I firmly believe that saving transfer wherever possible is of paramount importance.
Before I go this week, a quick word on my choice of captain for GW30 – it’s Salah. Until his form falls away suddenly or another player has a double when the Egyptian doesn’t, it will almost always be right to captain the biggest-scoring player in the entire league. Don’t overthink it.
That’s all for this week – may all your wildcard plans come to fruition, and may all of the players you need to be fit end up getting a full 90 minutes…