This blog has been taken from the Preseason Pack section of the website which you can access HERE.

This blog looks at how the most successful managers used their three Fantasy Premier League (FPL) chips – 1. Bench Boost (BB), 2. Triple Captain (TC) and 3. Free Hit (FH). The 2021/22 was truly unique in terms of chip strategy. There were a huge number of COVID related postponements during the December to January period leading FPL to provide managers with a second Free Hit chip that could be used at any point. The postponed fixtures were also arranged at various periods later in the season which led to a diverse deployment of the chips compared to previous seasons.

Bench Boost

The successful managers were aligned in their usage of the BB chip with gameweek 28 and 36 the most popular weeks. Both these gameweeks were doubles and allowed them to field more players who played twice. Gameweek 36 was the more popular of the two with both the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ (42%) and the ‘All Time Top 50’ (40%) reaping rich rewards. Gameweek 28 was marginally more popular with the ‘All Time Top 50’ group (34%) compared to 26% for the ‘2021/22 Top 50’. Gameweek 29 and 33 which were also doubles saw the next highest usage by both the successful groups.

Kevin De Bruyne scored the most FPL points in gameweek 36, with a total of 30 points over the two games.

32.8% of the ‘All FPL’ user group used their BB chip in gameweek 36, and gameweek 37 (10.9%) saw the next highest usage of the chip. The other times the chip was used varied across the gameweeks, and 18.7% of the ‘All FPL’ group did not use their BB chip at all. It is likely that this group used it largely as an afterthought and did not plan consciously toward it.

Free Hit 1 and 2

The Free Hit chip allows FPL managers to bring in players for one gameweek only and has traditionally been used by managers to deal with blank gameweeks and postponements. With two of these chips available to managers this season the pattern slightly altered, with managers often using them to capitalise on the hastily arranged double gameweeks.

Gameweek 27 saw 56% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ and 62% of the ‘All Time Top 50’ use a Free Hit chip, most likely FH1, but only 14.6% of the ‘All FPL’ user group used theirs in 27. Several teams including Liverpool and Chelsea did not have a fixture that week, while Burnley had a double gameweek, so this option followed the trend of using the chip to cover blanks and double gameweeks.

Jamie Vardy registered a goal and an assist in gameweek 27.

Gameweek 37 saw the second highest usage of a FH chip by the most successful managers with 64% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ and 50% of the ‘All Time Top 50’ using what was likely to be FH2. There are some differences though between the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ and ‘All Time Top 50’ in other weeks. Gameweek 30 which was a blank gameweek saw 24% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ use a FH chip but only 8% of the ‘All Time Top 50’ used theirs. Gameweek 28 also saw 20% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ use a FH chip but this was just 4% in the ‘All Time Top 50’ user group. This gameweek was a double gameweek where several sides featured twice and was a very high-scoring week.

Overall, it can be seen that the most successful managers used their Free Hit chips in blanks and double gameweeks whereas the usage was scattered across many weeks in the ‘All FPL’ user group. This reaffirms the belief that the Free Hit chip should be saved for gameweeks where teams miss out, or some have two fixtures.

Triple Captain

Liverpool had a double gameweek where they played Leeds and Norwich in gameweek 26 and this is when the majority of all three user groups played their TC chip, likely on Salah. 70% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ user group and 62% of the ‘All Time Top 50’ group used the TC this week but just 39% of the ‘All FPL’ user group opted to do so. Gameweek 29 where Liverpool also featured in a double gameweek saw the next highest use of the TC chip amongst the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ (24%) and the ‘All Time Top 50’ (34%). 10% of the ‘All FPL’ user group used their TC in 29 and their usage was scattered across other gameweeks outside of 26 and 29, accounting for 50% of the total TC usage.

Mohamed Salah was the most popular Triple Captain with both ‘2021/22 Top 50’ and the ‘All Time Top 50’ groups.

It is also interesting to note that both successful groups of managers only used their TC chips in double gameweeks with a small percentage opting for gameweek 36 which was another double. The ‘All Time Top 50’ group all went for Salah as their TC while 94% of the ‘2021/22 Top 50’ did the same with De Bruyne accounting for 6%. Salah was TC for only 65.6% of the ‘All FPL’ user group. This would clearly indicate that the TC chip is best saved for double gameweeks and should only be trusted on players from the top sides who reliably return points.

Conclusion

Chips are an extremely powerful tool to catapult managers up the ranks and the data shows that double/blank gameweeks remain the best weeks to use the chips. This season saw an abnormal number of double gameweeks due to COVID postponements earlier in the season and this led to a diverse usage of the chips as each manager’s team was setup differently. This is not likely to be the case for the 2022/23 season and the usage of chips is likely to be even more focused on the big double/blank gameweeks that occur later in the campaign.

Preseason Pack

You can access more anaylsis on the top 50 managers, as well as unlock tools to prepare you for next season, in the Preseason Pack by clicking HERE.