The Wildcard chip allows you to attack fixtures by doubling or tripling up on players from teams with a good run of fixtures, before swapping them out when the fixtures turn sour. This gives you an advantage over managers navigating fixture swings with free transfers who are forced into being more conservative, or into taking hits. The optimal GW1 team will be different depending on when you plan to use your first Wildcard. It is important you build your team with this in mind. In this FPL wildcard strategy blog, i will go through three different possible strategies based upon fixture swings to help you decide when you want to activate your wildcard.
Before that do check out our FPL Team Structure Guide series where we make a case for each of the structures including big at the back ~ A Guide to FPL Team Structure | 21/22 FPL Season (Pre Wildcard)
We have also made an elaborate guide covering every rule and chip available in FPL for the 2021/22 FPL Season ~ 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League Season Rules, Tips | The Ultimate Guide
The Early Wildcard for the 2021/22 FPL Season
Wildcarding early will allow you to overcommit on players from teams with good early fixtures such as Aston Villa, who play Watford, Newcastle, and Brentford in the opening three. After these three easy fixtures, Villa move on to play Chelsea, Everton, Manchester United, and Tottenham. This fixture swing will be difficult to navigate with just free transfers, forcing most managers into just one or two Villa players for the first three fixtures.
If you plan on wildcarding early, you will be able to gain so much value from having three Villa players for the opening fixtures. My favorite picks from Villa if you plan to wildcard early are Watkins, Buendia, and Martinez. Other teams with good opening fixtures to target if you plan on this strategy are Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, and Brighton.
The fixture swing for a few teams comes in GW4 where you will be able to drop your heavily focused squad for a more balanced one. The teams with the best fixtures after GW4 are Arsenal and Wolves, which most managers will avoid early on due to a tough first three matches.
One other benefit to the early wildcard is that the transfer window closes after GW3, allowing you to fully capitalize on any new signings that appear after the season has started.
Further Read: Best FPL Assets to Consider From Promoted Teams for 21/22 FPL Season
The GW8 Wildcard for 2021/22 FPL Season
Wildcarding in GW8 looks incredibly appealing at the moment due to the Manchester City and Chelsea fixture swings. The Premier League holders and Champions League holders respectively will be on everybody’s radar for double up and triple ups by GW8. If you hold your wildcard until here, there is a lot of value to be gained.
Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola are both known for their heavy squad rotation, and by GW8 we should have a good idea of their favorite players which will help for the wildcard.
In my opinion, this looks like the best time to use the wildcard chip, although there could be value in holding onto it even longer.
Further Read: FPL Premium Midfielders (£10 Mil+) Analysis For 2021/22 Season
The Late Wildcard (FPL GW15) for the 2021/22 FPL Season
The biggest fixture swing of the entire season happens in GW15 for Manchester United. This is when they go on a ridiculous run of easy fixtures lasting all of the way until GW28! Since every manager will be tripled up on United assets in this period, one of the better ways to gain value from the fixture swing in GW15 is by activating the wildcard chip and instantly tripling up on United assets.
Managers who have already used their wildcard by this point will either take a while to triple up or be taking hits to bring United players in, giving wild carders the upper hand.
Further Read: Check out our Mid-Priced FPL Midfielders (£7 – £9.5 Mil) Analysis and Comparison Ahead Of 2021/22 Season in case you haven’t already. Here is also a link to all our FPL Midfielders and FPL position-wise player analysis blogs.
Conclusions on FPL Wildcard strategy for the 2021/22 FPL Season
Overall, you need to decide before you finalize your GW1 team if you plan on wildcarding early and change your team accordingly. If you don’t want to use your wildcard early, you should build your team to last at least until GW8, the next best time to wildcard. This should be fairly easy to do as just Salah + either Bruno or Kane/Son gives you good captaincy options all of the way until GW8.
If you can make it all of the way through GW8 without wildcarding, then there will be value later in the season for your first wildcard, long after other managers have used theirs.
Additionally, it’s important to note that when you make a rigid plan in FPL, circumstances can change quickly. If you ever need to activate the fpl wildcard suddenly due to many injuries/covid postponements, then you need to have the flexibility to assess whether the wildcard is correct in your current position, which may not be the time you intended on using it.
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Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL Ahead of the 2021/22 Season:
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- Fixture Analysis For Optimal Wildcard Strategy | FPL 2021/22 Season - August 1, 2021
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