FPL GW25 Wildcard + FPL GW26 Bench Boost Guide and Draft

It’s that time of the season again. The unmistakable whiff of double gameweeks is in the air and FPL managers are vociferously planning out how to navigate the remainder of the season and in particular how to optimise chip usage both for short and long term benefit. Below, I’m going to make the case for deploying the slightly unconventional strategy of wildcarding in FPL GW25 to set up for a GW26 bench boost. I understand that this strategy isn’t the the most popular one. Nevertheless, over the course of this FPL GW25 Wildcard and FPL GW26 bench boost article, I’m going to outline the perks of going against the herd by playing the bench boost in double gameweek 26.

Why Wildcard in FPL GW25 and Bench Boost in FPL GW26

Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. Why wildcard and bench boost now? Most of us would have had a preconceived idea of waiting until GW36 to deploy the bench boost due to the fact that it is likely to be the biggest double gameweek. Naturally, that would have prompted a wildcard in the weeks preceding tone, maybe even the week directly preceding that.

If this season has taught us anything however, its that you never know what the future holds from an FPL perspective. The landscape could change drastically between now and then, and the doubles that fall may not even be that enticing.

The beauty of FPL GW26 is that, although there aren’t a plethora of teams that have very appealing doubles, there are numerous teams that have a brilliant single gameweek. For instance, Aston Villa play Watford, Man United go up against Leeds, Southampton play an Everton side that have one of the weakest defences in the league and Man City, well they’re Man City. All of these teams will be featured in this draft and they all have a great fixture in GW26 and a longer stretch of decent fixtures too.

Arguably the more pressing thing dissuading people from the bench boost is the Salah factor. Liverpool’s double of Norwich and Leeds is as good a double as any and Salah could be primed for a monster haul. This has resulted in many having the triple captain chip set in stone for GW26.

But let’s consider a few things. Firstly, Salah is only just back from a grueling Afcon campaign in which he played extra time on 4 occasions. Additionally, Liverpool play Burnley and Inter Milan in the space of 4 days prior to GJ26. If he plays 90 in both, a rest could definitely be on the cards for GW26.

Furthermore, given the vast majority are triple captaining him, there are going to be very little gains that can be made. To play it defensively, you could still captain him so the loss will be minimal. Whilst you’ll lose out on him due to his effective ownership probably being comfortably north of 200%, a successful bench boost could more than make up for that.

If Salah does indeed have a rest and only gets 1 or two returns over the GW, you may be able to make significant gains whilst still having the TC in your pocket for later on when the opportunity to benefit could be far greater.
If the above hasn’t convinced you at all, thanks for reading this far. If it has done, then settle in and let’s get our teeth into this wildcard draft.

Link to all our FPL Gameweek 25 blogs. Our blogs cover a wide range of topics including the Best wildcard team, Chip strategy, Captaincy metrics, differentials, and more. The best thing is that every blog is completely free to access:)

FPL GW25 Wildcard + FPL GW26 Players to Target

FPL GW25 Wildcard Goalkeepers

Nick Pope £5.4M:

Pope has flown slightly under the radar this season, due in the main to Burnley playing very little of late but he may be someone who gains more attention in the coming weeks. His 20 point haul in DGW23 was a reminder of what he is capable of. With a confirmed double in FPL GW26 and in FPL GW27, he may well return a similar total over those GWs. Burnley also have a further game against Villa to be rearranged as well as potential for more down the line so you’re likely to get more games out of Pope than any other keeper. Even when Burnley don’t keep a clean sheet, he’s likely to be called upon regularly so a game rarely goes by in which he doesn’t accumulate a save point.

✅🔥Double Gameweek 27 for Burnley confirmed- Palace(A), Leicester(H)

which means-

🔑Burnley only team to have the Double in GW27
🔑Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea blank in GW27
🔑All other teams will have single fixture in GW27#FPL #FPLCommunity #GW27

— ALLABOUTFPL (@allaboutfpl) February 10, 2022

Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Robert Sanchez £4.6M:

As is the case with Pope, the main appeal for Sanchez is that of double gameweeks. In selecting Sanchez, you immediately walk into a double of Watford and Man United. With both of those teams hardly pulling up any trees at the moment in an attacking sense, Sanchez could quite conceivably get a double figure return from this GW. This is followed by a fixture against Burnley in GW26 from which another clean sheet is a distinct possibility. Brighton are another team who have more games to be arranged besides this week too. Their GW30 fixture with Man City could go into GW29 and although Man City is hardly an appealing fixture, Sanchez may still amass a decent total from save points. They also have two other games which haven’t yet been rescheduled so all of a sudden you’re looking at numerous doubles.
If rotated well, the Pope Sanchez combination, all be it pretty expensive one, could be very fruitful.

FPL GW25 Defenders

Joao Cancelo £7.1M:

There’s very little that needs to be said regarding Cancelo. He is the second highest scoring defender this season and now seems as nailed a player as any in that City side. He spends most of his time in the final third and is primed for an attacking return in any game so if for whatever reason you don’t already own him, he should be one of the first names on your team sheet.

Trent Alexander Arnold £8.2M:

To put it bluntly, see Cancelo. There’s not much that can be said about Trent in the way of persuading you to buy him if again, he isn’t sitting in your team at the moment. He is the highest scoring defender and second highest scoring player overall. Both he and Cancelo, barring injury, will probably spend every gameweek between now and the end of the season in your teams.

Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Andy Robertson £7.1M:

One of the debates that has been brewing on FPL Twitter recently has been that of which Liverpool asset to go with alongside TAA and Salah. Diogo Jota has been the more popular option for the majority of the season thus far but Robertson has been staking a very good claim to taking his spot in recent weeks. The left back has rediscovered the attacking form that we had become accustomed of from him and has been matching Jota on that front recently.

He has a goal and 3 assists in his last 3 appearances whilst Jota has 2 goals and 2 assists over his last 6. With the additional clean sheet points and the fact that he is far more likely to get bonus points than Jota who has 2 compared to Robertson’s 14 this season, I really struggle to make a case against having Robertson in here ahead of Jota.

Diogo Dalot £4.5M

Dalot is primarily in here because he has a DGW immediately. Man United haven’t been defensively reliable by any means this season but Dalot is still probably the best bet at his price. Whilst United as a whole haven’t been great recently, he has been one of the bright sparks and has now nailed down that right back spot. with a double against Southampton and Brighton this week and Leeds in GW26, he still may be in contention for a few points, especially considering the quality of his crossing has improved as his minutes have increased.

If you’re partial to a hit, you may even be inclined to move him on for a hit in GW26. In this case, I’d recommend a Wolves defender, namely Ait-Nouri as they double in GW26 and have been one of the better defenses this season. Furthermore, their run following their admittedly tricky double is excellent so you’ll be wanting an asset sooner rather than later.

Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Kieran Tierney £5.0M

Other than Liverpool, arsenal probably have the best pair of fixtures in GW26 as they face Brentford and Wolves both at home, where they have been far better than on the road this season. As such, it would be suboptimal to go without at least one asset on wildcard.

Many will already have Aaron Ramsdale but I believe there’s a better root in the Arsenal defense, and that’s via Keiran Tierney. In the first half of the season, Tierney was a shadow of the player he can be at his best but his form has returned recently with 4 attacking returns in his past 7. A combination of this and Arsenal’s defensive record of only conceding in 3 of their last 6, Tierney could be a superb asset, and a differential at that.

To provide further appeal, Arsenal’s fixture against Chelsea needs to be rearranged and it looks for all the money that it will go into GW28. They are also confirmed to be playing in GW30 as both they and their opponents for that week Aston Villa are out of the FA cup. If you don’t plan to free hit that week, you have the added bonus of already having a player for that week.

FPL GW25 Wildcard Midfielders

Bruno Fernandes £12.2M:

Bruno is in this team predominantly for one reason. His relative resurgence as an FPL asset has coincided with Ronaldo going off the boil. Bruno scored 23 points in United’s last double in GW22 when very few owned him. This time round, his ownership, and as an extension of that his effective ownership, will be significantly higher than it was then and he is undoubtedly the best captaincy option this week.
Furthermore, Bruno is the obvious root back to Salah who you will want back in GW26. As it hampers your team to start with both, I feel its worth taking the risk of holding off on the Egyptian king for GW25 before buying him back the following week.

Hueng Min Son £10.8M

Before his injury prior to GW22, Son was all set to become the next bandwagon. Now that he is fit again, it seems a no Rainer to go with him. Tottenham are another of the teams who have the combination of a double in DGW26 and several other games that need rearranging.

Moreover, Antonio Conte seemed to have finally made his mark on the Tottenham team and they have been a considerably more cohesive outfit lately. A player of Son’s quality will undoubtedly benefit from this and he essentially provides premium returns at the lower end of a premium price so he is one of the easiest picks in this side.

Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Philippe Coutinho £7.2M:

Villa’s signing of Coutinho brought about plenty of questions as to whether he still possesses the ability we saw from him during his first stint in the Premier League. In the two and a half league games he has played so far, that answer has been a resounding yes. Since returning to the Premier League, Coutinho has scored once and assisted three times in 3 appearances, showcasing his immense quality all the while.

Against Leeds in particular, Coutinho was in sublime form on his way to a 16 pointer. Prior to that game, I didn’t actually have him in my draft, but upon seeing that performance, its very difficult to justify his exclusion. Villa have games that need rearranging as well as appealing fixtures against Newcastle, Watford, Brighton, Southampton and West Ham coming up, all of whom have been defensively vulnerable and Coutinho could thrive in all of them. Therefore, investment in Villa from an attacking sense seems wise.
Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Jarrod Bowen £6.9M

The inclusion of Bowen is another one which doesn’t require much explanation. He has scored more points than anybody over the past 8 GWs including a 21 point haul in GW22. Despite west Ham not having any doubles, they play two of the weakest defenses in the league in the next 2 as they face Leicester and Newcastle. Again, if you’re a manager engaged enough to be reading this, you’ll likely already own him so you won’t need much persuading to continue with him in your side but if not, its not too late to jump on the Bowen bandwagon.

Michael Olise £5.4M

Speaking of bandwagons, this man could well be the next big one in FPL. Olise has slowly been gaining growing recognition, both as a player and an FPL option. He has accumulated 7 goal involvements in his last 7 games in all competitions and has a very kind fixture run which, barring a few matches, lasts for the majority of the season. He also has, you guessed it, a double in GW26 so what’s not to like? In a team which rates quite heavily on the template scale, Olise provides that sprinkling of differential value required in order to climb the ranks with only 0.5% ownership. At £5.4M, even when his fixtures aren’t as kind its perfectly viable to bench him and considering how deep this squad is, this could quite easily be done without compromising your team.

FPLGW25 Wildcard Forwards

Wout Weghorst £6.5M:

Let’s not beat around the bush here, finding a forward worth investing in is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It feels as if we’ve been saying this for a while now, but the forward choices have been very underwhelming this season. For that reason, I don’t think any of the premiums justify their price.
Under normal circumstances, going with two Burnley assets would seem absurd but these are far from normal circumstances.

Weghorst is in this team primarily because of the sheer number of games that Burnley have left, but also because of the promise he brings. he was the best player on the pitch against Man United on Tuesday and could quite easily have returned. With the lack of performing forwards about presently, selecting Weghorst seems a sensible ploy. He has historically scored at a rate of around 1 in 2 for Wolfsburg. If he can maintain that at Burnley, he will represent brilliant value.

Further Read: FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner

Emmanuel Dennis £5.9M:

Now look, most of us haven’t got particularly fond things to say about Emanuel Dennis. In getting sent off barely an hour into in a double gameweek of Norwich and Burnley, he etched his name forever in FPL folk law. That will live long in the memory and it could put many people off him but it shouldn’t take away from the fact that he provided unbelievable value in the weeks preceding the calamity. Watford play Aston Villa and Crystal Palace in GW26. Whilst we’ve been here before with Dennis, surely lightning can’t strike twice. By virtue of the fact that there is a distinct lack of inspiring forward options, he’s still in the top 3 in the game for value alone.

Armando Broja £5.2M:

Amongst a sea of mediocrity, Broja has actually been one of the more reliable forwards. On loan at Southampton from Chelsea, he has been one of the breakthrough stars this season. At his price, its very difficult to argue against his inclusion. It should be said that Broja is one of the players who doesn’t double in GW26 but he plays Everton who have just shipped 3 at Newcastle. In that fixture, he could quite possibly outscore many of the forwards who have doubles that week, especially considering he is a striker bang in form with 4 goals and 2 assists in his last 9 appearances.

Broja is also one of those players who, due to his value, can be benched as and when you feel necessary, but with the consistency he has shown, more often than not he will be a starter.

Selecting the above team gives me £1.6M in the bank. My team value of £103.9M is at the lower end, so you should have more than enough to move from Bruno to Salah for GW26 with plenty of wiggle room. With a hit, this squad gives you 10 doublers with the other 5 having very kind single fixtures so I believe that its optimal for a bench boost.

FPL GW25 Wildcard Draft with a Bench Boost in FPL GW26

Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL Ahead of FPL Gameweek 25:

FPL DGW26 Teams & Players to Target with Fixture Ticker & Planner
Best FPL Chip Strategy For The Remainder Of The Season
Popular Player Comparisons Ahead of FPL GW24/25 ~ Robbo vs Jota, Digne vs Cucurella vs Tierney
FPL GW25 | Premium FPL Assets Rotational Planner

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