Monday, September 1, 2025

Chips As Problem Solvers

Two posts in one day - I must be enjoying this season. (It also probably helps that Middlesbrough are top of the Championship.)

At the start of the season I made a post saying that the first round of chips could be used on the fly, as problem-solvers. As opposed to a planned use of them.

Here we are, heading towards GW4, and we see a good example of this.

In GW4 I have problems..

  • Liverpool have the best fixture, but I only have one Liverpool player and I don't own Salah
  • Anderson is away to Arsenal (though that could well be where he finally gets defcon points)
  • Cunha and Fernandes face City (though, again, that maybe looks worse on paper)
  • My bench is poor, so I don't have good replacements to bring in

Either way, the main problem is NO SALAH.

And I can't get him without taking a points hit.

Fortunately, however, I have all these chips to use, and they won't cost me any points.

So I have solutions.

Option 1: Wildcard
Option 2: Free Hit

The question then is whether I need Salah long term, or just for this single gameweek.

(It's also worth bearing in mind that the Wildcard could be useful when it comes to using the Bench Boost.)

I still like the idea of waiting to get Isak as my Liverpool attacker, and I'm actually fairly happy with my first eleven in general, so the likelihood is I'll be free-hitting.

But, yeah, I like this on the fly approach. It was very much that sort of thinking/feeling when I used the triple-captain on Bruno Fernandes last week. It felt like an opportunity - there might have been a bit of a backlash after the Grimsby game. The fixture looked good. So I thought, "Why not? I have to use this chip sometime."

Obviously, I was lucky to get something in the end. Although, saying that, I still feel Man Utd were decent in attack. They look very capable of scoring goals this season whenever I watch them play. So instinctively the decision still feels right to me. Hopefully I can continue the season in this mode.

GW3 - Triple Captain Late Luck

I've actually had a good gameweek. It's been a long time coming after last season, but I finally feel like I'm back and playing the game the way I like to play it.

I used the triple captain and got a bit of luck. The very late Bruno pen netting me 21 points, if you include the 2 bonus points it secured him. Ideally you'd like more than one return when using the chip, but I'm more than happy with that. 10 points for Bruno (including 2 all-important defensive contribution points, minus a yellow card), tripled to 30. That'll do nicely.

The rest of my team also did fairly well:

85 points (avg. 48)

I brought in Anderson and Cunha, who both failed to return. Apart from that everyone else contributed something. Anderson was unlucky to miss out on defcon points, making eleven defensive contributions for the third week in a row. Cunha went off early.

Along with Bruno I also got defcon points from Porro, Tarkowski and Rice. I get far too much joy from picking up these points. I celebrate them more than I do a goal.

GW2

I should really share my GW2 performance as well, though that wasn't quite as impressive.

39 points (avg. 51)

Lacklustre, with a touch of bad luck. Though the West Ham players I've selected have obviously just been a mistake (Wan-Bissaka was dropped this week).

Anyway, after GW2 I was sitting at 6,319,989 in rank. Now, after GW3, I'm up to 772,668.

Going forward..

Looking ahead I'm contemplating a Free Hit next gameweek. Mainly to get Salah for Liverpool's trip to Burnley. Though with Isak looking like he's on his way there that's getting a little less straightforward. With the dreaded international break here however there's no rush in making any decisions.