Wildcard 34, Bench Boost 36?

03/04/2019 Planet FPL

When young pilots first learn to fly in foggy, misty conditions they often have to use the onboard technology to get the plane level. Many of them not trusting what they have done keep slightly adjusting over and over again until they come out of the fog upside down.

Two weeks on a Free Hit for Double Gameweek 32 has left me in a similar state. The best part of it is next week I’ll be in the same boat wildcarding for gameweek 34 and then Double gameweek 35 which was due to be when I would Bench Boost.

However the fixtures have thrown up a slight spanner in the works and I am giving huge consideration to Bench Boost gameweek 36.

The doubles in 35 (36 fixtures in brackets) are as follows:

Manchester City: Spurs H, Manchester United A. (Burnley A)

Spurs: Manchester City A, Brighton H. (West Ham H)

Arsenal: Crystal Palace H, Wolves A (Leicester A)

Manchester United: Everton A, Manchester City H. (Chelsea H)

Wolves: Brighton H, Arsenal H (Watford A)

Watford: Huddersfield A, Southampton H (Wolves H)

Brighton: Wolves A, Spurs A (Newcastle H)

Southampton: Newcastle A, Watford A (Bournemouth H)

For the purposes of planning 34-38 in this article I’m going to disregard Manchester City, Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester United. Their star players are largely fixture proof and have some tasty looking games either side of double gameweek 35. And the most important reason to ignore them in a Bench Boost discussion is that you’re never actually bench boosting Aguero and Kane no matter how much Bench Boost shithousing you get up to to annoy mini league rivals!

Most people will Bench Boost a goalkeeper, 5th defender, 5th midfielder and then either 4th defender or 4th midfielder. With that in mind we’ll be looking to fill our squads with budget options and looking at the fixtures they’ll be focused on Brighton and Southampton. Wolves and Watford do have some great cheap options but not bargain prices, it would be hard to afford Deeney, Jota, Doherty for example as a bench given Aguero, Kane, Aubameyang, Sterling, Pogba are all available as expensive double options.

So in reality any Bench Boost 35 is going to focus around Brighton and Southampton. Southampton have great options in Valery, Bednarek, Ward Prowse but their two games away at Newcastle and Watford don’t jump out as obvious point scoring days. Whereas their 36 game at home to a flakey on the beach Bournemouth team could be a points goldmine especially if Southampton are still in need of points for the relegation battle.

Brighton are an even bigger dilemma. Given they also double in GW34 with home games against Cardiff and Brighton the likes of Ryan, Dunk, Duffy, Murray will all be on our shopping list. However like Southampton their double GW35 is horrible. Away games at Wolves and Spurs don’t look great for investment, but their 36 game is Newcastle at home. Newcastle by then could be safe and in relaxed mode which could play into Brighton’s hands.

Whilst this strategy would lessen the impact of a huge 35 it would still allow you 11 players with doubles in 35 but with the added bonus of looking forward to Bench Boosting in 36 with more favourable games. Is there any logic to bench boosting in a double just to have Kane destroy your Brighton points? Or Murray and Ward Prowse to rip it up in 36 in easier games?

Go on just tweak the plane a little bit more what can possibly go wrong?