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A popular strategy this week will be to use the Free Hit chip, if you still have it remaining, to cover the blank gameweek for Manchester City, Manchester United, Brighton and Chelsea.
Statman Dave put forward the argument in this week’s Fantasy 606 podcast that there’s more to be gained using your Free Hit in double gameweek 34 if you’ve got enough players to hopefully get you a decent score in this gameweek, but personally I think my squad for gameweek 34 will be pretty similar to what I would go with on a Free Hit anyway and I’m short of players for gameweek 32.
Have a look at your squad though and see what works for you.
The next question if you’re playing your Free Hit is whether you’re going to use it defensively to protect a lead in a mini-league, or offensively to try and make up ground on your rivals.
The beauty of the Free Hit chip with the latter strategy is you can bring players in for one week that most other managers probably won’t have and you don’t necessarily have to keep them for the long-term.
Taking a punt on Darwin Nunez, Jarrod Bowen, Eberechi Eze, Andreas Pereira or Dango Ouattara are good examples in gameweek 32.
If you’re playing defensively on the other hand then it’s not too hard to cover the highly owned players this week.
Whichever way you’re playing, I think most Free Hit teams will contain three Arsenal players and three Liverpool players for their home games against Southampton and Nottingham Forest respectively.
I like the idea of having three Arsenal attackers, picking your trio from Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus, while adding a third Liverpool choice to the obvious selections of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Martinelli would be top of the Arsenal list for me given his recent form and I’m still leaning towards Saka even though he’s only scored two points in his past three gameweeks. He’s a talismanic player who gets into great attacking positions and I’d still back him for a big points haul in any given gameweek. Mikel Arteta has also said he’s taking the next penalty despite his miss against West Ham.
Odegaard or Jesus is a trickier decision – Odegaard is likely to play more minutes but Jesus has the potential to be more explosive having scored four goals in his past three starts.
If you decide to go without Jesus there’s certainly a good range of striking options for gameweek 32 – Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins in the Brentford v Aston Villa game, similarly Alexander Isak and Harry Kane for Newcastle v Tottenham and Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke at home to West Ham, who could be jaded after a Europa League game on Thursday night.
As for your third Liverpool choice, I would prefer to go with a second attacker rather than double up on the defence but it’s a riskier selection as Jurgen Klopp has plenty of potential combinations for his front three.
There has to be a chance that Nunez gets a start ahead of Diogo Jota or Cody Gakpo for the game against Nottingham Forest. You’d imagine Luis Diaz will be eased back into action from the bench but Roberto Firmino is an option too.
Gakpo is classed as a midfielder in FPL and is also cheaper than Jota, Nunez and Firmino who are all forwards and that’s why the Dutchman is in my current Free Hit draft but I am tempted by Jota after his two goals at Leeds.
Elsewhere, James Maddison hasn’t delivered in the past few gameweeks but could be an ideal one-week punt for Leicester’s crunch home game against Wolves and either Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise look good bets with Crystal Palace at home to Everton.
I’m going for Palace’s Sam Johnstone as a budget keeper choice on my Free Hit but make sure you have a playing back-up just in case he loses his place to Vicente Guaita.
I’d fancy Fulham to score at home to Leeds so I’d probably choose Andreas Pereira in that one – he has the added bonus of being the likely penalty-taker – while West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen or Said Benrahma would be good differential picks away to Bournemouth.
The defensive choices are less exciting on the Free Hit – you’ll need at least two to go with Trent Alexander-Arnold – and it really just depends which team you reckon has the best chance of a clean sheet.
With a home game against Tottenham, I like the idea of doubling down by going with Newcastle defenders Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schar, while Alex Moreno offers the exciting prospect of attacking returns for Aston Villa but I’m not sure they’ll keep Brentford out.
Don’t forget the FPL deadline is at 18:30 BST on Friday and if you’re not on the Free Hit then I would prioritise signing Liverpool players this week.
Alistair Bruce-Ball presents the Fantasy 606 podcast alongside former Premier League winner Chris Sutton and Statman Dave. The latest episode previewing gameweek 32 is available on the BBC Sounds App.
