If I’m honest FPL couldn’t hurt with a shake up, and the new chip system has certainly done that! What do they mean when selecting your squads? Honestly, not much. Yet. They will play a huge part during mid-season planning, here are my early thoughts on the three chips individually.

Immediately, it makes sense to play these chips during double gameweeks. The triple captain and bench boost will become especially important later in the season. There’s more to it than that though…

IMPORTANT: You can only use one chip per gameweek. Keep this in mind.

Bench Boost

Using this chip means that your squad will gain all points accrued from every member of your 15 man squad, yes that includes your back-up keeper! This is probably the most powerful of your 3 chips and when to play it will be crucial. Many will toss half their bench, however it’s necessary to have great depth when you play this chip. The obvious time to play this chip is during a double gameweek. In fact I would forget you have it until a double gameweek is announced.

Take last seasons DGW34 for example, when 4 teams had a double. 17 players produced double figure hauls. If you have nailed your bench choices, you would have been looking at strolling past 200.

I talked about the wildcard changes earlier, this is where the importance of the second wildcard comes into play. If you resist the temptation to beef up your squad in January, playing your wildcard a week before a DGW to take advantage of this chip could be huge. It would mean no point hits, and being able to choose 15 solid players (a lot of which will play twice). I don’t need to say much more, keep this chip close to your chest!

The first obvious rescheduling will come during GW27 when the Capital one cup 5^th round clashes with EPL fixtures. There is also the possibility of weather postponements, possibly adding an extra twist. Until then, keep it safe.

Triple Captain

Once again, it seems obvious to save this chip for a double gameweek. Seeing as you can’t use 2 chips in the same gameweek, it would seem smart to save this chip for a DGW between just 2 clubs. Save your bench boost for when there’s more teams to choose from. Looking back on last season, Kane earned 15 points in his DGW, while Benteke and Austin posted 23 and 21 respectively during their doubles.

It stands to reason then that how you play this chip will be crucial. Giving the triple captain to Benteke would have wielded you 69 points, whilst going for Hazard or Sanchez during their doubles will have left you with just 15. The big names aren’t always the ones who will deliver biggest when it counts, a POD triple captain could go brilliantly or have you hunting for the noose. It will be massive either way. Once again I’d save this chip for later in the season.

All Out Attack

This chip is a little less straight forward. The all out attack chip allows you to play the 2-5-3 formation for one gameweek. I haven’t decided if I’m a fan yet, but at the moment I’m not really sure how to use it to my advantage. There is a way it can be successful during a DGW. During last seasons DGW’s cheap bench options like Albrighton (13), Townsend (15), Mason (13) and especially Phillips (20) had huge performances, but may have sat on the bench behind an in-form midfielder/forward. Dropping a defender to create space for your cheap bench option for 1 week seems a logical option. These returns were unexpected though, and the stats suggest that defenders actually benefited more from last seasons doubles.

In the 3 years running FantasyYIRMA.com the new all out attack FPL Chip has finally given me an excuse to use a Braveheart picture!

7 midfielders and 6 forwards hit double figures, whilst a massive 15 defenders managed the same feat. If you consider that you’ll want to use the triple captain and bench boost chips during 2 DGW’s, there is limited use for it.

The way to take maximum advantage of this chip is if you own 8 solid attackers and midfielders, and only 2 of your defenders have favorable fixtures. Personally I know there are a few weeks when I play a defender without any confidence of a clean sheet, having this chip up your sleeve could be very handy in that situation. However I do have a problem with wasting cash on my bench, and attacking rotation has no value in my opinion. I still think owning a cheap 5^th midfielder or 3^rd forward is the way to go, as long as they’re playing.

You could potentially trade in a solid bench player just for use with this chip, however that will take at least 3 or 4 transfers to change your team and change it back. The advantage you gain of playing a mid/fwd from your bench valued around 6 seems minimal.

It’s early days, but I’m not even considering planning around this chip at this stage. I know that the highest scorers are midfielders and forwards, but they are the most expensive players for that very reason! There is no way you could afford 8 top quality mids and fwds in the same team, 5 (maybe 6) is your limit. Scoring and prices are relative, as far as value for money is concerned your defenders will do just as good (if not better) than your attackers.

You could structure your GW 1 team with just 2 defenders and enjoy watching your players attack in GW1, but then your hands are tied going into GW2. I presume you will want to use 2 transfers to fix your team, unless you plan on having a capable bench player as back-up. If you’re planning on using your wildcard in GW2 this isn’t an issue, but I’m not convinced by that strategy either. Perhaps it could be used for GW38 when we don’t have to worry about how our squad looks like afterwards?

Let me know if you guys can come up with something better, for now I’ll probably use this chip as a throwaway if my third defender is away to Chelsea and my fourth is away to Arsenal.

There you have it! The bench boost and triple captain are massive plays and will greatly effect how you end up ranked come seasons end. Another thing to consider is saving these chips for league clashes. On one hand you could select a DGW where you go head to head with your direct competition. On the other hand there is a much, much more powerful use. I have played a small cash league over the past few seasons that goes head-to-head for the first 36 GW’s, then the top 4 play off in a semi-final before the Grand final resolves the winner. IF you make it in the top 4, you could potentially use both these chips in GW 37 and 38. I’ll leave things on that note. One thing is for sure, the fpl landscape has changed!

As far as the ‘gimmicky’ aspect goes, I find it can get a little dull by the end of the season if you’re not high up the rankings. Having to plan for these chips only benefits the game and maintains interest. I know after January last season I stopped putting much effort into my squad, in such a long season things like this help… Agree/disagree?