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Here, Burning Questions co-host and four-time top 10k finisher Pras weighs up the pros and cons of playing the Bench Boost in Gameweek 29/34 and reveals his own transfer plans.
Apart from a few viruses/niggles, it has been a fairly good international break from an injury perspective.
The most important piece of information of course has been the Double Gameweek 34 announcements. We are blessed this year that due to several FA Cup upsets, we have had a fairly easy ride with smaller blanks and doubles. In fact, had it not been for the passing of the Queen and the subsequent Gameweek 7 postponements, I think we could have played the whole season chip-less without having major planning issues.
We do have a small planning issue now, however, and that is the Bench Boost.
In the top 10k, over 76% of managers still have this chip left – and I suspect a lot of them will be using it in Double Gameweek 29, the biggest double of the season.
However, the Double Gameweek 34 announcement, as well as the fear of selling well-performing Arsenal players, has given managers a real dilemma on whether they should pull the trigger now or wait for a theoretically better opportunity in Gameweek 34.
For my latest article, I decided to dig a bit deeper into this to help people with this conundrum.
Fixtures
Let’s first compare the two big Double Gameweeks on the horizon using the Fantasy Football Scout Season Ticker.
Similarities
First, there are a couple of similarities.
Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester United have a good double in both Gameweeks and given the cheap prices for their players (excluding Bruno Fernandes (£9.6m)), a Bench Boost in either week should include five to six of their assets.
Another similarity is that Arsenal have a single fixture in both weeks – however, the match in Gameweek 29 against Leeds United is much better on paper than the fixture in Gameweek 34 when they entertain Chelsea. If one is inclined to hold a couple of Arsenal players through the run-in, then that’s a plus for Double Gameweek 29 as they are much more Bench Boost-able.
Interestingly, if you strip out Blank Gameweek 32 (a popular week for the Free Hit), then Arsenal sit firmly at the bottom of the Season Ticker. Does that matter as they will go full guns blazing for the Premier League trophy? Maybe not.
Differences
A key difference between the two Double Gameweeks is that Manchester City and Liverpool play each other in Double Gameweek 29, which is in stark contrast to the reigning champions having two excellent fixtures away to Fulham and home to West Ham United in Gameweek 34. Liverpool, who have been scintillating at Anfield, play both Spurs and Fulham at home in that latter Gameweek.
This is an important difference mainly due to the expensive pricing of these two teams. Try to pack in Erling Haaland (£12.0m), Kevin De Bruyne (£12.0m) or Darwin Nunez (£8.8m), Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) and one Liverpool defender and the team really suffers for a Bench Boost.
Another factor is that there are a lot more doubles for teams with cheap enablers in Gameweek 29 compared to Gameweek 34. And it’s not just the volume of the games, it’s the quality of the double as well.
I wouldn’t want a single West Ham or Fulham player for a Bench Boost in Gameweek 34, for example, whereas one could easily Bench Boost with Leicester City, Bournemouth (Dominic Solanke (£5.5m)), Nottingham Forest (Keylor Navas (£4.5m)), Leeds, West Ham, Chelsea etc in Gameweek 29.
Newcastle United also have a decent double in Gameweek 29 versus a single fixture in Gameweek 34. More on them later, though.
The case for a Double Gameweek 34 Bench Boost
