With only four matches taking place in Blank Gameweek 29, many of us are struggling to get a full playing XI out.
As such, there’ll be a significant number of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who will deploy the Free Hit chip.
Indeed, over 60% of responders in our on-site poll say they are activating their Free Hit this week.
If you haven’t fully committed yet, we look at the potential pros and cons of thrusting the chip into action.
We also present two drafts to consider: template and differential.
There’ll be more Free Hit-centric articles to follow this introductory one, including some head-to-head comparisons of potential picks.
GAMEWEEK 29 FIXTURES
FREE HIT IN GAMEWEEK 29: PROS V CONS
| Pros | Cons |
| Allows you to react to any team news bombshells in the pre-Gameweek 29 press conferences and adjust your squad accordingly at no cost. | What is the realistic upside of a Free Hit XI in Gameweek 29, if most non-chip users can get to the likes of Watkins, Son, Bowen and Toney with free transfers anyway? The difference-makers in your Free Hit team may be the likes of Mohammed Kudus or Morgan Gibbs-White, for example – both capable assets in their own right but are they worth using a chip on? |
| A no-show in Gameweek 29 will almost certainly result in zero points for non-Free Hitters, as they are unlikely to have playing substitutes. Armed with a Free Hit, you can select a squad of 15 – not just 11 – so that any teamsheet surprises can be compensated with by an automatic substitution. | Leaves you without one of the prized chips for the run-in, when we’ll get a couple of big Double Gameweeks. |
| Can help to protect team value, as the players you may be cashing in to get XI out in Gameweek 29 (eg Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon, Bukayo Saka) could have value tied up in them. | Spurs and Fulham, and to some extent Aston Villa, all have favourable fixtures in Gameweek 30. If you were Free Hitting in Son, Maddison and Watkins from scratch for Gameweek 29, your ‘bus team’ would be without them for Spurs v Luton and Villa v Wolves in Gameweek 30 – and with only one free transfer to use. A Wildcard in Gameweek 30, of course, is one option to combat this. |
| Saves points hits, something that non-Free Hitters will likely have to take. |
OWNERSHIP FIGURES
Those wondering how best to cover themselves for this round, either with their Free Hit or free transfers, should keep an eye on the current ownership figures.
That way, we can work out which players are likely to be most popular on Free Hits, or which players managers without it need to cover.
| Player | Team | Ownership | Ownership (top 100k) |
| Ollie Watkins | Aston Villa | 56.7% | 95.79% |
| Alphonse Areola | West Ham | 36.4% | 76.68% |
| Son Heung-min | Tottenham | 27.6% | 55.26% |
| Jarrod Bowen | West Ham | 25.3% | 32.61% |
| Pedro Porro | Tottenham | 16.3% | 24.46% |
| Alfie Doughty | Luton | 15.5% | 50.02% |
| Matty Cash | Aston Villa | 15.3% | 5.03% |
| Bernd Leno | Fulham | 15.3% | 6.66% |
| Douglas Luiz | Aston Villa | 14.9% | 15.03% |
| Emiliano Martinez | Aston Villa | 13.0% | 3.27% |
| James Maddison | Tottenham | 12.8% | 6.03% |
| Carlton Morris | Luton | 11.7% | 19.78% |
| Matt Turner | Nottingham Forest | 9.4% | 13.64% |
| Ivan Toney | Brentford | 9.4% | 4.24% |
HOW MANY GAMEWEEK 29 PLAYERS DOES THE AVERAGE MANAGER OWN?
Thanks to LiveFPL, we can see that the average top 100k manager – a decent gauge of active Fantasy bosses – has 5.148 players in place for Blank Gameweek 29.
That’s before any transfers are made this week, and before any chip is activated.
That figure also includes some assets unlikely to play, such as Richarlison and Matt Turner, so the true number is below five.
GAMEWEEK 29: POSSIBLE FREE HIT TEAMS
DRAFT 1: TEMPLATE
This draft will be close to the template.
It includes highly-owned players such as Ollie Watkins (£9.0m), Son Heung-min (£9.9m) and Jarrod Bowen (£7.9m), and, in our opinion, is a very good starting point.
Rate My Team estimates that this XI is projected to score 51.82 points in Gameweek 29, just as a rough gauge of expectations.
As for the picks, we include four penalty takers. There are triple-ups on Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur for their trips to Burnley and Fulham respectively.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest have conceded 18 goals from set-pieces this season, which is the most in the top flight, boosting Alfie Doughty’s (£4.7m) appeal.
DRAFT 2: DIFFERENTIAL
This draft includes a bunch of differentials, with no player’s overall ownership exceeding 13.0%.
Clearly, this strategy comes with a huge amount of risk, opting to overlook a lot of consistent FPL assets capable of big scores.
However, finding a few differentials could be key for a manager looking to gain an advantage over mini-league rivals and, whilst we probably wouldn’t advise including this full XI, the draft throws up some interesting names to consider.
Here, we ignore Luton Town players, knowing non-Free Hitters will own many of them. Instead, we focus on Nottingham Forest and budget forwards David Datro Fofana (£5.0m) and Rodrigo Muniz (£4.5m), both of whom have performed to a very high level recently.
Elsewhere, we’ve selected alternative picks over more popular team-mates: Mads Roerslev (£4.4m) over Sergio Reguilon (£4.4m) and Mohammed Kudus (£6.8m) over Jarrod Bowen (£7.9m), for example.
