FPL GW 34: Free Hit Frenzy
Back to back gameweeks of 5 chips being used, this week, 5 Free Hits. It was the template strategy and to no one’s surprise, differential Duy treads a different path.
Derek’s Cole Fired Power (GW 58 / 4th, Total 2,088 / 1st) (Free Hit)
A stock standard Free Hit by Derek with just one small miss making all the difference, the non-selection of Morgan Gibbs-White (13). While we normally shouldn’t transfer in players based on last week’s points, MGW was able to back up last week’s hat trick with a goal and assist this week.
As a side tangent, Vu’s draft team has Haaland (best striker by 43 points with 212 points, to no one’s surprise), Bruno (best midfielder by 23 points with 204 points, therefore owning the only two players above 185 points), Rice (3rd best midfielder with 171 points) and MGW (4th best midfielder with 168 points). I still haven’t been able to surpass his total points in draft despite Vu not touching his team since gameweek 10.
Back to regularly scheduled programming, Derek’s Free Hit differentials were a bit of a disappointment, being Rice (2), Ndiaye (2) and Thiago (1).
Sandra’s SZ (GW 76 / 1st, Total 1,951 / 2nd) (Free Hit)
A stock standard Free Hit with some small decisions making big differences. In addition to MGW (13), it was Dewsbury-Hall (8) that proved to be clutch.
Consistent with previous weeks of never believing in Liverpool, Sandra fielded Mavropanos (4) over Virgil (4). While it made no difference in the end, she’ll be glad to have Mavropanos score at least once for her this season, and perhaps he’ll be a potential starter for the 2026/27 season?
Keven’s The Assets (GW 58 / 5th, Total 1,946 / 3rd) (Free Hit)
o7 Salah the Egyptian King. I first started FPL when Salah joined Liverpool in 2017 and he’s scored 200+ points in every season until now. It was my last opportunity to captain him before he leaves Liverpool and the fairytale captaincy story was not meant to be. Salah got a hamstring injury 58 minutes in and gave me a lovely 1 pointer (captained for 2 points).
Also on the injury front, I tripled up on Spurs only for Solanke (1) to pull his hamstring and Xavi (3) to rupture his ACL. The injury crisis at Spurs also includes Maddison, Kulusevski, Davies, Kudus, Vicario, Romero and Udogie. That’s essentially a starting XI lineup full of injured players.
Now that Spurs relegation is looking more and more likely, the inner accountant in me thought it would be fun to financially model the impact.
Feel free to have a play around with it (https://www.cashflow-fc.co.uk/) (Full disclosure: it was actually a Spurs fan who made the financial model).
Duy’s Duzor (GW 53 / Last, Total 1,877 / 4th)
Honest worker Anderson (9) does it again, what a hero. Why didn’t we select this beautiful hunk of a man on our Free Hits?
Shaw (5) is really trying to make a name for himself as Duy’s mascot, securing clean sheet points for himself before Man United conceded in the 87th minute.
Hincapie (9) finally delivers after a few weeks of disappointment. Unfortunately for Duy, most Free Hitters doubled up on Arsenal defence, so the clean sheet was actually a net negative against his Baddy League competitors.
Brian’s The Liabilities (GW 69 / 2nd, Total 1,865 / 5th) (Free Hit)
Great minds think alike… for Brian and Sandra. Pretty much the exact same Free Hit team with Xavi (3) and Pickford (1) being the main differentials. It was the non-selection of Raya (10) that really hurt.
Dan’s A-Cunha Matata (GW 65 / 3rd, Total 1,857 / Last) (Free Hit)
Dan’s Bowen journey in the first 12 gameweeks:
- Started Bowen for the first 6 gameweeks
- Transferred Bowen out in gameweek 7 only to immediately regret it
- Wildcarded Bowen back in for gameweek 8
- Captained Bowen in 4 of the next 5 gameweeks
- Finally let go of Bowen in gameweek 13
And it all came together in Dan’s Free Hit for gameweek 34, captaining Bowen (20) to outperform all those Bruno (10) captainers. Justice!
Bless up,
Keven
Tracker
Top weekly score: Derek’s Cole Fired Palmer with 122 points in GW 33.
Top weekly bench score: Duy’s Duzor with 43 points in GW 9.