How to Use Your 5 Free AFCON Transfers

Being the conscientious, long-term planning FPL manager that you are, you’ve obviously been preparing for your AFCON mini-wildcard for ages now.

If not… you just got topped up to five free transfers out of nowhere. Congratulations!

Either way, what on earth are we to do with this sudden bounty of transfers?

Well, I’m glad you asked, friend – that’s exactly what we’re going to find out, in this AFCON mini-wildcard special.

Onwards!

The Main Options

I’m calling this a mini-wildcard, but obviously – unlike an actual wildcard – you don’t need to make all these transfers at once.

It’d definitely be more fun to do so! But, it’s probably not the wisest move, unless your team is an absolute state.

(If it is, I don’t have a problem with using most, if not all of these moves to sort the whole thing out).

I’d say these are your main options for how to play this:

Use Most/All Now

Just splurge three, four, or even all five of them in one go.

You’ve almost certainly got some players who need to stay, however bad your team is – Haaland, an Arsenal/Palace defender, and so on.

So, using 3-5 transfers is probably enough to completely transform your actual, starting side.

Use 2 or 3 Now

The happy medium.

Take care of any major problems in your side, whether that’s injuries/suspensions like Gabriel/Caicedo, or just underperforming players like Van Dijk.

But, you still save 2 or 3, and set yourself up nicely for the medium-term.

Take Things Slow

You have to use at least one transfer this week, since you’ll obviously get your regular free transfer next week.

You can just stick at that, however, play things slowly, keep your transfers topped up, and use them as and when you actually need them.

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Boring but important caveat alert – the approach you take will depend completely on how your team is doing.

If you’re still struggling (or just not having fun), and we’re getting towards the halfway point of the season, I’m fine just having fun with this, and taking more drastic action.

If you’ve just had a couple of lingering problems for a while now, but you’re generally doing fine, take the happy medium.

If you’re actually having a pretty good season, you don’t have to get carried away and use all these transfers now. As noted above, I’d much rather save them for when you actually need them.

(I’ll be doing Option C. I know – thrilling).

Best Upcoming Fixture Runs

The general FPL-playing public obviously puts huge stock in ‘form’ (/how a player did in their last game), which is how we get these kneejerk price rises every week.

But you – as that aforementioned savvy manager – put a heavy emphasis on fixtures too. Obviously, I would definitely recommend doing just that, as you make your AFCON mini-wildcard picks.

If you’ve still got your actual first-half wildcard, remember that it needs to be used by Gameweek 19.

Also remember that you can bank leftover transfers nowadays, even when using your wildcard, so you still don’t have to use all these frees you just got.

What you should do, however, is focus exclusively on these next few weeks, since… you can change your whole team anyway soon.

If you haven’t got your wildcard, you should still be looking across the next few gameweeks – but, with a heavier focus on the mid-to-long term, rather than just the short term.

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So, which teams have the best attacking and defensive fixture runs, starting in Gameweek 16, and going across the next few gameweeks?

What a coincidence – James just wrote an entire article about exactly that!

You can get his excellent analysis of all the teams with the best fixtures right here.

You can also check out our wonderful fixture ticker, free of charge, here.

For now though, I’ll just lazily dump in the best attacking runs:

And the best defensive runs:

Which Players Are Going to AFCON?

Well well well – what a coincidence. This just so happens to be another topic we’ve written an entire article about!

I say ‘we’… it was actually James. I (Joe) claim no credit whatsoever.

For a full guide on exactly who is jetting off to AFCON, just whack this link below until it opens:

full90fpl.com/fpl-players-afcon

5 Free AFCON Transfer Tips – Position-by-Position

Right, let’s get stuck into the meat of this lengthy article.

The easiest way to break this down is to go position by position.

Which is what I’ll do, right now!

Goalkeepers

While I might consider defenders from the other sides with the best defensive fixture runs, there are very few of those sides I’d actually back right now to keep clean sheets.

With goalkeepers, too, you particularly want to look long-term, and avoid having to spend transfers on them in the future.

So, we doubly want to go beyond these upcoming fixtures for that, and only pick keepers we’re confident might clean.

Arsenal top that list for me, and it’s not even close.

I already got Raya myself a few weeks ago. I don’t care that he’s expensive – we’ve got plenty of money sloshing around, this season, and I just think he’s the most reliable pick by far.

Normally, I’d never spend on the most expensive keeper. This year, I’m completely happy to do so.

I don’t trust Liverpool, City, or Newcastle to keep cleans.

You can add Bournemouth to that list too – unfortunately, since Petrovic is still cheap.

I don’t really like the fixtures for Roefs or Henderson.

Matching fixtures with other factors, I’d have to put Pickford as my clear second choice. Again, I know he’s expensive. Again, I don’t care. He’s tied with Raya on points, and has cleaned in four of his last five games. Chelsea and Arsenal are not-great, not-awful fixtures, but after that he’s got a very nice run.

If you wanted to save a bit of money, Sels is 0.8 cheaper than Pickford, and Forest have (unsurprisingly) been more solid under Dyche. Their fixtures are fine too.

Areola is your super budget option, but he only has one clean in his last gazillion games, even with Nuno as his manager.

To be honest – and, again, I would never normally say this – I would just shell out this year on keepers.

I think you’re just wasting your money, owning one of these 4.3-4.7 keepers and rarely/never getting any points from them.

I’d rather spend here, preferably on Raya or Pickford, and at least give myself a good shot at cleans every 2 or 3 games.

Defenders

The scarcity of teams we even vaguely trust to keep cleans right now also makes picking defenders quite easy.

You should have at least one Arsenal defender.

Literally right now, that defender should probably be Timber. If you’ve got your actual wildcard, then Hincapie is fine as a cheaper option, but he’ll be out as soon as Gabriel comes back.

You should have at least one Palace defender.

Partly because they’re a really good side, and their fixtures are fine. Partly because they just have two brilliant options, in Guehi and Munoz.

Injury news-dependent, I still prefer Munoz, even at 0.9 more. His returns feel more sustainable, since he’s basically an out of position midfielder/winger listed as a defender.

(For the record, however, I do also think Guehi’s returns are somewhat sustainable, and am fine doubling-up on both).

I also love having an Everton defender right now.

James has been banging on about Tarkowski since the preseason, and has benefited greatly from his obsession. Keane is cheaper, and is nailed now that Branthwaite is having surgery, and will still be out for ages. Tarko is a safer pick for DefCons, and I’m fine spending the extra on him if you can afford it.

To be honest, I wouldn’t really overthink things here.

I know there are other good individual options – like O’Reilly and Burn.

But an Arsenal/Palace/Everton defence just feels great to me.

I’m fine doubling up on it, via Raya/Pickford, or Munoz+Guehi, too.

Midfielders

Right! Now things get a bit trickier.

‘Premiums’

Assuming you only have one or two Arsenal players at the back, I’d probably just lock in Saka off the bat. As James wrote in his fixtures article, he’s somehow still sixth in the league in xGI, despite missing a fair chunk of time.

He’s also just super-reliable, which I love in FPL. He might not have the highest ceiling, but now that Salah is apparently rubbish, I’d back him to return on any given week over any other midfielder in the league.

I’m more bullish on Foden than James.

Is he going to keep hitting two returns every game? No. Will he be randomly benched in this busy upcoming fixture run? Probably. But he’s absolutely on fire, the idea in FPL is to score points, and he’s scoring tons of them right now.

I don’t view him as a long-term pick. But, I like the short-term potential enough to take the risk right now.

Bruno F is a safer long-term pick. He also won’t continue his current pace, but – like Saka – he’s just a reliable midfielder who, at worst, will keep ticking along with 4-5pts most weeks.

So, for the ‘premiums’, I’d have Saka top, Foden as the higher-upside/higher-risk option, and Bruno as the lower-upside/safer-pick.

If you can afford all three, go for it.

I prefer that – with Halaand + Thiago + Guiu (4.2) up top – than any three-starter forward line.

Mid-Tier

For the next tier down, Gakpo was slightly tempting with Liverpool’s excellent fixtures… but is now injured. And obviously we’re not trusting Wirtz any time. So, that’s the end of that!

As James says, I wouldn’t go near the Newcastle winger mess. They’re good players individually… there are just too many of them.

I’d continue to stick with Semenyo.

If it was literally him versus Saka/Foden/Bruno… fine. But there’s surely someone else you could upgrade for those guys, and I still have Semenyo ranked right below them.

His underlying stats remain fine, as does his price. He passed the eye test against Chelsea too, looking his usual old relentless, selfish, constantly-shooting self (which we obviously love, in FPL).

‘Budget’

Getting towards the cheaper end of the spectrum…

Long-term Full 90 FPL fans will know I adore my darling Minteh.

I couldn’t care less about blanks against Villa or West Ham – they’re two good defences (yes, including West Ham under Nuno). He remains excellent value, and his fixtures are fine (I actually really like his matchup away to Liverpool – I’d back him to cause them problems).

Bruno G is a player we wouldn’t normally trust… but at some point, you just have to give it up to him. He’s now got 4+ pts in an excellent seven games in a row, and has five goals and four assists on the season.

In that rough price bracket, I’d still have him below Rice. The latter just has more routes to points – DefCons, set piece assists, clean sheets. So, his returns feel more sustainable.

(That being said, in my Arsenal rankings, he’d still be below Saka, a defender, and probably Raya too).

Enzo is a tricky one. He continues to have good underlying stats. He also continues not to actually return. He’s now got one goal and no assists in his last eight starts.

At this point, I’d probably just bin him. In fact, I’m going to do exactly that in my own team this week.

I’d much rather keep Semenyo, for example, even though he’s more expensive, and upgrade the Enzo spot to a Saka/Foden/Bruno F.

Finally, we’ve got the ‘meh – good in real-life, so-so in FPL’ duo – Neto and Grealish.

They’re both fine… I just wouldn’t actually take either of them over players at similar prices, or cheaper.

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Moving further down the price scale…

I like Anderson, and he’s rewarded me very nicely in the last few weeks.

He’s the budget, DefCons-based midfielder to get right now – not Caicedo, even when he’s back from injury. I slightly prefer him over Xhaka in that role, even if he’s a bit more expensive (5.4 vs 5.2).

He’s been incredibly reliable recently, getting 4+ pts in 5 of his last 6 games, and also got two returns and 3 bonus points in that span.

Dewsbury Hall is your higher-upside budget option.

At 5.1, he’s a brilliant enabler who you can also actually start. Three goals and two assists in his last five games, including returns against Newcastle and Man U, and he’s nailed too.

KDH would be my pick of the true budget mids right now. Anderson in second-place, Xhaka in third.

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There are a lot of midfielders, and I’ve almost certainly omitted the one you actually want to know about.

If you have questions about anyone specific, just fire away on Reddit, and I’ll get back to you.

Forwards

Well, midfielders were tricky… but now things get a lot easier again.

Haaland has blanked in three of his last four games, is a massive fraud, and you should bin him immediately.

If you really insist on keeping him, that’s 1/3 spots locked up straight away.

People get annoyed when you throw around the term ‘must own’… but I’m going to do it anyway. I think Thiago is a borderline must own right now!

Maybe he regresses a bit, and his penalty luck dries up. Right now though, he’s only 6.9, has 11 goals already, and now plays Leeds and Wolves.

This is another ‘don’t overthink it’ situation. Just start with Haaland and Thiago, and go from there.

Again, I prefer a Saka/Foden/Bruno F midfield triple-up, ideally with Semenyo too, over any three-man forward line.

None of the other forwards are particularly in form right now, and there are question marks about all the supposedly-reliable ones.

Mateta keeps getting subbed after around 60mins, and his finishing has been… unimpressive, to say the least.

Woltemade is a quality player. But Wissa just came back at last, so he’ll presumably start getting hooked after 65-70mins if he hasn’t scored – as he did last weekend. I don’t like his next few fixtures, either.

People are already starting to get hopeful about Ekitike again, following the Gakpo injury and Salah leaving (for now, or for good).

He’s a quality player, with great fixtures… but we still don’t know if he’ll actually start those great fixtures. Slot has already played Wirtz out on the left wing. There’s no way I’d gamble on it right now.

Evanilson, Welbeck, Watkins… meh to all of them. Meh, I say!

As with goalkeeper, I’m pretty confident in this one.

Just stick with Haaland and Thiago, save on Guiu as your third forward, and invest that money in defence and midfield.