Menu
I have seen a lot of content creators come out against a gameweek 1 bench boost in FPL recently so I wanted to set out clearly why I have not budged from this strategy.
As you probably know, normally, only your 11 starting players can score you points. But when you activate your bench boost, the four players on your bench also score you points. If you didn’t know that, check out our guide on how to play FPL.
In case you aren’t familiar with bench boost or chip strategy in general, the established wisdom says that you should Bench Boost in a double gameweek. The logic is obvious. You get two fixtures from all your players so the minimum (or floor) you should score is 16 extra points from all the appearance points and you get two bites of the cherry for clean sheets or attacking returns.
Of course, it doesn’t always work like that but that is the correct thing to do. Most of us would be delighted with 16-20 points from a bench boost in a double – I think I got 6 last year. That’s because you are normally getting extra points from a 4.5 goalkeeper, a 4.0 defender, a 4.5 defender and a 4.5 midfielder – these guys all have low ceilings anyway.
This year is different in FPL because you get two sets of chips and you need to play the first set before the gameweek 19 deadline.
It is very unlikely that we will get a double gameweek in the first half of the season so you will be playing your first bench boost, triple captain and free hit in a single gameweek.
That means that your expected returns from your first bench boost should be halved too. So. it now becomes a floor of 8 and you hope for 8-10 points (so maybe one return from your bench boost plus some appearance points. (Of course, defensive contributions could increase this but for the sake of comparison with how we used to play lets ignore that).
8-10 points is not nothing but it’s not a lot over the course of a season when you will hope to score around 2500 points (probably more this year because of DC). In fact 8 is 0.32% of 2500.
The cost of a bench boost in gameweek 1 in FPL is made up of two things:
Firstly, opportunity cost – you have played your bench boost now so you cannot play it later and you cannot play a different strategy.
Secondly, the cost of transferring players out from your bench. You will probably want to transfer out your bench keeper as most of us play with a non-playing backup keeper these days. And, you won’t want anyone above a 4.5 on your bench. So, basically you need to make as many transfers as possible to get money off your bench and on to the pitch.
Most of us will wildcard in the first six to eight gameweeks anyway. That’s very normal. So, if you bench boost in gameweek one you likely won’t feel the effects of this. And you can hold your backup 4.5 keeper for a couple of weeks and not feel too bad about it.
In any other gameweek there is an additional cost – that is transferring players into your squad. You may say: “Well I can do that on my wildcard!” But on my wildcard, I won’t need to spread the money about like you. So I will be advantaged.
You may also say, as seems to be the content creator trend: “Well I can use my five free AFCON transfers for this purpose!” But I won’t be doing that and now I have up to five more free transfers than you.
If we take a really crude estimation of the value of a transfer (i.e. a transfer is worth 4 points because it helps you avoid a 4 point hit) then I am ahead of you if you use three of those five to set yourself up. The logic being that three transfers is worth 12 points and we think a single gameweek bench boost is worth about 10 points. And you will use at least two transfers if you transfer in a goalkeeper and then transfer them out again.
And there is a further cost to you. The opportunity cost of transfers made to enable a bench boost. Whilst you are looking at how to maximise your gameweek 15 bench boost I am just spending transfers when and where I need them and maximising the value of my starting 11.
I am not unaware of the downsides of a Gameweek 1 Bench Boost in FPL.
The biggest concern is that we won’t know for certain who is nailed. It is very rare that we start the season without at least one blowup along these lines. I think two years ago Gabriel didn’t start the season. Last year we had the Quansah and Barco debacles. I get it. This is a risk. It’s a risk every week but its an elevated risk in week 1.
It also limits the player pool for those players you might pick in gameweek 1. That can make identifying the picks you want a bit harder. Although, really we are only talking about your bench, so it isn’t like your missing out on Haaland or Salah for this.
To mitigate the nailedness point, we pick players who are mega nailed. Yeah, what a fucking obvious thing to do…
Of course, we cannot guarantee this. But on this strategy you have to take Virgil over Frimpong or Odegaard over Foden or Strand Larsen over Beto. You can see why some of those are less exciting and have less of an upside but you can also see that its mainly just good ole safe play.
To mitigate the player pool problem I think there are three solutions.
Firstly, you could just accept what you get and ignore trying to maximise the bench boost. That’s no stress and you could probably beat me with my overplanned BB just by guessing. At the worst, you miss out on average 8 points so who cares.
Secondly, you could focus on defensive contributions. If you identify fixtures that you like outside gameweek 1 then pick guys who might get you DC in gameweek 1. Guehi is a great example of this. You don’t want him against Chelsea in the first game but in 2, 4 and 5 he plays some pretty bad attacks.
Thirdly, you could try and identify a rotation strategy. I’ve set out a couple of rotation strategies in our big defenders piece:
“I’m only really looking at the first six gameweeks because I don’t think it is worth considering much longer than that. Plus, I expect many of us will wildcard in gameweek seven or even before that point. Here is the list:
I plan to take a pinch from all three of these mitigants.
My Bench Boost Draft for FPL Gameweek 1
If you look at this draft of a bench boost I have spent 99.0mn with two 4.5 keepers, a 4.0 defender and a fifth midfielder who costs 5.5. The most important thing to look at is that I have got a defensive rotation that actually works reasonably well (Brentford and Fulham) and the rest of the squad looks pretty damn good too.
Bench Boost Gameweek 1 in FPL is the Best. The end.
Seriously though, I think this is the best play to kick off your season. What do you think?
The best free website for FPL tips to beat your friends and win your mini-leagues
Follow us on Twitter for our latest analysis @Full90FPL
© 2025 Full 90 FPL
