FPL Advice – How to Use Your First Wildcard

I’m so excited to be on wildcard, and waste all my time tinkering different drafts. This Premier League season has been long for me, as I normally play my wildcard earlier. But it didn’t seem right this year, and FPL gifted me an opportunity to wildcard this week and get ahead of the crowd trying to bring all their City and Arsenal assets back for Gameweek 13. 

Today, I’m gonna talk about wildcarding. I’ll tell you what to consider in terms of structure and formation, and look at who to have in your team. Obviously you want 6 players from City and Arsenal, but I’ll take a look at your second premium, budget enablers and the few players besides this that have great fixtures, plus a few other players besides. 

But first, I want to talk about ownership.  

Ownership 

Ownership matters to your rank and mini league.

It’s a simple risk vs. reward game. It’s a risk not to have highly-owned players. The reward is realised when you don’t own a player who blanks… but that is reliant on the player you own actually returning.  

The whole point of using a wildcard this late is to play aggressively. You want to absolutely smash the next four weeks, and put yourself top of that mini-league before the World Cup. So, going without some highly-owned players feels like a given. But, you need to pick carefully and balance the risk and reward to protect yourself against rank losses. 

With that in mind, lets take a look at the 5 most highly-owned players across the game apart from goalkeepers.

(I’m ignoring goalkeepers as only Ward has a higher ownership than 25%, and he’s terrible and only in people’s teams as an enabler. Pick the best keeper instead (which we will come to later)). 

Top 5 Owned Defenders 

• Trippier – 58.3% 
• Cancelo – 53.6% 
• Saliba – 29.1% 
• Perisic – 25.3% 
• Williams – 25.2% 

You can ignore Williams altogether, as he at constant risk of rotation now that Serge Aurier has started playing for Forest. Plus, you hopefully have enough money now to ignore him. 

Perisic is class . But, Spurs have 7 fixtures in the run up to the World Cup, including what could be two key Champions League fixtures (they might need to win both to go through top). It’s highly likely the 33 year old sees some rotation, as we have already seen so far this season. I think it’s an opportunity to go without him. 

Saliba can be covered cheaper with Ben White, but admittedly White has less attacking threat. 

I cannot see myself going without Cancelo, as I will cover below. And Trippier is one of the most consistent players in the game. 

Top 5 Owned Midfielders 

• Martinelli – 45.9% 
• Salah – 33.2% 
• De Bruyne – 29.6% 
• Andreas – 25.2% 
• Zaha – 22.7% 

Martinelli was only 6.0 when I bought him, and nobody else in the midfield can offer the same value for that price tag, so he stays for me. 

Andreas ownership doesn’t really matter. He won’t be selected by those mangers every week anyway, so his effective ownership will be much lower. 

The rest, I’m not concerned about their ownership percentages.

De Bruyne and Salah ownership merely reflects the fact we can afford two premium assets. I’ll probably have two premiums out of these two and Kane, which we will look at in more depth shortly. Zaha will also feature below, but we shouldn’t be surprised to see him up here given his threat and fixture run. I’m not scared by his ownership either, so if you want to go without for that reason I think that’s fine. 

Top 5 Owned Forwards 

• Haaland – 80.7% 
• Jesus – 59.8% 
• Toney – 26.4% 
• Mitrovic – 24.8%  
• Kane – 23.5% 

Look at that Haaland ownership. You can’t live without him. 

Jesus is interesting. He’s highly owned but being outperformed by several cheaper midfielders, such as Foden and Saka. Crucially, he is on 4 yellow cards (5 and you get an automatic ban), and has committed the most fouls (47) of any player in the PL. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t get suspended in the next 4 weeks.

That’s fine right? You can just use a transfer to get rid of him! Sure. But, you could also keep yourself a free transfer which is advantageous. And, you could have Saka instead… 

Toney and Mitrovic occupy the same place in my thoughts. Both are talismanic to their teams. Toney does play Forest in 15, but he’s also on 4 yellow cards and has committed the second most fouls in the league. It will be sod’s law that he gets a booking just before that game. He does also have the best fixture run if you just look at the next 3 games… but of course he plays City after that. 

Structure & Formation 

Team structure is probably at its least important right now if you are on wildcard. You don’t need to be too concerned with a flexible structure with only four weeks to go until the World Cup break, where you will be free to make as many transfers as you like. 

Formation might not matter too much either. However, I like the idea of going 3-4-3.

Defenders seem to be underperforming right now, and clean sheets have been hard to come by this season. Meanwhile, midfielders and forwards are showing their value. So, it’s an excitingly retro 3-4-3 that’s front of my mind, with a rotating set of 4.5 defenders, plus a premium and Trippier. 

6 from Man City and Arsenal 

This is pretty much a given for any wildcard team. These are the best teams to own in FPL, and their fixtures for the next four weeks are good. Plus, all your opponents probably had to get rid of one or two of these guys and will be using their transfers to get them back.

That said, you don’t want just any of them. So, who do you want? 

Man City Assets 

Erling Haaland is the first name in your squad. Absolute no brainer to have the highest scoring player in the game in the best attack. 

That leaves you with two other spots for two of these guys: 

• Cancelo – I’ve not been super impressed with Cancelo’s underlying attacking stats, but he has still racked up 63 points which is the most for any defender. 
• Foden – He’s been super productive recently, with five goals and one assist in the last five games. And he’s only 8.3 million. 
• De Bruyne – He has almost the same number of points as Foden, but he’s 12.3 million to buy. De Bruyne has the pedigree and consistency we have seen from him year in, year out. 

At the time of writing my plan is to go for Cancelo, Foden, Haaland. 

Arsenal 

There are so many options to pick from here. As I say above, Martinelli is a lock in my team just purely because he offers value of a 7.0/8.0 player for 6.0. In terms of other options, you have: 

• Saliba – Two goals and one assist makes him the highest scoring Arsenal defender. BUT! He has four yellow cards so a suspension is incoming. 
• Gabriel – Almost has as many points as Saliba, with only one yellow card and at the same price. 
• White – The cheap way into the Arsenal defence. Less attacking threat than the other two above. 
• Saka – Now the highest scoring Arsenal asset with 63 points. On penalties. 
• Jesus – 54 points for 8.0 but on 4 yellow cards. 

At the time of writing, my thinking is to go White, Martinelli and Saka. 

The Non-Haaland Premium Options 

You have Haaland, but that probably means you have enough money to get another premium asset out of Salah, De Bruyne and Kane. 

Salah and De Bruyne have the best fixtures. But, if you have De Bruyne, you have to lose one of Foden or Cancelo.

Liverpool are super inconsistent, so I’m hesitant to spend the money on Salah right now. He couldn’t score against a West Ham defence suffering an injury crisis, and only scored against City because of their incredibly high press. On the other hand, he plays Forest next and I do like to play a fixtures game… 

But I can’t get Kane out of my mind. He’s the second-highest points scorer in FPL, even though Spurs don’t look that good. He’s absolutely crucial to their attack and pretty much fixture proof. Plus, he’s 1.3 cheaper than Salah. 

Salah v.s. Kane will be a key point of contention for me when picking my team. 

The Fixture Picks 

The best fixtures for the next four are: 

I’ve included six teams as opposed to the normal five just because I think its important to highlight Arsenal here. 

Palace have a solid defence, so I like any of Andersen, Ward, Mitchell and Guehi. Only Mitchell isn’t on three yellow cards, but Guehi is 0.2 cheaper. Zaha is an obvious pick here. His returns aren’t fantastic though, and Palace attack has been pretty awful recently. I wouldn’t take him over Saka or Foden, but I think you’ll struggle to find a better option at his price or a better third mid to these two. 

West Ham only have one option in Bowen. Of course, he missed a penalty on Wednesday night. I don’t think I’m super sold on him, and I look at his fixtures and think it could be tougher than the ticker says. Bournemouth appear to have their shit together, Palace are solid, and United can turn up. West Ham also have the fifth-fewest goals in the league this year. I don’t hate the pick, I just don’t love it. 

Everton are grade-A shite. Not interested in them, even though they have snuck a few cleans. 

The Trent conundrum 

I can’t believe two weeks after slagging him off and getting rid of him and feeling all that relief, I’m back talking about Trent (7.2). Unfortunately he’s had two clean sheets on the bounce, and we know he can deliver big attacking returns when he fancies it. The fixtures are also obviously good. 

Whether you take him or not will be a question of your formation, because we can’t afford all these players. I can only see you going with Trent if you play 433 or 442. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Or, you go without a second premium, and I don’t feel great about that either. 

Should we be Rash? 

This is another problem area, especially because I can’t work out whether United are good.

Rashford is playing out of position as a striker for only 6.6. The trouble is Ronaldo, who keeps throwing hissy fits from the sidelines and getting himself the spot. The performance against Spurs was just supreme, but having said that Rashy had about a million shots and didn’t score. I don’t think he makes any of my teams, but when he scores five goals in the next four can you remember that I was thinking about him? Yeah? Thanks, great. 

The Budget Enablers 

With Neco Williams at risk of rotation and Nathan Patterson injured, there is no 4.0 player to grab. Andreas remains the best choice of the 4.5 (well now 4.6) midfielders. 

So, it’s just 4.5 defenders. As such, let’s do a reverse fixture ticker and see if we can target the worst attacks in the league – Wolves, Forest, Villa and Everton. 

As you can see, Palace pop up twice here but we’ve already talked about them. 

Brentford also appear twice, in 13 against Villa and 14 against Wolves. But Brentford have conceded the sixth most goals this season, so I don’t trust their defence. 

Let’s say your defence is 3 players of Cancelo, Trippier, and a rotating 4.5. Then I think you want: 

Even if you don’t follow this specific advice, this is what you need to do with your budget defenders. Develop a rotation plan. It’s how we used to play FPL three years ago, so some of you may remember it. 

Goalkeepers 

The least sexy pick gets the bottom of the bill. 

Guaita has the best fixtures, but Kepa (4.4) is sooooo cheap, and is playing in a top 5 defence.

Don’t worry, though – you don’t have to choose between them. You can have them both, and you probably should have a good playing backup just in case Kepa loses his place to Mendy again. 

My wildcard 

I’ve obviously got far too many drafts, as I always do when wildcard season comes around. I’m going to limit myself to three here though, just to give you a flavour. 

The Salah Draft 

Okay, I’ve cheated. I’m 0.1 off this team, but I might be able to shave 0.1 from somewhere. I just haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe Saka and a 4.5 non-playing forward, instead of Andreas and Jesus. Actually… I like that. That reduces my yellow card risk for Jesus and Toney… Maybe just another tinker… No, FOCUS! 

So, as you can see, I have gone Kepa and Guaita here. Kepa is my first choice. Palace are good, but I won’t double up there unless I get forced into it. 

I’ve gone with my defensive rotation strategy set out above, as well as with Cancelo and Trippier because they are great and I feel too risky to go without. 

The midfield and front line is also made up of players listed above. 

And it’s a 3-4-3. 

The Kane draft 

This has the same defence, but with Dunk in instead of Webster because he has more attacking threat. 

The only other main difference is that I get Kane and Saka. Both are great options.

The trouble is, the 1.3 I’ve saved by not having Salah just sits in the bank, because I’ve no idea where to spend it. I can’t upgrade Toney to Jesus because I have used all my Arsenal slots, but in theory I could drop Saka or White for someone else and grab Jesus. I could also swap Zaha out for someone else, but the only one else on my mind is Mount, and I don’t love his fixtures. 

The Trent Draft 

This one is a bit different, because I have to make savings to squeeze Trent in.

It’s a 4-4-2 with Solanke, one of my defenders, and Andreas on the bench. It’s incredibly satisfying to spend all the money, but I don’t love it. That’s partly because it will lead to a selection headache with the 11th man, and partly because I’ve slagged Solanke off so much I feel like a hypocrite, but mainly because I don’t like the idea of not putting all my money in midfield and attack. 

Right now, the Kane draft is my favourite. But give me 5 minutes and I might change my mind. 

Good luck, everybody.