FPL Gameweek 16 Preview – New Chip Thoughts, Triple Captain Salah, & More!

Greetings all, and welcome to a full Gameweek 16 preview, courtesy of your good pals here at Full 90 FPL. 

It’s fair to say GW 15 wasn’t the most straightforward, with the most highly-owned player in FPL getting his game cancelled shortly before the deadline. That threw a bit of a spanner in the works! 

After that mini disaster though, we did have a pretty standard week. Namely, tons of goals being scored, only one clean sheet in nine games, highly-owned players like Gabriel not playing, and highly-started players like Jackson blanking in otherwise high-scoring games. 

Yep, that sounds like FPL to me! 

Right, enough clandestine moaning. Let’s look ahead to Gameweek 16!

When to Triple Captain (Salah)?

The aforementioned postponement of the Everton-Liverpool game means that both will have a double gameweek at some point this year. 

It has recently been confirmed (not 100%, but near enough) that the fixture will take place on Tuesday 11th February. That means a double gameweek in Gameweek 24 for Liverpool.  They’ll play Bournemouth away, and Everton away.

Technically, there might still be other double gameweeks later in the season. Due to schedule changes, there definitely won’t be nearly as many as in past seasons, however.

So… we were already all probably planning to use our triple captain chip on Salah. And now we know exactly when to do it!

When to Wildcard?

If you still have your wildcard… firstly, I’m very impressed by your patience. But secondly, you’re likely looking for the next opportunity to use it, and I would suggest Gameweek 18 or 19.

Then you can jump on Man City, Fulham and (maybe) Crystal Palace assets ahead of their good runs.

Public Service Announcement: Remember, Gameweek 19 is the last week you can play your first wildcard!

New Chip Announced

We all knew there was a ‘mystery chip’ coming, from before the season. Well, now it’s been announced.

The chip is called Assistant Manager. I won’t regurgitate the whole explanation of it – you can read that for yourself on the official website.

The long and short of it is that you basically pick a real-life manager, and get points from his team’s results for a three-week span. E.g. if you pick Arteta, you get Arsenal’s next three games. You get points for wins, goals, and a few other things.

Overall, the actual idea for the chip is… fine. It’s not really in the spirit of FPL, which is about picking actual players, and therefore feels a bit strange… but whatever. I’m surprised it covers three weeks, which seems like a lot.

Crucially, you can’t play any other chips in that span. So we’ll have to be careful to plan it out and avoid good weeks for triple captains, free hits, and so on.

That said, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous that they’ve introduced it mid-season. This isn’t even sour grapes from me – I’m doing terribly compared to normal. But if I was doing well, and this major new wrinkle was introduced that could mean a swing of dozens of points, it’d be a bit annoying.

Also… over half the season will already have gone by the time you can actually access this chip, in Gameweek 24. Why?! What about all the other three-game fixture runs we’ve already missed out on?

I don’t buy all the ‘Mystery Chip’ nonsense FPL Towers spouted pre-season. Surely it would have been better – and fairer to all – to introduce it before Gameweek 1. Either they were still working out the details behind the scenes, and/or they didn’t have the tech ready yet to actually implement the idea. Gameweek 24 – not even at the actual halfway point of the season – is just such a bizarre time to introduce it, I don’t see any other reasonable explanation.

Overall, then: the idea itself is fine, but the implementation is bizarre.

(Also I don’t think we actually needed another chip. There are many fixes I’d prefer to see to the existing game – making defensive mids relevant, getting rid of losing points for own goals and reds (which FPL managers obviously can’t possibly predict), binning or reducing the impact of captaincy to 1.5x points, and so on. None of those are sexy though – it’s far more exciting to introduce something new than to fix old stuff).

Best Attacking Fixtures

Here are the five sides with the very best attacking FPL fixtures, from FPL Gameweek 16 to 20.

Over the next ten games the following have the best fixtures:

1. Liverpool
2. Arsenal
3. Crystal Palace
4. Man City
5. Newcastle

So, apart from Crystal Palace, you can basically bank on Liverpool, Newcastle, Man City, and Arsenal assets across the short-to-mid term. 

That’s not to say I’d actually want any City assets right now regardless, given the absolute state they’re in (and, as an Arsenal fan, I say that with complete neutrality and not the slightest hint of glee)… but it’s good to know regardless!

Best Defensive Fixtures

Here are the five sides with the very best defensive FPL fixtures, from FPL Gameweek 16 to 20.

Over the next ten the following have the best fixtures:

1. Liverpool
2. Chelsea
3. Newcastle
4. Arsenal
5. Aston Villa

The eagled-eyed among you will have noticed Liverpool and Arsenal popping up in both our attacking and defensive fixture lists, across the next five and 10 gameweeks. They also happen to be arguably the two best teams in the league (aside from Chelsea, who have lovely defensive fixtures themselves). 

There are plenty of Arsenal assets to back – Saka is borderline essential, and trying to get a double-up at the back feels pretty obvious. I don’t love Havertz in FPL – there are just too many good, cheaper forwards, and Isak is only a bit more expensive. 

Liverpool is a slightly bigger pickle, Salah aside. I don’t want any of their other mids or forwards – far too much rotation for my delicate sensibilities. Trent is too expensive, and it seems a bit early to trust either Gomez or Quansah. 

Van Dijk is a fine pick in theory, but is also a bit pricey at 6.4. I’d slightly prefer Saliba for 6.2, but a Van Dijk/Timber combo, for example, feels like the best of both worlds if you’re willing to spend at the back (… which I’m not, for the record). 

Should I Buy?

Should we, or should we not, follow the crowd? One of life’s great questions to muse upon, but – for now – let’s limit our discussion to the most-bought players in FPL ahead of Gameweek 16.

• Saliba/Timber – Yes to both, but I’d rather have Timber for significantly less money
• Isak – Yes, 100%. He’s returning, has excellent underlying stats, and has dreamy fixtures
• Enzo – Yes, as an enabler. He’s not going to keep scoring like this, but at 5.0 he’s an excellent fifth midfielder/first man off the bench
• Salah/Saka/Palmer – Yes, to all three, forever and always
• Wood – Maybe. He’s obviously a good, reliable player, but I’d rather have Evanilson or JP, both of whom are much cheaper
• Vardy – Maybe. He’s returned in three games in a row, and neither Newcastle nor Wolves are tough fixtures right now. Hard to argue with him as an enabler, at only 5.6
• Jackson – Yes. It’s quite incredible that Chelsea have scored 9 goals in their past 2 games, and he has 0 returns (admittedly he was benched for one of those). Still, Chelsea look great, and he has a dream fixture home to Brentford this week
• Joao Pedro – Yes. Remains very good value at only 5.9, with three good fixtures in a row still to come
• Wissa – No. He’s a quality striker, I just wouldn’t bring him in for an away game at Chelsea (with Forest and Arsenal also in his following three games)
• Mbeumo – No, for exactly the same reason as Wissa 
• Cunha – Maybe. Three blanks in a row obviously isn’t ideal, but he now has four nice attacking fixtures back-to-back  
• Trent – Maybe. He’s too expensive for my tastes, but – if you’re happy to splurge at the back – now’s the time to do it, with plenty of nice defensive fixtures coming up
• Van Dijk – Maybe. As noted earlier, I’d slightly prefer Saliba (or Timber if you’re saving at the back), but he’s obviously a fine pick if you’re willing to spend the money
• Munoz – No. We all liked his potential to start the season, and he’s had three nice games in a row… but I don’t want to bring him in just before Brighton away then Arsenal 
• Raya – No. I wouldn’t spend that much on a keeper anyway, and I’d rather just have an Arsenal defender – they’re so good at set pieces that we’ve seen recently they all have a chance at attacking returns

Should I Sell?

And now let’s take a look at the most-sold players in FPL, ahead of Gameweek 16.

• Watkins – Yes. His minutes are inconsistent, Duran looks good, and he now has Forest, City, and Newcastle back to back. There are too many other good forward options
• Haaland – Yes. He’s too expensive for his single-digit returns, and – again – there are so many good forwards available
• Gabriel – No. It’s frustrating he keeps missing out with this mysterious injury, but you should be getting Arsenal defenders, not selling them. I’d stay patient 
• Welbeck – Yes. I’ve stood by him as an asset, but no longer – I just don’t like not knowing whether he’s starting or not, especially when you could have nailed, good forwards like JP or Evanilson around the same price

• Smith Rowe – Maybe. I definitely wouldn’t start him right now, but he’s still cheap – it just depends whether you’ve actually got the spare transfers to move him, rather than just making him the first man on your bench
• Gvardiol – Yes. Too expensive, City rarely keep cleans, and I’d rather have an Arsenal defender or VVD for around this price

• Mbeumo – Maybe. I wouldn’t actively buy him in, because of the fixtures… but I wouldn’t be desperate to actually sell him either, after his performance last week. Bit of a cop-out, but it completely depends on your transfer priorities

• Jackson – No. I’d still be looking to buy him, never mind selling him

• Bruno – Maybe. Similarly to Mbeumo, while I wouldn’t buy him right now, I wouldn’t be desperate to sell him either. His fixtures are fine, and he’s been returning pretty consistently across all competitions

• Diaz – Yes. I can’t be dealing with the minutes/rotation headache

• Cunha – No. You can’t possibly sell him before Ipswich at home, however rubbish Wolves look

Captaincy Corner

Normally this would be a pretty clear case of Just Captain Salah. And, indeed, that is what I’m planning to do. He’s basically a guarantee of double digit returns every single week. 

My Full 90 FPL co-conspirator James, however, is keen on a Palmer captaincy. I’ve been burned too often to not captain Salah, but this does make all the sense in the world. Brentford are suicidal in defence in general, and terrible away from home, and Palmer is clearly back in form. 

Overall, I’d say Palmer has a higher ceiling, but Salah is… basically the safest bet in FPL. 

Haaland is also a pretty safe bet to score against Man U. But – Famous Last Words-alert – he’s had a very low ceiling for ages now. His last double digit return was in Gameweek 4. Gameweek 4! 

Captaincy Matrix

For the mid-term planners amongst you, here’s a look ahead to your main captaincy options over the next nine gameweeks. 

Basically, you still don’t ‘need’ Haaland until Gameweek 20-21 or so, assuming you have some combination of Salah/Saka/Palmer (which I’m fairly confident you do). 

Final Thoughts

Well, there you go – your FPL Gameweek 16 preview, all done and dusted, with a slightly seasonal bow on top. 

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading. Maybe you even learnt a thing or two – who knows, it’s not out of the realm of possibility! 

Give us a follow on Reddit to get all the latest articles hot off the press, and all the best out there in Gameweek 16. 

Until next time, everybody!