FPL chip strategy: how to use all eight without wasting one

The chip rules changed and a lot of managers are still playing the old game.

The rules as they stand

You get two complete sets of four chips:

• First half — Gameweeks 1 to 19: Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost, Triple Captain
• Second half — Gameweeks 20 to 38: the same four again

That is eight chips. Two rules decide most of the damage people do to themselves:

1. Unused first-half chips expire at the Gameweek 19 deadline. They do not roll over. A Bench Boost you were saving for a perfect moment in March is simply gone.
2. One chip per gameweek. You cannot stack a Bench Boost onto a Triple Captain week.

The Assistant Manager chip is no longer in the game.

What each chip is actually for

Bench Boost — your bench scores too. Only worth playing when all fifteen players have a fixture, ideally a good one. In a Double Gameweek your fifteen can play up to thirty matches. The trap: playing it in a normal week where your bench is three £4.5m defenders and a backup keeper, for about five points.

Triple Captain — captain scores triple instead of double. You want a premium forward or midfielder with two fixtures, preferably both at home against weak defences. The trap: playing it on a single fixture because the opponent looks easy. One game caps your ceiling no matter who you pick.

Free Hit — a one-week team, reverted afterwards. Built for Blank Gameweeks, when half the league isn't playing and you can only field seven. Free Hit lets you field a full eleven that week and get your real squad back. It also works loaded into a big Double.

Wildcard — permanent rebuild, no hits. Two jobs: fix a squad that has gone wrong, or set up for something coming. The strongest use is the gameweek before a big Double, so you arrive with the maximum number of doubling players.

The timing that has worked

The pattern most successful managers follow at the business end:

Wildcard  → the GW before a big Double (build the squad)
Bench Boost → the Double itself (fifteen players, ~thirty fixtures)
Free Hit  → the Blank (field eleven when others field seven)
Triple Captain → a second Double, on a premium with two home games

The common thread: chips are worth what the fixture list makes them worth. A Bench Boost in a normal gameweek is worth perhaps five points. In a Double it can be thirty.

First-half chips are different

Here is where the two-set rule bites. In the first half of the season there are usually no Double or Blank Gameweeks at all — they appear later, when cup fixtures and postponements force rescheduling.

So you cannot save first-half chips for the perfect week. There isn't one, and on the GW19 deadline they vanish.

The practical answer:

• Wildcard: use it when your squad genuinely needs it, typically around Gameweeks 8–12 once the early-season fixture picture is clear. Don't hold it to GW19 out of hope.
• Triple Captain: a premium with a favourable home fixture is enough. You are not waiting for a Double that isn't coming.
• Bench Boost: needs a strong bench, so play it in a week where your fifteen all have fixtures and your bench isn't full of enablers.
• Free Hit: the most defensible one to hold, as cover for an early postponement — but use it by GW19 regardless.

The four ways people waste chips

1. Saving a first-half chip past Gameweek 19. It expires. This is now the most common way to lose a chip outright.
2. Bench Boost with a cheap bench. If your bench is four enablers, boost nothing.
3. Triple Captain on a single fixture. You have halved the ceiling before kick-off.
4. Wildcard as panic. Rebuilding after one bad week usually costs more than the bad week did.

The one-line version

Play chips where the fixtures make them worth playing, and never let a first-half chip reach the Gameweek 19 deadline unused.