With the international break starting this week, gameweek 9 is seen as the best time to activate the wildcard chip. Why’s that, you may wonder? Well, there are so many reasons why GW9 is a good time to activate the wildcard chip and here are some of them:
- Plan effectively for the blank in GW12 for Arsenal and Man City
- Wildcarding in GW9 allows you to create a great team for gameweek 9 up until the World Cup break.
- Playing your wildcard in GW9 would also help you create a team that would deal with the congested fixture schedule – by using your budget effectively and bringing in good bench players.
- For those who are having trouble with weak team value, wildcarding in GW9 can help improve your team’s value.
- Get in players from teams that have positive fixture swings
Now that we know some of the benefits of wildcarding in GW9, in the remaining part of the article we’d be creating several wildcard drafts and sharing some GW9 wildcard tips that could help and give you inspiration as you go on to create your own gameweek 9 wildcard team.
What teams and palyers should you target for your GW9 wildcard team
Well, it is no news that some teams fixtures have taken major swings. Some teams starting from GW9, have really nice fixtures, while others have much tougher games. Here’s a look at the fixtures of all the 20 Premier League teams:
This is a very useful tweet by @HollyShand, this tweet along with the image, gives us an idea of the teams we should be looking to target when picking players for our GW9 wildcard team.
Teams with positive fixture swings
- West Ham
- Leicester
- Nott’m Forest
- Bournemouth
- Newcastle
- Everton
- Fulham
- Crystal Palace
- Chelsea
Teams with negative fixture swing and bad FDR (Fixture Difficulty Rating)
- Arsenal
- Man United
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- Brighton
One thing to note, is that some teams and FPL assets are actually fixture-proof and they’d would still perform really well regardless of their opponents. Man City and their assets are a very good example of a team that’s fixture-proof.
Now that we know what teams to target based on their fixtures, let’s now start creating various GW9 wildcard teams. We’d be creating numerous drafts, with different formats, strategies and formations so stick around as we do that.
GW9 wildcard draft template
This is our very first draft and it looks quite alright. We’ve adopted a 3-4-3 formation and have spread our budget across every area of the pitch.
We’ve also got two premiums in Haaland and Son which allows for some balance and better use of funds. The issue though, with this draft, is that we’ve got no Liverpool assets.
And while that might be ok for now, because of Liverpool’s tough run of games, we still need to have a plan to get Liverpool assets when their fixtures start changing from gameweek 12.
Another thing to note is that Arsenal and Man City blank in gameweek 12 and so you’d need to have a plan for that. Here’s how the team would like in GW12.
This is what the team would like in GW12. As you can see, we’ve replaced our City and Arsenal assets with players on our bench and that might be alright for some FPL managers because our bench players also have really nice fixtures in GW12.
Before the gameweek, you could possibly save some transfers and take Cancelo out for a Trent or reduce one of your forwards and increase Son to a Salah.
It all depends on your strategy and how your team is doing.
GW9 wildcard team with three premiums
Here’s our three premium GW9 wildcard team. In here we’ve got De Brunye, Son and Haaland and this team looks quite good and it’s something you can run with this gameweek.
We don’t have any Arsenal assets in here and that’s because of their tough run of games. Arsenal play Spurs, Liverpool, Leeds and then they blank in GW12 and to be honest having a few Arsenal assets despite their tough run of games isn’t all that bad -you might want to avoid their defenders.
We also have some money in the bank as well and that means we can easily upgrade De Brunye to a Salah in GW12, when Man City blank. And if you still want to go for a Salah this gameweek, then that’s very doable you can get him in for De Brunye and you’d still have 0.6m in the bank.
Here’s what your team would like in GW12 and if again you’re not satisfied, you can take out Haaland for a Kane it all depends on your strategy.
GW9 4-4-2 wildcard draft
Here’s another format of a GW9 wildcard team. In here we’ve gone slightly big at the back, with players like Trent and Cancelo coming into the team.
We’ve also gone on to bring in Raheem Sterling, Luiz Diaz and Martinelli. Going with this draft is bit risky and that’s because we’ve got two Liverpool assets and their fixtures after GW9 are a little tricky.
At the same time, the potential for Liverpool players to haul this gameweek against Brighton is really high and so we’re looking to take advantage of that.
Looking for a GW9 captain? feel free to check out : Kane, Haaland, Mo Salah who is the best GW9 captain – FPL captain picks
Again, it all depends on your strategy. If you’re not comfortable with your Liverpool assets going into GW10, then you can take our Diaz for a Zaha before gameweek 10.
We also need to remember that the reason why many people are avoiding Liverpool assets, is because of their poor form. So if you have them this gameweek and they put up a show, then you can easily stick with them when they face Arsenal.
There’s a little bit of problem with this draft in GW12. And the problem is you won’t be able to field 11 players if you don’t make any transfers and take Martinelli out. But if you do want to make a transfer, here a couple of Martinelli replacements:
- Ward-Prowse – £6.5m – 9.2% – MID / SOU
- Saint-Maximin – £6.4m – 6.3% – MID / NEW
- Gordon – £5.6m – 4.8% – MID / EVE
- Eze – £5.5m – 2.2% – MID / CRY
These four players have pretty good fixtures in gameweek 12 and they’d be direct swaps for Martinelli which means you don’t need to take a hit.
Key Notes as well: Remember that we are in the final parts of the first-half of the season and so the schedule would be hectic, which means that as you create your draft, you want to focus on your bench, so that even when one of your players gets rested you can have someone to come in.
You can check also check out:
Some of the best GW9 differentials – rising through the FPL ranks, in this article we took a look at some nice differentials that you could add to GW9 wildcard team
And if you interested in our PL players fared in the just concluded International break, then check this post out:
GW9 team news and injury updates: how have PL players fared in this week’s international break
You can also check out our GW9 team selection: transfer targets, gameweek 9 player picks, as we cover in detail players you can get into your team GW9.
The various drafts we created are optimized for situations like that and to help you even more here are a couple of players that would be good to have on your bench:
Some more GW9 wildcard drafts
Here’s another really nice GW9 wildcard draft thread shared on Twitter by the official FPL account. In this thread they show us the different strategies you can deploy if you’re wildcarding this gameweek.
It’s really useful and we’re ready to share it with those wildcarding this gameweek.
1. GW9 wildcard strategy 1: going big at the back
2. GW9 wildcard strategy 2: investing heavily in midfield
3. GW9 wildcard strategy 3: going big at the front with three premium forwards
Low budget bench players for your FPL draft
Goalkeepers
- Ward – £4m – 26% – GKP / LEI
- Iversen – £3.9m – 4.1% – GKP / LEI
- Guaita – £4.5m – 1.4% – GKP / CRY
Defenders
- N.Williams – £4.1m – 27.3% – DEF / NFO
- Patterson – £4.1m – 7.6% – DEF / EVE
- Fofana – £4.4m – 2.4% – DEF / CHE
- Dalot – £4.5m – 7% – DEF / MUN
- Emerson – £4m – 2.1% – DEF / WHU
Midfielders
- Andreas – £4.6m – 26.2% – MID / FUL
- Gordon – £5.6m – 4.8% – MID / EVE
- Bailey – £4.7m – 7.3% – MID / AVL
- Neto – £5.1m – 5% – MID / WOL
- Eze – £5.5m – 2.2% – MID / CRY
Conclusion
That’d be all the drafts we’ve got for GW9, we hope we’ve helped in some way. Feel free free to drop a comment if you need help with your team we’d be more than willing to help.
You can check out this post by ALLABOUTFPL as well :
FPL GW9 Wildcard Team & Drafts To Consider | Wildcard Guide
Feel free to check out more of our GW9 articles as well, here is a complete GW9 guide:
GW9 FPL tips: wildcard draft, team selection, captain picks and differential picks
You can also check out our GW9 team selection: transfer targets, gameweek 9 player picks, as we cover in detail players you can get into your team GW9.
And here’s another really helpful video by FPL mate he shares tips on how to increase your team’s value, players to add to your wildcard draft and he shares a pretty good wildcard team as well.
Redeyedrae, is an FPL content writer with years of experience in playing and writing about FPL. He has written for major FPL blogs like ALLABOUTFPL, Fantasytipsters, FF Titans, and nevermanagealone. With his deep knowledge of the game, he has become a trusted source for FPL fans worldwide. His content is well-researched and always up-to-date. He’s passionate about helping FPL managers gain an edge in their leagues by sharing insights and analysis about everything fantasy football on raensports.
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