FPL GW8 Best Wildcard Team: Is going big at the back viable?

The bench

I feel that it is very important to have a strong bench heading into the busy Christmas period, where fixture congestion and rotation will begin to come into effect.

A strong bench also allows you to play the fixtures, and potentially bench specific players whenever they have a tough fixture against the likes of Chelsea or Manchester City.

GK – Ben Foster (Watford) – £4.0m

This should be an easy decision. Foster is the most likely to get minutes out of all the £4.0m goalkeepers in FPL. He recently stepped up as Watford’s number one when Bachmann received an injury, but he continued to start in GW7 when Bachmann was fit. New manager Claudio Ranieri has a tough decision to make.

DEF – Tino Livramento (Southampton) – £4.2m

Has to be up there as one of the best value defenders in the game. Since signing for Southampton, Livramento has started all 7 games and is showing no signs of being dropped. He is the perfect long-term bench option.

MID – Josh Brownhill (Burnley) – £4.4m

Funds are tight, so we will be selecting the cheapest midfielder in the game at £4.4m. Considering Brownhill is on set pieces for Burnley, he is by no means a bad bench option at all.

FWD – Hwang Hee-Chan (Wolves) – £5.6m

Hwang is quite expensive as a bench option, which is why I would recommend using him as a rotation player as opposed to a bench player.

It could prove to be a decent strategy to rotate your FPL team and play those with the best fixtures in each given week.

For instance, Mbeumo faces Chelsea in GW8 — so it would be a decent idea to bench him and play Hwang this week.