So an important period is approaching for all fantasy football managers as the first Blank Gameweek of the season is nearly upon us. Gameweek 18 will have no fixture for Liverpool and West Ham in the Premier League and will be rescheduled to another date. For a detailed breakdown of when that might be, check out our FPL Blanks and Double Gameweek <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-double-gameweek-blank-chip-strategy-2020/">guide</a>.
The blank is due to Liverpool’s participation in the FIFA Club World Cup. The Reds will play two fixtures – a semi-final on Wednesday 18th December, and then either a final or third-place play-off which will take place on Saturday 21st December (during Gameweek 18).
<h3>What You Should Do in Blank Gameweek 18 if Wildcard Intact?</h3>
Fantasy Football managers who still have their Wildcards can still use this chip up until the Gameweek 20 deadline on Saturday 28th December. Therefore a good time use it could be in and around this period as you can attack the Blank Gameweek and also set up your team for the fixtures ahead. Now even though this Blank Gameweek won’t be particularly difficult to navigate without a wildcard, there is still a huge opportunity for fantasy football managers to capitalise and shoot up your fantasy leagues.
The best strategy for fantasy football managers would be to go into Blank Gameweek 18 with two free transfers. Assuming you have two to three Liverpool players (I can’t imagine many will have more than one West Ham player) you could sell one/two of your Liverpool players and even go for a one week punt on someone with a plum fixture. Obvious candidates are Spurs assets but Manchester United play Watford and Wolves play Norwich so there is opportunity there to go down a different route at little to no risk – as you can then activate your Wildcard and bring back your Liverpool assets in for Gameweek 19 and set your team up for the run-in. Alternately you can also activate your wildcard in Gameweek 20. The same concept applies you can take a punt on a player for two weeks rather than one.
The main reason for the Wildcard after BGW18 is there are a number of fixture swings for certain teams you can jump on which non Wildcarder’s won’t be able to. Palace, Chelsea, Man United, Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa and Man City all have good medium to long term fixtures. Check out the <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fixture-ticker/">fixture ticker</a> for ratings.
This isn’t the only advantage of a Wildcard at this time. Fantasy managers will also be preparing their team for the hectic schedule on the horizon. We have already seen players benched, rested, injured etc and substitutes coming into play. Those who had a decent bench over the past few weeks have benefited hugely (me being one of them). See upcoming Gameweek deadlines below:
Gameweek 17 – 14th December (7 days rest)
Gameweek 18 – 21st December (7 days rest)
Gameweek 19 – 26th December (5 days rest)
Gameweek 20 – 28th December (2 days rest)
Gameweek 21 – 1st January  (4 days rest)
Four Gameweeks in 11 days from GW18 to GW21! There is bound to be players being rested and rotated so having a strong bench to deal with this is going to be vital. I can’t see there being any rotation or rest next Gameweek (17), however, you can bet that we see a lot from GW19 to GW21. So set yourself up nicely for the blank Gameweek and the flurry of games whilst taking advantage of the fixture swings for the teams mentioned and you can’t go wrong. Also with the above-linked fixture ticker and using our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-watchlist-top-players/">Watchlist Tool</a> us fantasy football managers won’t have any problems picking an optimal team.
<h3>What You Should Do in Blank Gameweek 18 if No Wildcard?</h3>
Premier League Fantasy Football managers who don’t have their wildcard shouldn’t worry too much really.  You know the old saying ‘’if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail’’ – it definitely applies here. There is a number of ways we can play this. Firstly I think it would be very beneficial to go into BGW18 with two free transfers. Your bench will be down to the bare bones especially if you are keeping more than one Liverpool/West Ham player so you need to make sure your starting 11 is as nailed as can be. Having two free transfers will give you that safety net of any injuries or hints of rotation from any managers etc right up until the deadline. On paper, it looks to be a low scoring Gameweek fantasy-wise with City vs Leicester and Spurs vs Chelsea. Players from these four teams are highly owned. As an example, I currently have six players from these four teams and will likely be seven by the time Gameweek 18 comes around. There will be plenty of fantasy managers with more so the chances of players ‘ cancelling’ each other out is higher especially as it’s the ‘big teams’ playing each other. Generally, when this happens the ceiling for a player&#8217;s fantasy points is lower.
Risky strategy
Now another way to navigate this is by taking out a Liverpool player in Gameweek 17. As Liverpool is the early kick-off on Saturday lunchtime there have been many occasions this season and last that the Liverpool team news has been leaked before the FPL deadline. If for example one of your players such as Salah, Mane, Firmino, or Trent/Robbo are benched/rested/injured it would be a good opportunity to bring in another big hitter. Liverpool face Watford at home this weekend (GW17) and then as we know have a Blank GW18, and then GW19 they face Leicester away which will be a very tough and important game. Spurs, Chelsea, and Man United are in form right now and have decent fixtures during this period so again good alternatives are available. See fixtures below:
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-17288 size-large" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19-1024x577.jpg" alt="Blank Gameweek 18" width="1024" height="577" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19-768x433.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19-610x344.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-Fixture-Ticker-GW16-19.jpg 1047w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
If you are feeling super brave, you can even drop all your Liverpool players over this period. From the 30th of November to the 1st of January Liverpool play nine games in 32 days across all competitions (that’s one game every 3.5 days). Already we have seen the likes of Trent, Mane and Salah rested so it’s fair to assume more rest and rotation is on the way. As I mentioned earlier we are not short of alternatives from the likes of Spurs, Man United and Chelsea who have a good fixture and form in their favour. You can see some of the key attacking <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c="1" title="FPL Stats by OPTA - Player and Team Stats">stats</a> of said team’s main players below – via our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/opta/">OPTA Tool</a>.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-17289 size-large" src="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-1024x336.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="336" srcset="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-1024x336.jpg 1024w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-300x99.jpg 300w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-768x252.jpg 768w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-610x200.jpg 610w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison-1080x355.jpg 1080w, https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Fantasy-Football-OPTA-comparison.jpg 1285w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
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<h3>Should you use the Free Hit chip?</h3>
In my opinion, no! It really isn’t worth using FH as it’s so easy to navigate plus the fixtures aren’t great like I mentioned earlier. City play Leicester and Spurs vs Chelsea. In terms of the other chips I think it’s fairly obvious it’s not a good time to play the Bench Boost or Triple Captain so that doesn’t need talking about. However, I do see some using this as an opportunity to activate the Free Hit Chip.
Have a read of our <a href="https://cms.fantasyfootballhub.co.uk/fpl-double-gameweek-blank-chip-strategy-2020/">Double Gameweek Guide</a> to see exactly why this isn’t a good idea and why it should be saved for later.
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