Does your team reset after Free Hit?

The Free Hit Fallout: Understanding Your FPL Team’s Reset

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers often find themselves grappling with tricky scheduling and unexpected player blanks. Enter the Free Hit chip, a powerful tool offering a one-week squad overhaul. But its potency comes with a crucial caveat: your team completely resets after the Free Hit week. Understanding this reset mechanism is key to maximizing the chip’s effectiveness and avoiding post-Free Hit pitfalls.

The allure of the Free Hit is undeniable. For one gameweek, you can completely disregard your existing team, constructing a squad optimized for a particularly favorable fixture schedule or to capitalize on a specific set of players. You can bring in highly-owned players, popular captain choices, or even players you wouldn’t normally consider, all without incurring transfer penalties.

However, the temporary nature of the boost is paramount. Once the Free Hit gameweek concludes, your team automatically reverts to its pre-Free Hit state. This means:

• All transfers made during the Free Hit week are undone. Your starting XI and bench revert to the lineup you had before activating the chip. Any points accumulated by Free Hit players are retained, but the players themselves disappear from your squad.
• Your transfer budget remains unchanged. The Free Hit doesn’t affect your budget; you’ll still have the same amount available for transfers in the subsequent gameweek.
• Your captaincy reverts. If you captained a Free Hit player, your captaincy will revert to whoever was your captain before activating the chip.

This reset can be both advantageous and disadvantageous. On the one hand, it prevents strategic exploitation of the Free Hit for several consecutive weeks. On the other hand, it necessitates careful planning before and after using the chip.

Pre-Free Hit Planning: Before activating the Free Hit, carefully consider your long-term strategy. Will the players you bring in for the Free Hit gameweek have a role in your team afterwards? If not, ensure you’ve planned your subsequent transfers to efficiently re-build your squad for the following gameweek, possibly mitigating the need for multiple hits.

Post-Free Hit Planning: Immediately following the Free Hit gameweek, take a proactive approach. Analyze your original squad and assess which players need replacing. Have the fixture swings altered your priorities? Are there injury updates or unexpected form changes to consider? Use the points accrued during the Free Hit wisely to inform your next moves, ensuring a smooth transition back to your long-term strategy.

In conclusion, the Free Hit is a powerful weapon in the FPL manager’s arsenal, but its temporary nature necessitates strategic foresight and post-activation planning. Failing to acknowledge the complete reset can lead to a disjointed strategy and potentially hinder your overall ranking. Mastering the Free Hit requires not only identifying the optimal week to deploy it, but also understanding and mitigating the impact of its inevitable reset.