FPL Gameweek 34: The perfect free hit team and whether to captain Liverpool, Newcastle or Chelsea stars

The Fantasy Premier League is back once more – and Gameweek 34 promises to be yet another tricky week to navigate, with several big teams blanking due to the FA Cup semi-finals. Fortunately, our resident expert has some hints and tips to help you figure it all out.

Before we hand over to Matthew for his thoughts on how to build your team this week (ideally with the help of the free hit chip), it’s our duty to remind you that this week’s deadline is at 11:00 BST on Saturday 26 April ahead of Chelsea’s lunch-time kick-off against Everton.

Free hit time in Gameweek 34

I’ll start by stating the blindingly obvious – if you haven’t planned ahead and saved your free hit chip for this gameweek, then either you’ve struggled to hit your double gameweeks over the past fortnight or so (probably not that costly given how they panned out) or you’re facing down a major issue in Gameweek 34.

With Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Crystal Palace all blanking, the spine of most players’ teams will be torn out this week and it’s going to take a lot of transfers to get to 11 starters. Or, alternatively, one free hit. I do hope you have yours handy…

I’m going to kick things off today by offering up what I think my free hit team will look like come Saturday morning, barring injuries or other significant team news. Clearly, the template I’m offering up here will be too expensive for some players, while others who are really killing it this season may have the spare cash to do even more – but hopefully this offers so helpful pointers. And remember, if your team isn’t cash rich, you can always just buy the very cheapest, practically unowned players for your bench:

Clearly, fixture difficulty is a factor here. I’ve picked up four players from the teams playing Leicester City at home and Southampton at home, and have triple Newcastle ahead of their home game against Ipswich Town.

But individual and team form is also a major factor. Why just one player from Fulham, who’s likely going to rot on the bench? Because they haven’t been at their best of late, have won one in four, and I believe other players and teams offer higher ceilings on that basis. Why Jacob Murphy when I could cheapen my bench to afford a “better” player like Kaoru Mitoma or Jarrod Bowen? Because his form has been superb of late and I want to tap into that, especially against a team who concede plenty of goals.

I think the front three selects itself this week, quite frankly, and Mohamed Salah is still essential. I firmly believe that Liverpool will beat Spurs handily on current form, and with Luis Díaz registering goal contributions in four of his last five games, I think he’s a good bet for an extra Liverpool player.

I also think Chelsea and Wolves are good shouts for clean sheets, given their goal-shy opponents, hence my choice of goalkeepers and defenders. Kieran Trippier is overpriced in general, but for one week I’m happy to take his high ceiling over Dan Burn or Valentino Livramento.

Given how much I emphasis form, Cole Palmer may be a controversial selection, and if you’re chasing differentials to make up ground in your mini-league then I don’t disagree with looking elsewhere – but after two assists in three games there are signs that he’s getting back towards form, at least. Everton don’t concede that many, but his ceiling is so high that I still think he’s worth it. He’s just more likely to pop off and score two or three than a Bowen, a Mitoma or an Mbeumo.

By a similar token, I’m not worried about Salah’s ‘form’ either. He only has one goal contribution in his last four, which is a big surprise given his prior production, but that’s same form gives him the highest ceiling of any player in the game and leaving him out this week, when there are many high-value alternatives not playing, would be madness.

Captain picks and how to handle not having a free hit

If you don’t have a free hit, the main objective here is to get as many players on the pitch as possible without selling assets that you’ll need for the rest of the season. In short, I probably wouldn’t sell Bukayo Saka for Palmer just to get an extra body out there.

The key difference between making transfers on a free hit and doing so without that chip is that you need to sign players who have good fixtures going forward as well. You might well want Chelsea, Brighton or Bournemouth players this week, for instance, but looking at their fixtures for the run-in would make me want to avoid them like the plague.

Even Liverpool have a tough set of games in the immediate future and I wouldn’t want to actually sign any new players from them just for a home match against an admittedly week Spurs.

What I’d be looking for are players from Nottingham Forest and perhaps Brentford. Chris Wood is a must-buy in this situation for non-free hit teams, and their fixture difficulty going forward isn’t too bad. Awkwardly, they play Brentford this week, which makes picking players from both teams a little less than ideal, but given their upcoming games, I’m still happy to sign Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa.

Otherwise, form and quality win out. Wolves have a mixed bag of fixtures, for instance, but Matheus Cunha is still a player I’d buy this week if I had enough transfers available after bagging Wood. You do still want to get as close to 11 players as possible. Arsenal defenders and Crystal Palace players look pretty ripe for selling.

Before I leave you to it this week, one final word on your captain choice, because it’s a strange one this week – Salah, Palmer and Alexander Isak all have relatively gentle fixtures, but none are anywhere near their best form. For most teams, I still think the highest ceiling wins, and that means Salah captain, Isak vice-captain.

If you need differentials, I really do like Cunha as a captain this week. His ceiling really isn’t far below Isak’s (5.6 points per match compared to 6.4) and playing Leicester is about as easy as it comes. Sorry, Foxes fans. On that note, I’ll leave you to your transfers – best of luck, and may all of your free hits strike lucky.