Familiar Faces of FPL GW27: Holly Shand’s chip plan off to a good start
A round-up of how the well-known, familiar Fantasy Premier League (FPL) faces fared during the last Gameweek.
FPL familiar faces: Gameweek 27 progress
With tonight’s match between Burnley and Leicester still to play, this Double Gameweek 27 has been a heavy Free Hit week amongst the FPL community. From our 22 competitors above, 14 decided to activate the chip.
So far, Ian Irving has had the best Gameweek with 67 points, as Matt Holland and comedian Iain Stirling have also exceeded 60. Hall of Famer Fabio Borges used his first Free Hit in Gameweek 21 so decided not to this time. His score is suffering as a result, although Nick Pope and captain Wout Weghorst are still to come.
Team Focus: Holly Shand
FPL content creator Holly Shand is a regular pundit on The FPL Show, also providing guidance and advice through her articles for The Athletic. In fact, this Fantasy Football Community site was initially launched by Holly to aggregate some of the best FPL content into one place.
Her Free Hit team is on 59 points thanks to Spurs duo Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. Also, she was right to choose Phil Foden when many opted for team mates Riyad Mahrez or Raheem Sterling. Double Man City defence paid off, although captain Bruno Fernandes did not.
Holly managed a slight rise in Double Gameweek 26 despite her Wildcard usage preventing a triple captaincy of Mohamed Salah. Below is her squad, which has the depth and therefore flexibility provided by selecting cheap, regularly-starting enablers Armando Broja, Jacob Ramsey and Ben Foster.
Looking forward, she has £0.5m in the bank and has already activated her Bench Boost chip for Gameweek 28, when eight players will play twice. Philippe Coutinho is currently captain.
Additionally, seven players have a Double Gameweek 29 and Holly has spoken of plans to use her Triple Captain chip.
Beyond this, she has already used both Free Hit chips so has cleverly picked a squad that already has nine set to play during the big Blank Gameweek 30. A trio from Arsenal and Aston Villa, two from Wolves and Raphinha.
In summary, Holly used the surprise announcement of Double Gameweeks 28 and 29 to quickly alter her plans. Her subsequent Wildcard looks strong and resilient for the upcoming chaos, whilst this week’s Free Hit has been a success.
