Fantasy Premier League

Bench Boost inspires Manager of the Week

By The Scout 25 Oct 2016
Chelsea v Leicester City

With Shaqiri, Fuchs and Courtois in reserve, a well-timed FPL chip earned William Skaife an extra 35 points

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Choosing when to deploy your Fantasy Premier League chips can be a fine art.

For all the planning and strategising that can be involved, sometimes it can just be about pure gut feeling.

Having looked at his Gameweek 9 line-up, William Skaife felt compelled to wield his Bench Boost chip.

Avoiding all the big-name forwards, William had opted instead to pack his five-man defence and midfield with a cast of talent, creating a bit of a selection headache.

William could not bring himself to ignore raiding full-backs Danny Rose (£5.9m) of Tottenham Hotspur and Christian Fuchs (£5.4m) of Leicester City, while the opportunity to field Stoke City playmaker Xherdan Shaqiri (£6.3m) away to Hull City was also too strong to resist.

FPL Gameweek 9 Manager of the Week

With these three players out of his starting XI, the Bench Boost chip was duly deployed - a decision that looks to have turned William's season on its head.

A clean sheet for Rose in the early kick-off at AFC Bournemouth got the ball rolling, while Fuchs maintained the momentum with a first Premier League goal.

When Shaqiri delivered a Gameweek-high 15-point return at the KCOM Stadium, the success of William's perfectly timed chip was confirmed. 

The points that followed were to carry him to the top of the Gameweek 9 ranks. 

Leicester City v Crystal Palace
GW9 Manager of the Week William Skaife earned 35 of his 115-point haul from the bench

Liverpool's 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion came next. Captain Sadio Mane (£9.0m) provided a 24-point return, supplemented by Philippe Coutinho's (£8.4m) 10-point contribution.

Not done there, Sunday's events at Stamford Bridge took things to another level.

A third clean sheet in three ensured that Thibaut Courtois (£5.5m) took William's bench tally to 35 points.

With Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.0m) also benefiting from the 4-0 win over Manchester United, Eden Hazard (£9.8m) added a flourish with a second successive Premier League strike. 

Despite gaining only five points from his three forwards, William's defence and midfield bridged the gap. 

Crucially, having seen Mane offer a modest return for his Triple Captain chip back in Gameweek 6, the Bench Boost had delivered and helped him to a peerless 115-point tally.

William was the manager of the week, climbing more than a 1.5million places be ranked 154,774 in the world.

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