What the Free Hit chip does
The Free Hit gives you unlimited transfers for one gameweek, with your squad reverting to the previous week's team when the next deadline arrives. It is a temporary squad — a one-week guest appearance of any 15 players you choose, funded by your current team value. You do not keep the new players; your old squad comes back automatically.
This makes the Free Hit structurally different from a Wildcard. A Wildcard is permanent; a Free Hit is surgical. Its highest-value use is to escape a gameweek where your current squad has few or no fixtures, letting you field a full 11 without cannibalising your longer-term squad structure.
The ideal Free Hit gameweek: blanks
A blank gameweek (BGW) — one in which several clubs have no fixture — is the textbook Free Hit target. If you own players at blanking clubs, your starting 11 could be reduced to eight or nine players. The Free Hit lets you temporarily replace every blanking asset with someone who does have a fixture, ensuring you field a full squad.
The bigger the blank, the more valuable the Free Hit. A gameweek with six or more clubs not playing can decimate a normal squad; a Free Hit user fields a full 15 while most opponents field nine and burn through substitutions. That structural edge is why most experienced managers hold the Free Hit specifically for the season's biggest blank.
Can Free Hit target a double gameweek instead?
Yes — loading up on double gameweek players is a viable alternative, especially when the blank is not large enough to justify the chip. A Free Hit in a DGW lets you pack 15 players all with two fixtures without touching your permanent squad, capturing the DGW value and reverting cleanly afterwards.
The trade-off is that you cannot pair the Free Hit with Bench Boost in the same week, and those two chips are often targeting the same DGW. If the DGW is large enough to play Bench Boost (which you plan to keep), use Bench Boost. If the DGW is one you want to exploit without disturbing your squad, a Free Hit can work well.
How to build the perfect Free Hit squad
Build for maximum expected points in that single gameweek — not for long-term value. That means ignoring price rises, future fixtures, and any consideration beyond the next 90 minutes per player.
Start with structure: three goalkeepers is fine if two of the three score clean sheet points and you only need one to start. Fill the remaining slots with attackers and midfielders from the clubs with the best fixtures that week. Do not worry about budget distribution the way you would on a normal team — Free Hit squads routinely look lopsided because they are optimised for one week only.
Use the Onside squad builder to find the £100m allocation that maximises projected points for the target gameweek, prioritising players in good home fixtures against weak defences.