Season Verdict
Haaland or Bruno, and Bench Boost now?
Two opening-week 50/50s, researched properly and then settled by a coin.
Published · Updated with result
Flipped before the GW1 deadline with a coin app, before FPL Shrine existed. Each call was flipped once and never re-rolled, and the screenshots below are the originals.
Gameweek 1 handed us two dilemmas before a ball was kicked. The big one was the armband: Erling Haaland at home to Bournemouth, or Bruno Fernandes away at newly promoted Hull. The polls couldn't separate them. The other was whether to spend our Bench Boost straight away. We read everything, still couldn't choose, and let the coin have both.
Flip 1 · CaptainHaaland or Bruno?
The dilemma
We owned both, so this was purely about the armband. Haaland (£15.5m) had Bournemouth at home. Bruno (£12.0m) went to Hull, one of the promoted sides.
The case for Haaland
- He scored 15 home league goals last season.
- He was in 69 to 71% of teams, so not captaining him was the bigger risk to your rank.
The case for Bruno
- Several models had him top for the week. Fantasy Football Hub projected Bruno 7.1 points and Haaland 6.6.
- Nailed-on minutes and penalties.
- Haaland had missed pre-season and played only about 52 minutes in the Community Shield.
The one worry: Bruno missed two penalties in pre-season.
Why it was genuinely 50/50
AllAboutFPL's poll had Haaland on 39% and Bruno on 37%. Fantasy Football Scout's had them at 34% and 27%. The models leaned Bruno, ownership leaned Haaland, and neither by much. That's a coin's job.
The flip
The coin said Haaland
What happened
Hull beat Manchester United 2–0 and Bruno blanked. Haaland blanked too, against Bournemouth, despite getting the best chances. Both scored 2 points.
| Option | GW1 points | As captain |
|---|---|---|
| Haaland (coin's pick) | 2 | 4 |
| Bruno Fernandes | 2 | 4 |
Hours of agonising across FPL, and both options scored exactly the same.
Flip 2 · ChipBench Boost now, or save it?
The dilemma
Play the Bench Boost in week one, so all 15 players score, or keep it for later. Our bench was Kinsky, Calvert-Lewin, Mamadou Sangaré and Davis.
We'd switched the chip on the night before we flipped, as a fallback in case we missed the deadline. It's easy to switch off, and we had a slight lean towards using it. The flip decided whether it stayed on.
The case for Bench Boost now
- The pitch was "get points from all 15 before an early Wildcard". If you planned to rebuild in a few weeks anyway, you'd get one big week out of this bench first.
- Plenty of well-known managers were in, including FPL Harry, Let's Talk FPL, FPL Focal and FPL Raptor (links open in a new tab).
- 814,606 managers played it, a record for an opening week.
The case for saving it
- Bench Boost does most in a double gameweek, when bench players can play twice. In GW1 everyone plays once.
- Nobody had a single minute of league form to go on.
Why it was genuinely 50/50
Both arguments are about timing, and timing can't be settled in advance. Our bench looked decent but not special. There was no knock-out argument either way.
The flip
The coin said Bench Boost
What happened
Our bench scored 19 points, and Sangaré did most of the work with 14.
| Bench player | GW1 points |
|---|---|
| Mamadou Sangaré | 14 |
| Kinsky | 2 |
| Davis | 2 |
| Calvert-Lewin | 1 |
| Bench Boost total | 19 |
Chip-timing flips stay out of the right-or-wrong count, because the other option, playing it later, can't be scored yet.
19 points from the bench in week one. We'll take it.
What some well-known managers did
Four of these five played Bench Boost and all five captained Bruno. Haaland and Bruno both scored 2, so the armband choice made no difference; the rest of the team decided the week. Of the other well-known managers we checked, FPL General went with Haaland and Bench Boost and scored 82.
| Manager | Chip | Captain | GW1 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Let's Talk FPL | Bench Boost | Bruno | 77 |
| Ben Crellin | Bench Boost | Bruno | 66 |
| Pras | Bench Boost | Bruno | 66 |
| FPL Focal | Bench Boost | Bruno | 60 |
| FPL Mate | None | Bruno | 49 |
From public FPL team data. Links open X in a new tab. These managers have no connection with FPL Shrine and are mentioned for comparison only.
GW1 in summary
- 76Our GW1 points
- 50FPL average
- 201,604Our overall rank
The captaincy flip came out level and the Bench Boost paid 19. In the starting XI, João Pedro (11) and Calafiori (9) did the heavy lifting. A quiet captain week rescued by the bench.
The Coin's record
- 0Right
- 0Wrong
- 1Level
- 1Long-term calls
After GW1. A head-to-head flip counts as right if the coin's pick outscored the other option, wrong if not, and level if they tied. Long-term calls (chip timing, and squad moves like which keeper to keep) play out over weeks, so we report what they've returned but leave them out of the right-or-wrong count. All GW1 to GW5 flips are pre-launch. See every Verdict.
More Verdicts
Sources
- Official FPL data: fixtures, player points, our team's and the managers' public team data, chip counts and averages.
- Who is the best captain for FPL Gameweek 1? (Fantasy Football Scout)
- Top FPL Gameweek 1 captain picks (AllAboutFPL)
- FPL Gameweek 1 captaincy (Fantasy Football Fix)
- Record number of FPL managers Bench Boost in Gameweek 1 (Premier League)