Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26
Welcome to Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26. The FA Cup is usually just a rude interruption for FPL players, and this week has been no different, but for once it may have been of some relevance as we decided to look at it from the point of view of choosing a Captain from the fixtures, if you had to, and what the outcome would have been. It’s interesting simply because all of the Premier League teams were up against lesser ranked opposition and indeed some against non-league teams. No brainer then, yeah? Not necessarily. Aguero against Huddersfield… Aguero against Huddersfield when even they play a second stream team… Ah come on, we’d be transferring him in droves just to captain him. He’d have got you 4 points if you had. And that’s as captain. Ok let’s try another. Burnley playing non-league Lincoln. At home. Gray and Vokes up top, take your pick, either could or should get a brace. Either would have got you 4 points. Costa and Hazard may have sat just below these in the priority list but certainly would have been considered against Wolves. Costa got a goal – a 10 point captain, maybe a tad more with bonuses. Hazard would have got you 6 and that included a clean sheet point doubled. Kane with a hat-trick obviously would have been the answer but would you honestly have picked him over the others with him having a potentially more tricky away game? He just keeps on trolling us. The point being that we can give you all the info in the world but there’s no guarantee that anyone will produce the goods on any given day.
Diego Costa / Eden Hazard Swansea (H)
[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fifth]
The juggernaut roles on and is showing little sign of stopping really despite an uncharacteristic hiccup at Burnley in the shape of a draw, shock horror and all that. Swansea at home would have been a banker 3/4 to nil a month or so ago but they have improved a fair bit under their new manager. Back in December they had 3 away games and conceded 11 goals, even Middlesbrough put 3 past them. Since then they have played 3 away and won at Palace and Liverpool and lost narrowly at Man City (2-1). In fact they are ranked 4th for overall form based on the last 6 games. That’s the good news for the Swans. The bad is that Chelsea are 6-0-0 at home in their last 6 having scored 15 in that run. They are ranked number 1 for goals scored at home with 33 and have yet to fail to score at home this season. In fact they’ve only failed to score less than 2 on 2 occasions and they average 2.75 goals per game at home. Swansea average 2.2 against them away from home.
As for the players themselves then Costa is the joint 3rd highest goalscorer with 15 this season but hasn’t actually notched in his last 3 league games. He did grab 2 assists against Arsenal though to take his total to 7 – the most of any forward in the game. 5 of those were at home but only 7 of his goals were. As for Hazard he looks back to his best and nothing screamed this more than his goal against Arsenal. He’d actually looked unplayable in most of that game prior to it and so it proved as he waltzed past most of the Arsenal players in the build up to it. It could only have been bettered if he’d ‘megged Arsene on the way. He’s actually outscoring Costa now in FPL points by 147 to 139 and sits 2nd overall to Sanchez. In that respect then he’s the highest FPL points scorer in action this week. And is at home to Swansea. What’s not to like about this again?! Interestingly Costa has only got 5 of his 19 bonus points at home whereas Hazard gas got 14 of his 20 at home.
Conclusion – This could go either way in terms of the players involved but it’ll most likely be a Chelsea victory but possibly by a narrower margin than their league standings suggest.
Romelu Lukaku Sunderland (H)
[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fifth]
The man is on fire! Or is he? Lukaku has 4 goals in his last 4 games. All 4 were scored in one game… Ok, so he was on fire in 1 game. He’d scored in 3 of his previous 4 games prior to that though, and arguably they were all tougher fixtures than the next 4 were, and definitely tougher than Sunderland at home, who he has already scored a hat-trick against this season. Where does that leave him on the fire scale then?! Sticking on the theme of home vs away points 9 of his 16 goals (he’s the 2nd highest scorer) have been at home, 3 of his 4 assists have been at home and 13 of his 22 bonus points have come at home.
Everton themselves have scored an average of just over 2 per game at home and have only failed to score in 1 game at Goodison. They are ranked 1st overall in the form table for the last 6 games having won 4 and drawn 2. Sunderland are ranked 16th in the same table and also 16th overall for away games having conceded an average of 1.8 goals per game on the road. They did win their last away game 4 nil though, at Palace, which maybe says more about Palace than them as they then went and lost the game after that 4 nil to Southampton! In their previous 3 away games they conceded 9 goals.
Conclusion – Hmmm… If Everton, and Lukaku in particular are on their game then this could be carnage.
Harry Kane / Dele Alli Stoke (H)
[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fifth]
The FPL troll that is ‘Arry Kane is back with yet another great home fixture to get the juices flowing. Unfortunately most of us know from recent and bitter experience what this probably all means. That FA Cup hat-trick only serves to further his case and draw us all into the troll’s lair. Now we know we are supposed to be convincing you to actually captain him, but… Sunderland 2 points, Burnley 2 points, Hull 2 points. Maybe that’s unfair but they are the 3 games which hurt many a good FPL manager the most as they were all very attractive fixtures at the time. We should also point out the following though – West Ham 13 points, Swansea 13 points, Watford 16 points and West Brom 17 points. 3 of those were at home too. Spurs previously did Stoke 4-0 in the away fixture between the two teams as well with Kane somewhat surprisingly getting just one of the goals.
Our other pick here also opened his season’s account in that very same fixture. It was the first of 11 so far. Can he make it to the golden target of 20 for a midfielder? With just 13 games left it’ll take some doing but with the form he is in we wouldn’t bet against it. Like Costa previously though he has somewhat surprisingly blanked in his last 3 games. With players of their calibre though that usually just it makes it all the more likely that they will notch once more. Alli has a decent assist return too with 5 so far, he does however struggle with the bonuses a bit having only got 12 so far and they have occurred in just 5 games despite him making at least a goal or assist contribution in 7 others.
Spurs have scored in every home game this season with an average of 2.2 per game. Stoke have conceded at an average of 1.75 per away game. Spurs are ranked 1st for form in home games with a straight 6-0-0 record, with 17 goals in those. Stoke are 2-0-4 in the same period with 13 goals against away from home.
Conclusion – In theory Spurs should win and Kane or Alli should be a great choice as captain as a result. #trollalert
Sadio Mane Leicester (A)
[three_fifth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
[/three_fifth]
What’s that old adage about a player suddenly becoming better or more valuable when their absence is highlighted even more? In Mane’s case it was predicted before he left, enhanced every game he wasn’t there and then he only went and nailed it by returning and destroying Spurs in about 20 minutes flat. The reality is that he only really missed two and a bit games because of the AFCON itself but Liverpool won none of those. He returned against Hull to no effect but you can forgive that one as a softener before unleashing properly against Spurs. He’s Liverpool’s top scorer with 11 goals, their top FPL points scorer with 132 and he has 6 assists which is only 1 behind Lallana. Yes he’s their most expensive midfielder but probably for a reason – sometimes you get what you pay for.
Liverpool have been on the crest of a slump as of late but maybe that Spurs victory and Mane’s return will signal the start of a run of better fortune again. Probably no better place to start than Leicester right now. They are ranked 20th out of 20 in the form table with a record of 0-1-5. They’ve conceded the 3rd most goals this season with 43 in 25 games. Shocking. Liverpool have scored 23 away – over 1.75 per game and the 3rd best in the whole league. Leicester also have the small matter of a Champions League fixture to traverse this week whilst Liverpool once again put their feet up.
Conclusion – Anything other a Liverpool victory would come as a surprise.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Premier League Captain Picks Gameweek 26. This article was written by inittowinit
Vote on our Captain Poll Now
We are running the main public FF247 League which anyone is welcome to join by using the following code 1147-701 (auto-link below). This one has a prize pool of £250 which is sponsored by @FootballFanager and will be paid into your account on their website. The top 5 places are paid out.
Join Our League – Quick Link
League Code: 1147-701
View league standings
New for the 2016/17 we are delighted to announce we are running a Regulars League which has a cash prize pool of £300 paid directly to the winners from the FF247 management team.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code – Elleffcee@fantasyfootball247.co.uk *terms and conditions apply and are available upon request. Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis.
Fixture Tracker – the next 6 games
***Capos is Live***
Thanks to Init for a superb roundup of this weeks options for the armband. With both Ibra & Alexis out of action we might hopefully see a bit of a spread this week.
I think the weekends FA cup action may have gotten to Init though…
Thanks Kop, I think…..!
:popcorn:
“You too, Brutus?” :noshake:
(Big-lol)
:big-lol: to early
Excellent read as always, mate !
Currently set on Costa, but will closely monitor the Spurs game vs Gent to see how much Kane will be involved.
They lost away, so they ll need him in the replay.
Guess I will decide on Friday.
He’ll probably play both mate. Regardless he’ll defo play the league game. Kane that is. I’d probably go Costa out of the pair though.
I ll just give it to Crap-kaku and solve the dilemma
You really are blessed with options this week with that forward line! I’d give it to Lukaku of out of those 3.
That and the fact all of my 11 are playing at home 😉
I ll wait and see (try to guess) how my ML rivals will play the GW and react accordingly
Top effort Init. :ok:
Good choices there. I have Lukaku and probably subconsciously always thought I would have him again this week.
Although that was before I realised I was buying Mane soon enough. #swithering
Surely you go with the home forward against that rabble? Much to be said for Leicester having the midweek game though I suppose.
Thanks for the article Innit.
I just noticed I am ranked 44th in the UEFA CHampions League. The overall ranking. Damn. I hope hte top 100 gets a playstation 4 or something. :p
Amazing Raz, well done!
Even more so when we reflect that you didn’t even know the rules 10 minutes before the last deadline!
Yeah, was some Ibracadabra shit I had to pull off.
WOnder if I should change cappo to a Porto player tomorrow. I think I got Silva? Midfielder playing as striker? He is doing well in the competition and it is not like Leicester are masters. I got the 1 goal from Griezmann now though. Play it safe or…….?
Not sure. This one should be close.
Porto isn’t up agaisnt Leicester Raz – they’re playing Juve.
Andre Silva is and has ever been a striker (no idea where they got the midfielder thing from really) and he is on penalties.
However, Porto has just bought this guy Soares that steals the play a bit from Silva – they now play two upfront.
If Soares will or not start tonight remains to be seen but either way I’d stay put, given the opposition and that your capo has 1 goal in his belt.
@ Run DMC
Got it from Whoscored.
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/299460/Show/Andr-Silva
Yeah, he’s a forward no doubt. Don’t know where whoscored got that one game as an attacking midfielder but surely it was a one time event. How uefa rated him as a mid is beyond understanding, but we are used to that and in deed welcome it sometimes as it gives us a few OOP gems, which has been the case thus far with him.
Class player and already the owner of our National A team number 9 position.
Hello All
Some advice please. Think I ought to get Mane in , but unsure which of my midfielders to ditch – suggestions would be helpful! 1FT and £2.8m ITB. Here’s what I got lined up for GW26 so far:
Jakupovic
Alonso, Coleman, Williams, McAuley
Hazard, Alli, Eriksen, Antonio, Phillips
Lukaku
Bench: Valdes, Love, Ibrahimovic, Barnes
I suppose I ought to keep Phillips and Antonio for GW28 (though their form, especially Phillips, isn’t great). Maybe I ditch Alli instead. And in GW 27 bring in Siggy for Eriksen, leaving no Spurs cover. I’d then have ten for GW28 and then can start work on a strategy for GWs29 and 30 (probably involving the ditching of Phillips and possibly bringing Alli or Eriksen back in). Too much farting around?
Thanks!
I’d probably keep the FT back in this situation. Yes Mane is tempting but it feels a bit like for like given Spurs’ fixture.
Thanks for that, Init. That thought had crossed my mind, and you’re right about the Mane temptation, playing leaky Leicester next. I feel I want to get him in for GW28 anyway, and thought I might as well do it early (GW26) to capitalise on a possible bonanza at the King Power. But Spurs also have an attractive fixture…Could get the best of both worlds, I suppose, by swapping Antonio for Mane (but that doesn’t increase my numbers for GW28)… Too much choice is the problem…
Morning
Anyone able to offer their tuppence on this this morning please?
1FT and 0.3M. Can’t see anything I really like for -4 really. Wanted Mane but I’m not convinced looking at it now.
Oddly I may be happy enough with 4-5-1if it means I carry a free transfer and hold Aguero (after last night) for the Sunderland match.
Thanks guys.
Morning GP don’t you sleep you could run with this team for Gw 26 you need to address Giroud at some point & maybe Admat there are a couple of options at 4.3m but wouldn’t be worth spending any more as your back line looks solid 😉
Thanks Silvers. Yeah I was originally planning Giroud and Aguero to Kane and Costa but I’m a little wary now given the Jesus injury, Aguero’s show last night, the fact it’s Sunderland next.
Amat might be tidied up in time but you’re right, I’m covered OK at the back in normal weeks.
Hi GP, nothing much could be done here without taking a hit here tbh. I’d keep Kun now(And may be plan on bringing him in myself as Jesus is gone for a while). Do you fancy doing Gray to Giroud for a straight swap? He plays in both the BGWs and Giroud is well “Giroud”.This way you can bench DeRoon and have a player with better fixtures and position.
Constantine,
I’m a big Gray fan but with the next four games away and Burnley’s away form so far, then I’m very cold on that idea. If I was stuck for a striker then yes maybe but I think I’ll stay clear for now.
de Roon isn’t entirely without use, he’s scored twice I think this season so I may get lucky.
Thanks.
GP, I’d urge you to consider a Liverpool midfielder mate, as I think they’ll tear Leicester apart in what could be a sad Monday night for Ranieri….now how you get one in is the issue. With so much cash tied up in your defence it ain’t easy but you won’t want to sell your premiums this week. Which leaves Giroud mate – may as well sell him, take the cash get a striker who plays in 28 – Llorente, Gray, Carroll – and then swap de Roon or even Phillips to whoever you can afford in the Lallana to Mane range.
Cookie,
I sort of agree with you. I do fancy getting Liverpool in and I think my weapon of choice in place of Giroud is Llorente (Carroll never appeals to me and I’ve mentioned concerns on Gray above).
It’s whether it is worth -4 this week. It may be huh?
GP, who knows mate – which Liverpool can you afford? If it was Mane then I’d say go for it, but I suspect you may be just short of cash? Which leaves Coutinho / Firmino / Lallana……hmmmm could pay off, no guarantees, but I think it’s the right call medium term….
You could save this week, get Lllorente next week then your Liverpool mid for 28? Bit boring and drawn out but it may be the right way to go. Too slow for me mind you lol!
Cookie,
If I’m trading de Roon it can only be Milner. If it were to be Phillips or Snodgrass then I could reach Lallana, for either Mane or Firmino it would have to be Alli or Sigurdsson (keeping in mind I’m having Llorente coming in)?
GP, having had a deeper look maybe look at Barnes bearing in mind you’ll be playing 2 up front most weeks anyway. So is de Roon & Giroud to Mane and Barnes affordable?
I’m actually thinking 3-5-2 may be the way forward from after GW28 or so given the DGW teams and fixtures leading up to them.
Cookie,
No, but Firmino is gettable.
You actually make a key point that I could get on with two strikers until after GW28.
Therefore on the face of it – Firmino & Barnes (bearing in mind he’s only back up albeit a playing one) for de Roon and Giroud?
It does sound reasonable to me actually.
GP, I think grabbing a prominent Liverpool mid is better than the strikers in that Carroll / Llorente / Gray price range and you could easy keep your Liverpool mid for the season.
Thanks Cookie :thumbup: