Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 16

Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 16 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16

We often consider the captain choice to be a personal affair, we don’t know why really, but we often shy from pushing someone in a particular direction when asked directly, either on here or on twitter. It just feels more ‘personal’ and perhaps that’s because the choice is often, and ultimately, the most important decision of the week. It feels like a gut call but what we do here each week is offer up the 4/5/6 (sometimes 10, depends who’s writing!) best possible options and present a reasonable argument in favour of each. After that we leave it up to you. This week we’ve gone a bit different and asked the former members of the FF247 site team panel (you don’t know this yet so hold that thought for Friday – they all resigned, more on that then!) to indulge us with who they’d pick this week and why, if they owned them.

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Harry Kane (home vs Newcastle)
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[/three_fourth]Kop’s pick: So why is Kane my pick? Good bloody question! Well he appears to be the obvious captain choice this week which almost certainly means I’ll give him the armband, so let’s see if I can convince you lemmings to do likewise. I should at this stage point out that I purchased Kane after he scored seven in four games and since he’s been in my team he’s done nowt. But I’ve got high hopes for him this week. After all Spurs are at home to Newcastle. Yes the very same Newcastle side who have conceded 19 times in their last eight games, let’s just ignore the fact that they held Liverpool scoreless last Sunday as that was as much to do with Liverpool’s ineptitude with the ball as anything else. Anyway, back to Harry Kane and Spurs. Having endured quite a slow start to the season Kane proved he wasn’t a one season wonder as he scored seven goals between game-weeks 10 & 13, and while he has blanked in his last two his confidence is likely to be sky high. Having drawn their last two games Spurs will be eager to get back to winning ways in order to maintain their challenge for a top 4 position. Newcastle will have taken a lot of confidence from their win over Liverpool but it’s one thing getting a result in front of their own fans it’s another thing travelling down to London to play an in form Spurs side. So, who’s with me?

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Odion Ighalo (away vs Sunderland)
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[/three_fourth]Init’s pick: I’ll fess up from the off here, I don’t own Ighalo and have never done so. That’s not his fault, it’s mine. I’ve flirted around with the likes of Defoe, Benteke, Martial, Pelle, Bony, Sakho and Pelle again in order to try and fill that 3rd striker spot. All that while the answer was staring me in the face. Ighalo has been a model of consistency and as such only three other players have more points than him this season – Mahrez, Vardy and Lukaku. His record speaks for itself with 9 goals and 5 assists which means that he’s had a hand in 14 of Watford’s 17 goals this season which is quite remarkable. He’s not shy about picking up bonus points either with 18 of those in total, having snaffled the maximum 3 on 5 occasions. He’s got himself into double digits four times this season and as a measure of form three of those have been in the last five games. Watford may be away this week but interestingly Ighalo scored 13 at Newcastle and 12 at Villa, two teams of comparable league status to this weeks opponents Sunderland. In fact, as a team, Watford fare better on the road in terms of scoring goals as 11 of their total 17 have been away from Vicarage Road. I don’t know the stats but I’m willing to bet that Ighalo has been vice captain for a lot of managers on a lot of occasions this season and probably outscored their actual captain on a good number of those weeks. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. He’s certainly making eyes at me this week but will I take the plunge? You know what, I might well do. Finally.

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Mesut Özil (away vs Aston Villa)
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[/three_fourth]Mito’s pick: Traditionally Mesut and I have not seen eye to eye, mostly because I have normal sized eyes, but also because I have not exactly been impressed with the effort he puts in. However, this season, after several seasons of me protesting his existence, I have started to buy in because he is starting to show a bit more heart. His performances are now starting to reflect the talent and great technical ability we have all known he has. So when considering a captain this week, I would (can’t believe I am saying this) definitely consider the German as a serious option. Özil has now assisted or scored in nine straight games. He has scored twice and grabbed himself ten assists in that span, on top of those very impressive numbers he has been able to snatch 16 bonus points to boot. Averaging nine points over his last eight, including four double figure games he has not dropped below five points in any of those games. So even if he doesn’t have a super game, he is still likely to return something which will at least keep your game-week score respectable. One last thing, almost forgot to mention that they play last place Aston Villa in case you need anymore reasons to captain the apple of my eye, Mesut Özil.

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Kevin de Bruyne (home vs Swansea)
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[/three_fourth]Cookie’s pick: A pattern is emerging regarding Kevin de Bruyne in what has been a impressive first eleven matches in the Premier League for City. Away from home he has scored one goal and assisted none. However at the Etihad, the Belgian has scored three goals and assisted six others and only failed in one match to notch either – that was the defeat by Liverpool in GW13. Now Swansea are no Liverpool, well at least not the Liverpool we saw destroy City that day. The Swans have been on a horrendous run – so bad that even Chelsea are above them and Man United have scored more goals than them. Traditionally of course, Sergio Aguero would be the highlight of the City coverage in a Captain article, but with the Argentine continuing to struggle with an ankle injury and looking more and more likely that he will miss out this weekend, the scoring responsibility will need to be grabbed by someone else. De Bruyne scored once and assisted two in City’s last home match vs Southampton and will be involved in much of City’s attacking prowess this weekend. City have beaten the Swans in all four of their Premier League meetings at the Etihad and despite going into the game on the back of last week’s defeat at Stoke, another home win over Swansea is a safe a bet as you’ll get right now – another is de Bruyne lighting up your game-week with another virtuoso home display.

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Romelu Lukaku (away vs Norwich)
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[/three_fourth]The Gallant Pioneer’s pick: I’d pick Lukaku because I don’t own him and he always does well when I don’t have him! He also has Norwich who lose to everyone, which brings a modern meaning to the phrase, ‘Normal for Norfolk’. They have also been known, on occasion, to concede goals by the shovelful and have just one league clean sheet all season. Everton are at the peak of their powers it would seem so if there ever was a Saturday lunchtime captain to NOT ruin the rest of your weekend, it is the big Belgian this weekend. With Deulofeu and Barkley slipping passes and mesmerising all before them, a returning Baines whipping in crosses and whatever a marauding Coleman can muster, Everton and Lukaku with an early goal can walk this. I’m backing Romelu to add to his 6 goals in his previous five matches and his 100 FPL points total, conveniently accumulated upon his 100th Everton appearance last Monday. Furthermore, he is also a good choice due to his brilliant ability to collect bonus points, even for tap-ins. Four times in his last five matches he’s collected two extra points. Rom won’t bomb.

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Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 16. This article was written by Cookie, Gallant Pioneer, Init, Kop and Mito

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