Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 24

Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 24 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16

The good folks here at FF247 have asked me to return once more, prior to the start of the MLS season, to give you my picks for captaincy here in GW24. And I have mixed feelings about taking on the column this week. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the space to write — it’s just that I’m doubting myself now after my disastrous cappo last week.

In GW23, I had Aguero and Lukaku to choose from as my captain selection. Even though every fiber* of my being told me that Aguero would be the sensible pick to keep pace with the herd, I let my heart take over and I capped Lukaku instead. Was I trying to get too cute with my pick? Maybe. Was I trying to prove that when the chips are down, I’ll pick my beloved Everton every time? Probably. All I really know for sure is that Everton, and by extension my Lukaku pick, hurt me badly this last weekend. I’m damaged goods here, people.

*Before we continue, I’m well aware that you all across the pond spell this as fibre…and that makes no sense to me.  It’s nearly as baffling as picking Lukaku over Aguero now that I think about it.

And with all of that said, I still have to rally myself and write this piece. Now, there was a part of me that thought about acting like a petulant child and crafting an article in such a way that I picked Aguero as my cappo for every slot below. But that’s just lazy, and you all deserve more than that from me. Instead, I’m going to return to form and give you a few picks you probably haven’t considered yet.

#1) Sergio Kun Aguero — The most obvious pick

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[/three_fourth]Let’s just get this one out of the way. I fully realize that with all of the words I write below for the other selections, the vast majority of you will do the smart thing and give this man the armband as a force of habit (and it’s a damned good habit). But if you look beyond Aguero’s 28 points over the last two weeks, there are issues to consider before locking him in.

The first thing to note is that Aguero is facing Everton in the Capital One Cup this week and his team are down 1-2 after the first leg. So it stands to reason that Kun will see some playing time to try to get that lead. The downside here for Aguero fans is that Everton aren’t really keen on playing defense lately, so he very well could wear his leg out with all of the open shots on target he’s about to get. And if he’s not worn out from shooting, there’s always the chance that Everton field Tim Howard, a keeper who is more than qualified to simply tackle a forward’s legs — and that could lead to all sorts of injuries for a ‘Glass Man’ like Aguero.

But all things being equal, he should be a fine captain pick against a team like Sunderland.

#2) Enner Valencia — The pick you really should be considering

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[/three_fourth]This is not a pick that I recommend simply to fill space, I genuinely believe that this kid is showing his true potential now that he’s fully fit after his long spell with injury. With Sakho and Carroll both ruled out for an extended period of time, Valencia is the key forward for West Ham for the foreseeable future. Think of Valencia as Vardy 2.0 in terms of the FPL game. Right now his price is ridiculously low, he’s the nailed on starter and he’s producing good points under the radar. In his last three weeks Valencia has scored 13, 2 and 13 points. Somehow this kid has a pair of braces in two of his last three weeks and nobody is talking about him yet.

So if one of the cardinal rules in FPL is to get on the player in good form — the other cardinal rule is to get on a team before a run of favorable fixtures. And if by some miracle you can combine those two elements before everybody else does, you can shoot up the ranks rather quickly. We know that Valencia is coming into form, now consider the fact that three of his next four matches are going to be against Aston Villa, Norwich and Sunderland. Could be a perfect storm brewing here.

#3) Riyad Mahrez —  The steady gains pick

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[/three_fourth]Let’s all stop being FPL hipsters and pretending that we’re now all too cool to pick Mahrez. Yes, Mahrez was the popular pick for so many weeks, but he earned that status. And let’s not forget that Mahrez still the leading FPL scorer with 163 points on the year. In some weird twist, Leicester are going to be tops in the league on the first day of February, and Mahrez has more to do with that fact than anybody else. Vardy may have the consecutive goals streak, but Mahrez kicked open that door for him.

In baseball, we have the WAR stat — a favorite of the sabermetrics community. I wish that we had something similar for football, because it’s a telling metric. WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement — and it essentially encompasses how much a player contributes to his team above any other player at his position. I’m not sure how a person would go about crafting this stat in a football world, but if anybody could, Mahrez would be at the top of that list. Does anybody actually think that Leicester would be in the top five of the standings without Mahrez this year?  Would they even be top half?

Mahrez has cooled off a bit lately (his last three scores are 3, 1 and 6), but Leicester are entertaining Liverpool this week. Liverpool have conceded 6 total goals in their last two road fixtures, and after their defending against Norwich, it stands to reason that Leicester will be getting on the board early in this match.

#4) Alexis Sanchez / Eden Hazard — The pick of the desperate differentials

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[/three_fourth]In a really cool twist of fate, both superstars made their return from injury on the same weekend this past round — and the implications of two high caliber players returning could really shake up the FPL scene. At any other point in the year, assuming that Aguero, Sanchez and Hazard were all healthy, you’d have to really look which superstar to pick for your cappo. The problem with Sanchez and Hazard is that they’ve been out of our minds for so long that we almost consider them to be non-factors at this point. That could be a dangerous way to proceed in the game.
In the case of Hazard, we really haven’t seen him in the post-Mourinho era yet for any length of time. Every other Chelsea player is playing with more freedom and confidence, so would it be a surprise at all if Hazard earned himself a start and got back to his scoring ways? Chelsea are on the road to Watford, and that shouldn’t pose any major threat to somebody of Hazard’s caliber.

In Sanchez’s case, Arsenal always need fresh legs. Alexis is going to begin to open up the Arsenal attack again, and it’s an exciting prospect to see him and Ozil begin to develop a rhythm once more. It’s easy to forget that there was a stretch this year where Sanchez was able to follow up a hat trick with a brace — so when healthy, he’s a legitimate contender for the armband.

The problem with Hazard and Sanchez right now is that we don’t know how much they’ll play in the coming matches. Obviously Aguero is the unquestioned choice of the three right now, but will anybody be surprised if Sanchez and Hazard put up good numbers in a starting role? In the same way that people missed out on Aguero scoring a goal in GW20 because they were waiting for him to get ‘fully fit’, it’s inevitable that most of us will miss out on Sanchez and Hazard’s first scores because we’re waiting for them to prove they’re all the way back from injury.

The key thing to remember is that this GW starts after the close of the January transfer window, so expect to see people using their wildcards in some capacity after the league locks in for the second half. Many people will take a chance on bringing in Hazard and Sanchez while they’re still at reasonable prices after such a long layoff. So maybe I’m not advocating that you personally take a risk and captain one of these two players — but prepare yourself to see people trying to catch lightning in a bottle with a differential captain pick this weekend.

And with that, good people, I leave you until the MLS starts up. Good luck to all.

Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 24. This article was written by Guy Sanchez

Follow @Guy_M_Sanchez

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