Captains Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 22 – Fantasy Premier League 2014/15
Hello and welcome to your first tartan-tainted captains article of 2015 so Guid New Year to yin an’ all and lang may yer lum reek. *confusion and polite smiling sweeps across the boards*
Before we begin I would like to say a thank you to Lawdogg for his first and hopefully not last, Captains article last week, which was excellent. Welcome to the cappo crew Mr D. And the “elfin executioner?” Bravo.
Right let’s start with a quick fire quiz, shall we?
1. Have you made a New Year’s Resolution?
2. Have you stuck to the diet so far?
3. Have you visited the gym like you said?
4. Have you started looking for that new job?
5. Have you pumped yourself full of the confidence to ask that girl out?
6. Did you nail the captaincy pick in Gameweek 21?
If the answer to number six is ‘YES’ then sod the rest of them. And well done.
The Fixtures for GW22
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Burnley v Crystal Palace
Leicester City v Stoke City
Queens Park Rangers v Manchester Utd.
Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland
Swansea City v Chelsea
Newcastle Utd. v Southampton
West Ham Utd. v Hull City
Manchester City v Arsenal
Everton v West Bromwich Albion
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Well my main man this week will come as no surprise. Papiss Ci . . . . “He’s where? ‘African’ what now? For how long?” Oh stuff this. Cancel the gameweek!!
My Five:
Harry Kane (home vs Sunderland)
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[/three_fourth]Apparently he’s ‘one of their own’, I don’t know if you’d heard? Funny though, when it emerged this week a picture of an eight-year old Harry with an Arsenal strip on in his boys club team. I’m sure with the form the forward is in, The ‘Lane will let slide that minor misnomer as Mr Kane is in white hot form and will be in the England squad for sure come March. From his double-goal and double-assist haul in the 5-3 taking apart of Chelsea to his exquisite drag back and sweet finish against Crystal Palace, the youngster has now established beyond doubt that he is the number one striker for Spurs. He has averaged a goal a game across his last six fixtures and notched three assists and a blinding 11 bonus points in that same period. This is scintillating form. Next up are Sunderland at home and he is going be one popular choice this weekend.
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Eden Hazard (away vs Swansea)
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[/three_fourth]I remember the last time I wrote a captaincy article mentioning how Hazard was the prime example of a home-bird and that he didn’t present much excitement when the Blues were on the road. Well scratch that. With an assist at Stoke and goals against Tottenham and Southampton topped up with four bonus points, maybe the Swansea ball-boys aren’t the only ones to fear the arrival of the Belgian this weekend. 24 points in these last three away days, averaging a juicy eight points might just convince you to side once again with the mercurial midfielder. When you look back across his points tallies for individual games so far this season, his worst back-to-back scores were a ‘2’ and a ‘3’ together in October (both away games unsurprisingly and even then these two scores were sandwiched between scores of 11 and 10). Maybe then a blank at home to Newcastle may not be a reason to desert the man now. Again, he is the man guaranteed to play 90 minutes for Jose’s men and should be amongst the points if Chelsea secure victory against the Swans.
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Andy Carroll (home vs Hull)
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[/three_fourth]The Sizeable Striker scored a goal at Swansea which if it had been scored by Sanchez, Aguero or Suarez, we’d still be toasting it. Yet somehow the fine finish by the Hulking Hitman has been lost on the media. If you watch it once more, yes he gets a little break from the defender but the skill, balance and finish was straight from the top drawer. The Mountainous Marksman now turns his attention to Hull. Poor, poor Hull, I’m not feeling sorry for them, I mean they are a poor, poor team. Sorry Tigers fans. Anyway, back to the Gigantic Goal-getter. Alright so he isn’t exactly racking the goals up that Harry Kane is, but sometimes the fixture can sway a captain pick and this may be one such occasion. The good news is that the Hull fixture is at the Boleyn and three of the four goals scored by the Huge Hairy Headerer since his return from injury have been in front of his own lot. The form of Stewart Downing in behind Ginormous Geordie is also a key factor and undoubted attraction to siding with Carroll. Let’s hope for the sake of his fantasy owners, the Hammers and perhaps even Roy Hodgson, that the Lanky Liverpool Leftover keeps himself fit and starts smashing in the goals (or even floating them into the top corner which he can obviously do).
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Alexis Sanchez (away vs Man City)
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[/three_fourth]The Chilean is the best player in the league currently and this is clearly transferring to the fantasy game. On his own as the top point scorer with an incredible 141, made up of 12 goals, seven assists and TWENTY TWO bonus points (also the highest tally in the league), it really should be remembered that this is the man’s debut season – struggling to adapt he is not. He is everything Luis Suarez is and everything Mesut Ozil is not. He runs himself in to the ground for his team, each of his team-mates and his manager and he is being justly rewarded. He takes (and scores) free kicks from the edge of the box and wins, takes and well, misses the odd penalty – his only black mark was the awfully struck penalty against QPR. For balance though, it should be said that despite that poor penalty, Sanchez still managed to score, assist and collect two bonus points in that game to finish with 10 points, which is just remarkable. Off the back of a 19 point haul against Stoke, Sanchez heads to the Etihad to face a City side who despite being reigning champions, are not defending like champions as they have not kept a clean sheet in their last five matches in all competitions. I am a great believer in playing the player and not the fixture and on form, few are as appealing as Arsenal’s main man. One thing to bear in mind, if you do armband the South American, you could expect a huge rise in the rankings if he delivers as few will select him for captaincy purely on the location of his next game. Regardless of this week’s captaincy, if you are on a Wildcard this week, get him in your side. It would be foolish to ignore him.
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Sergio Aguero (home vs Arsenal)
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[/three_fourth]My fifth and final mention this week is the returning Argentine (or do I say Argentinian? Can’t remember now…). An appearance from the bench at Goodison Park last weekend has caused a stampede to get the City man back in our teams. Some will hold their nerve and let him ride out the Arsenal and Chelsea matches before getting him in and that’s fine. I bet though, they’ll be holding more than their nerves if Sergio starts this weekend! Anyway he is mentioned here because those who bring him in must surely revert to what comes natural and captain the man. If he is fit to start, he is fit to score is the best way to look at it. And he is up against Per Mertesacker which has the potential to make the tortoise and the hare seem ‘nip and tuck’.
*Please note that two of my selections could potentially, and in all probability will, feature for their clubs in home F.A. Cup replay ties this midweek. It will be worth noting the time spent on the pitch of both Andy Carroll and Harry Kane in their clubs respective matches against Everton and Burnley.
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As usual, here are the traffic lights . . .
RED (Take a punt if you have him): Andy Carroll
AMBER (Proceed with caution): Sergio Aguero
GREEN (If you have him, armband him): Harry Kane
A final thought:
If you get the captaincy right, soak it up, enjoy it and never take it for granted. You are only one gameweek away from having a ‘Giroud’. The new name I have invented for when your captain has a stinker (thanks for the red against QPR mate!)
Let’s get #dontdoagiroud trending.
Enjoy your football.
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Thanks for reading Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 22. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer
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Don’t forget to vote on our Captain Poll
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Thanks for this TGP. Was a little incertain at first, but I reckon I’ll go with Kane (c) this GW. Seems both the most rational and safe out of my players.
Tekkers,
He is in very good form and I wasn’t terrible impressed with the Sunderland back line in the Liverpool game on Saturday. Markovic pretty much fell through their defence to score.
Apart from that, Pool didn’t do much though. What is it with Sunderland and homegames?
Anyway, I think they did well versus Chelsea and City. Sunderland is a hard team to predict. With van Aanholt back they will concede more goals though. On that note, they will probably also score more goals.
Raz
This makes Kane an appealing pick then, you agree?
Hard team to predict. If they want to make life impossible for a top team, at times they can. They did with Chelsea, 0-0 at Stamford Bridge. Kane is a special player though, I have to admit. I like dude. Never expected to like him. But he’s in my team. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Aresnal fail with Giroud/Welly and Spurs have Kane. Poor, poor Arsenal. At Spurs the sing ”he’s one of our own” and I saw feedback on that from a few Gooner internet thugs showing a picture of Kane playing at the youth of ARsenal? Didn’t know that. Anyway, if that’s the case they look even more stupid. 😉
Raz
Yeah I heard about the Arsenal kit
Anyway, I think I’ll play Pants for the remainder of the season, won’t rotate either. Since their Home/Away ratio makes no sense. Hoping if they don’t keep a CS he’ll get 3 to 6 (and if lucky even 9) saves per game. Still 3 to 4 points. I think dude is the best scoring goalie out there, the time he played. Nice comparison, he got 59 points in 12 games whereas Begovic got 63 in 21 games. Not talking about Pool and Migs because that’s a joke. Courtois is a nice comparison though, Courtois got 68 points in 19 games. VIVA LA PANTSUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just hope van Aanholt doesn’t screw it up too much.
Hey Raz everything ok what going on with the pic I keep humming some really bad song :whacky:
HAHA. The most awesome intro song ever. It’s so bad, it’s funny. Fits the series/anime which is an absolute mindfuck. Has the most traumatising ending ever.
Guys my wc team – thinking about getting gardos in then alderweield when back – am i good to go or should i get berts meaning wisdom out baird in and boyd out albrighton in
Boyd Albrighton seems a sideways move. The only 5th midfielder I might consider to replace Boyd is JWP from Soton. On that note, I think I got Boyd for 4.5m.
Watched Boyd in MOTD and he seems to like the penalty area a lot.
Raziel you suggest that Boyd over albrighton?
Yes. I’ve had Albrighton from GW1-GW14 and the coach only gave him 80 minutes in that time. He should always have been a starter but I don’t know what the coach is thinking.
Boyd has been a starter for a long time now and he’s like I said often in the penalty area, plus takes set pieces right?
But he is the 5th mid. You will only play in an emergency. Personally I picked Lucas At 4.3 for that reason.
Truth, I bought Boyd at 4.5m though. Have been several occassions Boyd heped top 10k players out and scored 9 points coming from bench.
nk25
I would leave it as is.
I think Wisdom and Boyd are far more reliable than Baird and Albrighton. Gardos could prove to be very handy over the next month. If not, then there are other options out there, Stoke or Palace for example. Lots of choices for your £5.0M.
Oh thanks @mitchellcraig81 Im probaby going to stick with gardos then get alderwerield when back
Excellent stuff Gallant. Really enjoyed this one. The Hazard stats are particularly interesting (i.e. no back-to-back blanks since October) so he’s one to consider.
I was set on Kane but now I’m feeling Aguero is the way to go.
Who’s your armband on mate?
james,
Thanks mate. I think Kane just now. Still a while to go and of course he does have a game tomorrow night.
Yeah, assuming he makes, then Kane’s probably the safest pick: most will side by him. Aren’t Sunderland fairly sturdy on the road though? That’s my main worry.
I’ll either be captaining a guy playing against Arsenal or a guy playing for Spurs. The ultimate Gooner nightmare. 😉
Which pair guys? Pantilimon and Duff or Krul and Van Aanholt?
Nishant,
As I said previously, I’m unsure on Duff’s place now but PVA looks good value at 4.2, nice attacking full back who scored in the cup recently.
I’d go Krul and PVA.
Thanks mate. Thats why i reconsidered my decision as you very rightly mentioned about Duff. Heaton and Krul rotate well for 6-7 Weeks at least. N it gives me Sunderland coverage too. Am i risking it taking Tadic?
* sunderland coverage for Van aanholt.
nishant,
Maybe not. Decent fixtures ahead for the Saints and they seem to be hitting form again. Could be the ideal man to go to for those who can’t fit Pelle in.
Yeah. I feel good about this team the only worry being neither of Silva/ADM. But thats FPL. Hope Sanchez Hazard and at least one of Downing/Tadic fire for me every week. Atleast contribute something better than solitary 2 Points.
Currently 37k overall and hope i can finish d season in top 20k. I would be happy.
Nishant
Go for it mate, you’re doing brilliantly.
Well I’ve got to say very entertaining & excellent article GP I have had a bad run of Cap picks of late so I’m due one I’m surprised Kun is included or should I be my gut says Sanchez my head says Kane , not sure which will win I also thk Carroll is a very good shout Hull absolutely C___ P @ the moment thanks for the hard work great stuff
Silvers,
My luck on captains recently has been poor too. Not even sure why they let me write this anymore 😉
Evening all. Anyone heard of this Charles Gill character Villa have signed from Valencia? Left footed mid for £3.5mln
Cookie,
Not a lot mate. I’m always a wee bit wary when a continental player arrives to play for a mid-table club. Unless I’ve heard a great deal about him, which in this case I haven’t so it’ll be wait and see for me.
Sanogo at Palace too I see. Transfer window beginning to simmer now.
Hey Cookie how are we left sided attacking mid player scores the odd goal but not prolific might have been brought in to replace Delphi looks as if he’s on his way out might be a bit light wt in prem one to keep an eye on depending on price
Hi Silver, I’m good thanks mate, how are you?
Thanks for the info. One to watch at best then for now. You think Delphi goes to Liverpool? If so, you think he’s a good buy for them?
Hey GP, kind of agree with you there mate.
Yes I’m good Cookie thanks I like Delphi he is an ex dirty Leeds player he is better than people thk