Captain Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 3
GW2 was a great reminder how important your Captain selection is. Those who went with Costa, Hazard or Ramsey were well rewarded, whilst those who went with Rooney or the returning RvP were let down by a lacklustre performance and their gameweek suffered as a result. This week presents us with some tough decisions – with Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and United all playing away and with Everton and Spurs hosting two of the aforementioned, we are left with Manchester City who appear to have the standout fixture as they host Stoke at The Etihad. The problem lies with the fact that many teams do not own any City players, at the time of writing, due to their opening tough looking fixtures. So will you be bringing in a City player for this week? Maybe it’s not the worst decision. Let’s have a look at who the best choices for the armband are this weekend.
Captain Choices
Sergio Aguero (home vs Stoke)
“But he may not start”, I hear some say. “They’re easing him back into the season”, I hear the nervous suggest. “His legs are made of glass”, I hear the desperate claim. Well, I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with any of the above statements, but c’mon, we all know how clinical Aguero can be. Pellegrini brought him on at Newcastle in the 83rd minute and it took him just seven minutes to score. Against Liverpool, it took him just 23 seconds to find the net!! The manager clearly is easing him back, he got 23 minutes on Monday night, so one can only assume that he will play more minutes vs Stoke. Whether he starts or not doesn’t really matter does it? He will feature, he will get chances, not many of us are that impressed by Stoke on their travels and City are kicking into gear. What more do you want? Well, maybe a small loan from your FPL bank manager as he ain’t cheap at 12mln – but come May we may well be reminded that you get what you pay for in FPL.
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Stevan Jovetic (home vs Stoke)
For those that cannot afford Aguero, Jovetic is hardly the worst alternative this week. Full of confidence after his brace against Liverpool, finally injury free and continually talked up by his manager, the Montenegrin will be hopeful of carrying on his good form at home to the Potters at the weekend. With Nasri, Navas, Silva and Yaya pulling the strings behind him, he is almost assured of goalscoring chances and his two finishes on Monday showed he can be as clinical as Aguero given the opportunities. Described by some as the poor man’s Aguero, sometimes a decision dictated by budget and an unwillingness to take a hit proves to be the smart and shrewd move and the striker is almost certain of a starting the game due to the injury to Dzeko and the building up of fitness of Aguero.
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Diego Costa (away vs Everton)
Two goals in his first two Premier League games prove Jose’s assertion that Chelsea have finally got their replacement for Didier Drogba, which is a tad bizarre seeing as that they have recently re-acquired the original. Anyhow, with their new Beast onboard and with the supply line of Hazard, Fabregas, Oscar and Schurrle creating chances aplenty, it’s a brave man who would bet against Costa adding to his tally. Everton, of course, are traditionally pretty tight at home, but consecutive 2-2 draws including letting slip a two goal lead vs Arsenal last week suggests it is a defence which can be breached. While many feared (incorrectly) that Drogba may have started vs Leicester, there can be no doubt that Costa will start at Goodison as Jose attempts to preserve Chelsea’s 100% record and win one of their tougher matches on the road.
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Aaron Ramsey (away vs Leicester)
Two goals in the opening two matches this season has seen the Welshman become the most popular midfielder and as last season proved, he loves to get on a run of scoring. Woe betide those who have the view of “surely he can’t score again”! Away to a Leicester side which has conceded two goals in both matches so far, Ramsey will be raring to go, having missed the Champions League 2nd leg match vs Besiktas. With Sanchez taking his time to settle, Ozil still building up fitness and form and Giroud injured, the one constant is Ramsey and while he continues to enjoy this rich vein of scoring, he is hard to ignore. Another plus point for the midfielder is that with Wilshire and Arteta sidelined, Ramsey is likely to retain his midfield place and not be played too far up the park, which as most Gooners will tell you, sees Ramsey in his best and most effective position.
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Best of the Rest
Eden Hazard / Cesc Fabregas (away vs Everton)
While everyone was raving about Cesc’s debut masterclass, Hazard owners were looking at themselves wondering why they went for Hazard instead. The Belgian repaid the faith by notching his first of the season in the home win over Leicester, although you can’t keep Fabregas down, as he got credit with the assist! So whichever one you have, don’t bet against them putting on another show.
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Wayne Rooney (away to Burnley)
In years gone by, you would have given the United striker the armband with a fixture such as this without a moment’s thought. However, United and Rooney have started the LVG era slowly, as the manager himself predicted they would. Surely it is only a matter of time before they give their new manager something to cheer and it may well be this weekend in this derby fixture. The arrival of Angel di Maria should lift the Reds and if the Argentian makes his debut vs Burnley expect an increased attacking threat from United and Rooney. His Premier League record speaks for itself and he is never far away from the action – it may well be this weekend that United turn the corner and as we are all aware, once they get on a roll, they can be pretty tough to stop.
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Daniel Sturridge (away to Spurs)
The England striker suffered a disappointing night at the Etihad but will be keen to bounce back vs Spurs on Sunday. He did show glimpses of his skill though and was always looking to take on the defenders and shoot on sight and did, of course, provide the cross for Liverpool’s consolation. Despite two clean sheets, the likes of Eric Dier and Danny Rose will learn at the weekend that Premier League football is more than playing QPR and West Ham every week. Liverpool will be looking for an immediate response and with the possibility of Mad Mario up alongside him, those with Sturridge may well be well rewarded this week.
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Gylfi Sigurdsson (home to West Brom)
Siggy has certainly hit the ground running since his return to the Swans and a home fixture vs West Brom should present a great opportunity to continue to please his happy owners. One goal, two assists and three bonus points have seen managers desperately buy him, showing him to be exceptional value even at these levels. Those who have him will be tempted to skipper him, those who don’t will face a nervous 90mins on Saturday afternoon.
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Punt of the Week
Daryl Janmaat (home to Crystal Palace)
While captaining a defender is a risk, a gamble, maybe even a crazy decision, what else do you expect from a “punt”? Janmaat was Newcastle’s most effective attacker in their goal-less draw at Villa last week and facing a Palace side who were humbled at home by West Ham, suggests confidence is low and the inner troubles within the club are starting to affect the players. Given licence to roam down the right flank and not afraid shoot, there is every chance Janmaat can repay a gambler’s faith.
Thanks for reading Captain Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 3. This article was written by Cookie
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Here’s what I’m looking at.. Right here.
I’m yet to make a transfer and the worst thing about it is I have literally no idea what to do.. I keep thinking Silva –> fab but now I can’t afford it. Then I think downgrade studge —> ade and use the cash to upgrade mutch. But I just don’t know…
It’s masking me nervous thst I have no idea what to do and I feel I may be missing out on sone decent options. What do you reckon lads ? 2FT. Need to use at least one, happy to make 2 and could even stretch to 3 if it was worth my while…
Lovren -> 5.0 def
Sturridge -> Aguero
Cheers Tekno. Good moves in theory However then that’s all m LFC players gone and their fix are pretty nice from here on out
Yeah, I noticed that as well. Maybe Silva -> Sterling next week then?
Might be time to review whether Cahill’s worth that 6.5, Everton/ManCity/Arsenal in three of CFC’s next 5 games make me skeptical, if you went to a 5 – 4.5 from him you could have your pick of the front 3 that you could switch for Aguero.
I’m sort of in the same boat Demise, 2 free transfers and no really clear path to follow as my players are doing relatively well and I don’t have any serious injuries.
If you want to beef up your midfield and Aguero isn’t a ‘must have’ for you yet, you could always drop Sturridge for Jovetic and upgrade Mutch to Sterling. Then you could keep your Liverpool attacking coverage and add some Man City too.
I heard that last years winner WC’d gw 1, not sure how reliable this is tho as someone on totalfpl said it 😉
Just thought I’d put it out there….
Does anyone know why Jovetic is listed as ‘protected’ on TotalFPL? Does that mean his price won’t go up anymore this week, or are things just wonky on there until the new algorithms or whatever get sorted out?
And why the heck does it say “NaN%” in the ‘change today’ category for those few players listed as protected? What does NaN mean??
RedVT,
I have been reliably informed that NaN means ‘Not a Number’. Very useful information if you often confuse your Maths with the literary world.
Haha, thanks Mr Bean. Not a Number makes perfect sense, I just don’t know what that means in terms of Jovetic’s price rising! I wish they’d get all the bugs ironed out so we could make informed decisions, it feels like those dark days before I discovered the privileged world of TotalFPL and FISO.
Red – I cant say for sure, but it looks like they’re slowly getting back to normal. A lot of the figures look to be correct to me but then there’s some crazy ones like Naismith for example. At the moment it cant be trusted unfortunately.
Thanks NIN, I guess we’ll have to tough it out for a little longer with all the casual players who never know exactly when prices changes will occur.
According to the chaps in ‘live chat’ on TotalFPL, Jovetic is protected because a player cannot drop and then rise in the same gameweek. Since his price dropped at 2:43am Sunday morning, he is unable to rise now for the whole week.
These new price rise rules are definitely going to make building team value more difficult and I doubt we’ll see tons of people with giant 110+ TVs this year.
I see a lot of talk about wildcarding. I also see a lot about Aguero and Jovetic. It’s kinda worrying as I’m not worrying about any of these things…
My original plan was to wildcard prior to GW4 but now, with these ‘slow price rises’ and my current team, I’m not so sure.
Strange indeed James, even if you’d been chasing the pounds the most you could have made so far is only .3.
Andy & James,
And of those .3, you will probably only be wanting to use .1 and that is if you’re willing to look past Diers scoring start…which I did with confidence after GW1 and it turns out i was a little wrong.
Dier scoring twice in a week is one of them blue moon events though surely, as many people signed Chester before GW 2 and look how that panned out.
Andy,
I thought his first 15 points was a blue moon event…there is always one ridiculous bandwagon which, while exciting the kneejerkers, annoys the hell out of us with plans.
Anyway, the point being is at Christmas, I think the most TV anybody will be able to make use of is having an extra 0.5 to spend on ‘Clyne over Yoshida’. Drops will hit hard, rises will be slow but I still think winning teams can be formed for under £100m.
Yeah exactly, last season early wildcarders were rewarded for raising team value, whereas I feel this season it’ll be saving it for the right time, player form and fixtures.
In other words, purely about maximising your points tally, as afterall that is what this game’s about right?
Unless my hand is somehow forced this weekend I’ll save mine for a far rainier day.
jamesimmo – If you’re not happy with your team and want to make multiple changes, then activate it. Otherwise just hold off as you’ll probably be making a mistake if you’re not 100% sure it’s the right thing to do.
Well said mate. I’ll be doing exactly that. Well done in your recent MLS form by the way, it seems you guys are (finally 😉 ) catching me up in Potty’s Waffle Diner aha, my low team value is starting to really hurt me… I shall fight to the end though haha!
Cheers buddy. I made some bad decisions last gwk which cost me dearly. Had two big decisions to make and got them both wrong. It was the difference between a red arrow and what would have easily been a top 100 gwk rank. Oh well, onto the next one!
I’m only 10 pts behind you james!
I’m facing the guy ranked last next GW, he has 1 win and 23 losses in the H2H league. Think I’ll win this one :big-lol:
Just looked at his team, he’s got 5 non-starters in his lineup with one of them as captain.
http://fantasy.mlssoccer.com/entry/6084/event-history/24/
I’m amazed I’m still ahead! I make so many clueless and early transfers but most have worked out in my favour! Haha, if you don’t win it, perhaps just deactivate… no pressure there 😉
Losing to a ghost team that has no (c)….. I’d never even look at MLS ever again
Hey guys, I’m not sure what to do this week I have 2ft,I’m very annoyed as a united fan because they lost to mk dons but but the good news is di maria has arrived. Should I use one of the free transfers to replace young and what else?
am4r77 – Consider Young&Bojan >> Ward-Prowse&Naismith. You would then have a bit of extra cash to upgrade Ferdinand or Baird next week if you wanted.
Cheers NIN always know you will give some advice mate
Hey lads,
Few questions I was wondering if someone could answer.
Will Eto’o take naismith’s attacking position from him?
Is Erkisen a concern? I haven’t seen him play the last two games so I could have missed some shots at goal, but without getting points from a 4-0 game, I’m a bit worried.
Cheers for the write up Cookie, will be giving Rooney a crack at captain this week. (If he doesn’t net more than one goal, I’m getting Aguero in for him next GW).
He hit the post vs QPR apparently and someone assured me he oughta come good but who knows – it concerns me too – but I’ll perceiver for another couple of weeks at least.
makeya – I doubt Eto’o will replace Naismith. Eriksen is playing really well but just hasn’t scored/assisted yet. He did thump the crossbar with a FK at the weekend so no worries there, for me.
How do you think Eto’o will be used then NIN? Naismith played CF against Arsenal with Lukaku on the right wing, but I’ve heard that was just tactical. Doesn’t Naismith usually play CAM? Think Eto’o will be used as backup to Lukaku, with Naismith behind them until Barkley is fit again?
+1 on the Eriksen part
I hope Eto’os age holds him back from such a dominating position as the one Naismith was in on the weekend. I have my fingers crossed that Eto’o is merely a backup for Lukaku.
I don’t see Eto’o getting in the team at all just now. He’ll need to get up to speed but once he does i reckon he’ll be used in a wide role, and rotated with others.
Ah unreal, cheers lads! I’m glad I got those answers, it’s made my life a lot less uncomfortable for now haha.
What do you think of my team atm?
Looks good, but I’d reconsider having 3 United players in your team unless they perform this weekend.
Cheers Tekno-kun, oh yeah I’m keeping an eye on Jones and Rooney. I gave Rooney the (c) for a punt before I swap him out for Aguero. If he slots in more than one goal I’ll reconsider the move. I’d love to get Jones out next week if Man U still struggles to keep balls out of their net. Their fixtures are just so juicy though!