Captains Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 1 – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
Welcome to the first captains article of the season!
The Premier League has finally returned, and while many of you have probably come pretty close to a settled squad by now, you also need to select a captain to help you start off your season with a good score. Well, that’s what we are here for. Whether that’s double points or treble will depend on whether you take advantage of the new ‘Triple Captain’ chip but more on that later. So without further ado, let’s get right to it and look at the best captaincy options for Game-week 1.
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[/one_half]Eden Hazard
Chelsea may have lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield, but expect Mourinho and his players to shrug off that result and start the season strongly. Chelsea play Swansea at home in their opening fixture, a match that ended 4-2 last season, while Chelsea won 5-0 in the away match. In other words, Chelsea enjoy playing against the Swans, and while Hazard scored none of the goals against them last season, he has been impressive in pre-season and should continue that form into the opening matches of the Premier League. As Costa struggles with his fitness and has been poor in pre-season, the responsibility for the offense falls on Hazard, and he can easily flourish under such a responsibility. He will probably be the most popular captain choice this game-week, and rightly so.
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[/one_half]Wayne Rooney
United begin the season with a home match against Tottenham, who have played Real Madrid in Munchen this evening and then will play either Milan or Bayern on Wednesday – three days before the season opens and having taken a squad consisting mainly of their preferred starters who you’d imagine will at least feel some fatigue. Typically, United win this matchup, and while United have bought well and strengthened their squad, Tottenham have been a bit more anonymous in the transfer market. The additions of Schweinsteiger, and Schneiderlin should boost United’s midfield platform and allow the likes of Mata and Depay to concentrate on creating more opportunities for Rooney. While he had his weakest FPL season last season, he looks to start the season in his natural striking position and should flourish in his preferred role.
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[/one_half]Raheem Sterling
City have not been overly impressive in pre-season, conceding 4 goals to both Real Madrid and Stuttgart. They face West Bromwich at The Hawthorns in the first match of the season, and while City have a tendency to struggle against this kind of team, they are much stronger on paper and should be able to get a comfortable win if they play up to their attacking potential. If there has been one light in City’s pre-season, it has been Raheem Sterling, who has scored 3 goals and gotten 4 assists. Pellegrini will certainly look to his dribbling and pace to create havoc in WBA’s defence, and Sterling could be employed either as an attacking midfielder or up top. Expect him to be among the points this game-week.
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[/one_half]Theo Walcott
While no-one can say for sure what Walcott’s role is in the Arsenal team, it is difficult to not see him starting as long as Sanchez is not available for contention. As with Sterling, Walcott’s pace and dribbling will cause problems for West Ham’s defence, hence Wenger could play him up top rather than on the wing. He started as a striker against Chelsea in the Community Shield, and while he was subbed off without any goals or assists, that was against arguably the best defence in the Premier League – this is against a West Ham team that struggles to repel the minnows of the Europa League’s early stages. Hence, Walcott could easily get an explosive score if he gets enough playing time this round.
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[/one_half]Graziano Pelle
As the 4th highest scoring striker last season, 8.0 might seem like a bargain. However, many will remember that he started the season strong, but then became more and more invisible as the season went on. He still managed 12 goals and 6 assists, and has been impressive in pre-season. Southampton play away to Newcastle, a team that may or may not improve under a new manager. Even if they do improve Southampton should still be the better team, and if Pelle can carry his pre-season form into the Premier League, he could start the season with an impressive performance against Newcastle. Obviously, Pelle should be seen as more of a punt compared to the rest of the players.
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Triple Captain Chip
Just a quick word on the new feature this season. It pretty much does what it says on the tin and trebles your points for your captain on whichever game-week you choose to deploy it. We shall touch on this as and when we feel the opportunity presents itself to use it effectively but this in all likelihood is one to save for when we encounter double game-weeks later on in the season.
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Thanks for reading Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Game-week 1. This article was written by Tekno-Kun
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Don’t forget to vote in this week’s Captain Poll
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Thoughts on this squad???
My question mark is mostly with my goalkeeper rotation. Am I better off with the 4m Palace keeper who will step in for Speroni instead of Schwarzer? Is there a better option? Where could I downgrade in order to upgrade to a better keeper who wouldn’t need to rotate?
Pancho
Too much spent on defence I think. I would remove Bellerin and spend 4.5M on his replacement. The extra million could allow you to go Butland up to Cech?
Still unclear which Palace keeper will play on Saturday.
I’d get Ruddy in for Schwarzer, the rotation is better.
Thanks GP and CC! I made a few changes. What do you think?
My only thought on changes would be Sterling & Pelle -> Benteke & Mane. Thoughts on that?
That’s about as close a call as you can have Pancho… Sterling and Pelle edge it for me 51-49, though I do have Benteke myself.
One thing to mention is that it will be quite a task to bring in Aguero if you so wish later on with all of your strikers under 10M.
Thanks CC!
I agree with Sterling and Pelle as Mane is super streaky. 20 points one weak and then 2 the next four weeks. If he hits a consistent patch then he may be a necessity with Soton’s fixture list to start the season though :/
Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring Kun in until Wild Card time. I’ve felt like he would weaken the rest of my team so much that I had to choose between having him or Hazard to build the rest of the team around. I chose Hazard.
I love my defense and mids but am not too excited about my forwards. Hopefully Pelle can start like he did last season!
+1
I have decided to take Depay out to get a more balanced side but could be a very big mistake.
Which team First or second.
2
I have been reading the Analytical Guide & I advise every one to have another read it’s very informative but don’t read when you have had 3 bottles of wine no really we all need @ least 5 low priced players pick these carefully to try & raise cash.
Make sure you take into account Attacking & Defending strategies teams good bad.
This is a very good article cheers again.
Hey guys.. Please RMT!
this is like my umpteenth team, and I’m pretty sure come Friday I’ll have a new one :p
Current thoughts:
1. Gomez is in as a punt.. Lookin at his preseason performance..
2. Mane/tekkers or milner/pelle??
Prefer Benteke and Mane. Gomez as a punt is fine in itself, but probably when when you are also taking one on Oxford. Would upgrade him to a 4.5.
Any thoughts on how to upgrade him? To be fair, I plan to only play a 3-5-2 most of the time.
Plus I’m taking a chance and going with mane as captain.. Considering half the FPL world has hazard on captaincy (as far as I know :p)
Thoughts on that?
I know you wouldn’t be playing him, but it’s a slippery slope to start the season with a non-regular. Injuries can soon pile up unexpectedly and players are also rested without warning. Add to that the new chips that are available and you really should aim for 15 starters imo.
I’d probably get in Pantilimon for Cech to raise the cash, though if you aren’t planning on captaining Hazard you may as well downgrade him to Fabregas as he’s very expensive to not captain. Mane away is certainly a punty option, but a part of me will always say go for a risky captain! Just be aware that it usually doesn’t pay off. Looking at your squad, if you’re against captaining Haz I’d look at Caz instead.
Hmmmm.. A lot of thoughts there.. I think I’ll maybe wait till Friday before I make any final changes.. My only purpose of keeping cech was to have an arsenal defence. Period. And of course a keeper I hardly need to rotate. I had ruddy and butland initially, but wasn’t too sure whether I wanted to rotate that heavily :/
Caz as captain is an interesting thought.. I will definitely think more on it; the only thing putting me off is the number of arsenal MFs in the running!
Thanks a lot! It’s great having a different angle on things when you’re stuck in a rut!
Good evening fellow managers.
Some good teams have been posted on here tonight!