Captains Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 16 – Fantasy Premier League 2014/15
What can you do in two minutes? Well, keeping it clean . . . you could listen to Song 2 by Blur and rock out some fantasy league angst, you could read Bryan Munich’s inspirational quotes and think, ‘I’d love to remember that and quote it to appear intellectual (but I never will)’. You could cook two-thirds the way, a soft-boiled egg or watch Tim Vine tell you 56,676 jokes. Alternatively you could watch the entire performance of your fantasy football captain for the week.
Sergio Aguero, everyone. I don’t have the figures to hand but apparently an astounding 134% had the armband on him last week against Everton and the resultant intake of breath at approximately 5.32pm on Saturday as the Argentine (there I said it) crumpled to the turf and then cried, would have been enough to vacuum-seal the hole in the ozone layer.
FIXTURES
Burnley v Southampton
Chelsea v Hull City
Crystal Palace v Stoke City
Leicester City v Manchester City
Sunderland v West Ham Utd.
West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa
Arsenal v Newcastle Utd.
Manchester Utd. v Liverpool
Swansea City v Tottenham Hotspur
Everton v Queens Park Rangers
Well, as I write there is no definitive update on the injury to Sergio Aguero but you’ll not be surprised to hear that I am proceeding without him this week but I have plenty of other options for you to ponder so let’s find your perfect partner. Now remember, please, your captain choice will either be a marriage made in heaven or more than probable, a ball and chain. Being able to accept either could happen and that it’s out of your control, is one of the keys to proper fantasy management.
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[/three_fourth]I think EDEN HAZARD is your best man this week.
The Belgian likes his home comforts for sure and his five goals so far this season have all been at Stamford Bridge. His last ten goals in fact have all been at home. He has two league assists and strangely they have been playing away. I don’t understand that either. Hull City come to town and it should be yet another routine home win. I’d read nothing in to the Newcastle loss. If such a thing exists, the Geordies are Jose’s bogey team. They’ll be a different beast this weekend with a return to winning ways despite the assist-king Fabregas being suspended. Mikel should again play with Matic returning but it’s the attacking trio of Hazard, Oscar and Willian supporting Diego Costa that should have you bound for points. Oscar is a nice captaincy alternative but Hazard is my tip due to his afore-mentioned Bridge record and given he is on penalty duties. Need one final piece of convincing? Well he has played 90 minutes in his last six league games (and 89 in the one before). Jose seems to like having him on the park. You might just think that’s the icing on the cake.
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[/three_fourth]Our next pick this week is Hazard’s team-mate, ‘throwing shapes (and elbows and hands) like a granddad-at-a-wedding’ Diego Costa. He may have disappointed a touch recently by missing games through injury and suspension and he likes a rumble does Diego so you have to always factor in a couple of lost points for a yellow card but hear us out… Let’s not forget he’s still scored 11 goals and has actually only played 12 games and 7 of them have come at the Bridge. This is no ordinary fixture either. This is Hull. At home. Chelsea have scored 18 goals at home in 7 games and despite their recent slip up at Newcastle and the blank at Sunderland you would have to think it will be business as usual for them this weekend and I fancy Costa will be itching to get back amongst the goals and it’d be a brave man who bets against him getting one or three against Hull. Now if only he could add an assist or two along the way…
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[/three_fourth]Under the lights at the Emirates and under pressure, there we again find Arsene’s Arsenal. I have my eye on a captaincy shout here but it is one of the evening guests I’m going for, PAPISS CISSE. Three in two for the Senegalese who to me, seems like the kind of guy who you played with at school who would just hang around the box and the ball would fall to him regardless. Newcastle are off the back of being the first team to topple Chelsea and Arsenal lost at Stoke (surely to save embarrassment Arsene, rather than not going out of the dugout and face the Stokies slagging him, he should just send Steve Bould with the reserves? Or forfeit?). Sorry, back to the game. Cisse has scored two in 38 minutes against Chelsea and 1 in 90 minutes versus Burnley. So the answer is clearly to chuck him on with ten to go and let him score three. Would I expect him to score three, well despite Per Mertesacker seemingly retiring from all football and not just the international variety after the World Cup, I would have to say no. Do I see him scoring again though and pleasing his 1.3% owners? I do.
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[/three_fourth]In truth I’m not expecting a great reception to that last pick so I’ll be boring and default back to a ‘big’ pick. For those who had Aguero penciled in as their captain come what may, it’s time to alter those plans. YAYA TOURE could be gold over the next five weeks and if you have him, you’ll fancy him rolling up to the buffet that is Leicester City, who putting it kindly, have been extremely poor since they beat Manchester United 5-3, what seems like seven years ago. Toure will have assumed penalty duties now and tucked his one nicely away on Saturday. A lot will now be expected of him as the senior attacking player in this side. Three goals in his last four games including swiping eight bonus points from a possible twelve and going up against the team with the second-worst goals conceded record in the league has a very nice ring to it. City should be Poznan-ing in the pews on Saturday. On the same page, boys and girls, you could have Edin Dzeko if he proves his fitness. A word of warning though, despite his excellent record in the league, he will be playing for a spot along with Stevan Jovetic so maybe best wait a week to assess the situation or just gamble if you’re that kind of a free spirit.
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Outside Chances
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[/three_fourth]For my final two, I’m going to select two very similar style players who have home matches and will hope to continue their decent form. Always the bridesmaid at Chelsea, ROMELU LUKAKU and Brendan’s one that got away, WILFRIED BONY. Both lads will be at home this weekend, Lukaku faces QPR while Bony is up against Spurs. I won’t make a great speech for either of these guys but I think they warrant some attention. Lukaku has scored in each of his last two home games and should probably be rested ahead of the match being as Everton, who play on Thursday, are already qualified in the Europa League. Whilst Bony has being doing plenty of favours for his owners having been amongst the points in his last four consecutive matches (scoring three and assisting one).
As usual, here are the traffic lights . . .
RED (Take a punt if you have him): Papiss Cisse
AMBER (Proceed with (a) caution): Diego Costa
GREEN (If you have him, armband him): Eden Hazard
A final thought:
Remember that you pick your captain, no one else. Unless it so happens to be one of the above three and they nail it, then you heard it here first people.
Enjoy your football.
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Thanks for reading Captain’s Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 16. This article was written by The Gallant pioneer
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WooFBet
Over on the WooFBet website the exclusive FF247 league is back for GW16 and has a prize pool of €150 and it is free to enter so get yourselves over there sharpish!
To enter, visit woofbet.com and sign up (no card details required). Navigate to the Tournament section and click participate on the ‘FF247 – €150 FREEROLL’ tab.
Isn’t it time your fantasy manager job finally paid off!
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Don’t forget to vote on our Captains Poll
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Good evening everyone! Great article as always, GP!
Took an 8 point hit to get the line up below. I’m going to deal with Al Ahmadi and/or Bruce next week if able, but is there anything glaring that strikes you? I was thinking to upgrade Mata to ADM once he’s healthy, possibly after this weekend. Should I start thinking about upgrading Chambers and/or Dummett?
1.3 ITB and no wildcard.
Currently atop my mini leagues with 873 points, but my nearest challenger is slowly gaining momentum! :s
Shrizz
Thanks pal.
Looking good for this week I think. No more transfers this week and see where you stand this time next week.
Good luck mate.
Thanks GP. Good luck to you too!
Dzeko starting and Jovetic on the bench, hmmmm interesting.
Ant
Same on Saturday would be nice.
Shrizzine..
That’s a great looking team, u should score plenty points with that.
Only areas of concern for me is your bench…but like u said that’s somthing that can be easily fixed next week..
Top side…’well jell’
Superb article Gp…thanx.
PRMT..
old Skool style..
Foster
Taylor / Hutton / Clichy
Sanchez / Hazard (c) / Yaya / Siggy
Bojan / Costa / Bony
Subs: Myhill / Yun / Wasielewski / Fabregas*
Will switch to 3-5-2 when fab’s back, dropping Bojan to bench..!
Big P
You’re welcome mate.
That looks good to me. Any transfers made this week to get that?
Manchester City: Hart, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Mangala, Clichy, Fernandinho, Fernando, Navas, Nasri, Milner, Dzeko.
Subs: Caballero, Sagna, Kolarov, Lampard, Silva, Jovetic, Boyata.
Is Yaya still suspended?
Yes.
Tekno, yeah Yaya is still suspended he is serving his second of a three game suspension
Guys, is a -4 point hit worth it, I was thinking of doing fabregas and aguero out hazard and rooney or bony or sakho in which one?
am4r77,
I’m in a similar situation as you, with only 3 players unavailable and able to field a team without a hit. However, I’m going to take this opportunity to strengthen my squad in a week where many people will be taking -4 or -8 point hits just to put 11 players out. If there are no new injuries tonight my moves will be Aguero –> Bony and Boyd –> Hazard for a -4 hit, allowing me to keep Fabregas and Austin in my side who I don’t want to sell just because they’re out for 1 week. So I think if you do want to take a hit to strengthen your team, this is an ideal week to do so because so many others will be doing the same, it’s not as costly as a normal week.
Cheers mate that’s literally summed it up perfectly, yeah a lot of people have injuries and suspensions to deal with this week, there’s going to be loads of hits taken and wild cards played. The transfers you are making are good,mum guessng you have like 2 mill in your bank already so you can fund that? I was thinking of faking a -8 point hit to do chadli to Downing, the reason I was thinking about this transfer was because chadli hasn’t started in the last two or three games and I’m guessin that’s all down to the injury he suffered just recently, so I’m thinking he may not get a start this week, he may start from the bench then come on but the problem is he does get goals and that’s what all us fantasy managers need, so I’m in two minds with this transfer, what do you think?
I’m guessing*
I wouldn’t advise an -8 hit if you can avoid it am4, but I like your Downing idea as regardless of who starts up front for WH he is likely to give you assists to any of them. Just be mindful of their schedule as they have Chelsea and Arsenal on the horizon. Also, I don’t think anyone really knows who will start for sure up top out of Carroll, Sakho, and Valencia so I would avoid them until we can see who Sam favors.
If it were me I think I’d just do Aguero to Bony or whoever you like, and Fab to Hazard if you want him and are willing to take the -4 hit. Or bench Fab this week and transfer Chadli with someone else if you want him out.
Ok that makes sense I’ll have to pick whether I would like to transfer out fab or chadli. As for the aguero transfer Rooney or bony will come in, I’ll avoid west ham forwards like you said.
RedVT, unless H2H is a big deal for you it shouldn’t matter whether other people are taking hits – should it? I’m just focusing on my own team, mulling whether to take a hit after already replacing Aguero with Bony. I’ve decided to wait till Saturday and then maybe bring in Baines for Shawcross.
Well, the way I look at it gkw, if loads of people are taking -4 and -8 hits just to field 10 or 11 players, then me taking a -4 hit doesn’t hurt as much as it would in a week where loads of people WEREN’T taking those hits just to put a team out, ya know? I understand that the general consensus is to avoid hits when possible, but I feel like this week it’s worth it for me to get Hazard in my line-up without having to sell Fabregas or Austin, both of who I want to keep. It’s always a risk to take a hit of course, I just feel like this week the potential reward in GW points and squad strengthening is worth it, especially since so many others will be doing the same.
As far as H2H goes, I don’t really care about that TBH. I’m most concerned with winning my main mini-league and beating my best world ranking at the end of the season.
Red, I think what you’re doing is a good move. I guess all I’m saying is you should take a hit to make a good move regardless of what others do – that is, regardless of whether it “hurts”. In the end, the more points you have at the end of the season the higher your ranking will be. It won’t matter whether you’ve taken hits at the same time as other people or not, right?
Ahh, I see what you’re saying gkw. And that’s a good point. Perhaps some of my reasoning is to convince myself that the hit won’t be as painful this week because many others will be forced to take them as well, ha!
But you’re right, it all comes down to how many points you have at the end of the season and the timing of the hits won’t have anything to do with that.