Captains Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 9 – Fantasy Premier League 2014/15
So there I was. A sunny Friday in the spring of 1996. Saffron Walden County High School playing fields. Lunchtime. A slight figure of a 16 year old, desperately needing to finish the week with a win. It was my turn to be captain, and I’d won the toss to pick first.
I surveyed the crop of young men standing in front of me. Who would be first into my team? Who could ensure my bragging rights through free period after lunch, through double Geography and – if my fake ID held up to scrutiny – through a Friday night’s drinking in the White Horse? Decisions just didn’t get bigger than this.
Stuart was the obvious choice, but as I looked at him, something just didn’t look right. I knew the problem couldn’t be me. I was a fine captain. My lack of stature meant all of my players could always play wherever the hell they wanted. In fact some of my finest moments had come from playing the lone GK/defender role, gladly supporting my team as the 10 bigger players shared the 10 striker positions. No, it was something else. “What’s the matter Stu-pot (cos I was captain I could use nicknames that I had not earned the right to use)?”, I asked. “Litter duty” was the reply. “I can only play 15 mins, then I’ve got to pick up litter with the deputy head for getting caught smoking”. Wow, I thought. That’s a blow. Now don’t get me wrong, even 15 mins of an on-form Stu could have the game won. But it was a risk.
“What about you Dave?”, I asked. Flexing my managerial muscles as I dismissed Stu without a second thought. “Yeah, I’m good for the full 40 mins” replied Dave. There was a ‘but’ coming. I knew it. “But…” I was right. “But, I’ve forgotten my trainers so will have to play in my slip ons”. Panic started to set in. “But they’ll give you no purchase on the slippery turf Dave!”. This wasn’t going well.
I could see that my natural 3rd and 4th choices Nick and Rob were distracted by the group of year 10 girls sitting on the side lines. They’d be no use. People were looking at me. I had to make a decision. Lunchtime was 5 minutes old and we hadn’t even picked teams!
And then, just as I could feel that first bead of anxious sweat trickle down the side of my ribcage, from the back of the crowd stepped forward a face that was new to me. “Who are you?!” I demanded. “I’m the new exchange student” was the nervous reply. “But you’re wearing proper football boots!” I exclaimed. “And, wait… Yes! They’re Puma Kings!”. The excitement started to build. “What’s your name?” I enquired. My tone starting to soften. “Diego Pele” was the reply.
“I PICK HIM!”
And so onto this week’s Captains picks, where we also find our apparent cast of plenty, dwindling away before our very eyes. Costa is a doubt, Man Utd and Liverpool might as well be playing in slip-on shoes, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Aguero somehow picks up litter duty between now and the weekend.
Let’s have a proper look see, in no particular order…
Diego Costa. Chelsea. Away vs Man Utd.
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[/three_fourth]Captain him by all means. But for the love of Jose, please give proper thought to who gets the Vice Captaincy. Not many things worse than your captain not playing. One thing might be however, realizing that you left the VC armband on the same guy as last week. You know the guy. The one that’s now injured too!
There’s not much to say about Costa that you don’t already know, so I won’t bore you with stats. If Jose shows his hand in the Friday press conference, and it’s good news, he can have the armband. Man Utd’s defence has been generous to strikers this season, and long gone are the days where Jose parks the bus against Utd. This could get messy.
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Danny Welbeck. Arsenal. Away vs Sunderland.
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[/three_fourth]He didn’t manage another hat-trick, but he did at least keep his scoring run going against Hull in Arsenals 2-2 draw on the weekend. A goal that meant a lot for both club and player alike. It means Arsenal go into this weekend’s game against a demoralised Sunderland with something to prove after a disappointing performance against Hull, but not as downbeat as they might’ve been had Welbeck not grabbed that 90th minute equalizer. Sunderland themselves will have something to prove, but who knows how many changes Poyet will make after the 8-0 thrashing last time out. Arsenal have a good record against Sunderland too. Comfortable 3-1 and 4-1 wins last season.
With Arsenals attacking options and a possible Walcott return, Welbs should get plenty of chances. He’s averaging 3.6 shots per game (4th highest in the Prem), and we’d expect him to shoot above that average this weekend.
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Graziano Pelle. Southampton. Home vs Stoke.
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[/three_fourth]Pelle has taken the 3rd highest number of shots per game (4) out of all Premier League players. He scored 2 goals, got an assist and 2 bps last time out, and has scored 5 in his last 3 home games. Another tasty home tie coming up against a Stoke side that lost their last away game to… wait for it…Sunderland! Stoke lost, to Sunderland! That same team that just lost 8-0 to Pelle’s Southampton! Wait, that stat wasn’t even that exciting! Why am I using so many exclamation marks?!
Anyway. He’s got to be a safe bet for good points this week. He comes without any injury risk (at time of writing), and is playing for one of the form teams in the league.
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Sergio Aguero. Man City. Away vs West Ham.
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[/three_fourth]He scored how many? And still had time to miss a penalty. Aguero is the games top points’ earner with a whopping 56. He has accumulated 9 bonus points so far this season, and has scored a goal to go with each of them. No assists yet, but nobody’s perfect.
He is second highest in… [digs out favorite new stat list] number of shots per game with 4.5. Although he may as well be top, as top spot officially goes to Balotelli. Do shots stats count if you never actually score?
Aguero also bagged two of City’s three goals in a 3-1 win last time these sides met. He’ll be in the top three most popular captain choices this week, even if Costa returns.
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Other possibles…
Fabregas, Hazard & Oscar. Fab has the headlines so far this season but Hazard tends to do well against the big teams. Oscar is more of a game time risk but Jose loved him last season and he plays further forward than Fab, and more central than Hazard. Any or all of these 3 could turn in a decent points haul this weekend.
Leighton Baines. A nice fixture against a winless Burnley side that have just shipped three goals against West Ham. Just off the back of a clean sheet, 2 assists and some bonus points. If you’re ever going to risk it on a defender, now might be that time.
Dusan Tadic. It couldn’t happen again. Could it?
Gabriel Obertan. Because sometimes, you just have to finish with a joke.
Good luck this week everybody. I’ll be placing my trust in that man Aguero.
Thanks for reading Captains Picks Fantasy Football Gameweek 9. This article was written by chins and bellies
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My team is set for the weekend. No way am I selling Costa! Got 0 itb, I’d lose 0.3 getting him back, and Jose could just be playing mind games, again!
Hey BennyB – Nice squad you got there!
A couple of things – I’m not sure about the 4-4-2 line up….. It may work out this week as most of the popular defenders down there have a good fixture. Depends if you think Wisdom or whoever will score more than Ulloa I guess.
Also, I’m not sure about Moreno and Ulloa. I don’t think they are great options long term. Also, as I’m sure you’re aware, Moreno didn’t play last week. If you have a free transfer left over, I’d highly consider either transferring Moreno -> Hutton, who has really good fixtures ahead and rotates perfectly with Wisdom, or Ulloa -> Berahino/Sahko (West Ham).
I, like you, am looking at keeping Costa at this stage until the Friday press comes out. Hopefully a lot more people are going to do this as I would only have 0.1mil left over if I do Costa -> Aguero right now and Kun appears likely to rise in price tonight…… I don’t have much wiggle room unfortunately
Anyway, they are my cents
0.3m isn’t much to lose and he’s due to drop in price tomorow plus Jose has ruled him out for Sunday !!
Morning / Afternoon / Evening all,
Thanks a lot for the kind words re article. Much appreciated!
Thinking of cementing the benefit of playing my WC last week by not making any transfers this week. I haven’t managed to save a FT once this year and i do love being able to make 2 FTs without a hit!
However… That means leaving Costa in my team. A risk i know. As Elle points out above, it does use a FT to take him out and then another to bring him back. That could be damaging to my quest to jump on every bandwagon going. Plus, unless his price drops another 0.3, i won’t be able to bring him back in. Looks like i’ll need to rely on first sub Obertan to bail me out again…
So here’s the team for this weekend.. Does anyone want to convince me to use a FT?
Heaton / Gilks
Baines / Chambers / Clyne / Duff / Hutton
ADM / Siggy / Hazard / Mane / Obertan (c)
Aguero / Costa / Welbeck
Thanks
Chins, you must be happy with your team if you only used your WC last week so I would be inclined to hold the FT usually. Costa, however, has been causing me so many problems I took a hit to take him out ;). Although I only really did it because I needed Aguero whereas you already have him. Got cover from all the teams worth having cover from in my opinion so I think you could be okay to stick. Your defence has good enough fixtures should you need to play 4-42 with Costa out!
Great article by the way!
4-42 is an interesting formation I just developed, similar to Mourinho’s 90th minute 42-4 when 1-0 up 😉
Cheers AT!
Yep. Looking more and more like a stick with what i got. The only guy i’d really want to bring in would be Pelle, but having him and Mane might be overkill. Definitely don’t want to take a hit to swap out Mane after a WC. Yeah. Its looking like no changes.
Thanks mate.
Chins, I have Pelle but certainly wouldn’t bring in Tadic/Mane too-they won’t win 8-0 every week, probably won’t come close all season!
I must say I have never understood this argument. They won’t win 8-0 every week as you say, but next time it could be Mane/Tadic in the points with Pelle blanking. The way I see it, if you think a player will get you points then get him, regardless of whether or not you have another from the same team already (apart from GK and defence of course where a conceded goal obviously ruins it for both players).
‘That could be damaging to my quest to jump on every bandwagon going’
Dropping Costa could make or break my ranking. Just don’t know what to do.
Tough one Raz, I’m going to hold on to him mate – not having could hurt you more when he is back.
Please can you guys help me out by taking a look over my team and give me your thoughts on what I should do transfer-wise this week?
My primary concerns are Costa injury, potential ADM injury, DDG in goal, Caulker and El Ahmadi taking up dead space. Here are some ideas:
1. Costa + ADM > Aguero + Eriksen for a -4
2. Swapping out Caulker or DDG and hoping Costa and ADM are good to go.
Please can you guys give me some thoughts?
Cheers!
megabunch – it’s a toughie but I think you just have to wait until Friday’s pressers to see what Jose and LVG say about Costa & ADM.
Clyne, Baines and Taylor are good for you this week anyway, so your defence doesn’t need touching this week.
DDG could be a good disposal.
megabunch – De Gea -> Forster/Howard is what i would likely do here. Even if Di Mara&Costa don’t play, you’ll want them for upcoming weeks.
The De Gea to Forster idea looks good. QPR are terrible and Caulker has not played like last season so he is probably not a keeper but not worth -4 to do so.
After taking a hit to bring in Aguero, my team now looks like this:
Heaton – Mannone
Baines – Clyne – Moreno – Taylor – Moore
ADM – Sterling – Silva -Siggy – Boyd
Aguero – Pelle – Welbeck
Not rejecting further point hits if absolutely necessary. I know there is a 0 Chelsea players but not exactly against the worst opponents this weekend and next week my plan is Moreno -> Hutton and Silva -> Hazard.
Chelsea should beat United comfortably so I think Chelsea coverage is a must.
I know Ant but not taking a further 8 points off my total to bring in Hazard for Silva when Silva has worse opponents.
All sounds like perfect planning to me AT
Cheers Cookie, will hold off the transfers then!
Anyone think with Costa out this weekend Hazard could be a good captain pick?. He look fantastic last night and should play more of a forward role while Chelsea struggle with strikers .
Feedback on team aswell please. I’ve actually took a huge 12pt hit aswell
, stupid I know .
Ant – I don’t think Hazard is a solid (c) choice this week, especially when Aguero is in your team. What transfers did you make for the -12?
Wisdom ahead of Hutton, for me.
Costa – Aguero
Zabaleta- Bertrand
Sterling – Barkley
Ramsey- Tadic.
Silly I know, but ime willing to take a big hit to get my team the way I wanted it.
Huge risk, that. I hope it works out for you though.