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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Hi guys,
Often on the site but don’t get round to posting much.
Please see my team, any advice?
Cheers.
Top gunner team looks very strong not much to do here but keep an eye on Costa situation
Yeah Costa situation is a bit annoying but I’ve had him from day one so unless his price falls massively I’ll prob stick with him unless he is out long term.
Cheers.
Team looks awesome. Just used a wildcard or what? Taking hits? Lol. What is your rank?
Questions Questions Raz
You’ve changed your tune Raz, last season every question was what’s your TV 😉 Well trained
TopGunner, as the lads have said, press confirm and walk away mate. I’d not even be too concerned with Costa unless anything else concrete comes out and even if it does it could be BS now from Jose. Cork to come in, worse case scenario is fine and you still have Costa for QPR next week.
Innit, I’ve put a leap of faith in Falcao instead of Costa. Am I crazy? You still have Falcao? I like the idea of Falcao playing furthest upfront. RvP is too old to do the striker role alone by the way, that much was obvious last game.
Raz I liked the idea too, so much so I captained him this past week. Suffice to say he is now dead to me. Welcome aboard Aguero! Finally. A week too late. But finally…..
@ Innit
I took out the injured player. Somehow that sounds like a better move. :p
Do you have a pic ready of a monkey biting it’s own arse? :p
@inittowinit good call fella 😉
That’s what I’m doing TopGunner anyway. I think he plays to be honest but if he doesn’t I don’t want to be scrambling to reverse the move the following week when he’s perfect captaincy material.
I have used Wild Card this week to get rid of Naismith, Chambers and Silva in order to get Aguero & Tadic plus I had a couple of useless bench players.
Was in side top 10K but now around 80K due to some very poor captain choices.
Cheers.
See? I freaking knew that, hahaha. See your wildcard is active as we speak?
Yeah well done Raz… this is the team I’ve had since yesterday.
I know, I’m awesome. This is what I tell myself all day every day. Dude, you’ve got to be one of the coolest/nicest dudes around. Usually I agree with myself. Like now.
Your team is good, if it is announced on Friday that Costa probably won’t feature on Sunday, then I would go for pelle, but you already have 3 Southampton players, so you would have to take a hit to get him in. Maybe if you took Costa out (only doing this if it is unlikely he will play on Sunday) then go for someone like berahino, hes on form and will give you so much money to spend in other places in your team, hope I helped.
Cheers mate, Berahino is a good shout.
How fun would it be if Falcao scored another hattrick versus Chelsea? He did it the last time he played them. OI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOO FALCAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Raz – how long you giving Falcoa?
Hmmm, depends on Costa injury. Think I will look at Costa for a few more GW’s. I had him because he scored points. In all honesty, I really don’t like his face. But that’s irrelevant, hihi. Want to see if Mourinho will rest him some more the next few weeks, might bring him back for QPR game, might wait till after IB. All depends.
I can actually do a direct swap I just noticed, Falcao back to Costa (if needed).
My mate has had Falcack I mean Falcao since he signed and he moans about him every week.
He’s gotta to come good soon thought right? Then we will all be over him like a tramp on chips…
He is the best striker they have by a long shot. Wolrdclass, rate him higher than Costa. However, Costa plays the role that would suit Falcao best. Falcao has to work with Rooney that stands in his way, RvP that stands in his way. Really annoying. First goal from Falcao came from RvP going wide. Last game he had jetlag so LvG rested him (unsure if Falcao needed it because he looked strong when he came on). When used right, he’s the best. Hmmm, also noticed at his last teams he always to penalty kicks, hoping RvP gives him that right again that would make him even more interesting.
He won’t.
😉
Put a sock ”in it” ”innitt”. LALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I can’t hear you.
Finally a monkey pic of my own! I’m honoured
Looks a bit like you too
Why doesn’t Rodgers give Borini a chance he’s 10 times better than Balotelli !!
Cos he shite
Who? Borini he’s better than what you have at the moment !!
Evening all, thanks for another helpful article. Can anyone point me to the cup draw please? Cheers
Hey guys I’m in need of urgent help before the price changes come through. This is my team –
De Gea (Krul)
Clyne, N. Taylor, Vlaar (Wisdom, Cahill)
ADM, Hazard, Sterling, Siggy (Downing)
Costa, Pelle, Berahino
0.9mil left, 0FT.
At this stage, if Costa is fit, I am going to transfer Cahill -> Baines.
However, if Costa is injured, I think I have one of 2 options –
1) Go, Cahill -> Baines for a 4 point hit, field a 4-4-2 as my defence has good fixtures.
2) De Gea -> Guzan (good fixtures, should score higher), Costa -> Aguero, -8 point hit.
Also, is Costa a confirmed out yet? Please help!
Hey nosaj!!
De gea to guzan or foster must be done…Get in Aguero as well
Hey guyzz..Once again made a team change..Help me out guyz..I think I have a weak midfield…Help me out guz