Captains Picks Game-week 32 – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

Back to earth with a bump this week then as it is a normal game-week with no bumper double hauls to fatten your fantasy accounts with. That does not mean it is any less important though. Perhaps more so in fact, especially when it comes to choosing your captain as there are no second bites of the cherry to soften the blow this time, should you do a ‘Moyes’ and get it so very wrong. While Suarez and to an extent Sturridge have made this an almost redundant article as of late, we would like to venture a slightly different take on the situation this week. Of course we will feature the aforementioned as they will most certainly be top of most peoples lists but at this stage of the season most managers will be in one of two camps in regards to their own private mini-leagues. There will be those who are winning theirs and so will be happy enough to take the SaS route. In the other camp there will be those with a deficit to make up. With only seven game-weeks left it may be time to throw off those shackles and take the ‘go hard or go home’ route and go “balls out” with a few different picks to try and make up the difference. It’s a strategy for the brave but if you have points to make up then time is running out…

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Wayne Rooney
The old saying is that you are only as good as your last game, but nobody can argue that Rooney wasn’t on a hiding to nothing on Tuesday. The truth is that Man Utd just cannot compete at the top table at the moment and so it would only be fair to him to gloss over that one and rather have a look back to last weekend as more of an indication of his form and prowess. Rooney squared up to West Ham in that one and came up with two goals which where about as contrasting as you will ever find. The first was a goal of the season contender, the second it was hard to tell who was more surprised, him or the hapless Mark Noble who caused it to cannon off the unsuspecting Rooney’s thigh and into the open net.

We feel that there are two things that will play into Rooney’s hands this week. The first is the obvious in so much as the opposition are the ever inconsistent Aston Villa. They will likely try and play on the break which may worry Utd at the back at times and probably will but the upshot will be that Utd will be doing most of the attacking and this should mean chances aplenty for Rooney. The second is the absence of RvP. We rather suspect that Rooney had a wry smile when he heard the news on RvP. He likes to be the main man and thrives on it in fact. RvP complained recently that his team-mates were taking up his spaces on the pitch. Ask Rooney the same question and you would get the same answer except that now he has it all to himself along with the majority of free-kicks and corners. And penalties. Call him greedy, but also maybe call him perfect captaincy material this week.

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Eden Hazard
Hazard split many managers last week who were unsure whether to bench him for a doubles player or play him regardless because of his oustanding form and, well, just general outstandingness! In the end both may have been correct decisions, because despite Chelsea trouncing Arsenal by six goals, he managed to be involved in just the one of them which is highly unusual for him and it was a penalty at that. So his owners will have been happy with a goal and his non owners or ‘benchers’ will have breathed a sigh of relief. For a team that is involved so heavily in the title race at this stage of the season you would expect to find at least one forward to captain but that just isn’t the case at the Bridge. Whichever forward plays, be it Torres or Eto’o, you get the feeling that they are there as a stooge. Their job is simply to drag a few defenders around and thus allow the support cast to have their merry way. Hazard is definitely the leader of this support cast and the only one guaranteed game time.

The opposition this week is a trip to Crystal Palace who sit in 17th place or rather in the bottom four and judging by what Chelsea have just done to a team who are in the top four this seems enticing enough. Jose will not want any slip up’s here and we expect that Chelsea will surely deliver and Hazard to be at the heart of it all. When Lampard is not around which is becoming increasingly frequent then Hazard is on penalties too just to add to his allure.

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Yaya Toure
If you were one of the unlucky few who managed to overlook the giant Ivorian powerhouse for the double game-week just gone you may want to look away now. He amassed a huge haul of 31 points. If you were brave enough to captain him for the full 62 points then you may allow yourself another little jig. We are sure you have done a few already this week. With a total of 196 fantasy points he is the joint top midfield scorer in this respect with the aforementioned Hazard and the pair are second only to Suarez overall.

City go to a wounded Arsenal this weekend looking to put the final nail in Arsenal’s title hopes which in truth died a death at the Bridge last Saturday lunchtime but a defeat here will see the wreath finally laid down. We wouldn’t put it past City to really go for Arsenal here either as they will scent blood at the frailties that Wenger’s beleaguered troops are displaying lately. In truth we can see Yaya trampling all over that Arsenal midfield and they will have little answer to him we feel. Assuming Aguero is still absent then Yaya will again have penalty duties and a lions share of free-kicks. Arsenal do like to give away the odd penalty as well. If this turns into a rout which it may well do then we expect Yaya will be heavily involved in the points once more. For those who looked away, you can look back now. And transfer him in at the very least, what were you thinking?!

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Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge
Once again we group these two together and make no apologies for doing so. They really are a partnership in every sense. In an age where it is more the norm to play a lone striker and a no.10 off him, or even go to the extreme of a Spain or Barca model and virtually not play either in the form of the false no.9 then these two seem almost a throwback to the ’80’s as a traditional front partnership. In fact they broke a 50 year-long club record last night, being the first Liverpool strike partnership to both reach 20 league goals in a season since Ian St John and Roger Hunt.

The merits of a Suarez captaincy need little explanation. As we said above if you lead your mini league then he really is the no-brainer for you. Perhaps on the odd week when they run into a Man City then there may be choices to be made but really nine times out of ten you are safe with him. The caveat being of course that as explosive as he is there will always be games, much like the Sunderland one, when he gets you just an assist or indeed less. In fact this week proved the conundrum in a nutshell really. He totalled 50 points as captain but the split was 40 in the first, 10 in the second. You always run the risk of missing him on the 40 week but if you get it right you can capitalise with someone else if it’s just a 10 week.

If you are trailing but perhaps by not so many as to go too wild then maybe Sturridge is the compromise differential for you. The plus side is that if Liverpool do well then Sturridge is as likely to be as involved as Suarez is, maybe more so. In the last few games Suarez has been back up top alongside Sturridge and has thrived but for a while before that Sturridge was the more central figure and he was the shining light for a good few weeks. This one really is at the mercy of Brendan Rodgers and his tactics.

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Last Five Weeks Comparison

Just by way of giving you a nice simple breakdown of current form we have thrown together a quick table showing how the main candidates have fared over the last five weeks and how they did in the corresponding fixture earlier in the season.

Suarez leads the way on points as you would expect but only just over Yaya. This is due mainly to his propensity for diving, ahem, sorry assisting. He does tend to draw more fouls than most in and around the box but also he has a greater appreciation of where Sturridge is at any given time than vice-versa.

In fact Suarez leads every category here which just goes to illustrate clearly why you need to choose carefully and pick your weeks if you are to go different. It’s just as well his shots to goal ratio isn’t anywhere near as good as Yaya though, that’s quite an amazing stat, 6 shots on target, 5 goals! He’s clearly much better than Suarez at shooting!

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Other Contenders

The Southampton trio. By that of course we refer to Jay Rodriguez, Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana. The England trio are difficult to separate at the moment and becoming even more difficult for defences to contain. J-Rod leads the way on goals scored with 13 and 3 assists, Lambert has 9 of each and Lallana has 8 of each. It is actually Lallana who has the most fantasy points though with 151 which leaves him sat in 3rd for midfielders behind Yaya and Hazard. Newcastle are the visitors fresh from a footballing lesson at the hands of Everton in midweek and you can’t help but think that a good many of the Toon boys are either mentally on their summer holidays or have an eye on the World Cup already. Southampton have no such issues though as a good many of their players and our featured trio in particular are very much still playing to cement their seats on the plane to Rio and it is showing in their performances.

Romelu Lukaku
Lukaku rewarded his owners with a very respectable 18 points from the double with two goals, an assist and three bonus points. That’s three goals in three and a bit games for him now since he returned from injury and so he seems to be picking up form and fitness again very nicely. The timing could not be better then as Everton take a trip to everybody’s favourite fantasy playground this week. Fulham are rooted to the bottom of the table and have an outstanding goal difference of -40. Martinez is making noises about capitalising on any Arsenal slip up’s and pushing for 4th spot so expect the Toffees to be at it full steam ahead in this one and Lukaku will be looking to profit.

Whether you decide to stay safe with one of SaS or do indeed choose to go chasing that leader we wish you the best of luck with your chosen captain this week.

Thanks for reading Captains Picks Game-week 32, this article was written by Inittowinit and Mito

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