Captains Picks Game-week 35 – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

Well, well, well, it looks like my old nemesis Luis Suarez and I meet again. There is probably no bigger detriment to my continued employment than the Uruguayan. While all managers have fantasies about Luis running wild (not streaking I hope) I am left stricken with nightmares. Nothing makes a Captaincy article writer sicker than a Suarez hat-trick. He dares us to look somewhere else and when we do he punishes us in a very inhumane way. Nevertheless there are other options and while it takes all the FPL courage you can muster or simply being nuts to pick someone else, we can always look to wine & dine lady luck and ask her to not let the Big Bad Wolf eat us alive.
Simply said, “I need a Hero”
Where have all the good Captains gone?
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And his hamstring has to be ready for the fight!
So without further ado let’s get to the captaincy candidates and see if we can spot the best option for you.

[divider_1px]

Luis Suarez
So it looks like I prepped you this whole time so I could turn and say to look to someone other than Suarez when handing out the armband. Please!! After consulting with my magic 8-nstein ball it told me – The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits – I take that to mean that perhaps I should consider Suarez as a slightly serious candidate this week. Well ok then, let us look at the facts. Norwich City has the 4th best defence at home, only allowing 13 goals in 17 fixtures to date. They have not allowed more than 3 in any encounter at Carrow Road, only doing that once to the striker-less Chelsea of all teams. When City visited they were held to a goalless draw. So obviously handed this information you must now be a bit scared to captain Luis? Right?! Well you should, in his last 3 vs Norwich he has only scored 10 points… Sorry 10 Goals, DAMN so 3, 3, and 4 were not his FPL points, they were his goals. Can any defence ever dream of being more repugnant than that of Norwich against the mad Uruguayan? He became the first player ever to score 3 hat-ticks against one team and he accomplished that over his last three meetings against them. Their encounter this season produced his biggest haul with 24 points, he produced a measly 4 goals and added an assist for good measure. Geez, I guess it looks like the Luis “hit man” Suarez is lining up the yellow bird in his scope and has bad intentions. Simply stated he is the safe option this game-week and unless you are in dire straits or are a born gambler, I probably would not look in any other direction.

[divider_1px]

Christian Eriksen
Is he the Kryptonite to combat Superman Suarez? Perhaps he can be if his recent form is any indication. The hottest player in FPL is without a doubt the Danish International. The Viking is finally putting it all together and has recently put on quite a display. On top of his 4 goals and 3 assists in his last four games, he has added 20 passes that led directly to a shot on goal for one of his mates. He is most certainly favoured by his opponent this game-week. Fulham, despite their recent wins still possess a very vulnerable defence. The Cottagers concede more shots per game than any team in EPL at a rate of 18.1 per game. Eriksen over his last 4 games has averaged 4 shots per game including 6 in the draw vs West Brom. 44 points in his last 4 fixtures is nothing to be laughed at and there is no reason to believe his current hot streak will end this weekend. At the time of writing he was the second most transferred player in this week and if he had a schedule that included a double in the near future he’d be first. 7.6 points average per 90 minutes in his last 1106 minutes which include all 7 of his goals and 6 of his 7 assists. He will most certainly be a differential as a captain and to some degree daring, but a close look at the numbers says he might be this week’s surprise.

[divider_1px]

David Silva
He is expected to be fit for the West Brom game. At least that is the word on the street, but obviously make sure that is the case. He seems to still be nursing an ankle injury, but then again he has been for a while. That however, has not stopped arguably the best player in EPL over the last month from delivering a nice deposit of points for his owners. With 3 goals, 4 assists and 8 bonus points in his last six appearances he has been quite a force of late. Mr. Elegance is finally starting to produce points to match his astute decision making on the pitch. His importance to City was perhaps nowhere more evident than it was vs Sunderland. City seemed to lack ideas and the creative force that is Silva was not there to create the openings they needed. His team is desperate for wins to stay in the race for the title. So the pressure to make sure that they create enough goal scoring chances to make up for the mistakes in their backline, will fall squarely on Silva. It was mentioned last game-week, he is a consistent source of points. Might not be the explosive kind, but unlike most of the players he went up against in the double, he delivered and that was while still sitting out a game.

[divider_1px]

Sergio Aguero
It was a disappointing double game-week for the Argentinean, but it was probably due to his fitness still not being all there. What was encouraging was the fact that Pelligrini seems to building him back up. One can only hope that the slow progression in minutes from 23 to 56 in the double is just an indication of how he is being readied to play something close to a full 90. He was still able to produce an assist and was inches away from notching a second assist in the Liverpool game. Over 30K have transferred him in for the upcoming game-week and my guess is that many of them were really sweating profusely when they saw him starting vs Sunderland. He is still owned by a small percentage of the FPL world and considering the history that Suarez has vs Norwich, Kun would qualify as a massive differential for Cappo. He is perhaps the only player in EPL that can match Suarez blow for blow when healthy. Five days in between games will also help sharpen him up a bit before he faces West Brom. Let’s not forget early in the season the saying was “Kun for Captain when he is at home and Suarez when he is away” Guess what…he is at home. Yes, I understand he is a very dangerous choice because of his minutes and questions over his fitness. But if you are chasing and you are a bit desperate in your mini-league than he is an option. Because when he is on, he is on!

[divider_1px]

Branislav Ivanovic
Last week we tipped a pair of Everton defenders because of their clean sheet potential and their forays forward. When looking at the fixture of Ivanovic and his recent play, I felt that he had some of the same advantages this game-week that his Everton peers had last. His inclusion this week owes a great deal to the team he plays on and their defensive prowess, but it also owes a bit to their lack of offensive bite. Let’s start with the defensive reasons why a clean sheet seems like a likely outcome. Chelsea has six straight clean sheets at home and they happen to play the last place team in EPL. On top of Sunderland’s woeful output in general they also happen to be in terrible form. They have not won a game since a FA Cup win on February 15th and lost five in a row sandwiched in-between two draws in their last 7. CFC have 16 cleanies for the season and more impressively have 12 in their last 18 games. Branislav can also add some points to a manager’s total when he ventures forward. He has 3 goals this season and seems a constant threat on set pieces. More interestingly it seems that Mourinho has given him quite a bit of license to go for goal. In his last game his average field position was higher than Nemanja Matic & Ramires and almost equal to that of Andre Schurrle. The lack of a premier striker at Chelsea seems to be in part the reason that he gets so high up the pitch. When Chelsea starts getting desperate for a goal, one starts to see Ivanovic get higher up the field looking to solve the goal scoring problem. He averages 1.1 shots per game which is 4th highest among all defenders and it jumps to 2.0 per game over his last three. He is averaging 6.8 points over his last 12 games which means he has brought in a very impressive 82 points over that span. Always dangerous to captain a defender because a lucky goal can wipe out his clean sheet, but considering that Sunderland has lost 17 of the last 18 EPL matches vs CFC, luck does not seem to be on their side.

[divider_1px]

Captaincy Comparison
I put a little table together so you can see some of the production of each player over their last 4 appearances. Also added the amount of goals let in by their opponent over the last 4 games and included the goals scored by Ivanovic’s opponent since he is dependent on a clean sheet for the most part.

It is evident by looking at the tables that Eriksen is the hot hand. His 44 points almost doubles the output from that of Suarez. What the table doesn’t show is the possibility that Suarez might take on Norwich without Sturridge. If that is the case then we need to account for the extra 2.5 points per game that he gets when Daniel is not with him. He averages a paltry 11.4 ppg when he is the lone forward, so it is obvious his immense chances of scoring only enhance if his strike partner is on the shelf. You must also notice that Kun has barely any minutes over the last 4 games, yet his points are not that far behind. In fact if his minutes were 360 like most of the others, his points would add up to one more than that of Eriksen, if his current production level did not change.

[divider_1px]

Punt of the week: Emmanuel Adebayor
One could make a case that he belongs up top with the main candidates. Adebayor has played in only 17 of 34 of Tottenham’s games. Yet he has produced 10 goals, 5 assists and 16 bonus points. If we were to project those numbers out over 38 games we would be looking at 22G, 11A and 36BPS. Unfortunately he rode the bench for a long time so all we have to go on is what he has actually done. If not for a missed penalty last game he would be on the radar of many more managers. He plays for a side that has scored eight goals in the last two games and they are facing the worst defence in the EPL. Is he worth a shout? Yeah, I believe so.

Thanks for reading Captains Picks Game-week 35, this article was written by Mito21

[polldaddy poll=7768682]