Captains Picks Gameweek 30 – FPL Fantasy Football Premier League

GW30 provides a whole host of potential candidates for your armband and it’s really a week that if you get it right, you will see your side climb up the leagues. On the flip side, getting it wrong may see some dreaded red arrows, so some thinking and work needs to be done.
With Sergio Aguero’s injury last night putting off many a manager from including him this week, who is a decent alternative to the Argentinian – is it now Dzeko time? With Liverpool playing at Old Trafford will the Suarez or Sturridge debate be as prevalent as ever? Will the Garden of Eden again be smelling of roses for Hazard? Will Rooney continue his good run against the arch enemy? Or is Lukaku too obvious a skipper to ignore? We’ll attempt to answer these questions and more as we look in detail at all the obvious options for GW30.

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Romelu Lukaku
Seemingly Lukaku is a very obvious pick for the armband this week. With Everton playing Cardiff at Goodison Park, a home win looks a near certainty for your coupon, the striker has returned from injury by scoring two goals in two games and Everton’s record at home is pretty impressive as they have won their last four. However, closer analysis suggests caution – the Blues have scored only ten goals in their last eight league games with Lukaku scoring just two league goals since the end of November. And don’t forget that before he got injured, some were questioning whether Lukaku can produce the amount of goals in this Everton side as he did at West Brom last season. Then again, this is Cardiff, one clean sheet in thirteen. He’s a good choice!

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Adam Lallana
Lallana seems to be appearing more and more in this article and with good reason – seven goals and eight assists this season see him lie behind just Eden Hazard & Yaya Toure in the FPL midfield scoring charts. Despite three scoreless weeks, he is still at the heart of most of what the Saints produce and of course his confidence will have been buoyed by his debut for the national side last week. From a fantasy perspective, a home fixture vs Norwich is about as good as it gets – the Canaries have conceded 29 goals in their last 11 league games – even Villa put four past them. While some other candidates have potentially tricky away fixtures, maybe Lallana as skipper is the gamble that will pay off this week.

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Eden Hazard
The aforementioned midfielder needs very little introduction as he is part of the furniture in this Captain’s article – and with good reason. Thirteen goals and ten assists make the Belgian the standout midfielder this season and this weekend’s game should provide more opportunities for him to add to his tally. Villa have not kept a clean sheet at home in seven league games and with the Blues seven points clear at the top, a confident and solid display will be expected.

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Wayne Rooney
Wazza, Wazza, Wazza – give him £300k a week and look what happens – 2 goals and 1 assist in two away matches says it all and as we mentioned last week, the ginger one does like to go on a run of scoring once he gets going. Can he do it vs Liverpool? Yeah course, Swansea scored three against them and Fulham two. So this should be a walk in the park for the cash King. It’s at the other end that United need to worry. Largely ineffective when RvP is on the pitch, Rooney came to life when the Dutchie was taken off before he was sent off last week at the Albion and at that point we saw the old Wazza – running the game, scoring, making chances, ah it was just like the good old days. No doubt Moyes will be working on getting his two strikers to have more impact as a pair, and if he can succeed then those fantasy points should roll in.

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Robin van Persie
I very nearly didn’t include RvP in the article, but I’m assuming those who own him will consider him, otherwise there’s no real point in owning him, if you ask me. Well, to me the guy looks out of sorts – rumours he wants to leave, hates Moyes and is jealous of Wazza’s bank balance – perfectly understandable if you ask me. But things got worse at West Brom last week where he ran about looking for a fight in a way that Alan Pardew would be proud. RvP to Newcastle ? There you go, you heard it here first. But seriously, we all know RvP’s talent and capabilities and as we alluded to above, if Moyes can appease and motivate RvP then anything is possible – four goals and an assist in six games since returning from injury is still good and if Ashley Young plays, then penalties are likely. Wouldn’t be my choice this week, but then I’m up there with the worst gamblers in the world.

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Daniel Sturridge / Luis Suarez
Ah the old Suarez or Sturridge debate resurfaces after a week off. So which one, if either, will you choose? It really is gamble time here and I have included them as a pair instead of doubling up on saying “he’s in great form”, “Liverpool are scoring for fun”, “they are scoring against everyone” blah blah blah. So let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Suarez or Sturridge? Well, its best guess time as to what formation Brendan Rodgers decides to start with at Old Trafford. Young Joe Allen returned to the line-up at Southampton with Raheem Sterling benched, suggesting this may be the way forward for Liverpool in their “tougher” matches. Allen’s inclusion meant Suarez wasn’t isolated on the wing and was much more involved in the play, hence his improved scoring display. So can we assume this again will happen at United – possibly, but possibly not. It is understood Rodgers deployed this theory to counter Southampton’s higher pressing game and United don’t generally play like that. So there is also a chance that Rodgers will revert to the more attacking formation and go for it against a United defence that has not looked the most secure this season- though three clean sheets on the bounce will have helped with confidence….though two of those were against Palace and West Brom! Worth noting too that Suarez’s record vs United is not good – just one goal in five, whereas Sturridge has scored two in his last two vs the Reds. In conclusion, errrrm, not sure I’ve helped that much – but then generally I’ve got this choice wrong every time recently, so what do I know anyway?!

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Jay Rodriguez & Rickie Lambert
Saint’s two England strikers both feature in the top 10 forwards owned by fantasy managers and if you don’t captain one this weekend, you probably never will! We have discussed above Norwich’s ability, or lack of it, to defend on their travels. Both strikers will expect to have a few chances on Saturday with Lambert having the advantage of being the penalty taker and on some set pieces and also benefitting from playing through the middle while J-Rod has been pushed more to the left of that. It was J-Rod however, who scored the winner at Palace last week, so form is no issue. Both great options for the armband this week and if you own them, we feel they should be considered.

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Other considerations:
Seamus Coleman – home fixture vs Cardiff, who have failed to score in four of the last five away matches. Coleman also offers decent attacking potential, though be warned that Everton have not looked or performed as secure at the back in the absence of Jagielka.

Leighton Baines – as per Coleman but with the added bonus of being on set pieces and penalties.

Wilfried Bony – home fixture vs West Brom and we all know how good they are. Bony scores most of his goals at home and will probably score in this one.

Samuel Eto’o – with Torres injured, Demba Ba is his only competition, but expect Eto’o to start. With Villa unable to keep a clean sheet at home, you have to fancy Eto’o’s chances.

Edin Dzeko – With injury woes surrounding Sergio Aguero, expect Dzeko to see increased game time over the next few weeks. Fixtures vs Hull and Fulham may see some “Aguero dollars” going the way of the giant Bosnian.

Loic Remy – An away fixture at lowly, sieve-like Fulham, coupled with two home fixtures in DGW31, make Remy a potential diamond, especially as the striker has netted a goal in both of his previous two matches. He has been suffering from a knock on his ankle, so best wait for Pardew to give an injury update before buying him, but is it thought he will be ok to play.

Olivier Giroud – Maybe a surprising name to see on here, but with Arsenal coming away from Munich with great credit and Giroud having a decent game then he may be a cheeky differential call this week – and he does also have the advantage of a DGW31, albeit one of those games is at Chelsea. Also worth bearing in mind that Spurs are missing Michael Dawson, Younes Kaboul and Vlad Chiriches at the heart of their defence, a traditionally high scoring fixture should again live up to its reputation.

Well, I think we’ve covered most options there! But no doubt, there will be other names in consideration, so be sure to chat on the boards with any alternative thoughts and indeed who you be selecting as captain. Please also remember to vote on the Captain’s Poll below, the results of which should be very interesting this week.

Thanks for reading Captains Picks Gameweek 30, this article was written by Cookie

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