Fantasy Football Captains Picks Gameweek 4
When asked by the FF247 beaks if I would like to help out with the captains article, without a moments hesitation I said ‘yes’. Then a few minutes later I thought… I HATE the captain rule. Absolutely essential to the game I admit and I would never want to see it taken away but are you like me? Do you see the ‘Team of the Week’ being boosted by a relegation-haunted reserve centre back with a captain’s armband on, who has just scored the first two goals in his career and kept a clean sheet against the strongest team in the league and some guy down in 3 quillionth place rises a zillion places because of it? And you think? How? How can you possibly have captained him? Just me? OK let’s go…
ARSENAL v MANCHESTER CITY
Starting with the game of the week – there will be lots of choices in this one. For Arsenal we have Ramsey, Alexis and Welbeck (two goals this past week for England and confidence given a huge boost). For the visitors, Toure, Silva (Monday night scorer for Spain), Aguero, ‘Dzovetic’. (I combine these two as your guess is as good as mine as to who will play). (editor – probably the Dz bit if the ovetic bit is as injured as it may first appear!).
The thing is though, very rarely will most managers back even their best players for the armband when they are playing a fellow big 4/5/6 club.
Therefore, there is probably greater point-haul potential to be found in our next three matches…
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CHELSEA v SWANSEA CITY
Week four and we have a ‘top-of-the-table’ clash with both teams putting their 100% records on the line. Swansea have professionally, and with clean sheets, dispatched both West Brom and Burnley at home after their opening day win at Old Trafford and will never arrive at The Bridge in better shape. Chelsea have started nervously, managing to run in only 11 (E L E V E N) goals in their first three matches! Irresistible force meeting the immovable object was coined for this one.
Diego Costa
Now at the time of writing he is an injury doubt (déjà vu here eh?). He played 60 minutes in Spain’s 1-0 defeat to France in Paris last week and it then emerged he had a hamstring strain and was excused Spain’s qualifier against FYR Macedonia on Monday night. A few of his Spanish teammates (Sliva was one) tweeted late last week that Costa was ‘fine’. I would say wait for Mourinho on Friday for further details but would that be any use to you after last week’s presser? Seriously though, there will surely be some update come Friday.
Statistically the man has four goals in three league games including two in his latest league outing at Everton (in which he also created two ‘big chances’). The only slight concern is the red-mist which seems to never be far away. He was involved in an altercation with Tim Howard in the Everton game having allegedly goaded Seamus Coleman about his own goal.
The sensible move if you do plan to captain him would be to have the ‘next best’ in your squads with the Vice Captain title.
Eden Hazard/Cesc Fabregas
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[/three_fourth]Many teams will have either Haz or Cesc and many will see this as a safer bet than the doubtful Costa which is fair enough. The thing is, Eden Hazard too, has a yellow flag currently but he has a goal and assist this season so information about him on Friday will be key because he will be a sure-fire starter.
As Costa has four goals, Cesc Fabregas has four assists and Chelsea’s tempo seems to be set by the classy Spaniard. He will be central again for the Blues and comes off the back of ninety minutes for Spain on Monday, a game in which he took all Spain’s corners and received a yellow card for a poor second half challenge. Both have solid captaincy claims.
Gylfi Sigurdsson
A huge favourite in fantasy football, the Icelander has a goal already this season at Old Trafford no less, but this one should be a notch or two tougher than that trip. But then he also has four assists in three games – one for the adventurous manager to captain, just to have him in your team may be enough for most.
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LIVERPOOL v ASTON VILLA
In recent seasons Villa have managed to give Liverpool quite a few scares at Anfield and that is something Liverpool will be looking to avoid this time out. The Villains come in to this one without previous tormentor, Christian Benteke though and Brendan Rodgers sadly will not be able to unleash the SSS (Sterling, Sturridge and SuperMario) in front of the Kop for the first time as Sturridge collected an injury on international duty and will miss a few weeks of action.
Raheem Sterling
This lad can do no wrong at the moment. For my money he is the most exciting player in the league at present, the best player in the England national team, the best fantasy prospect from Liverpool and the best fantasy prospect from midfield. He is 19! A home game against Aston Villa will have the appetite whetted for a number of his owners (42.9% currently) and a tremendous man-of-the-match performance against Tottenham last time out coupled with an excellent international showing on Monday, will have attracted plenty of favour for him. Interestingly, of his three shots at goal in the Spurs match, all three were on target and one resulted in his goal. One of the others was his fantastic dribble and attempt which his manager brilliantly described as being “a run like Ricky Villa with a finish like Ricky Gervais”. Don’t let that put you off!
Mario Balotelli
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[/three_fourth]What can we say about Mad Mario that hasn’t already been said, thought or written? He is a nice quiet, down-to-earth chap who is absolutely useless on the football field. There, I think I’ve done it . . .
The Sturridge injury has suddenly catapulted Balo in to the main striker role one would have thought. Although even if Rickie Lambert comes in, Mario will be in the team and looking to break his Reds duck which he almost did at The Lane on his debut. Plenty of Premier League experience and will have a few new owners but who dares captain him? Could be a stroke of madness or genius – much like Balotelli himself really so how appropriate indeed. Twenty goals and three red cards in the league in just over two seasons illustrates the man perfectly.
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MANCHESTER UNITED v QUEENS PARK RANGERS
Manchester United are going to click sooner or later aren’t they? How many weeks can we continue to say that they are due to paste someone? Well their hand-picked opening fixtures continue with the visit of old padre Rio Ferdinand’s QPR. And oh yeah – they’ve thrown di Maria and Falcao in there too now. Now all you bigger boys play nicely and share out there – Louis is watching you.
Wayne Rooney
Captain of club and country, his solitary club goal this season came on the opening day defeat to Swansea but as with all United players, even though they have been nowhere near convincing, many of us will be attracted to the fact they are playing QPR at home. And that strangely will still be many a manager ‘sold’ on the idea. Shrek will hold the trump card as penalty duties would seemingly lie with him and he is a guaranteed starter amongst the United multi-piece jigsaw.
Angel di Maria
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[/three_fourth]He has warmed up for QPR by single-handedly taking apart the World Champions and in their own garden as well. Can’t be bad that. ADM (love it when a player in fantasy becomes known by three initials!), assisted the first three goals and scored the fourth himself for Argentina in their 4-2 drubbing of Germany in Dusseldorf last week. As a direct result, since his debut at Burnley a week past on Saturday, his transfers in stands at 127,192 for the week and equates to a 7.3% ownership. I would guess a great number of his owners will be handing captaincy duties to the Argentine and I would be in no hurry to talk anyone out of such a move.
Radamel Falcao
The Colombian has been brought in on a one-year loan deal from Monaco and so far, the £11.0M striker has just a 3.9% ownership. Now I would imagine a huge number of Wildcard Teams this week will carry him but this can only be based on his past exploits WHEN 100% FIT. He is clearly not at present. Will he be pitched straight in to this new league from minute one or will LVG manage the man properly? It would be no surprise to see him coming off the bench this weekend and in that case makes captaincy of him a tad risky. But sometimes risks work…
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Author’s tips
I suggested in the early discussions of this article for this season, that the author should put his head on the block and pick his top three each week (I hope it catches on – sorry, colleagues).
Well I’ll practice what I preached and give you in traffic signal order:
RED (Take a wild punt if you have him) – Branislav Ivanovic
AMBER (Proceed with caution) – Diego Costa
GREEN (If you have him, armband him) – Raheem Sterling
I hope you enjoyed this article and don’t forget to vote on the Captain’s Poll.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football 247 League Updates – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer
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Can I just post my team..? Here it is. WC baby. Still a couple of days away so changes can be made
I have 2.7m in the bank and plan on Naismith —-> Welbeck maybe this week, maybe next…
Should I try to get Balo and / or Fabregas in there ? These are the 2 i’m worried about not having. Oh and I realise I have no Ramsey, that is on purpose. I am not having him until GW8 NiIN 😉
Demsie…. No Rambo? No bloody Rambo? That’s it, we’re not friends anymore!
Tadic >> Cesc, oh yeah 😉
haha Nin ! I knew you wouldn’t be able to not mentionhim, so I put that little precursor in for you !
The thing is.. Tadic —-> Cesc doesn’t give me enough cash to upgrade Naismith —-> Welbeck and I really do think that’s more important. I only had Naismith really for the price rise so will be shipping him out.
So really, I only have 1.1mil left.. With Welbeck
Demsie, Welbeck over Naismith any day for me mate
Yeah Cookie mate, and for me
Demise
Welbeck over Naisy mate.
And you won’t be benching Siggy come Saturday surely?
No GP.. That’s just my team.. not my lineup for the weekend.. It’s just the way my team fell after I made the transfers mate..
Won’t be capping Di Maria either I don’t think !
Demise, play Siggy over Boyd.
Ok, looking for votes while there’s some heated debates taking place…
A- Bojan > Naismith with my 1 FT
B- Terry > Pieters and Bojan > Welbeck (or Abel Hernandez for a cheeky punt?) for a -4
A Colires……selling Terry for a hit likely to cost you points this week
Agreed, I’m not crazy about dumping Terry but just wondered if Welbeck would outscore Naismith in the long run to make it worth it. Plus I don’t see many CS’s in Chelsea’s future looking at fixtures….
Colriles,
yes I think Welbeck will easily outscore Naismith long term, but maybe not enough short term to justify that hit, in my view. If you can find a way to work him in over 2/3 weeks, I think that would be better.
Colriles.
No Hits. ‘A’ for me.
GP.. I never knew you were all Prata like ‘no hits’ !!
What, not never ever no hits ever ?
Demsie,
No just my latest fad. I’ll break soon enough.
To be fair GP I think most who have that mantra do… sooner or later
I’m with Cookie, in a round about kind of way.. Deffo not B.. but do agree you need to get Bojan out..
But i’m not really sure I can condone A either…
Cheers gang. Agree Demsie, but no other real options at 5.5 or under for a straight swap. Feel like i’ve been looking at this for months! Damn you Intl break!!
Ha Colriles.. I feel the same. And to boot I activated my WC on Mon the 1st.. I haven’t looked at my wife or kids since…
I think they secretly hate me
My kid still tries to eat the ipad, so I have to do my FPL’ing at work!
A, for sure.
Got some brilliant feedback last night on my work in progress WC team – thanks. I’ve taken that in and had a bit of a rethink on 1 or 2 things today. Basically having both Baines and Ivan means I lose Cesc down to Tadic. That doesn’t seem worth it to me so here’s my latest ‘go’. Baines is in but could become Ivan with a tweak or 2.
So main questions really are –
A. Baines and Ivan and Tadic or
B. Baines / Ivan, Moreno and Cesc
Baines or Ivan?
If the Costa news is bad or inconclusive I’m even considering Rooney for him as a very temporary measure. Di Maria can become Ramsey in a few weeks if that’s not working out.
Oh and anything else?!
And oh yeah ignore the 2 keepers I’d had enough by that stage!
Init, good evening.
I like the Baines & Moreno combo. Presumably you’d play them every week. So Clyne works well plus maybe a Hull defender to come in when you don’t want to play Clyne? Don’t like Heidera, could lose out to Dummett at any time.
Guess you are right on budget though – so could be tricky? How bout a 5mln Saints defender instead of Clyne? Maybe give you enough to upgrade Heidera to Hull?
You know the concerns on Duff vs Keane.
Thanks Cookie, great suggestion on Hull defender I’ll take a look at that one. Just trying to nail the core initially really but I imagine I’ll spend just as much time with the fiddly bits / bench fodder!
So you’d say Baines over Ivan?
Yeah
Wow Init, that’s a lotta changes. At least no-one can say you aren’t getting your money’s worth with this WC! The Cesc option looks much better to me, and Ivanovic over Baines for my money too.
It’s not that many! Ignoring the 4.0m odd players (yeah they’ve changed but they could be anybody really) the core changes are –
Ivan to Moreno
Tadic to Cesc
Jelavic / Pelle to Welbeck
Would you do those?
Yo init mate… No love for Aguero here ?
Liking the team mate, but that’s just one thing that sticks in my craw… No city coverage full stop even..
I mean don’t get me wrong… I think Balo is a better pick for this week alone, but I plan to have Balo this week and keep the cash back, then get Aguero in for GW5/6/7 depending how crazy he goes
Demsie I know mate and totally agree. I’d love him in but keeping that cash back is difficult! Basically I’d have to jettison Baines or one of my mids and the point of the WC was to get Baines and Ivan (not the only point!) and I’ve already ditched one. Balo is on trial. What would you change so that I could basically do the same as you have and keep it back?
Init.. Well, I suppose that we have to make sacrifices somewhere.. if you look at my team below then you’ll see that I have sacrificed having a top end defender and gone with Tadic over Fabregas..
I wanted Baines too but i couldn’t make it work.. in the end i think i’m reasonably happy with my lot here and with the cash in the bank, it gives me something extra to work with. I have the cash to upgrade to Aguero and still 1.1 to upgrade somewhere else (if you have any ideas at all ???).
The difference between our squads is essentially Baines / Pieters & Fabregas / Tadic … And it seems you got there slightly earlier on a few players meaning you got them cheaper. I couldn’t have baines and Fab even if i wanted them..
I suppose really it’s all personal preference.. I just don’t want to be scrabbling around making hits in a rush to get in Aguero.. But you know about the best layed plans in this game too.
Thanks Demsie, appreciate it mate. Eerily similar teams and thoughts with those couple of switches aside. I can’t tell you what I’m going to do but only because I don’t know! Thanks for this, it’ll be one I’ll be back to study come decision time I’m sure.
So baically, in answer to your question, it would be a case of downgrading Fab… and possibly going with 1 playing keeper ? That would give you the cash
Haha init.. my team will no doubt change another 12 or 13 times til saturday.. But i’ve been working on this for what seems a lifetime and today was the only time i got close to being happy.. so i reckon this is very close to what i’ll be going with..
obv i have aguero in mine currently as another difference but currently deciding whether to punt on Balo for a week or so, or not.
Any tips? Got a dismal 35 points last week
Hey banana, it’s hardly a bad team mate, some weeks it just doesn’t work out. Jovetic is your main concern here due to injury. Well ok Zamora is a concern too but I assume you play 3 5 2 most weeks anyway. Just deal with Jovetic this week if I was you. Maybe straight to Dzeko or Welbeck? Hull and Southampton also have decent enough home games this week so maybe Pelle?
Thanks for the motivation haha. Yeah considering selling Jovetic and Eriksen for a slightly more reliable pair, don’t want to be taking too many points hits though, haven’t taken any so far!
Evening all,
I have been AWOL for a while but hopefully back now
(for now)
So my season start has been terrible, tried to use my wc to fix problems but made it far worse! That will teach me not being patient!
So here is my mess below. I was thinking of taking a 4pt hit Sturridge & jovetic for welbeck & aguero. Maybe not the best week for that move though as they play each other. Any thoughts?
Mate it honestly could be a lot worse. Rambo may well end up getting minutes and so yeah the plan you outline is a good one. Personal I would then be looking to off load clichy with next ft versus monitoring Rooney outlook after qpr game.
Totally agreed about Rooney & clinchy ….. Also dummett has zero minutes in week 3 so another contender to be shipped out. Bit of a pain Rooney has decreased in value though.
Yeah true that, but 0.1 ain’t the end of the world. Just imagine if he gets a brace and Falcao only gets a 20 min run out….
Which may well happen….
Hey Seren, hope you are well and good to see you. Noticing a nice little row of red arrows on the right of that picture. Looks much like mine! Obviously your main 2 issues are those up top. Maybe wait until some Sturridge news comes out just for now and then make a call on it. Seems Jovetic is done for but if Sturridge is just a week then maybe sit on him.
Hi Init. I’m good thanks. I wondered if anyone would notice the red arrows
….. I’m not sure I know what a green arrow looks like! I will def. wait until after the Friday pressers ……. Anyone could still get injured fastening their shoelace or something!
RMT Please (wildcard)! leaning towards DI Maria and Moore/wisdom for Chester and silva though, what do you think ?
Go for it mate – roll that dice. For me the only City player this year will be a fit Aguero so why not see what ADM conjures up. I m basically saying this cause I wish I had the guts to stick him in my team but don’t!
Hi akd, I’d think long and hard about Falcao for this week. Really think he starts from the bench. He’s had something like 150 minutes of football since his injury. I could be very wrong though.
I’d do the Di Maria switch. Actually I have!