Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 1 2017/18
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 1. “The First Cut is the Deepest”. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. First come, first served. Love at first sight. Make a good first impression. The first US President, George Washington. The first Tour de France champion, Maurice Garin. The first winner of ‘The Voice’ in Lithuania, Julija Jegorova.
To truly leave your mark or carve out a legacy you often need to make that first step count. Just like Neil Armstrong did in some 1969 Kubrick movie I saw.
Your first FPL captain of 2017/18 has a lot to live up to. Last season Philippe Coutinho topped the GW1 charts with a 15 point haul, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 9 points proved that FPL new boys can hit the ground running. Those of us swerving players from promoted teams may do well to recall Alvaro Negredo’s goal and max bonus point haul on day 1 against Stoke. Oh come on, you must remember him. He played football. Y’know, for that team.
Onto some of the prime candidates for this weekend then. A new face, some familiar old friends, and a huge Belgian who traded blue for red, but I won’t spoil the tension by revealing his identity just yet. First up…
ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE (ARSENAL vs Leicester City)
£52 million. Do you remember when that used to be a lot of money? Arsene probably still remembers, marking as it did a rare splurge for the Gunner’s record-busting marquee signing. Allegedly, Frenchman Lacazette used to skip English lessons at school to play football, and who can blame him. I used to skip geography class and it never did me any harm. Though there was that one unfortunate episode where I had to flee from Parisian cops across the sand dunes of Machu Picchu.
Just the two pre-season strikes against Sydney FC and Sevilla doesn’t give us too much insight into the impact he’ll have at home to the Foxes, but he showed promising glimpses at Wembley in Sunday’s curtain-raiser and was unlucky not to score. His 28 goals in 30 Ligue 1 matches leaves little doubt about the former Lyon hitman’s pedigree.
HARRY KANE (Newcastle United vs TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR)
Kane polished off the final two games of 2016/17 with a ridiculous 7 goals to become the first player to win the Golden Boot in consecutive years since Robin van Persie. Another goal in last week’s convincing 2-0 friendly win over Juventus at Spurs’ new Wembley home suggests more of the same to come.
An away trip to a newly promoted team, however, ranks as one of the trickier ways to start a campaign. St. James’ Park will provide its usual pulsating atmosphere, surely amplified even further by a return to the big stage after a brief hiatus; and Rafa’s boys will be keen to prove they’ve learned from the mistakes of yore.
But this is Harry Kane, and if you’ve thrown 12.5m of your FPL budget at him to make him ‘one of your own’, then you’ll probably want to give him the armband.
ROBERTO FIRMINO (Watford vs LIVERPOOL)
21 goals and 19 assists in his two seasons at Anfield thus far make the Brazilian an irresistible FPL option for many, spearheading a Klopp team that’s been set up to go for the jugular. Firmino’s productivity can surely only blossom further with the likes of Mane, Salah and (at the time of writing) Coutinho criss-crossing around him like the Red Arrows on methylphenidate.
Watford’s difficult season reached its nadir with a 6-1 thrashing at Liverpool, signalling the start of the end for former boss Mazzari. The Hornets scraped home in 17th, culminating in a 5-0 humiliation at Man City, and their fans must surely be apprehensive about the coming campaign. If both teams carry on where they left off in May, expect the odd Bobby dazzler.
GABRIEL JESUS/SERGIO AGUERO (Brighton vs MANCHESTER CITY)
The phrase ‘to hedge ones bets’ was first used by George Villiers, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, in his 1672 satirical play ‘The Rehearsal’. I don’t know why I brought that up, but there you go.
It’s likely that you’ve got one of Jesus or Aguero. It’s unlikely that you’ve got both. If you have? Well then I can only… umm… OH LOOK OVER THERE! *runs away*
A look at their average points per 90 from last season shows that maybe it IS worth having both Jesus (9.26) and Aguero (6.55). Both have had their injury problems though and City’s squad depth exposes even these two to occasionally being ‘Pepped’. Is that a thing? No? Sod it, it is now. We should be able to enjoy the two of them sharing points aplenty at least until the Champions League rolls into town.
ROMELU LUKAKU (MANCHESTER UNITED vs West Ham)
£75 million. Do you remember when that used to be a lot of money? Nope, neither does Mourinho who had already set the precedent for this summer’s monstrous displays of profligacy with his 2016 purchase of serial woodwork abuser Paul Pogba. Our boy Romelu however, doesn’t need to re-calibrate his shooting accuracy as he’s already shown with a few goals in pre-season.
Being pipped at the post for the Golden Boot by Kane may give him even more fire to reach the 30 goal mark this time round. Starting against Joe Hart will help, a man who should perhaps concentrate less on his head & shoulders, and more on his hands & arms.
West Ham, to be fair, have bought well during the summer and look like an exciting prospect. They’ve been leaking goals for fun in pre-season however, and one would expect Lukaku to make a big impact on his debut.
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Gameweek Tracker GW1-11
My planned 3-5-2
I don’t think Walcott starts but you have a lot of decent players in there
Wally to Zaha
Decent enough player.
hey Nishant.. how’s things?
I’ve got Walcott in as well.. new haircut and all… Is he going to play though? just posted my team below..
I am well mate thank you
How about you?
And I think Wally should start
Not sure though
All good here in sunny Florida..
Do you think Alexis starts on Friday? I’m having a tough time visualizing what Arsenal’s 11 is going to look like..
This is a decent team, Nish. Only thing I would say is the same as the others and that is does Wally start??
Allright boys and girls, Been delaying posting a RMT until most of the chips fell into place with the big clubs.. here’s where I’m at post Pancho’s gut post.. What are your thoughts?
just read above about Danilo and it doesn’t sound encouraging.. Would love some City defender though.. Anyone at 5.5 who is nailed for them? Otamendi?
I like your team mate
Lejeune and Danilo are two players I am not sure of a start
But other than that, it’s a solid team
yeah.. couple of headaches, but nothing that can’t be fixed with like for like swaps..
Jesus + DDG/Elliot
or
Kun + West Brom keepers ?
Jesus + DDG/Elliot
+1
Ha I’m going with Aguero and West Brom keepers
Thoughts.
No1…
I feel that Kolasinac is overpriced.. and i personally wouldn’t feel comfortable with 2 4mil defenders on my bench GW1. I like the Atsu pick as he’s looked good pre-season.. i think i’d downgrade Kola.. upgrade Mason and see what kind of funds you’ve got after that..
Great front line and top 3 defenders, but the midfield seems a bit light to me. I would downgrade Kolasinac, and maybe even Firmino, to upgrade Ward-Probse.
But this is very arguable!
And indeed, 2 4M defenders leave you with no safety margin in the back, in case of injury or rotation of your main 3.
MANCHESTER UNITED TEAM NEWS
Team to face Real Madrid: De Gea, Valencia, Lindelof, Smalling, Darmian, Matic, Herrera, Pofgba, Mkhitaryan, Lingard, Lukaku.
Subs: Romero, Blind, Carrick, Fellaini, Mata, Martial, Rashford.
Very interesting. 4 back with Darmian.
Cheers Hatter.
Woe, is Mikhi pushed to the wing or Pogba or?
Yeah Pogba on the left I believe
That is the formation I’m expecting them to play.Mkhi on wing
It’ll be a 4-3-3. Pogba on the left of the first 3, basically his Juve position. It’s not a wide position though, it’s a fairly narrow 3.
That’s why I can’t risk Martial or Mkhi when Lingard gets random starts
Mkhi keeps playing. Another good game and he’s in my team.
And yeah 4-3-3. Pogba left of the three or advanced with the other two pushed back, Init?
Starts off as per below but basically yeah when they’re attacking what you say, he goes and plays wherever with Matic staying put.
Left of the three I reckon
Cheers both. Need a good review of Mkhi and Pogba from someone able to watch it 😉
Not watching but FotMob switched it to this
Let’s see how defensive we can play 😉
It’s 4-3-3 though I’ve still not found Lingard
Evening lads!
Great articles already this season, they just keep getting better and better.
Hope you’re all keeping well, anyway! With just 72 hours until the new season kicks off, the excitement is building and I’m looking at my team with a frown more and more!
I’d really appreciate your thoughts on below.
Swirly I’d be switching Matic and Jags. Matic won’t provide much in FPL. Jags playing is dependent on us playing a back 3. If it’s 4-4-2 he doesn’t play. Fixtures are awful after GW1 anyway.
I agree with the remarks on Jags and Matic.
Also, I would be afraid not to have City attack coverage. What about grasping 0.5 and updating Alli to De Buyne, since you have Kane anyway? Or the other way around, Kane to Kun, and you get one extra million to upgrade Matic?
Cheers guys – really good points. Will have a tinker!