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
Rate my team please!
2 unlikely to play bench defenders would worry me but the rest looks strong! Maybe downgrade Lindelof and upgrade bench?
The way I see it, there are 2 unlikely to play defenders and another 2 that are quite doubtful (Lindelof and Davies). If United start with 4 at the back, Baily has on the CB spots and the other can be given to Jones, Smalling or Blind. I reckon with Trippier out, Dier will start at RB, so Davies is not nailed on.
Davies will play at left back, at least not Rose is back.
At least until*
Davies will surely start? Only fit fullback at the club! Appreciate advice of Lindelof, I’ll see if I can alter him and 2 bench defs
Help oh help!
Of the Man City mids, other than De Bruyne who else is nailed on!
Silva is the only other one I would go for but De Bruyne is safer
Tacticians – Sane, in my eyes, is as nailed as nails can be. I don’t have Pep’s Ozil-esque eua though. I’ll say this: last year all of them were rotated/rested at a given point, including KdB, but that was later in the season. I don’t expect to many rotation beginning of the season (except D. Silva, who won’t play consecutive matches with only 2/3/4 days between them), so if you see Sane as one of their normal starters (as I do) there’s no reason to worry about him.
Don’t see Sane with a 3 back being a regular starter. See him playing every game and starting some, but right now I have him slighty behind Sterling. In a 3 back system, 5 spots are usually used by defenders, assuming that Walker and Danilo did enough to start that only leaves 5 spots open. One will go to the CDM (Yaya or Fernandinho) KdB gets a spot, Jesus gets one. We still have Kun, Silva, Silva, Sterling and Sane left for two spots. I think it is getting complicated to count him as a sure starter, I wouldn’t even count Kun as one.
I don’t see them playing in a 3 back system. Not only do they not have enough CB’s for that, but also, and mainly, they are too loaded in attacking positions to be playing only 4 slots of those.
I reckon it will be a classic 4 at the back and that’s why I see Sane as a certain starter. I do agree though that, if they are to play 3-5-2, then Sane doenst fit well (one more reason for them not to!).
@DMC, I think they will interchange formations as needed, but while I agree they don’t have enough depth at CB, they could always use their full-backs to slot in back there, besides we are speaking about Pep, that fool will put anybody, anywhere. They played 4 pre-season games, in three of them they played a 3 back and played great, in one they played a 4 back and looked terrible and lost. It is just pre-season, but I do find it weird that he kept trotting out a 3 back every game if he little intention of using it. Sane could still play, as one game he was slotted at wing-back.
Mito – It’s Pep, I agree, but it’s also Sane, arguably one of the most reliable players in the squad. If he’s going to bench/rotate that guy he wouldn’t be buying Bernardo Silva.
I haven’t seen any pre-season games tbf but even if he wants to have an alternative then that’s just what it is: an alternative. Also, as you hinted, Pep’s 3 at the back at Barca feature Dani Alves as one of those 3 so if anything he’ll be deploying the WB’s in there which leaves more space for Sane. I’m not trying to convince you, just trying to prevent you from convincing me!!
Be an interesting game tonight.
Lukaku Cappo for me and also love a Sunday captain!
Bry I thoroughly enjoyed that, thank you sir!
To Kane or not to Kane thats the question ?
Have Aguerro , Lukaku , JRod
Alli as Spuds coverage .
Are you gonna make me change or not ?
75 goals in the last 3 seasons. Essential to have as a captain option for me personally.
With Pep around, I would play Kane ahead of Kun any day of the week. Difficult to have both Kane and Alli but if I were to have Kun I’d try to squeeze that extra mil to get Kane instead.
Long time reader; first time poster.
Can you please RMT
Foster / Elliot
Kompany / Monreal / Bertrand / Mee / Dunk
De Bruyne / Alli / Pogba / Milivojevic / Carroll
Lukaku / Lacazette / Gayle
Lukaku as captain for Game Week 1
Thanks
Jamie
Looks good Jamie but Gayle isn’t 100% for the weekend. There were rumours of a hamstring injury which Rafa denied and said it was more of a precaution because of the way the player felt. Keep an eye out for the press conference to get an update.
Thanks Milburn. Yes seen Gayle was yellow but who to bring in as cheap 3rd attacker???
I’m not really convinced with Austin or Rodriguez so I downgraded a mid and made him into Firmino. If he is ruled out then I’d probably do the same in your situation and downgrade Pogba as you already have Man U cover.
Yeah I did same Milburn. Not sold on Firmino but was struggling to find a forward. Only really saw Gayle as an option and he’s injured
Same Smash; I suppose the penalties do make him slightly more appealing however.
@Jamie welcome to the boards glad to see you finally stepped out of the shadows.
Looks real solid there, I will begrudgingly tell you to just follow the advice Milburn gave on Gayle. Not sure how much Rafa will give away, but just have some options ready just in case it looks like Gayle won’t go.
Here is my small piece of advice, Mee and Dunk don’t rotate well, but what’s more they don’t really go well with your 3 premium defenders. By that I mean look at Saints, Arsenal and City and check out what GWs (3,4,5,6 and 7 possibly) you might want to bench him and use one of your cheap spare defenders. Well the key in many ways to using cheap defenders is playing them at home vs weak teams. Mee and Dunk both play away in GWs 3, 5 and 7. Perhaps keep Mee and team him up with some from West Brom or Newcastle? That way you have all those weeks covered? Probably NUFC since finding a 4.5 nailed on starter from WB is hard, even if they do have Hegazi for now he might be dropped.
Wooo, that turned into a long response.