Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 14

Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 14 2017/18

Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 14. I’m rarely referred to as ‘a man of few words’. Indeed, some around these parts (Mito), have ribbed me mercilessly over my inability to keep my word count below Tolkien levels. Therefore, with time short and only 2 days between game-weeks 13 and 14, time, both yours and mine is precious. I shall endeavour to embrace brevity; no recounting my DIY mishaps, no shameless bragging of my latest ‘vacation’, no time for distractions.

The first mid-week fixtures of the season will give us all a glimpse of things to come; three game-weeks, played over ten days. Normality briefly returns for GW15, then we’re officially into the festive fixtures, and it’s looking busier than ever this season. GW16 through 22 will see 7 game-weeks in just 25 days. Imagine how many Hits and RMT’s Mitro will throw up in that short space of time? And If you think Pep’s rotation has been bad to date, buckle up, because you ain’t seen nothing yet…

Harry Kane (Leicester, away)
He doesn’t score in August, he can’t score at home, then he can and then he can’t again. Harry has delighted and dismayed managers in equal measures this season. When you’re the most expensive player in the game expectation and scrutiny will always be high.

Three of Harry’s four double-digit hauls have been on the road this season, but again he disappoints those who captained him in his last away game at the Emirates. A goal and 2 bonus points in GW13 offered relief more than satisfaction and managers will no doubt have been left feeling short changed, given the opposition and their current plight.

Einstein is often quoted as saying ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. Obviously Albert did not play FPL, lucky sod. Time and time again we hand Harry the armband, knowing he can explode in any given game-week. Maybe this will be that week (God willing)? In the corresponding fixture back in May, Spurs beat Leicester 6-1 at the King Power Stadium. Harry notched 4 goals, an assist and maximum bonus points, he finished on 24 points for the day. Perhaps Albert was wrong and we should all be a little insane once again this week?

Eden Hazard (Swansea, Home)
Starting the season on the treatment table, Hazard made things a little easier for FPL managers. Spoilt for choice, with a plethora of high priced forward options, it simplified our decision on how to appropriate our funds.

Hazard didn’t play a full match till GW8, the current world number one Damir TeNay brought Hazard into his team in GW9, in GW10 he handed him the armband, and was duly rewarded with 22 points as he scored his first goal of the season and took home maximum bonus points. Smart man that Mr TeNay.

In GW12, 2 more goals, an assist and maximum bonus points; 18 points. Last week another assist and maximum bonus points away to Liverpool; 8 points. 45 points in just 5 game weeks. He’s becoming hard to ignore.

Swansea sit second bottom of the league, they’ve lost 8 of their 13 games and haven’t kept a clean sheet on the road since GW5. With the return to full fitness of both Hazard and Alvaro Morata, Chelsea are starting to play without fear. Swansea could be in serious trouble this week.

With a mere 6.4% ownership, Hazard is still something of a differential, if you have him in your team, pat yourself on the back and give him the armband this week. If you don’t own him, perhaps it’s time to reappropriate some of those funds.

Mo Salah (Stoke, away)
Jurgen Klopp reckons on current form, Mo Salah could score 70 goals this season. No doubt sensing that he sounded more bonkers than usual, he did go on to say that this is however unlikely. Bonkers or not, Jurgen is clearly as enamored with Salah as his 2.5 million FPL owners will currently be. Prior to GW11, entrusting Salah with your captain’s armband could have been viewed as a maverick, but successive scores of 15, 16 and 7 (he was robbed of those bonus points!) in his last 3 matches have made him a contender week in week out. Salah is the top scorer in FPL (95) the second highest owned player (45.6%) and he’s scored the most league goals (10).

Liverpool put 4 past the hapless Hammers in their last away fixture, Salah scored 2 and took maximum bonus points. This week it’s Stoke who welcome Liverpool to the Bet365 stadium. Without a clean sheet since GW2 they currently sit just 3 points above the relegation places, time to see if Salah can do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke, I certainly wouldn’t bet against him.

Alvaro Morata (Swansea, Home)
In recent weeks the allure of the ‘Power 3’ forward line has very quickly faded. A quick look at the top 10 players in the world shows only one team currently playing with this set-up.

As planning has begun in earnest for the busy festive period (busy as in FPL not making sure that you’ve bought Baileys and sprouts), a lot of discussion within the FPL community has focused on the ideal front 3. One name that seems to come up time and time again is, Alvaro Morata. Whilst we’ve been dealing with Pep’s rotation, Harry’s blanks and Romelu’s lacklustre performances, Morata has jumped to joint second (with Kane) in the forward scoring table on 74 points; just a point behind top placed Sergio Aguero.

If you don’t have Eden Hazard then hopefully you’ll have Alvaro Morata, there’s a good chance he’ll be adding to his 8 premier league goals against the Swans this game-week.

Leroy Sane ( Southampton, Home)
I’ve decided I don’t like Pep Guardiola, I suspect I’m not alone on that one. So much has been written on Man City and their players that it becomes difficult to write something that’s not been written before. We’ve discussed Pep’s rotation policy at length, each week trying in vain to predict who will start. We hang on every word Guardiola utters, hoping it will give us an indication of who will start the next game-week, it rarely does.
It’s difficult to give your captaincy to a player who may or may not start, or worse, appear late on for a 1 point cameo, so with that in mind I’d recommend if you do choose a city player this game week, you pick Leroy Sané.

Sané has for the most part suffered the least from Pep’s unpredictable rotation, starting every Premier League match since GW6. He’s here on merit too; 6 goals, 6 assists, 5 double digit hauls, he’s currently the second highest scorer in FPL with 81 points.

Southampton will have taken encouragement from their 4-1 victory over Everton in GW13, but it would take a brave individual to bet against anything other than a City win. Beaten 3-0 in their last away fixture to Liverpool in GW12, they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet on the road since way back in GW5, and that was against Crystal Palace.

Given that Raheem Sterling was the top point scorer in GW13, you could be forgiven for wanting to hand him the armband this week, however note of caution, unless we are talking about Mo Salah it is rarely advisable to chase the points. Good luck one and all, may green arrows fall upon you and yours.

Note from the Editor
That sounded unintentionally grand! Just to keep everyone in the loop as to our article intentions this week –

GW14
Obviously it is a short turnaround on both GW14 & 15 so we are intending to post the Site Team ahead of GW14, after this article, probably on Monday night, wildcard and all, and then go straight to Live Match Chat. There will not be a Predicted Line-ups Article for GW14. As such. What we mean is that we will not be putting our usual slant and comment on each game but the article will however be updated in terms of the line-ups themselves. We will post in comments when that is ready and it can be found HERE. On Tuesday we will tweet all the press conference news and endeavour to have it posted in the comments also.

GW15
We will again have a Captain Picks article just after the GW ends. We shall then have a Site Team article and the usual Predicted Line-ups Article on Friday. We hope that is all ok. If not then DM Mito on twitter and see what happens 😉

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 14

This article was written by Rosco.

@eugoogooly

Gameweek Tracker GW14-19