Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 17

Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 17 2017/18

Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 17. Four writers. Four different Captain Picks. Four competitive beasts. This smacks of Four Ball time!

The heat is on and the testosterone is high. Mito is sweating in the corner, hoping the drug testers don’t notice him. Cookie is primed, ready and waiting to go, and don’t worry he’s been briefed that a left-back is a no go here. Kop is googling the meaning of positive and Init is looking at the rest and simply shaking his head, as usual :

We have a 4 ball on the go – one pick each, the best pick wins.

Init: Harry Kane vs Brighton (H)

You snooze, you lose. Yeah ok, I got the prime pick here. And if you go with one of the other guys you will be in the minority for sure. Off the back of a 2 goal haul and with another plum home game, what could possibly go wrong?! Well, lots….

Apparently he is trolling us. So they say. They may have a point though…

– The last time he got a double (GW9 vs Man Utd) he then went and blanked for 3 straight weeks. Literally. No goal or assist until GW13.

– Prior to that he grabbed a double in GW7, two in fact as he grabbed one in GW6 also. And then proceeded to blank against Bournemouth at home.

– Prior to that he got a double against Everton away. And then blanked against Swansea at home.

The trouble with ‘trolls’ is that they get you either way. Dare you to, or more so, dare you not to…

Kop: Mo Salah vs West Brom (H)

I’m not usually one for singing and those who have had the misfortune of hearing me sing will tell you why. But I’m in a good mood today as it’s my birthday and I’m beginning to feel a little festive so I’ll give you a few bars.

This goes to the tune of Horse With No Name by Neil Young,
“We bought the lad from Roma and he scores every game
He’s Egyptian and he’s brilliant and Mohammed’s his name
Mo Salah lalala Mo Salah lalala”

Ok, so he doesn’t score every game but he has scored in 10 of his 16 league appearances this season, scoring a total of 13. Including eight in his last six games.

Now I’ll dazzle you with some stats:

Over the course of the season –
– He’s had 108 touches in the opposition area. Only two players have had more.

– He’s had 61 goal attempts. Only Harry Kane has had more.

– He’s had 32 attempts on target. More than any other player in the league.

Over the past four games –
– He’s had 31 penalty area touches. His standards have obviously dropped of late as six players have bettered this.

– He’s had 19 goal attempts. Again, only Harry Kane betters this.

– He’s had seven attempts on target. Tied with three other players.

What about Wednesday night’s opponents? The Baggies have kept just four clean sheets in 16 games and three of these came in the opening five games. They have just the one clean sheet on their travels. They’ve conceded a total of 22 goals.

So the scene is set for Salah to wreak havoc? Perhaps not. Why? Klopptation. My mate Jurgen has gone rotation mad. Against Everton on Sunday he left Firmino & Coutinho on the bench. Look where that got him? However, he’s unlikely to stop as he’s a stubborn German. With the two Brazilians likely to come back into the team against West Brom there’s every chance that Salah could be benched. But fear not. He was benched against Stoke in GW14 (also midweek), came off said bench with 13 minutes remaining and promptly scored twice. I wouldn’t worry about giving him the armband.

Hopefully that was positive enough!

Mito: Eden Hazard vs Huddersfield (A)

Fellow fpl managers when someone picks a product and tries to sell it to you, you want to know that they believe in that product themselves and aren’t simply giving you some greasy car salesman pitch. We will get to Hazard in a moment, but first let me address the other writers in this article.

After a little investigation I was shocked (not really) to see that Kop has never once backed Salah for captain this season. That’s right, so while he is selling you Salah, expect him to back Kane, like he always does, just check the record. Cookie my brother, at least you have captained Salah this season, problem is you backed Aguero on this article. He could be a great choice, assuming Cookie has some say in the City line-up. In the last 6 GWs alone, Kun has played 100 minutes less than Salah and Hazard, almost 200 less than Kane. One more nugget, last time Cookie felt it was time for Kun to shine and he made him captain back in GW10, he played zero minutes. Init basically tells you he got the prime pick or that we snoozed, NO! he just took Kane. no questions asked, he is a bully. Just be aware, out of the four of us, Init is in the worst form when picking captains. Over the last six GWs Init has 70 points, Kop has 78, Cookie has 80 and I have 88, when our captains are multiplied by 2.

I am personally between Kane and Hazard and I will make up my mind at the last minute, how’s that for honesty? I have picked Hazard two out of the last 3 weeks and Kane in the other week. So you know I am being truthful about my pick and dilemma for this week. Look, we all can see what Salah has done, well maybe except Kop, since he refuses to captain him, unlike the rest of us on this article who have actually captained him at some point. Besides with Coutinho definitely starting next game, expect Salah’s points to be down. 3.7 less fpl points per game for Salah when the Brazilian starts. We all know what Kun is capable of, but Pep doesn’t even see him as important enough to play him in a derby, so what’s to say he even starts next game. We have to be blind to deny what Kane can do, but remember Init is a bully, yeah, that’s all I got. Stand up to bullies! As far as Hazard, our eyes don’t deceive us, he is just more talented. Sure, talent doesn’t always equal points, otherwise Lukaku be on zero still. 😉 Just know that Eden is going to have the ball. He easily and I do mean easily out touches the other captain choices, so you know he will be involved, not left waiting for good service. 70% of his shots (14 out of 20) over the last 6 weeks were on target which helps for bonus points. The other 3 are about 40% or lower. Huddersfield tends to keep it tight, well, until they are forced to attack because they are down in a game and if that happens it gets messy. Just know that if CFC get up in this game and it creates space for Hazard, he could easily go for double figures, but with pens and the attack running through him even if it is tight he is still likely to get something. One goal from Haz could net you 10 points, in his last 5 starts he has received all 3 bonus points 4 times. The other three have to basically get more than a goal to get the 3 bonus.

In the end it is your choice, well, unless Init goes by your house.

Cookie: Sergio Aguero vs Swansea (A)

Horrified and quite frankly disgusted that I was barred from recommending Marcos Alonso or Martin Olsson I had to think outside of the box. Would I be able to get away with a right back – Antonio Valencia maybe? Apparently not. Kane was taken. Salah was snapped up. Hazard was also stolen from under my grasp. Never trust a northerner, a Liverpool fan or of course your average Colombian dealer. Still, I am not here to talk about the bleedin’ obvious. The others have that role 😉

My choice came down to Lukaku or Aguero. One out of form but with a good looking fixture, the other in and out of the team and generally doesn’t start away matches.

Having watched Big Rom look more threatening for the opposition than for United, I plumped for Aguero – the traditional FPL ‘go to captain’ of seasons past.

With Pep opting to leave Kun on the bench at Old Trafford, FPL’s favourite Argentian is now well rested and ready to be unleashed on the Swans on Wednesday. Enough has been written about City’s season, their scoring prowess and their attacking football but they showed at the weekend that they can win ugly too with a hard-fought victory in the derby. It may not have been pretty, but it was job done and now they will look to return to their free-scoring ways down in the valleys.

With the likes of KDB, Silva, Sane and Sterling creating for him, expect Kun to have plenty of chances vs the Swans. On his previous two trips to the Liberty, Aguero has scored twice and assisted once.

Jesus appears to be Pep’s striker of choice on away days, but with Jesus starting at United, Aguero is hot favourite to start at Swansea and when he starts away he performs – he has started just three away matches this season and has returned 9 points at Brighton, 20 points at Watford and 8 points at Huddersfield. The facts are there, the numbers are there, the proof is in front of you. It is often said in FPL talk that we fail to act on the obvious. Don’t say you weren’t warned folks.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 17

This article was written by Cookie, Init, Kop and Mito.

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Gameweek Tracker GW17-22
This includes all of the festive fixtures. This will be your best friend at Christmas. Take a screenshot and save it somewhere on your phone…