Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 2

Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 2

As is customary in these articles we start by running the rule over the previous week’s selection, So, how did they do?

Whilst Mito offered a compelling argument for Riyad Mahrez, in reality, it was a straight shootout between Swirly (Bruno) and yours truly (Salah). In the wider sense, it wasn’t much of a battle. When the game updated on Friday night, early data reported a whopping 92% had gone Salah (c) – crikey.

Bruno kicked off the ‘battle’ in the Saturday lunchtime fixture at home to Leeds, and as the final whistle blew, Bruno had amassed a whopping 40pts to those who had handed him the armband. 3 goals, non from the penalty spot – go figure. Game on, and the less said about the BruNO crowd the better.

For those of us on Salah (c), we had to wait till the final fixture of the day. It started with a glimmer of hope when he picked up an early assist for Diogo Jota’s opener and by the time he’d grabbed his second assist (who said he’s a greedy player!?) and the obligatory opening day goal (the only player to do so 5 seasons on the bounce) those smug Bruno captainers were suddenly very quiet. Bruno 20pts > Salah 17pts. Yes, Bruno got more points, but for the many with both players, it was a 3-point swing we can handle.

And what of Mahrez? Sadly, it was a 2 pointer for the Algerian. Shall we move on?

This week we have five more of our collective to present the case for their allotted pick. Kralin takes the Salah baton from my good self, Init snags Bruno, and will be hoping for an epic sequel to his GW1 haul, my favourite Portugeezer DMC makes the case for KdB, my brother from another mother Matt goes to bat for Mahrez and Kop argues the case for Son. Let’s see what they have to say for themselves!

Matt – Mahrez v Norwich (H)

City have just lost to Spurs. City also lost to Leicester two weeks ago. Mahrez was poor in both those games. He even got subbed off early at the weekend. Why am I suggesting him as a good captaincy choice? I believe he still is one that’s why! There are a few reasons as to why I want you to consider the Algerian winger for the armband.

His fixture against Norwich is one of the best of the weekend. Norwich are coming off the back of a 0-3 loss at home to Liverpool where they didn’t look all that good. Liverpool had a total of 19 shots, created 16 chances, had 11 corners, and were not caught offside at all. If the Canaries play that way at home, then you could expect similar, if not better numbers, from the blue side of Manchester when Norwich have to visit them. Liverpool’s right winger Salah had a hand in all three of the goals as he was given a lot of space, Mahrez might therefore find himself with similar space and chances playing in the same position. Even the shots Liverpool were taking seemed to be taken from Salah or Trent cutting in from the right or having whipped in a pass from the right. This suggests Norwich have a weakness down that side that hopefully Mahrez can exploit.

Another reason, I feel Mahrez is a good option is probably due to the injuries at City. Foden will likely not play, Gundogan seems to have injured his shoulder and may miss out. Bilva wants to leave the club. KdB might not be fit enough for a 60/90 minute appearance so I would say Mahrez has a decent chance to start for at least this match. I’m less confident on his starting after his performances in the last two games and having Pep as a manager but hopefully he will be given one more chance.

The last reason I have for Mahrez as captain is I actually didn’t think he looked to bad in the little bit of the match I saw. In fact, he had an amazing opportunity to score after he found himself alone in the middle of the box where he volleyed a shot wide. At first, I thought he had slipped as he was striking the ball, but it looked more like the ball came off his shin rather than a full connection. If he had connected properly with that ball, we could be having a whole different conversation. I’d say give the guy a chance if you don’t have Salah or Bruno as you could do worse!

Kralin – Salah v Burnley(H)

Another tattoo idea for Ivan

As keen readers of the site comments can imagine, I had to fight off Ivan the Terrible with a flail (even then he kept coming at me) to write about Salah. We all know Ivan’s enduring love for Salah is so deep that he pens poems about him (‘Can I be your Beau, Mo?’ is a pretty good example). There’s also the telling way he tries to talk everyone out of picking ‘his’ Mo for captain, so he can be the only one who actually does. I hate to break it to you Ivan, but he’s not all for you.

I waffle on about unrequited love because Matt’s done most of the legwork for me here – thanks Matt. Liverpool started in good fettle versus a game but slightly feeble Norwich. As er my in-depth analysis shows, Liverpool created a lot of chances and Salah not only slotted in an excellent goal but also created a couple of big chances, which were duly converted.

Looking a bit more closely at the data to back up ‘good fettle’, Liverpool (77) were second to Chelsea (82) in terms of fantasy points accrued by their players and, scrabbling around for the bit of paper that I scrawl such things down on, second (with 19) to the well named Gunners (22) in terms of shots. Lest you think this is a mildly desperate grab at random stats to back up my case for Salah, I would point out that he himself managed 5 of those shots, mainly in the box, and in the critical and in no way confirmatory-biased eye-test, looked in tip-top form (according to people who bothered to watch the match).

I know that his record versus Burnley isn’t great but this weekend will see Anfield full and in good voice, cheering on wave after wave of Liverpool attacks, and with that thought I shall wish you the best of luck for GW2.

DMC – KdB v Norwich (H)

(Photo by Matt McNulty – Manchester City/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)

Ok, let’s be clear: you are unlikely to captain someone outside the Bruno & Salah combo. And you are even less likely to even own the Belgium genius. However, those two were already picked so I’m left with the sneaky options. And amongst these, I feel KDB is a great shout. Guardiola did say he needs time to play 90´ but having come off the bench against Spurs and immediately having an impact in City’s game with a shot on target and a key pass in ten minutes I reckon he starts the game versus Norwich. If that’s the case, you should know that City trashed them in their last EPL home game (2019/20 season), just one year ago, by 5-0 with our friend Kevin notching two and assisting one.

Now Norwich didn’t look that bad against Liverpool but they still managed 19 shots and 14 key passes conceded. Guess who likes to shoot and make a key pass? Kevin de Bruyne is your guy for GW2.

Init – Bruno v Southampton (A)

(Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images,)

Two very differing GW1 fortunes for this pair of teams. One laid down the foundations for a possible title challenge whilst the other may have offered a glimpse of a long season ahead.

Bruno got his season off to a perfect start with a hat-trick, and there wasn’t even a penalty in sight. If you were brave enough to go without him then judging by the positions he was taking up you may want to give that particular strategy a bit of a re-think. Granted, I only saw the highlights myself, and as dedicated as I am I’m not watching the full 90 minutes of a game that I already know the result of just to eek out a few short paragraphs on here. What the highlights told me though was that there seemed to be a deliberate ploy to get him up top and in behind as a bit of a false 9. Whether that would be so evident with Cavani in the team and occupying those spaces remains to be seen but either way it was certainly effective. And with Pogba in the pivot, and in that form, it seems like a pretty decent plan.

The trouble I have here is not convincing you to captain Bruno, it’s more trying to convince you to wrestle that armband off Salah. And let’s face it it’s a battle I’m likely to lose. I’ll probably captain Mo myself! I will however leave you with this… since Bruno joined Man United in Jan ’20 he has 48 goals and assists in 52 PL games. Only Harry Kane has more goals than him in that period of time.

As an aside, and I appreciate past results have little bearing on future ones, but for the record Man Utd did Saints 12-2 on aggregate last season with Bruno helping himself to a couple of goals and a couple of assists across the piece. Meanwhile Liverpool’s aggregate was 3-1 vs Burnley, including a 0-1 defeat at home. Salah didn’t score any of the 3. Seems like Dyche and Burnley may have Salah’s number, feels like Saints have nobody’s number just yet, let alone a roaming Bruno. I may have just convinced myself to pop the armband on him.

Kop – Son v Wolves (A)

Let’s be honest, the obvious captains for GW2 are once again Messer’s Salah & Fernandes. Remaining on the honest track for a moment, I’ll admit that that at this stage of the season obvious is typically the best policy. However, allow me to make the case for Heung-Min Son.

Spurs v City was the standout game ahead of GW1 and Spurs certainly didn’t disappoint. They moved the ball at pace and aside from the opening 15/20 minutes, they didn’t give City any time on the ball. This was the type of performance which Spurs haven’t delivered in quite some time. Son was the focal point of their attack and he was ably supported by both Bergwijn & Moura.

Despite facing the reigning champions he put up some decent stats in GW1 – 6 penalty area touches, 2 goal attempts, 1 on target and 3 chances created. Actually, never mind the stats, he passed the eye test.

Spurs play Wolves this weekend and in fairness to Wolves, despite losing to Leicester, they put in a solid defensive performance. However, with Nuno now at the helm, I expect Spurs to take advantage of Wolves’ weaknesses and as a result, I expect a comfortable win for Spurs & Son.

The confessional…
This is where we ask our entire writing team to tell us who they think they will pick this week…. There are more caveats and get out clauses than a Lionel Messi contract but this is their initial gut feeling based upon who they actually own.

DMC — Bruno

Follow @DCoelho

Jamesimmo — Salah

Follow @James777Simpson

Swirly —Salah

Follow @theswirly

Horse — Salah

Follow @harryhorse2

Matt — Salah

Follow @MattyMcveigh

Loud Atlas — Salah

Follow @FantasyFooty247

Smash — Salah

Follow @Chrismartin1984

Kop — Bruno

Follow @KenLyons79

The Gallant Pioneer — Salah

Follow @MitchellC_FF247

Rosco — Salah

Follow @eugoogooly

Ellefcee — Salah

Floydeth — Salah

Follow @TinkerManFPL

Init — Bruno

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Mito — Salah

Follow @TheLegendMito21

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