Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 23 2017/18
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 23. Back to a bit of normalcy after that miserable DGW and there’s nothing like the old miserable regular game-week to get us back in the spirits. This week I was tasked with coming up with some captaincy options for you all to mull over. I was also told to not pick them and then spend a whole paragraph on why they were actually bad options, like I apparently did last time. Basically they have asked me to hide the truth… I can do that, I don’t have a problem with doing that at all 😉 In fact, if you must know there are a few things I live by, which I think would serve most people well, but let me just mention the one that is most relevant to this article.
“It’s not a lie, if you believe it” my uncle George Constanza
Now, now, don’t worry, I am not going to bend the truth that much, besides that would get edited out by the fun police, in some circles known as Init. This GW is a touch peculiar, because there are some nice fixtures, but the top players in them fixtures are not necessarily in great form, or indeed possibly injured. There are also cases like Jesse Lingard where you are slowly starting to trust him, but making him captain might make you squeamish. Then there is Kane, who some of you might have started to grow a special kind of ‘fpl’ hate for, the kind of hate that usually is only reserved for King Joffrey or your mom-in-law. Anyways let us get to the options and see if we can get you to try some rose coloured glasses on for one of them.
Harry Kane vs Everton (H)
Everyone who has known me for the last several seasons knows that I am the biggest Harry Kane fan. I have been following his progress carefully over the last couple of seasons and was on the he is ‘world class’ bandwagon before anyone. By the way, pardon the length of my nose as I continue to sing the praises of Prince Harry. In 20 starts, Kane has delivered at the very least a goal in 9 of them. So almost 50% there, which is not bad when you consider the huge hauls he has gotten this season. In the 9 games he did score, he had 7 of them where he grabbed either one of five braces or one of his 2 hat-tricks. The last time he faced Everton he scored 2 and grabbed the 3 bonus. If you think Harry is going to score in this fixture, then he looks the best choice because of his propensity to score more than one when he does get on the score sheet.
A short story on a friend that we won’t name (Kop) he has captained him 11 times this season and Harry has failed him 7 times. Now, I know I said I would not be negative on a player and I am not, I am being negative on Kop. In the other 9 weeks he owned him (didn’t own him for 2 GWs) if he captained Kane he would have had 5 hits on his big C for that week.
Eden Hazard vs Leicester (H)
Fixtures over form? Possibly there is a little of that here. Also, I am a Real Madrid fan and I thought our #1 and #2 targets should go on here as one and two, because in the end it is all about ‘Los Blancos’!
Leicester doesn’t look like a team that is that weak, so perhaps I am misreading this? Think again! Leicester have played 8 games vs top six opponents and have conceded two or more 7 times, so they are there for the taking. If you are wondering why I picked the top six, just know it was not arbitrary at all and it wasn’t to make the stats work in my favour. Frankly, I am appalled you would think such a thing. In the last 3 meetings between CFC and Leicester, Chelsea has scored 3, 3 and 2. If Hazard scores, it comes with an automatic 3 bonus. Sure, he might score and not get the full 3 you say, but that be the first time it happened this season if it did. So one goal and you are on at the very least 10 points, possibly even 11 if they get a CS also. If you still have him, he has to be considered, besides who else are you going to captain from this fixture? Alonso? …actually… Oh behave!
A short story on a friend that we won’t name (Kop) he captained Hazard once out of the six GWs he owned him for and it was successful to the tune of six points, having said that seven of his eleven players scored the same or more that week, so almost any captain would have proved successful. What is important to note is that he owned him for six weeks and he only got an assist out of him. Now, I know I said I would not be negative on a player and I am not, I am being negative on Kop. Kop bought him after his 15 point haul and sold him before his 10 point haul this past GW. Sounds like this is a ripe time to captain him, well unless Kop announces he is buying him back 😉
Manchester United vs Stoke (H)
How could I pass up the opportunity to write about one of my favourite teams in the world? Just couldn’t. I love them so much I couldn’t pick just one, so I went Pancho on you all and included the whole fixture so I could cram in several players from United.
Fixtures over form, part deux? Maybe. It kinda depends who on United you have your eyes set on. Lingard is in the form of his life, but is he too scary? Lukaku is well, Lukaku, but if you think United is going to lay a beating on Stoke, he makes sense, right? Then there is Pogba. If he is given freedom to attack he is definitely worth a shout, he has proven that through the season. When he is advanced he is a fpl gold mine, but where will Jose play him?
Lingard based on form and fixture is ironically probably the safest choice even if you can’t fathom the thought. In his last 9 appearances he has 7 goals, 2 assists and 8 bonus points. He has taken 13 shots in the last 4 games and he only played a half in one of those. With so many new investors and many feeling burned by Kane, don’t be surprised if Jesse becomes the pick of the rebels. I am not going to sit here and make a huge case for Lukaku and Pogba. The case for them is based on the fixture and their position on the pitch. Almost all the hauls that Pogba has gotten this year has been when he was advanced, even if it he only got 20 minutes or so. So if there is any indication that Jose will play him advanced, definitely consider him. Lukaku has to start scoring sooner or later, this is as golden an opportunity as any. Stoke City has allowed 26 goals in six fixtures against the Top 5. If you are wondering why I picked the top five, just know it was not arbitrary at all and it wasn’t to make the stats work in my favour. And Frankly, well you know the rest. In them six fixtures, the three away ones had them concede 17. Also, to add to that Stoke has allowed more goals than any other team. Being the only team to allow more than 2 per game on average. Trust me, playing away doesn’t lower the average either.
A short story on a friend that we won’t name (Kop). A couple of weeks ago a friend that we will call Cookie for the purpose of anonymity, suggested he buy Lingard. In short order this is how the conversation went. Now, I know I said I would not be negative on a player and I am not, I am being negative on Kop.
Anonymous Cookie: Lingard goal. Again.
Secret friend (Kop): He’s still a tosser
Anonymous Cookie: He’s still scoring.
30 minutes later
Secret friend (Kop): Hazard is nothing but a troll
Anonymous Cookie: Sell him for Jesse and bank the 5mln
Secret friend (Kop): Never!
3 weeks later (yesterday)
Secret friend (Kop): I might buy Jesse today 
Liverpool vs Man City
What is the final score in this one? To some degree you have to look at this one as you would Barry and Paul’s predictions game and guess the final score. That should give you a quick answer as to whether anyone is worth captaining. If you think this turns out to be a dull affair, stay away, but if you think these two will go after each other then this fixture is loaded with the best of the best in fpl. Eight of the top fifteen players in fpl are likely to start in this one, would be nine if Coutinho had stayed. The top 3 – Salah, Sterling and KdB could be involved, not to mention the 2nd and 3rd best fpl forwards.
Liverpool is the best defensive team in the league at home. However, do you believe LFC is great defensively or that most teams tend to sit back and park the bus when they visit Anfield? I think it is the latter, LFC is given the respect at Anfield that City is given everywhere. Teams are simply scared to go at them for fear of letting in a bunch of goals. Despite all the barricades that are put up by opposing teams against these two, they are still easily 1 and 2 in goals scored. Scoring an amazing 114 goals combined in 44 fixtures. The almost 3 goals a game and City won’t fear Liverpool and finally someone from Manchester will show up with enough balls to go at Liverpool which should also lead to the Scousers having their chances on the opposing goal without having to go around a full XI barricaded in their own 18. Their last meeting ended in a 5-0 win for City, but that was aided by a Mane red card in the first half. Before the red card one could tell that Klopp was willing to test the City defence and with the game being at Anfield one would expect that the attitude will only take on a more defiant nature. This could turn out 0-0 or 1-0, but the hope is this turns into a 4-2 or 3-3 and it could very well happen, if both managers are brave and seeing as that said managers are not named Jose nor Rafa, this could be real fun.
Aguero, Salah, Sterling, KdB and Firmino depending on who you own all look like options in this one. Just a matter of what you think the final score is and which one you trust the most.
I really don’t have a short story on a friend that we won’t name (Kop) for this one. All I can think of is that he would probably like me to mention that he never stopped following and supporting Raheem Sterling and that all LFC fans should do the same.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 23
This article was written by Mito21.
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Gameweek Tracker GW23-28
Many thanks Mito, very amusing as ever you fool!
#gojesse
#TeamJesse
Cheers for this Mito it almost passes for positive and upbeat!
I blame Kop for it not being a completely upbeat article.
You’ll be blaming me for Donald Trump next!
I would, but his mum is Scottish, so that blame goes to GP.
Yeah but she’s from Lewis.
I can’t be responsible for the Islanders. No one can.
Thanks for the Captain’s article, Mito!! Kind of a tricky one this week. Lingard has been fantastic for me since gw19, but I’m scared to give him the armband with Kane and his hordes of owners waiting for another one of those hauls.
For anyone wanting a bit more information on captains, I had already written this before Mito’s fantastic article was posted. Rather than just forgetting about it, or removing the bits Mito has already alluded to, I figured I would post it and leave it as it is:
Gameweek 23 feels like it is taking ages to roll around the corner following the jam-packed Christmas schedule. The ‘magic’ of the FA cup turned out to be provided by a naff children’s entertainer who was unable to fill the void left by fantasy football going on vacation. Newport beat Leeds (ha), Forest beat Arsenal (ha), everybody else bloody drew, Holgate got angry, Firmino may have been angry before the incident, Firmino was definitely angry after it, VAR was available for the first time in English football last night between Brighton and Crystal Palace, VAR was not used. As such, a quick change of focus to the Premier League is in order. Following the miserable six points Kane accrued for those sensible/foolish enough to captain him (or nine for those who triple captained him!) in the DGW despite suffering a dreaded bout of man flu, let’s have a look at the stats underlying this week’s fixtures.
Morata/Hazard: CHELSEA vs Leicester (3pm Saturday)
With five clean sheets in six at home (conceded one against Newcastle), Chelsea’s back line destroys the appeal of Jamie Vardy, although he does love ‘big games’ and Leicester have only blanked twice away from home all season (United and Bournemouth), scoring 2+ in 5/11.
If anyone still has a Chelsea attacker (does Alonso count yet?), Leicester have conceded 2+ away from home on six occasions this year, shipping four against Arsenal and two against United and Liverpool in what have really been their only tests.
Chelsea have scored 2+ in 6/11 home games this year, two against BUR, EVE and BRI, three against NEW, four against WAT and five against STO (you know, the game where Morata captains threw their TV remotes at the wall several times?). Chelsea only managed a solitary goal in total when Arsenal, City and United visited but Leicester doesn’t look like the outfit that mugged the bookies off anymore.
With one goal (against Brighton at home) in his last three, Morata is hardly on the same explosive form as others, and his impressive 10 goals and four assists in 19 matches is perhaps a little skewed by eight of those coming in the first six matches of the season.
Hazard’s six goals and two assists this season came in a seven game flurry several GWs ago with the exception of one goal he scored last time out against Arsenal away. Is another purple patch on its way?
Kane/Son: SPURS vs. Everton (5.30pm Saturday)
Oh, Harry. First you screw everyone over in August, and now you screw over countless individuals who triple captained you in what promised to be a masterstroke for the brave. For the latter, I should probably thank you, although you were still my captain following a last minute change from Son!
Kane has managed 18 goals in 21 matches, with a solitary assist (greedy b*****d). What is perhaps surprising is that he has only scored or assisted in nine matches all season, with two hat-tricks and five braces. He scored two of his braces and one of his hat-tricks at home, so it’s not like backing him at home makes the slightest bit of difference. If anything, it’s worse.
Following a slow start (marred by cameo roles), Son has been scoring for fun and has worked his way into the starting eleven, featuring in 13/15 of the last games for over 60 minutes, with his game time increasing week on week. In that time he has scored seven goals and made three assists, showing a great preference for Wembley, with only one goal (against Watford) coming away from ‘home’.
Spurs have scored 13 in their last four home matches, but only scoring 2+ on four occasions all season at the England stadium. Over the whole season away from home, Everton have conceded 2+ on six occasions, although since Allardyce took charge, they have conceded just three times in four fixtures away, notably conceding (only) one against Liverpool and keeping two clean sheets (against West Brom and Newcastle).
Firmino, Salah (if fit), Aguero, Sterling, Sane, KDB, D.Silva, maybe even B.Silva: LIVERPOOL vs. CITY (4pm Sunday).
Do you need personal stats? They are all great….
This fixture sees several reliable fantasy captains go head-to-head and, in doing so, arguably make themselves less appealing. Both sides come into the game without losses home or away, respectively, Liverpool with 6W 5D and City with 10W 1D, the draw coming after Milivojevic chivalrously missed THAT penalty to preserve Guardiola’s run. City have scored 2+ away from home in 8/11 this season, blanking against Palace last time out and only managing one against Newcastle the time before (are they crumbling!?)
However, Liverpool have only conceded four goals at home all season (one against Leicester, Everton, Chelsea and Burnley), and VVD’s presence hardly makes the task of breaking them down any easier.
Liverpool themselves have scored 2+ on five occasions at home, and 3+ on four, blanking twice: against everyone’s favourite team to watch, West Brom, and everyone’s second favourite team to watch, Manchester United. City have only conceded five away from home themselves though, somehow conceding twice against West Brom and one against Bournemouth, Huddersfield and United, coming into this fixture with three back-to-back clean sheets.
FWIW, I’d be backing City’s boys to unlock their defence here, especially if Salah is out (which now seems unlikely) and Coutinho’s departure will be a big blow to Liverpool.
Lingard: UNITED v. Stoke (8pm Monday)
I, for one, love a MNF captain. Forget Lukaku though, Lingard is the man of the hour at United. Pogba is well worth consideration, having notched up two assists last time out against Everton, but it is Jesse Lingard that is frantically being brought into teams. Players who decided it wasn’t their year after GW1 have been logging back in to bring this man in because of his form. He has god awful celebrations, but nine goals and assists (seven and two respectively) in as many games makes him a real gem at £6.3m. Do note though that he only scored two of these goals at home, and they both came in the same fixture against Burnley in a 45 minute appearance. I might leave Son in now after discovering this…
Stoke have conceded 27 in 11 away games, although this is skewed by City, Tottenham and Chelsea collectively putting 17 past them. Is it United’s turn? Well, after putting four past four of their first six opponents at home, Lukaku and United have become shy in front of goal, scoring just five in their last five Old Trafford outings.
If anything, I’m more undecided about my transfer decision than I was before I started writing this, never mind the captaincy pick. Sorry about that…
Thanks for this AT.
TLDR 😉
You can actually just write one of these for us sometime you know and we’ll use it as that weeks article. It’s not a closed shop, it’s a community site and so we encourage people who want to to get involved in the behind the scenes things and in particular article writing.
But if you prefer doing it as comments then that’s perfectly fine too.
Hahaha, the last sentence sums up that there is nothing of substance in it anyway 😉
Would be keen to help out if you’re short at any point!
Anytime you want to do one just give us a weeks notice and I’m sure whoever is scheduled will be happy for the break. That’s how Pancho ended up doing Fixtures yesterday, he just shouted a bit before and said ‘hey I’m free if you need me’. Sort of
Basically, stick so much as a little finger above the parapet around here and you get kidnapped and forced into hours of slave labour
Haha, will do. Cheers, Init.
Mito, thanks for this. Served as a passable footnote to the article that preceded it
On a serious note, you think Ronaldo will move in this window? What are the odds of Hazard going in the opposite direction? Would be pretty difficult as both would be cup tied for the Champion’s League, correct? More likely in the summer I would assume.
In all seriousness, thanks for the article. Always entertaining!
I seriously doubt either move in this window, winter transfers make summer transfers look easy. Plus as you said they are cup tied. Madrid have nothing to play for but the Champions League. Ronaldo should have been sold in the summer, where they could have still got a great price.
Alright, the time is getting closer for me to make a decision. What to do with this lot? Thinking of possibly saving the FT or using it in defense to finally get rid of Wimmer. Thoughts?
…
Does Wimmer enable a Man Utd defender at all?
Init, only Shaw…
Potential WC team. Thoughts?
You do need Salah and your defence is relatively weak but not sure it warrants a WC. I’d rather take a few hits over a couple of weeks right now and end up with the same result. The WC / BB combo for the big DGW is potent. DMC and I both stuck up what that did for us last season and it ended up with ridiculous results.
Init, don’t you think that a team like this will make up the difference over the weeks between now and a DGW?
This is a very nice wc team Pancho. I’d be a bit wary of Andy Carroll. I’m not sure if he’ll get rotated with Chicarito. What do you think of Depoitre?
Just think there’s more benefit in playing the long game. Fix up close to that now with a few hits. Then go balls out with 15 DGW’ers followed by a BB for the biggie.
Plus that allows you to get very close to said biggie with a normal team rather than gradually chipping away with players you may not necessarily want before it.
Matt, the Carrol pick is largely due to their upcoming fixtures and their rejuvenated form. They have as exciting of a next 5 fixtures as they could ask for, and I just see him coming alive. Chicharito has barely done anything all season, so I would think that Carrol’s brace in his last start will earn him the start this weekend. If he keeps scoring i think he keeps the spot. We know he can score goals if he can stay fit, and I would hope that he could stay fit for at least a month
I’ve never actually watched Depoitre, so I can’t really comment on him. His stats are not terrible, but I fear rotation for them as they try to put together a string of results to keep them out of the danger zone. I’m not too excited about him though.
That’s all understandable mate. It’s up to you whether you want to go ahead with it or do as Init says and do it gradually but if you do then that team is pretty set.