Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 25
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 25. As the two-thirds mark of this erratic FPL season approaches us, an intersection of thought naturally arises. The points obtained so far can be scrutinised, whilst new plans must be formulated. I’d like to spend some time reflecting on the former. Particularly, of course, with regards to points obtained from our captaincy selections. You’ve got a pair of options here: if (like me) you make things unnecessarily tricky for yourself, feel free to go through all of your previous Gameweek performances, counting the (doubled) total number of points that your captains have garnered; alternatively, having only recalled this website shortly afterwards, just visit fplmystats.com and, after entering a relevant mini-league’s ID that you’re particularly interested in, let it compute this for you.
Please, by all means, enjoy the short wait by doing something that isn’t sad. Find a human to talk to. They’d probably love to hear about your captaincy success rate!
Anyway, what’s your total? I was actually quite pleasantly surprised: 380 points, and only 95 points lost from non-optimal captaincy selections. Seeing as I’ve failed to break into the Top 100k Club so far, these figures arguably just reflect my shocking transfer decisions to date, to be honest.
The motivation of this (increasingly lengthy) introduction isn’t so that you or I can brag about relative totals. Not at all… right? The key comparison here: Salah’s current grand total for the season of 179 points. It’s certainly not far off the 190 points that my captains have garnered from GW1 to GW24 inclusive. That’s before you factor in the good fortune that underpins enduring just 3 blanks — some pitiful evidence that I really did count everything up manually first — and also Mo’s absolutely scintillating form. There’ll be more regarding that soon! Having him as a ‘perma-captain’ would’ve rinsed almost any other combination of captaincies over the past month or so. Perhaps we should keep this in mind before rushing to captain a DGW player who’s not even a nailed-on starter…
Sergio Agüero vs Arsenal (H) and Everton (A)
I won’t mess around: this man will be my captain. Hopefully, then, you skipped that rather misleading introduction. There are two main points to note carefully here: “13” = 7 + 6 for the two fixtures that Man City enjoy in this first DGW of the season; “6” is kind with regards to Sergio’s form. However, you don’t need me to tell you just how explosive he can be, nor do I need to clarify the rotation risks that Gabriel Jesus now causes. The most useful guidance that such an article can offer (in this contentious case) is merely just a collation of raw statistics. Since the 20th of January, the Man City squad has had 4 matches to contend with, and Agüero has (chronologically from the left) contributed with:
90 + 62 + 16 + 90 = 258 minutes;
0 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 goals;
1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1 assist.
Interestingly, only the first and last fixtures were PL matches, the two that he played for the full 90 minutes. It remains to be seen if Pep will sustain this enduring faith in his fitness and performance levels. The potential’s certainly there. Whether the TC should be played now or not, well, that’s another matter entirely.
Form: 6
Fixtures: 13
Explosiveness: 9
Mohamed Salah vs West Ham (A)
As we’re ‘rolling’ with chronological sets of statistics: (excluding Wednesday night’s hiccup!) {21, 2, 12, 12, 12, 2, 11, 15}. That might look familiar. Now, imagine rolling a (fiddly) octahedral die, knowing that you’ve got a 75% probability of a double-digit return being doubled as your captaincy return for the weekend. There’s a 1 in 8 chance, albeit only going off recent form, that a 40+ pointer’s all yours. That definitely sounds good! Away fixtures rarely seem appealing, but 46 of Mo’s recent 87 points — over half, that is, if you’ve done too much calculus today — have come from non-Anfield performances. Salah, yet again, is Mr. Reliable.
Form: 9
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 8
Raheem Sterling vs Arsenal (H) and Everton (A)
Another candidate with a strong potential for heartbreak. Certainly palpitations as the team-sheets are released! Raheem’s form has been less than poor for quite some time now, but with Pep’s persistent faith in him — only Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Ederson and Laporte have played more minutes in the PL so far — he still warrants consideration from his wealthy FPL owners:
90 + 0 + 0 + 90 = 180 minutes;
1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1 goal;
0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0 assists.
If you want a 180-minute Man City player, barring KDB or Fernandinho, then Sterling’s a strong option in attack, but he comes with no guarantees, form or team spirit. Newcastle have just inflicted a scathing defeat on the current PL champions; Liverpool’s overall momentum could sway the masses away from taking this plunge.
Form: 5
Fixtures: 13
Explosiveness: 7
Eden Hazard vs Huddersfield (H)
I barely trust little Eden enough to still own him. However, his output rate has been like that of an average male’s production of semen with time, as ~56.8% of his total points have been ejected by just 6 of two-dozen-odd matches. Huddersfield at home is quite possibly the best possible PL fixture that’s on offer this year, so side with Hazard if you’re feeling foolish but also brave, the weighting of which will only become clear on Saturday.
Form: 4
Fixture: 9
Explosiveness: 7
Leroy Sané vs Arsenal (H) and Everton (A)
Even though Sergio’s overall ownership sits ~7% above that of Leroy’s, my lurking eyes on the FF247 boards tell me that it’s Sané who’s currently the most popular Man City asset amongst regulars, and rightly so. His recent form’s been significantly better than that of his aforementioned counterparts:
71 + 0 + 0 + 72 = 143 minutes;
1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1 goal;
1 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1 assist.
Actually, that doesn’t look very impressive, but his most-recent 4 matches in the PL make for better FPL reading; he’s averaged 8 points per match and played 70+ minutes in each of these. You might have to contend with Pep’s frequent substitutions in both matches of this DGW extravaganza, but unless Mendy forces his way back into the team, Leroy seems to be your safest Cityzens bet.
Form: 8
Fixtures: 13
Explosiveness: 7
Good luck. Especially to those who free-spiritedly go for Richarlison or Siggy instead…
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 25. This article was written by Jamesimmo.
Follow @James777Simpson
James777Simpson
FPL FIXTURE TRACKER
FIXTURE TRACKER LINK
Vote on our Captain Poll Now
Welcome to our Fantasy Football leagues section.
The League Codes for FF247 for the 2018/19 season are as follows –
The main public FF247 League is sponsored by Starting 11, which anyone is welcome to join, can be accessed using the following code 1581-751 (auto-link below).
The prize pool for this is £250.
Join Our League – Quick Link
League Code: 1581-751
View league standings
Our Regulars League* for 2018/19 is now open and has a cash prize pool of £300 paid directly to the winners from the FF247 management team. The first 5 places are paid out in a tiered system.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code – elleffcee@gmail.com
*terms and conditions apply and are available upon request. Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis which is dependent upon regular comment / community activity.
Looking at getting Aguero in to my team.
Any advice pls?
I have 2FT and 3.6 ITB.
Possibly going to use my triple captain too.
Branchy
I’d save TC chip tbh
What’s your plan to get Aguero?
I’m thinking getting him too.
I would lose Rashford and downgrade either Digne or Anderson ?
I’d lose Anderson & Digne
Any help please ?
Sure it would be nice to have aguero for this dgw, but not at any cost. Its not extremely great fixtures even if there are two of them. I’d just do Anderson to son and digne to someone… walker maybe if you want someone with dgw…
Thanks for the help
Hey gang
Got 1ft zero bank
Is Auba to Aguero worth a hit 0.2 short for straight swap?
Anything else need fixing?
Team
Not worth a hit imho! Sane/Richarlison enough “cover” for the DGW I reckon!
Fairly split decision on what to do with Hazard.
Thanks for the poll Init.
Well well well… it’s really a tough one. Chelsea-Huddersfield looks very unpredictable to me right now.
I’m erring on the side of keeping him and then he can bugger off after that. That’s not influenced by the poll btw, just hours and hours of soul searching!
If I had hazard I’d keep him for Hud
I took him out weeks ago and I’m happy he hasn’t burned me yet, but that Hud match is the one I think he will go off and score a haul
It’s about as good as it gets really. In theory.
Even if he scores 15 points or more, I would still sell.
He’s out of my team, his last chance was this gw…
Mine too… I’ve given him ”just one more week” for three weeks now….
69 % are selling him,me included i think despite the fixture..
Good time to buy him then?
The spirit of contradiction! Could benefit from the new boy’s presence and set up assists all over the shop! Hahaha! Chelsea into 3rd spot! Tough decision mate – I can well sympathise.
Lies, dam lies and statistics eh Brooky! It’s slightly misguided in the wording for that 69% to be taken in that context but I certainly get what you mean.
A more guided question to get that stat would be ‘Hypothetically, if you owned Hazard this week, and given the great alternatives on offer (Sane, Sterling, Son etc), but bearing in mind his plum fixture, would you sell him this week?
Yes
No
If I was minded I’d probably put that out there too but I couldn’t be bothered with all the ‘you already asked this’ responses and then having to explain the subtle difference
Who are you selling him for?!
Yeah about 40% of statistics are lies,hence why politicians use them so much !!
I thought the guided question was the twitter question to be honest !!
Pending injury news probably Sane as he is my easiest route,though i really want Son aswell !!
Been going over this all week in my head,i f he had hauled last night i would probably keep him.Form over fixture and all that plus 140 or 120 mins of Sane is surely better than 90 mins of Hazard in his current form ?
In fact heres my team,what would you do ?
2 Ft’s .5m itb.
Glad I didn’t ask then as you’re very switched on and didn’t notice it, would have been a hail of ‘again?!’
I don’t honestly know what I’d do there mate! I’ve the outlier of Mane rather than Firmino myself and so a mid switch / punt, whilst holding Hazard still, is much easier to execute here.
Gun to head I’d probably chance it and lose him for a doubler.
Pogba to Sterling. Firminho to Murray
We dont know if Pogba is ruled out yet,plus would leave me short and having to waste transfers for gw27 plus not a Brighton fan despite fixtures.Also considering Firmino to Auba in a couple of weeks.
Yes it’s probably best wait to see if Pogba out n I had forgot Brighton out of gw27 so scratch that sorry
sold him for son last week, hopefully he doesn’t explore. what moves you planning to do this week ?
Nice!
Not sure yet, toying with keeping him and letting Mane go for a City player. And then Hazard can go for Son. Possibly.
Any suggestions? 1 FT 1.9 ITB
Anyone?
I wait on Pogba news before doing anything since he eats the largest chunk of your budget of those who are flagged. If everything is ok with him, I probably move Digne and Wilson or at the very least one of them. Digne only get City this week and then has a blank in 27 and Wilson had surgery so he has to go.
Boruc looks interesting. I wonder if he got the starting job now
As long as Saints are doing well and he is holding up his end, he should.
You mean Cherries 😉
Excellent article thanks James. Being a Haz owner I feel compelled to keep him for Huddersfield at home, but cannot wait to get rid after that. For Son.
Think I will capo Sane this week and not chase the DGW too hard.