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.
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Evening everyone, hope plenty of green arrows among you this week! Think I’m gonna do Hazard and Kamara to Son and Jimenez tonight before price rise/drops …any thoughts?
Cheers
Will leave you with benching Fraser each week or similar Headache. If I had Hazard I’d probably hold another week or get Sterling for double
Cheers Who, yeah I know what you mean, dropping Hazard before Huddersfield at home is a risk, although Son vs Newcastle could be even more promising. Agree it’ll leave a benching headache too but I’m thinking ahead a bit tbh with bgws, dgws and bench boost in mind …intend to drop Fraser to Brooks and Ricky to Pogba too over next week or so …what do you think?
Son may not play full game weekend but after that should be fine I think Fraser to Brooks is sideways even though saves you a million. Digne will probably need removing for blank
Evening all! There seems to be a consensus that Aguero will play roughly 120 mins give or take. Do we think it’s not worth transferring Auba out for him? Do we think Auba will score more against City than Aguero will against Arsenal and part Everton or visa versa? Just wondering what moves to make!
My dilemma too mate. Am thinking to leave Auba in (good upcoming matches).
I have Bilva too who I may swap for Son. Bilva has not been playing much.
All the best!
Thanks Bees, you too mate! I’m wondering whether Aguero is worth the one week punt and then swap back to Auba before City blank! I wanted to ship Anderson out but Digne now poses another problem!
Rashford to Aguero and Pogba to Moutinho should help with the Aguero Auba merry go round think you should have the funds?
Hey Ronaldo! I already have 3 Wolves players but would also not be so keen on getting rid of the Utd contingency. I’m thinking Digne needs to go! He may return for the City game but I don’t fancy his returns just for that game and then he will blank soon anyway.
Brooks instead of Moutinho then! And I know what you are saying about Utd but could be less points on way with CL and cup congestion depends on who your mini league rivals have n whether you are chasing
Thanks for the tips Jamesnimmo.
Am I set for the DGW or is it worth a punt on Schindler > Danilo (to play instead of Doherty)? 1FT, £1.2m ITB
You could do Steele to Pickford instead for the double more guaranteed to play 2 games and still have Fab for the good fixtures
Hi;
Will we see the site teams transfer(s) tonight please?
Thankyou.
Nope. In a word!
We’ve decided to delay the article until tomorrow night. This is in light of an unprecedented amount of yellow and red flags! We felt it was impossible to make a proper decision this once without further information from tomorrow’s pressers. The fact that there were only 6 today didn’t help, and none of them did either particularly, for us anyway.
Hope this is understandable, we do usually try and go early but this time it was nearly impossible to do so without further info.
That’s fine.
I always like to see what your combined brains come up with.
Speaking from your own point of view – do you think a free-hit is a decent shout this week initt?
Not for me. I reckon there will be more pressing weeks to use (big blanks ahead), plus what are you really buying into, City rotation issues probably.
It was actually put forward as a suggestion for the Site Team but was shot down immediately. I didn’t actually get the chance to shoot (it already had a majority no by the time I saw it) but if I had the chance to shoot it down I would have done so
Floydeth did it to himself the moment he brought it up.
via GIPHY
He didn’t! He backed it up by voting for it. He’s immediately backtracked on a number of suggestions since though, so I’d maybe forgive the confusion
Purely out of curiosity. Which of you lads make up the site team committee? I know you do init and cookie I think…
Hi Perm, it’s Mito, Kop, Cookie, Floydeth and myself. Five man committee and so 3 votes on anything gets a majority and we move on to the next. In a very basic nutshell.
Wish it was as simple as it sounds.
It’s a healthy-ish debate if nothing else. And generally speaking it gets results. In a roundabout way. Probably on for a top 5k finish again this season at the very least, given all the chips left.
Cheers. I reckon you’ll get top 5k no bother.
Hazard to Sane and Anderson to Son with 2FT, good moves?
I rather have Sane and Son then the two going out for them, so I would say yeah. Hard to sell Haz before Huddersfield but Sane has a double.
Cheers, done before price changes.
Hi folks,
What do you guys think of a digne/Auba to Danilo/Aguero for a -4?
Then Aguero back to Auba the week after?
I already have Sane.
Thanks!
I may get in Kun myself (without a hit), with the definite plan to swap him for Auba in week 27.
You need to take a hit though, and there’s the rub.
In theory those two players should score handsomely, easily paying off the hit. I’d go for it, maybe, but a) remember Kun is unlikely to play for 180 minutes (hopefully it will be 120 or so) and b) City have been a bit wobbly of late. But you’d think they’ll go for it, and the goals could be coming.