Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 27
And so Gameweek 27’s distant silhouette finally shuffles into view, hands in pocket, scuffing the soles of its sneakers with every slothful step, barely bothered that it kept everyone waiting. Spare a thought then for GW26, left with no choice but to linger, suspended in a moment, encased in FPL carbonite. Thus, we may at least still enjoy the preserved remains of a week that showed a strong showing from some of the more dependable captain candidates. Raheem Sterling (18 points) and Sergio Aguero (17) were the two biggest hitters. In fact they hit so hard that over 200,000 people suffered severe concussion and brought Aguero in for this weekend’s League Cup final. Other worthy mentions go to Paul Pogba (16) and Christian Eriksen (13) while Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan would’ve undoubtedly appreciated the Boly/Wood contributions.
When GW27 does eventually arrive, it will bring with it a selection of unnervingly ordinary captain options. There are no David vs Goliath contests for us to happily go all in on. This of course gives the writer a chance to shoehorn in a few new names and provides a welcome respite from lazily serving up Mo Salah as the number one pick again. Huzzah!
RAUL JIMENÉZ | Bournemouth (A)
So seamlessly has Wolves’ Mexican top-scorer eased into life at Molineux, it’s easy to forget that Raul Jimenez isn’t even a permanent signing. However the West Midlands outfit will surely meet his £30m valuation this summer and parent club Benfica, fresh from humiliating Nacional 10-0, are hardly missing his goals.
A surprisingly subdued team performance in their draw at home to Newcastle United curtailed a 3 game run of form that had brought him 3 goals and an assist. Owners will be hoping for similar returns to that which served up 9 points in GW17’s reverse fixture, a 2-0 victory for Nuno’s men. Lying 5th in the form table, Moutinho, Jota, Neves et al are brimming with confidence.
Bournemouth, on the other hand, are not. That 4-0 thrashing of Chelsea could have been the catalyst for a surge up the league standings, yet have since fallen to both Cardiff and Liverpool without scoring. The absence of young David Brooks seems to have derailed any momentum they had and they look like wounded prey for this pack of Wolves.
ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE | Southampton (H)
Who knew that the Gunners were such fans of post-Britpop guitar anthems. Despite the ongoing soap opera surrounding the seldom seen kid Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey’s imminently expiring contract laying the grounds for divorce, surely even the most pessimistic Arsenal fans weren’t anticipating that, in losing away to BATE, they’d see one day like this. Ok, that’s enough italics. The point is, Lacazette’s lackacomposure probably summed up how those poor travelling souls felt in the away end, though hopefully they wouldn’t have resorted to swinging an elbow.
I lied about the italics.
The Frenchman’s brief flash of petulance may prove to be a bonus for his FPL owners. Being out of the frame for that Europa League 2nd leg surely increases, one would imagine, the likelihood of him getting a full 90 minutes at the weekend. Not that Unai Emery needs much of an excuse to do that. 10 goals and 8 assists still leaves him trailing Pierre-Emerick ‘sicknote’ Aubameyang, but Alex is the man in form at The Emirates with 4 goals in 6 games. Hold on… Emery, Emerick, Emirates? What’s going on here? I thought they’d left all that incestuous wordplay nonsense behind when Arsenal parted with Arsene.
After an initial new manager bounce, visitors Southampton are in danger of reverting to type. Draws against Crystal Palace and Burnley, followed by a defeat to Cardiff City have seen them pick up only 2 points from 3 winnable fixtures. However, Saints fans will forever have a smile on their face while Ralph is in charge, as there are few greater joys than saying ‘Ralph Hasenhüttl’. Come on try it. ‘Hasenhüttl’. ‘Hasenhüttl’. ‘Ralph Hasenhüttl’ (Have I hit my minimum word count yet?).
HEUNG-MIN SON | Burnley (A)
As one of the few non-Son owners left, looking back over his prodigious run of points has been rather painful. Akin to peeking into a warehouse and finding out that all your friends are in there enjoying the party of their lives. Everyone except you.
The party’s been going on since GW11, so it seems almost frivolous to talk about ‘form’. That being said he has scored in all 3 games since his return from the Asian Cup and will rock up at Turf Moor this weekend armed with party horns and silly handshakes aplenty, hoping to add to his 11 goals and 7 assists. He’ll want to improve on his single point cameo in GW17’s last-gasp 1-0 victory the last time these teams met, though.
Sixth in the form table, Burnley are scrapping for their lives and showing the kind of spirit that embodied last year’s campaign. Dyche’s men are unbeaten in 7 games, though that obviously has nothing at all to do with the absence of Joe Hart, who lost his place in the team… erm… 7 games ago. The Clarets have been great at picking up points from relegation rivals and were of course moments away from a headline-stealing victory at Old Trafford. They’ll play their part in a game between two teams full to the brim with confidence.
MOHAMED SALAH | Manchester United (A)
“Nature repeats herself more than one would imagine. The sea has infinitely more variety.” Presumably had she still been around, Agatha Christie would’ve now added, “Thanks to Mo Salah’s recent dominance, FPL captain choices are also really repetitive.”
To be fair, a tricky fixture this gameweek poses more consternation than usual, though with Aguero out of contention this time round, for most it will boil down to a choice between Son and Salah. It would be astonishing if the various merits of The Egyptian talisman haven’t long since been branded indelibly into your minds, so how about this instead… Did you know whilst staying abroad in 2014, his educational programme was rescinded and so he was called back to Egypt to serve in the army? Yep. However, the Egyptian PM absolved him from such duties to allow him to focus on football.
“Oh, so he didn’t have to win a f***ing gold medal to get exemption then? That’s fair, innit?” Yeah, all right. Pipe down, Son. Jeez.
With PSG fans’ “Ole”s still ringing in Ole’s ears, Manchester United will be keen to employ the lessons learned from that sobering Champions League reality-check. Motivation would hardly have been in short supply anyhow, given who the visitors to Old Trafford are this Sunday. The Red Devils will be concerned by the possible absences of Anthony Martial, who impressed in their win at Fulham, and Jesse Lingard, who scored United’s only goal in a 3-1 defeat at Anfield earlier this season. However, some reports are circulating that their injuries aren’t as bad as first feared, so watch this space. Or another space. Or just wait for the press conferences.
‘Ralph Hasenhüttl’. Tee hee.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 27. This article was written by Bry.
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Good day everybody, GW27 is almost upon us. I need help
1ft
1.8mil in bank
Still have all chips
Someone help
Sane->Son or Eriksen
Thanks hammer, but was thinking of GW31 as well ? Spur have no game that week.
Will Sané – Morrison
Kamara – Vardy for -4 ??
I am in a similar boat.
I will try and do Son->Mane for that week I think..lol, but obviously ditch TAA before then.
Ftx1
ITB:0.3m
Was originally looking at Sane->Eriksen, but thinking I should build my GW31 squad.
Would Sane->Antonio be the best option?
Captain Auba this week.
Thoughts please guys and gals.
We have pretty similar teams, the problem is that alot of those players have nice fixtures up until gw 31. Building a team for gw31 means that you’ll have to downgrade your team along the way. If that the right or wrong move i do not know but gw 31 might not make up for the points you’ve lost along the way…
I’m right now set on FH in 31 but that plan isn’t perfect either….
Its a big conundrum AllanBrallan.
I don’t really want to FH in GW31 if I have a near full team.
I may FH in GW33, or WC, but then that’s another dilemma.
Of course not if you have a near full team. I’m just saying that that near full team may have missed out on some points on its way becoming a near full team.
And you have a pretty good team for 32 already right?
That’s the joys of ff unfortunately. Do you play to the strengths of the blank gw31, or ruin it slightly for gw32.
Think I need to somehow get Chelsea players in (no matter how dire they do seem at the moment), for the dgw’s.
Maybe the small differances in out teams makes ALL the differance. I only have salah and Robertson in gw 31 (not counting bench fodder) and can’t really build a team in time for 31, and if I try I’ll ruin gw32.
So I’ll probably optimize my team for 32 instead. But then again, that’s problem later on.
Its trying to squeeze in the WC, TC, BB and FH all before the end that I am worried about.
Too much in such a short space of time!!
What about building team for double game week 32, use FH in 31, hopefully 33 will have less blanks as more games shoyld be played, than WC in 34, BB in 35
I already have 5 players for GW31 piksi.
Do we know what teams are playing dgw32? I could always WC.
This is so messing with my brain (whats left of it)
@hammer, we don’t know for sure which teams play in 32 yet but if you check the Fixture Tracker at the end of the article there’s a column on that with the potential ones, it’s fairly likely to be those.
Cheers Init.
Will look at that.
Still confused as to when is best to use my FH though.
Dont think it will be GW31 though, as my team is half way to being built.
Planning mine out tonight using the Tracker. On which point if anyone needs an excel copy to play with just email the site and we shall oblige as per last season.
In the meantime I’ve found this convo very useful thus far;
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/fantasy-football-captain-picks-gameweek-27-2/comment-page-5/#comment-542097
ok, that convo has given me some idea’s, some mixed…lol
bit of a brain scrambler!!!!
When is DGW32 going to be confirmed?
What about Chelsea’s double? thought that might have been in there.
Any chance you have the link back to the table that was done with all the options on it, just for reference?
This one?
https://fantasyfootball247.co.uk/fantasy-football-fixture-analysis-gameweek-26-2/comment-page-3/#comment-539522
Thats the one, cheers Init.
Looking back on that earlier convo link, what option do you think looks good?
I’m inclined to go FH in gw32.
What do you think to doing Sane->Antonio this week? (for me that is, seeing as I am building my gw31 team)
If that’s the route you are going down then yes seems fine.
Init, final piece of advice, now I have had time to think about the fixture tracker.
My current team has alot of players who will potentially have doubles in gw32.
Do you think its worth me building for that, and FH for gw31?
Seems the best route for you given what you have currently. I built 2 sheets last night: one for my team and one for the Site Team and noted the numbers available on each relevant non normal week for each. They were quite contrasting, and lead to different concluding strategies for each one. Despite both having a full suite of chips to use. Does go to show that there is no set route, it may depend on what base you are starting from. Site Team one looks like this and may therefore be suited to your FH31 route also;
Init, taking into account your latest reply, here is my attempt. GW32 has the more players, if I have done it correctly.
How about a change of tact?
TAA->Kola.
I was going to bench TAA, and ditch Sane.
Kola and Sane are both DGW32 players – strengthen for that week. TAA doesn’t have a double.?
Thoughts.
Thinking of Antonio myself. Might be a good differential as well. Is he sure to start?
Yeah he is bound to, and been playing well lately. Yes Lanzini is back, but is not match fit, so will be on the bench.
Bry, few can match your writing skills and creativity. Reference to ‘Shah Rukh Khan’ was epic BB the way, even people suffering concussion
Onto FPL, are we saying that Aubameyang may not be the best captain choice this GW? He is leading the captain though poll by some margin.
@Sid, I think there is a bit of fear about his minutes, we know Laca can’t play in the Europa so he is set to easily start in GW27. I think if Auba does ok tomorrow in the Europa and looks set to go for GW27 he has to be an option for those that have him.
So does it imply that bringing in laca is a better option than bringing in auba (keeping thoughts on BGW31 aside).
Worried coz I rmbr auba starting all matches during Xmas time despite fixture congestion (3 in a week). Plus I guess someone had shared stats on auba outperforming laca the two had started matches together.
Auba is a fine choice for captain this week. And I don’t mean ‘he’s a good choice because I will be captaining him’ – though I will be.
Laca is a good choice as well, but more for people chasing than those leading, I would say.
Everything you read on here, both articles and waffle like me now, is just an opinion. In the end it’s your decision, just go with what you feel is best for your side.
Cheers Kralin
Do you have a chip strategy for the site team yet? And if so, what does it look like?
@Allan, we don’t have a strategy for this week yet.
:big-lol:
I believe the decision to BB in 32 vs. 35 is all about deciding which 4 players you are thinking for bench and those will be mostly cheapos/mid-priced options considering that everyone will try to fit big guns with DGW in playing 11 both in 32 and 35 – so BB does not play any role for those playing 11. Its all about 1 bench DGW GK+ 5th def + 2 outfield DGWers (including the 4.5m Mid).
In need of some help pls guys?
1 FT & 3.5 ITB.
Depends on your chip situation a little Branchy but you could conceivably save a FT there this week.
Really ?
I do have all my chips and wc.
Good to go with Son Captain?
I think so, unless I’m missing something?
What else were you thinking of doing?
Walker has no game – but can put Pereiro in. But no obvious changes ?