Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 28
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 28
Technically, Haaland was the most captained player last week. The good news is that he scored 6 goals this past week. The bad news for FPL’ers is that 5 of those were in the Champions League. His solitary FPL goal left him on just the 12 Captain points. We say technically because that was based on overall stats, and would include many a ghost team, and many a casual player who simply pops the armband on someone and leaves it there. Active player stats show that Toney and Mitoma had higher percentages amongst those who are paying attention. Both sort of got there in the end over their DGW piece, with Mitoma on 24 and Toney on 26. Of the SGW players Kane matched Toney on 26 and both Gabriel (28) and Trossard (30) did better.
There is no DGW to contend with this week. And indeed no Haaland. Which could make it an intersting one, with a wider selection of picks expected. Let’s go see what The Gallant Pioneer, Loud Atlas, DMC and our Confessional bunch make of it all…
Gallant Pioneer – Martin Odegaard … no! Bukayo Saka …. NO, ODEGAARD (Arsenal v Crystal Palace, H)
Why the indecision I hear you cry? Have a look at their overall points totals so far. Only a solitary FPL point separates the players as we head to Gameweek 28. 152 – 151 in favour of the Englishman.
Now there is no question who has proved the better value so far – that has to go to the Norwegian who is a cool £1.6mln cheaper at this stage of the season. There was £1.5mln at the start of the season which shows both have grown steadily in price thanks to theirs, and Arsenal’s, performances to this point.
Now you are here after a captain though so let’s look at the goals scored then. 10 each. OK.
Clean sheets (still a point!)?: 11 each!
The assists?: 10 v 7 in favour of Saka.
Yellow cards collected? Saka (5) v Odegaard (4) so Martin ‘wins’ that.
The bonus points?: Odegaard crushes Saka 21 to 13 on that.
This is perhaps where we see where the marginal gain may be made by going Odegaard. Looking at his xGI (expected goal involvement) he leads Bukayo by 13.74 to 13.45. It would appear that he is ever-so-slightly more likely to be involved or influential in Arsenal’s attack (and in the eyes of the FPL Gods, collect the BPs for it), than his No. 7.
For those who like the old fashioned “haul” method when choosing a captain – Odegaard has SIX double-digit scores compared to Saka’s two.
Martin for certain.
Loud Atlas – Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton, A)
Ew, a big ol’ blankety blank gameweek. To make things worse most of the teams we’d want players from (Liverpool and the Manchesters of United and City) aren’t in action. Thankfully there are a few teams with some captainable players. But don’t get distracted by those red-shirted teams my esteemed colleagues will be touting: look towards Tottenham Hostpur, especially at their superhero – Captain England AKA Harry Kane. He’s here to save your gameweek.
As well as being the second most expensive forward (Haaland is #1), Kane’s also the second highest points scoring player in the game (yes, Haaland’s top), with 6.5 points per match (second to Haaland…again). And if you like your stats with an ‘x’ in front: an xG (‘expected goals’, as the cool kids say) of 0.74. So far this season in the Premier League he has 20 goals, six assists, 30 bonus points, and broken Spurs’ all-time goalscoring record. He’s a man in form, to say the least.
FPL ranks Kane as 6.5 on the form scale – that’s the highest for any forward at the moment. His five goals and one assist in the last seven games have rocketed Spurs to the lofty heights of fourth in the league. They travel to St Mary’s looking to cement their spot in those hallowed Champions League spaces.
At the time of writing (before Southampton vs Brentford has been played out) Spurs have a mouth-watering prospect on Saturday: they’re away to Southampton, who are bottom of the league and have lost four of their last five home games. Spurs will hope to add to their fairly glowing record against them (they’ve won three of the last five, scoring 14 goals – although only one of those was from Kane!). Essentially it’s 20th vs 4th; Southampton have the worst home record in the league and Spurs have the sixth best away record. Along with Harry Kane leading the line, what’s not to like?
DMC – Ivan Toney (Brentford v Leicester City, H)
Sir Ivan of Toney is your man this gameweek. A goal and an assist to close DGW27 on Wednesday, and as such, reward the managers who backed him to score well in one or other of the two away games he had. He really should have scored vs Everton too. But he didn’t. Which made him an ‘ok’ DGW pick, rather than an outstanding one. But….
‘Better late than never’ / ‘doesn’t matter where, when or how you get the points’ etc etc.
He’s now on 16 goals for the season and has a nice fixture against a fairly leaky Leicester side this week. Leicester have conceded the 3rd most away goals with 29 in just 13 games, with only Forest and Bournemouth showing up worse (32 & 35). Brentford for their part are the 5th highest scorers at home with 27 of their 42 goals being at the Gtech
One thing of particular note is that, except on two occasions, whenever he scores he racks up 2 if not 3 bonus points. If he does that again he’ll probably hit two consecutive hauls.
A word of caution (if you are buying before captaining) is that he’s now on 9 yellow cards and as such is just one away from a two match ban. Although that may be the least of his worries anytime soon in terms of bans…
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 an Antoine Griezmann contract but this is their initial gut feeling based upon who they actually own. And they promise that their picks will be allowed to play for more than 29 minutes each week…
DMC — Toney
The Gallant Pioneer — Saka
Jamesimmo — Kane
Ivan — Kane
Swirly — Kane
Matt — The wrong one!
Loud Atlas — Kane
Smash — Kane
Kop — Kane
Rosco — Kane
Ellefcee — Toney
Init — Martinelli
Gear — Kane
Stone Frog — Martinelli
OddDane — Kane, assuming I find a way to buy him
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Well pleased with 94 points this turn.
Particularly with zero points for Salah and a double Brentford clean sheet lost in first minute v Everton.
Can’t believe though that I dropped a few places in the Regulars League.
Anyway onto this week…..in alphabetical order, who to captain between:-
Kane away to Southampton
Toney home to Leicester
Watkins home to Bournemouth
Thanks
Jamie
Surprised there’s no Arsenal player home to Palace in your thinking Jamie
Hi Padster,
I only have Martinelli from Arsenal.
After his penalty miss tonight, don’t want to take a chance on him.
Thanks
Jamie
I would go with captaining Kane, if I had him.
I really can’t decide what to do.
A. Haaland to Felix
B. Bruno to Enzo
C. Do nothing and play 9
A costs me a crap load of money to get Haaland back. B is a debate of use a FT to get Bruno back or roll the dice on Enzo in 29. Both have a DGW. But Bruno is tested and in form. One week punt. What say ye?
Maybe Bruno -> Maddison?
I’d lean rewards A. Bruno has a double in 29 and will likely play most the minutes. You just need to hold the funds as you’ll need haaland back from gw 30.
Have used my FT already.
Too risky going without Harry?
Looks good, don’t see the need for a hit to Kane there
Thanks. How is your team looking?
Undecided. Might go WC actually, just for fun (terrible season anyway)
I see alot of people getting rid of Haaland is that worth it?