Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 3
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 3
Last year, just before GW4 of last season, I was asked to write the Captain Picks article for that weekend. It would become my 4th consecutive season of being entrusted with such a responsibility. Your innocent eyes were waiting eagerly for the latest instalment…
I repaid FF247’s blind faith by vividly describing a series of explicit (and likely homo)erotic acts between you — an unsuspecting reader — and 5 formidable Premier League players who happened to have good fixtures on that weekend.
This year, just before GW3 of this (already rather tedious) new season, I’ve been asked to write the Captain Picks article for this weekend. It will become my 5th consecutive season of being entrusted with such a responsibility. Your violated eyes and palpitating hearts are probably dreading the following instalment…
I’m going to repay FF247’s unwavering faith by discussing some FPL captains.
Harry Kane vs Newcastle (H)
After seeing the fixtures, I marked Aston Villa (H) and Newcastle (H) down as “a pair of easy braces” for Harry Kane, who shook off his ‘August curse’ last season. That prophecy already appears to be fulfilling itself; Villa have made their part of the deal. It wasn’t exactly a revolutionary prediction. You may, however, have some concerns: yes, he barely scraped those late goals in Spurs’ opener at home; yes, he was almost entirely isolated up top whilst aimlessly chasing after Pep’s men; yes, he clearly wasn’t accustomed to braces during his childhood, and he was also probably unfamiliar with scoring in general until his ‘pwofessshunal’ career took off.
Forgive me. Not even one paragraph in before I regressed to more sexual content.
Anyway, moving swiftly on. The less obvious issue here might be the relatively cagey matches that Spurs and Newcastle have played out since the latter’s promotion. Each of those recent 4 fixtures have seen Spurs prevail by a narrow margin. They won 1–0 in both of their home matches, with Kane scoring the winner in the 2017/18 season; they managed to muster 2 goals in both of their corresponding away matches, with Kane getting booked in each one. Unconvincingly, that was it from him. Ruh roh.
That’s where Newcastle’s more recent fortune steps in. They conceded 3 goals last weekend when they travelled south to play Norwich and, in truth, this weekend’s coach journey back up north seems unlikely to feel any less bitter.
Form: 7
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 9
Sadio Salah vs Arsenal (H)
Over the very same 2-season period since Newcastle’s promotion, Salah’s been consistently tearing up the Premier League, effectively spoiling us as a reliable candidate for the captaincy in just about every Gameweek that passes by. Mané, too, has transformed into the (world-class?) winger that Klopp needed. Firmino’s rarely discussed on the same level by FPL managers due to (in general) making fewer direct goal contributions than said wingers. However, against Arsenal, all 3 members of the trio have lethal track records that warrant your team’s armband.
Salah racked up a goal and an assist in both Anfield clashes. He scored in the 3–3 draw during the 2017/18 season whilst playing away from home too.
Mané’s played Arsenal in 6 matches in the Premier League to date. Liverpool have scored heavily (and won) on all 4 occasions in which Mane’s grabbed a goal, including all 3 of his previous home matches, adding a bonus assist in the 2016/17 clash.
Firmino, for all of you crazy Wildcarders, actually has the richest history. His callous antics date back a season further: a home hat-trick in the 2018/19 season; a goal and an assist in both fixtures during the preceding season; a goal and an assist at home during the season before that; a home brace back when his wingers were Ibe and Lallana — yet, in a special way that only Arsenal could allow, a 90th-minute Joe Allen equaliser salvaged them another 3–3 draw.
Alright, there’s your lot. Compelling arguments for all — if you’re still awake, that is.
Form: 7
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 9
Raheem Sterling vs Bournemouth (A)
He might be listed 3rd here, but he won’t come 3rd in many captaincy polls for GW4 and beyond, it would seem. If he’s monogamous, he won’t come 3rd very often at all, but such comments are no longer mine to make. Bournemouth (A) probably looks familiar to many managers (myself included) who sold Salah shortly before the Christmas of last year. Adjacent away hat-tricks — oooft, yes, that’s even harder — can Sterling pull it off?
Arsenal are currently on a run. Granted, it’s only a 2-match win streak, but it sounds tricky enough to drive the FPL masses over from Salah to Sterling and burn those who stick.
Form: 9
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 9
Marcus Martial vs Crystal Palace (H)
Realistically speaking, your captain’s unlikely to come from beyond the pool of aforementioned names, but you could find significantly worse than this United pair. The masochists amongst you could even plump for AWB against a toothless Palace team that hasn’t scored a goal yet. Any takers? I mean for this captaincy punt…
It’s honestly nice to no longer feel obligated to force Lukaku jokes upon you.
Form: 8
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 7
Christian Pulisic vs Norwich (A)
Right, please, just hear this out. I’m running low on worthy ideas. Picture the scene: it’s an early kick-off. Early here (12:30) but particularly early for the Americans, who’re 5–8 hours behind us, tuning in to watch their beloved ‘soccer star’ in the ‘Prem-eeEeere’ League.
Imagine the hysteria when Pulisic (who boasts a rock-hard ‘K’ sound) gives the first-half goal-and-assist performance that only VAR prevented in the Super Cup this year. Better yet, imagine the hysteria that’d unfold if this actually happens, meaning that everybody would suddenly take me seriously. Hmmm, yeah, perhaps not. Hopefully not.
Form: 3
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 6
All of the best for the Gameweek ahead. Especially if last weekend’s anything to go by…
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 3. This article was written by jamesimmo
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Not sure if it has been discussed before but just wanted to ask people’s thoughts? Am I right in thinking that WCs do not affect transfers in regards to price rises and falls? So what happens if I make 5 transfers on Monday and take points hits which all add to price changes. These price changes occur during the week and I get to Friday and decide to activate the WC instead, wiping out the points hit but have already added to the percentage of price changes?
Yes I think you’re right there Iggy. But make sure you do click confirm. A couple of seasons ago someone forgot and took a hit of 40+ points :big-lol:
Hi Horse! Not a mistake I’ve made or am making, I’ve already activated the WC early this week!
It was just a shower thought to be honest! If WCs don’t affect price changes then what happens to those who make transfers early which do affect price changes but then click WC after the change has occurred?
Brilliant question.
I’ve no idea :no:
Well they obviously count for the prices, you could make transfers on player X on Sunday night, say, and then Monday morning a player X has risen in price, then on Wednesday night you press the WC button… The transfer you made on Sunday already affected the price of player X who rose on Monday, they are not recalculating them after you hit the WC button as it would affect player prices again….
As Zed said, they would count towards price changes.
Think I read a comment on Reddit which said all moves made while a wildcard is active do not count towards price changes, but once the next game week has started, any changes from your old team to new, confirmed wildcard team do count? Not sure on the truth in that…or what it really affects tbh
They count for the next threshold (the confirme and finals ones), but they don’t count while the WC is activated because the system is not sure that those are the finals ones.
Ahhh I WC’d! Now in a world of turmoil… should I have? Shouldn’t I have? Nothing I can do now other than tinker with my team a million times like it was preseason until deadline comes! HELLPPPP!!!
Start with SSK but wanted to bring in KDB somehow so WC’d without Kane.. now I’m torn between 2 teams.. any thoughts welcome! Cheers.
Team A
A
B
Smiffy
Prefer 2 for sure. Couple of different names in defence but worth it to have Kane I think.
How good is cabellos compared to Cantwell. I already have Pukki but working out if cabellos is comfortably worth the extra 1m
He was great against a Burnley side that tired as the game went on, up against Liverpool and then Spurs… I can’t say for sure Beaker.
For context here is the analysis of him on MOTD if you didn’t see it.
http://arsenalist.com/f/2018-19/arsenal-vs-burnley-motd-highlights-analysis-2019-08-17.html
Great thanks, I’ll take a look
Quite lucky assists for Ceballos there to be fair, not like either of them was a “chance created”, both Auba and Laca really created the goals themselves, yet Ceballos had one good shot on target, he seems to be busy, if he’s nailed then that’s a great punt at 5.5m imo, on corners, free kicks, and so on… (it seems, as of now anyway)
Xhaka is back in training so I don’t know what Emery will do against Liverpool. Who drops out if he comes back. Hopefully not Ceballos.
Hi all ….more WC questions!
Current team below….is it worth dropping TAA to VVD and Pieters to Kelly to enable Mane to Salah? I do prefer TAA and I like the look of Burnley’s upcoming fixtures although I will be swapping Adrian back to Pope anyway if he looks to be rising in price so will probably have Burnley defensive cover.
Another option would be TAA to VVD and then Pieters to KWP ….Spurs cover would be good although it also brings a bit of a benching headache and not sure how nailed he is!?
Any other ideas I haven’t thought of be appreciated
Cheers
I’ve just dropped Salah to Mane so I’m biased.
I think the team above looks great as is.
Cheers GP! Only 28 points between them last season in Salah’s favour but he also played 200+ more minutes. Mane seems to be constantly improving too imo! VVD had bout 23 more points than TAA but with 900+ odd minutes more!
….that actually just led me to do some maths and for anyone that’s interested I think the combined points totals per 90min last season were:
-Salah/VVD = 12.69
-Mane/TAA = 13.51
Looks like I’m sticking with the above team …just feels odd being on a WC without tinkering every spare minute right up till deadline!
@RedKev Great side only concern is how nailed Pieters is. Is Taylor likely to replace him?
Cheers Horse! Tbh I’m not too sure on the most favoured/nailed Burnley defenders myself …or even their positions/competition for that matter! Taylor was certainly more trusted last season with only Mee playing more minutes although Pieters did rank 4th with 2717 minutes played
Who would you suggest switching to at that price?
At 4.5 it’s thin pickings but I would be looking at Montoya or Leicester’s Soyuncu. Kop wrote about Montoya in his GW 1 tips article. It’s early days so I can’t say I know much about either player
Thanks mate, know Soyuncu was linked with Arsenal for a long while before heading to Leicester, will look into him and have a read through Kops Montoya write up too :good:
Hi guys. The insufferable Danny g is back. Here is my latest team. Two transfers. Site team writers feel free to destroy
Not bad at all, although obviously no Sterling… I would prefer Sterling over Kane to be honest, but this is obviously your team
Not half bad in all honesty Danny.
What are you thinking to do with your moves?
I meant I’d already done my transfers. Did Wilson and Fraser to pukki and kdb. Going forward I need sterling but not sure how
Ah I see.
You look well set for this weekend then.
Pulled this together on a -4 this week.
Stick as is? Play Lundstram?
Or pull that WC trigger… I feel longer term I’d be better off with 1 pool defender, Utd and spurs coverage and leaning towards Mane rather than Salah…