Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 36
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 36. It’s yet another DGW, although this time only two teams actually double up – Brighton and Newcastle. One of those (as you are about to be told, repeatedly) has ‘the best fixtures this DGW’. The other… not so much! We shall leave the Newcastle analysis to Rosco and Jamesimmo, but just to touch on Brighton, or rather the distinct lack of them in the below, they have Arsenal (2nd) and Newcastle (3rd), both away, off the back of just being hammered 1-5 at home by Everton (19th, then). So make your own conclusions why we don’t mention them as an option, either in the article itself, or in the confessional below it.
We couldn’t just leave this as a Newcastle love-in though. Some folk may want to ignore playing the odds and simply put the armband on a SGW player with the best chance of going off on one. For that we have Init with a quick analysis on both Haaland and Salah. As if you needed it.
Rosco — Wilson & Isak vs Leeds (A) & Brighton (H)
Newcastle (in my biased opinion) have the best fixtures this DGW, and for many, this week’s captaincy decision will come down to Wilson vs Isak. So, let’s assume they both get minutes against Leeds and Brighton, it still remains to be seen who starts what and who gets the most minutes, but if I had to put money on it, my guess is nothing has changed, the Swede is still first choice and if he doesn’t start, he’ll most definitely get minutes. But does that make him the best captain?
Looking back to Newcastle’s last DGW (GW29) as some kind of indication of minutes, we’ll see that Isak got 79 minutes at home to Man United and 26 minutes in the midweek fixture away to West Ham. Wilson replaced Isak in the first game and vice versa in the second for 10 minutes and 63 minutes respectively. It should be noted that Wilson was returning from injury having only played 109 minutes in the Magpie’s previous 5 fixtures. Despite fewer minutes, Wilson was the FPL winner, 19pts with a goal in his 10-minute cameo against the Red Devils, followed up with a brace against the Hammers. Isak meanwhile fished on 8pts, a blank followed by a late goal in Newcastle’s 5-1 win over West Ham.
Indeed, since DGW29, Wilson may have only 2 starts (to Isak’s 5) or 318 minutes to Isak’s 452, but he comes out on top on almost every stat of note; 8 goals vs 4, 5.05 xG vs 1.71, 16 shots vs 14 and 8 big chances vs 3. Ouch.
However, you can chuck all the stats in the world at the decision of Callum Wilson vs Alexander Isak, be it for a transfer in or captaincy this DGW. But when the chips were down against Arsenal, Callum and not Alexander left the pitch.
Will they both start together once again as they did against Arsenal at the weekend? Who knows. I don’t think it’s fair to judge the merits of the double-up from just one fixture, Arsenal was always going to be tricky, but in a double, as shown previously, it’s more likely that we see a start for each and minutes in the other. Whether that means they will once again sub-on for the other (as they did in DGW29) remains to be seen. When all is said and done, I think Isak will likely have the higher floor, but Wilson the higher ceiling. Isak is probably the safer bet for xMins, but xMins don’t equate to FPL points.
So in conclusion, if you want to play it safe go with Isak, if you want to go for broke then Wilson is your man.
Jamesimmo — Trippier vs Leeds (A) & Brighton (H)
Photo by Michael Regan / Getty Images.
Newcastle (in my unbiased opinion) have the best fixtures this DGW, and for many, this week’s captaincy decision will come down to picking a Magpie who’s nailed on to start in both. How about Kieran Trippier, then, the Newcastle captain himself with starts (and 60+ minutes played) in 100% of their 2022/23 PL matches? The Toon’s top-scoring FPL asset by a margin of 32 points.
Yes, the naysayers are correct, he’s currently on an untimely run of 7 blanks. Yes, Newcastle’s once-solid backline seems to have been deprioritised recently in favour of scoring heavily, with no clean sheets in over a month. You may well be worried… however, in his last 2 matches alone, Trippier’s racked up an xA of 1.6 (as per fbref.com) and been unfortunate to not deliver something for his owners.
Leeds do tend to score (just once) in every match, granted, but Everton — whilst playing away, not at home like Newcastle will be — very nearly kept Brighton’s attack quiet last Gameweek, so there’s hope for at least one clean sheet in Newcastle’s DGW yet!
P.S. many thanks to Rosco (above) for the first-line template… 
Init – Salah vs Leicester (A), Haaland vs Everton (A)
Newcastle (in my opinion) have the best fixtures this DGW, and for many, this week’s captaincy decision will come down to Salah vs Haaland….
Seriously though, I’ll most likely give it to a Magpie myself, as I simply like the odds better of two games vs one, but if you don’t then here’s a quick run-through of why you may (or may not) want to go single for the weekend.
Salah
(Photo by DARREN STAPLES / AFP) / Getty Images
Leicester desperately needed to win on Monday vs Fulham. And conceded 5. Now ok, that was away, and this one is at home, but they may be 18th in the actual league table… they are actually even worse in the home one… 19th! The problem for Leicester in this game may be that they need to stretch the play, come out and attack a bit, which to me feels like it will play into Liverpool (and Salah’s) hands just perfectly. They had to do this in their 2-2 draw vs Everton last week and conceded 2 in the process. If they and Fulham combined to notch 7 then goodness knows what Mo may do to them.
Haaland
(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
This one I am less sure on but it is difficult not to give him at least a cursory nod in any article with the word ‘Captain’ in the title. The only reason for any reluctance here certainly would not be the opposition but more the Real Madrid game on Wednesday. Not that I don’t think he will start this week, after all City still need to wrap things up domestically, it’s more simply down to minutes. That said Pep did leave him on against Leeds. And after a blank in that one, and indeed vs Madrid in midweek, he may feel like he needs a pep-up of a goal or 3. As much as Everton succeded in closing down Brighton’s build up play from the back, this may be a different and altogether more difficult ask vs City! Score early and this could become nothing more than a warm-up exercise for the Madrid game. If you do go Haaland then you just have to hope that Pep forgets his ‘business’ decisions again and leaves him on!
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 — Trippier
The Gallant Pioneer — Wilson
Jamesimmo — Trippier
Ivan — Isak
Swirly — Salah
Matt — Isak
Loud Atlas — Isak
Smash — Haaland
Kop — Isak
Rosco — Isak
Ellefcee — Salah
Floydeth — Wilson
Init — Dwight McNeill! Isak
Gear — Wilson
Stone Frog — Wilson
OddDane — Beyond clueless (his words, not ours!)
Or find a different horse to back…. Horse racing sites at Nongamstopsites.bet
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Trying to claw back 60 points in ML. Have 2fts and and 1.5itb
Thoughts are to get Bruno for next week perhaps and swap marsch for mccalister? Problem is that makes my team very similar to the leaders.
Could do grealish to fernandes, marsch to mccalister and Watkins to greenwood (to make the transfer possible) for a -4. Or isvtgere something better?
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Not sure I’d take the hit at this stage
Not quite sure what to do here. Could do march and watkins to macallister and Wilson, but then I need to do a -4 to get rid of botman as would be 4 from Newcastle. Worth it? Maybe better of doing shaw and march to estupinian and macallister? 0.1m short of getting rid of mee instead of shaw
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Actually just realised bringing in estupinian will give me a benching headache as I’ll either have to bench trent or one of grealish or rashford which makes no sense. March to macallister as a straight swap I’m 0.1m short of but not sure what other transfer to do to get the extra funds
Mee to a cheaper BHA defender?
Hey gang, torn between two moves. Thoughts?
1- Andreas > Willock or Joelinton (smaller upside and not sure which one)
2- Enciso > Wilson (Enciso with a double but Wilson bigger upside, right?)
Ramsdale, Iversen
Tripp, Dunk, Stones, AWB, TAA
Mo, Mitoma, Grealish, Rash, Andreas
Haaland, Isak, Enciso
And 1 ft, 4mil itb