Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 4
Welcome to Captain Picks Gameweek 4! It’s already Tuesday evening or beyond. GW3 has drifted by and, unless Mitrovic was in your team, it probably left you feeling slightly… flat. There’s now an air of routine to proceedings. Reality even — many gameweek scores dropping below 50 and flurries of 4-point hits have begun to set in; talk of Wildcarding has already surfaced on the FF247 boards and hollered above the gunshots in a certain Colombian neighbourhood.
Transfers aside, there’s an ever-present ingredient in almost every recipe for tear-free gameweek success, exemplified by Salah-vs-Agüero debates and their GW2 returns: the captaincy. After a Friday night of drinking and aimless FPL deliberation, you can only pick one player to take back home, a promising young man to sport your, erm, ‘armband’ for the weekend. It usually looks fairly good on him, granted, but how about on the following Sunday morning? Waking up rough and suddenly feeling your pillow thoughts being plagued by that dodgy, now-ugly, two-point captain failure can be stomach-churning. Who will still appeal in a bright bedroom? Let’s eye this weekend’s hottest offerings and begin that futile deliberation process with a few biased stats and sheet quips.
Sergio Agüero vs Newcastle (H)
In between bouts of hungover sleep, you sense that it’s quite spacious underneath those silky covers, yet you’re not alone. There’s a much-bigger-than-usual bulge protruding to your left and it’s also periodically bobbing at a much-slower-than-usual pace: a gently breathing, peacefully sleeping, adorably little Argentinian man. He’s in the foetal position and looks familiar. Yes, upon further inspection, you recognise his trashy arm tattoos as a flashback unfolds from the darkest depths of your clouded mind. Sergio Agüero. He’s been here before! You daringly invited him to stay over on a cold October night a few years back and, thanks to his physical stamina, you scored 5 times in under 20 minutes. It was a performance to savour; one for the fantasy record books. Having allegedly rattled the woodwork twice last weekend, he then endlessly brags about his more recent forward endeavours, including a similar time that you shared together. Last season, on another dreamy weekend, you scored a further 3 times thanks to Sergio’s efforts. “This has clearly gone too far,” you muse, “but it also just feels… right.” In turmoil, you timidly rouse this beast and ask him to leave for the dozenth time, a request which brings a wry smile to his face: “That’s fine. I’m better off playing at home! Te veo la próxima semana.”
Rosco will undoubtedly be despising the ‘multi-team’ undertones in this post already and it’s only going to get worse for the poor man: Newcastle have now conceded 3+ goals in all 6 of their latest Etihad visits for a PL fixture. You might have noticed ‘7’ for Agüero’s form but it fails to credit his prowess at home, with 14 goals in his most recent 7 matches, halted only once by Chelsea’s visit. Sergio hardly ever wets the bed. You don’t need to read on.
Form: 7
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 9
Eden Hazard vs Bournemouth (H)
If the previous imagery was a bit much, please visualise the graphic Sunday-morning bedroom again, only this time with a stench of waffles. Whilst you have slightly fewer irritating hairs on your pillow, there’s not so much room under those sheets, as a perky bum (you’re spared from any skin contact by some blue shorts) is forcing its way across to your side. You confidently ask him (a cocky Belgian midget) to leave this time, outright refusing to give him your ball as you snap, so he kicks you. Lessons learned.
Don’t be fooled by Hazard’s occasional foul play. He’s provided an attacking contribution in every match so far, coming off the bench twice to slip in an assist before tucking away his penalty in Newcastle’s defeat last weekend, and looks rather potent. Bournemouth are no pushovers, but really, Chelsea should be the dominator in this exchange.
Form: 6
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 7
Mohamed Salah vs Leicester (A)
Increasing the bulge size slightly further, you now awaken to frizzy hairs all over your chest and face, but each one seems long enough to be public rather than pubic. Several deprived Scouse children suddenly burst into the room, but Mo’s not having any of it, not again. Not on such a fine morning — it’s not even a school day — you’ve trusted last year’s biggest p l A y e r with your captaincy. That’s a hook-up which nearly always yields a satisfying, if not spectacular, result.
Salah’s a quilt-edged armband option; you can’t really go wrong with a player who’s in almost 55% of all squads and averages ~8 points per match. The main bonuses of captaining the FPL community’s 2nd-favourite Egyptian gem (Ahmed Hegazi will always hold that special title) are probably casual-crowd safety and high confidence when waiting for points. You certainly shouldn’t expect any literal bonuses here! Some managers plan to stick with Salah for the season (the vulgarity of that statement has now become disturbingly clear) and this submissive tactic might yet pay off.
Form: 7
Fixture: 6
Explosiveness: 8
Wilfried Zaha vs Southampton (H)
It almost feels inappropriate to bring The Bedroom Treatment out for any old player. You don’t captain a player like this when it’s only GW4 and nobody’s chasing mini-leagues yet, but you probably expect more than just 3 captaincy candidates too, so let’s persist.
Here’s a player who no longer cares about clean sheets now that he’s moved to his favourite position. Often playing up top, Zaha likes ripping nets, with a tendency to… yes, ok, this needs to stop. All you need to remember is that playing Southampton usually ends well for their opponents these days and Wilfried appears to be flirting with double-digit point hauls. Just a little more discipline — a neat assist instead of a yellow card — and he’d sleep soundly. This one seems more like desperation in a last-chance summer fling.
Form: 5
Fixture: 7
Explosiveness: 6
Benjamin Mendy vs Newcastle (H)
If you swap the capitalised letters of his two names – ok, nah, scrap that.
Waking up to find Mendy in your bed probably means that you can’t walk for the rest of the week. His venomous left foot can whip in some lethal crosses; your only real hope here’s that Benjamin doesn’t possess a similarly feisty left hand. He frequently assists by putting balls into dangerous areas — manoeuvres that have recently succeeded multiple times per outing — all whilst rarely relenting from his up-and-down motion. Again, this pick isn’t particularly advisable just yet, but don’t be surprised if he mercilessly beats many popular, household, aforementioned captaincy candidates.
Form: 8
Fixture: 8
Explosiveness: 4
Good luck this weekend, guys, and thanks for tolerating this.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 4. This article was written by jamesimmo.
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Guys, I’ve missed the price rises / falls so now I can’t afford Walcott or Pedro.
Perreya in for Richarlison?
1FT, 0ITB
I’m benching and playing Wan-Bissaka. Felt the FT was better used elsewhere. Not sure your team needs much work really.
Would you hang on to shaw?
He’s a cheap defender in a good team (used to be good anyway) that could get alot of clean sheets. As long as he playes, and who knows if he will. Bur as long as he does play I don’t think you’ll find a better option at that price.
Long term, no. But with Burnley up next I wouldn’t be in a rush to ditch him.
@Beno1234
I would not advice to get Pereyra
Watford’s next fixtures are somewhat difficult with Spur, United, Fulham and Arsenal in the next 4
Amazing piece J! Felt a bit wrong reading at work however 😉 It’s the little bulging Argentinian for me….
Transfer Walcott for Pedro or just leave as is and rollover FT?
Leave it. Pedro could very well outscore walcott…
I’d be concerned about Pedro long-term, but I wouldn’t switch him out this week.
@sky blue stan
I would not transfer Walcott for Pedro though Walcott for Richarlison is a good option (I made that transfer myself)
Guys would you do the following: mkhi and firmino out for hazard and mitrovic?
Or I may just wait 1 more week to do the moves, any thoughts?
Wait it out. I may be wrong but both have recently risen, and may not rise again immediately. So you shouldn’t be getting priced out imo. Save the four points and do it next week. Mkhi may even give you some points in the meanwhile.
For a hit? No wait and save transfers and do them for free
I don’t think so
Ok, thanks guys. I’m not sure how consistent Mkhi is going to be, I think Hazard may be a better bet in the long term. I suppose you could say the same about Mitrovic though. Best to leave it another week I suppose.
Thoughts on this guys? Was thinking of trying to find £0.5 and do Richarlison to Moura?
2ft £0.0 ITB
Team looks pretty decent anyway AK47 so you could just bench, but if you wanted to bring in Moura then Tomkins > Bennett (Wol) would raise the money
I can see that Walcott has been in high demand. What is the rational? Is it because there is no better option or, is it that he is in good form and really a must? The goal of this question is to find out, if I really need to bring him.
(1) Fixture: HUD(H) and WHU(H) – definitely juicy
(2) EVE form: 3 Matches (Wol, SOU, Bou) – 30 Shots (19 SiB, 15 on target, 12 from Set-pieces), 4 Big Chances created – Goal scored 6 — Not much promising as less big chances created against mediocre oppositions
EVE (H) form: 1 Match (SOU, 2-1 Win) – 13 Shots (7 on target) – 2 goals ….Wally 3 Shots (1 Goal) —- fairly ok
(3) Walcott: 3 matches: 4 Shots (2 SiB, 2 on target, 2 Big chances) – 2G 1A – chance/66 Mins. —– not much promising stat, but points look good
Now,
Adv: Richarlison is missing – but not sure who will be the beneficiary…might be Tosun or Siggy…or may be Wally if he becomes focal point of EVE attack
Disadv: EVE has no CB – Zouma and Holgate will start….that means they have to spend considerable time defending.
All these factors are not giving me lot of confidence on Everton….I did not watch any of their games as well.
What is your opinion and reason for selection?
I went for form and fixtures. It’s quite hard to read into the Everton stats because of all the red cards flying around.
Neves came closeish for me to enable a swoop for Alonso.
On the subject of stats, please can you let me know where you got the data for big chances created? I used to use the free http://www.squawka.com/en/news/ for comparison data but it doesn’t seem to be updated for 2018/19. Maybe I’m being thick.
The offical premier league site has stats: https://www.premierleague.com/stats
On the players stats tab they don’t have big chances created, only the missed ones …
However, on the player comparison tab you can find big chances created on the “Teamplay” subtab.
They have Wally on 1 and Rich on 0.
Here’s the link, but you have to add the players you want to see or compare: https://www.premierleague.com/stats/player-comparison
That’s really helpful, much appreciated.
I had no idea that resource existed.
These are the new features of FPL site. But do you all know who run these stats or, articles in official FPL site? Are they there anywhere else – or, hidden identities?
It’s Fantasy Football Scout, thought that was common knowledge. Most obnoxious and ignorant bunch of cee u next tuesdays that exist in the world of fantasy footie.
I’ve watched a couple of their (Scout’s) podcasts (or rather skimmed through them a day or two after). The crew on there seem engaging enough and don’t come across that badly (to me, anyway).
The tricky thing with that site is in its comments, I think. You need to take your coat off before wading in there. Here, and FFF before, are much calmer waters.
Your welcome Kralin.
Zorro – this is not the FPL site. It’s the premier league site. Data are not fantasy related here. For example, Mendy has 3 assists in the Premier League site whereas in the fantasy front he has 4.
I believe Opta does those.
Not sure if I should say the source as there are some dos and don’ts of every site (not sure of here) – like we used to have in FFF…. may be can tell you offline elsewhere. But you can trust it (its from a paid source).
…and honestly, I agree that EVE has played 50% of their game-time with 10 men…. but now also their team has become weaker (unless Bernard comes in)…So (a) hold Richarlison (most sensible approach) as we all want him back vs Arsenal (b) Wally is a side-wise move (I like him from ARS days as a Gunner, but never really made justice to his potential) and getting him means should keep him for long term and hope he does good (c) Look elsewhere (Pedro, Fraser – the only 2 in-form popular options in that price bracket).
But its a tricky decision….I am clueless.
Stick sources / links in all you like GM, we aren’t precious and do understand that other websites exist
You have to play your own game so do what feels best for you.
I made the move because I fancy him to grab me a goal in the next couple of Gws. I’m backing Everton to win both of their next two games and you’d expect Walcott to be involved. (Tosun will probably explode into form.)
I usually give players a 3 week run so will assess after that. I’m half thinking of a Walcott to Spurs mid, as Spurs’ fixtures look very nice after the Liverpool game. But we’ll see.
Don’t worry about the source. I should have said, if it’s free. If you’re paying then I suspect it comes from a site whose motto may be close to ‘be prepared’.
At First you were free to post, same as here & I’ve just posted the answer anyway.
I think Wally has overperformed a little based on those stats, plus no Richarlison and likely no red cards either (although Wally scored 1+1 against Soton where there was no red, and actually scored against Bou after Richarlison’s red) will impact Everton a little… So my thinking is if I want to get Richarlison back, I am not selling for Walcott, if I sell for Walcott then I wanna keep him… But I don’t wanna keep Wally so I won’t sell Richarlison (at least not for Wally)… I will only sell Richarlison if there is someone I want to have long-term that I can buy for him!
Hope that made any sense
I’m thinking of a Spurs swoop, should Walcott underwhelm. Or downgrading him to Neves and a striker up to Kane. Spurs have a very nice run after the Liverpool game.
Moura is tempting!
I’m hoping that Son, with a feeling of pure liberation at narrowly dodging a tricky 21 months of square-bashing and surprise 3am inspections (‘Son, what is that in your locker? A book? What sort of book? Is it a f*ck book?’) , will return to wondrous fantasy feats.