Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 4
Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 4
The Haaland Fracas…
Mr H caused a bit of a McScuffle in our offices this week. Well, sort of. Truth be told it was actually Jamie Mc who did that by announcing that he wanted to take one of the picks this week, but that that pick would be none other than…. Taiwo Awoniyi. Obviously. We won’t go into this now, as he does so himself below, but suffice to say that it was mainly as a differential pick, and to add a little spice to the variety.
What it did lead to though was a debate about the actual merits of this article, in light of Haaland’s EO (effective ownership), and the sheer amount of managers picking him regardles (7,142,808 did so this week) of any other viable options. All we can do really is present some others to you, as not everybody will simply want to play it safe each week, heck, some don’t even own him… I know, I have one in my league. He’s dead last already.
All that said, Erling did not win in our picks in GW2, and in GW3 he only hauled 8 points for The Gallant Pioneer. However, this was enough for a draw with Matt and his Saka pick on 8 also, and only 1 more than Swirly who get 7 for each of Jackson and Rashord.
The good news though is that when peace broke out once more it lead to some great ideas about a new regular article, to sort of address the above issue. More news on that to come in GW5! For now, here are this week’s selections from our panel of experts. And Jamie Mc… 
#perhaps 
Init – Haaland v Fulham (H)
(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
I’ll keep this one as brief as is necessary. Let’s face it, it’s the FEAR isn’t it?! The fear that this guy has a hat-trick, or more, in his locker, and that locker can, and most probably will, break open at any given time. Now then, to add to this, City do have a habit of hammering a few teams early doors at home in recent seasons. The likes of Norwich (5-0), Arsenal (5-0), Bournemouth (4-0) and Forest (6-0) will all attest to this. Fulham, not that there’s anything wrong with them, do feel like they could be the sort of team added to this early season feeding frenzy that they tend to go on after a few sighters.
FEAR HIM!
Or just pick one of these below.
Gear – Salah v Villa (H)
(Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Perma-Captains are boring, aren’t they? Variety is the spice of life and for those of you that feel Haaland has hit a bit of a rough patch, maybe it’s time to spice it up a little!
After 13 points against Burnley, he’s delivered a paltry 2 and 4 points since.
For those of you who are considering alternatives, then I would suggest Mo Salah is the man for your armband. I personally went with this strategy in GW2, and whilst it proved to be only a small gain, it was a gain, nonetheless.
Mo has had a consistent, if somewhat uninspiring start to this season, with 5 points delivered in each game week thus far. In 8 games against Villa as a Liverpool player, Salah has 5 goals and 3 assists. Whilst you may think that Villa have had a strong start to the season, if you look closer, you may spot an opportunity here. They shipped 5 goals against Newcastle on the opening day and have since beaten Everton and Burnley. Could they concede a few verses Liverpool? I’d suggest they will. Could Salah be amongst the goals and assists? I’d suggest HE WILL.
Gear – Sterling v Forest (H)
(Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
Whisper is quietly, but Sterling could be back. 2 goals and an assist last week, although this was against Luton Town. Still let’s look at the positives, if he keeps up this scoring rate of 0.66 goals per game, he’ll easily surpass this best scoring tally from 2019/20, of 20 goals. Granted its only really one game, but if there is one thing we know about FPL, it’s jump on form when you can (think Almirón last season).
He also has a lovely home fixture against Nottingham Forest, who it’s worth noting, he scored 3 goals against last season.
For those that do not own Raheem, maybe it’s time to considering a shrewd purchase and get ahead of the curve (he’s still only in 10.6% of teams).
Jamie Mc – Taiwo Awoniyi v Chelsea (A)
(Photo by Ash Donelon/ via Getty Images)
One of the age-old conflicting fantasy football dilemmas in my opinion is a player’s fixture in the game week over his form in previous game weeks.
Well I have looked at the fixtures in game week 4 and volunteered to the FF247 bosses to write a few words about a certain in form forward.
“Did you have drugs on your holiday?” said one of the esteemed writers.
“Just thought about someone not so obvious” was my reply.
“Might be worth writing about someone who anyone other than those not on drugs might actually captain” was the esteemed writers response.
“The proof of the pudding will be once game week 4 ends” was my response.
Esteemed writer double downed by suggesting that “if I captain him and he double digits then he will buy me 6 pints at the next meet up”.
The player in question scored in the last four consecutive games of last season which I accept is not too relevant and has started this season on fire by scoring away to Arsenal, home to Sheffield United and away to Manchester United.
I present to you; Nottingham Forest forward Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.5m with only 3.1% ownership).
Who cares that Chelsea will in all likely win and probably win quite handily this game week. I am sure that any Awoniyi owners would be quite delighted if Chelsea were to win with Forest scoring a goal or two in any defeat taking their chances on any Awoniyi goal involvement.
At the time of writing, 105,495 managers have transferred Awoniyi into their squad with 17,890 managers deciding to now go without.
For any managers considering transferring Awoniyi into their squad then a word of advice / caution, FPL Statistics has at the time of writing Awoniyi at 83.5% with only 19,148 nett transfers required for a £0.1m price increase.
Well Rosco my friend, I look forward to you buying the drinks!!!
As for me, I am not on drugs and will be captaining Haaland just like the vast majority of the other 91.3% of his owners. A home fixture at home to Fulham is just too good to turn down.
Good luck for the game week.
The confessional…
This is where we ask our entire writing team to tell us who they think they will pick this week…. and the answer is almost always Haaland.
DMC — That man Haaland
The Gallant Pioneer — Still crying in Holland…
Jamesimmo — Haaland
Ivan — 
Haaland
Swirly — Oooh, you’re Haaland
Matt — Haaland
Loud Atlas — Haaland
Smash — The Usual
Kop — Haaland
Rosco — Haaland
Ellefcee — 
That Nordic fella
Floydeth — 
Haaland
Init — Beto, like Haaland on steroids, vs Doncaster…
Gear — 
Haaland
Stone Frog — 
Haaland
OddDane — 
Erlingho Brautinho Haalando
Jamie Mc — 
Haaland
FPL Dizz — 
The Nordic Meat Shield
VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 4.
FPL FIXTURE TRACKER
Fantasy Football 247 League Codes:
This is our main public FF247 League for the 2023/24 season, which anyone is welcome to join and can be accessed using the code below or this auto-join link
League Code: 9srch6
Our Regulars League* for 2023/24 is sponsored by FF247! The total cash prize pool is £250. The first 4 places are paid out in a tiered system.
To enter this one you need to be an active and recognised site member and you need to e-mail us for the league code:
jamie251069@yahoo.co.uk
Our FF247 Cup is also included and attracts a prize of £50 for the winner.
*terms and conditions apply and the FF247 Management reserve the right to review membership of this league on an ongoing basis which is dependent upon regular comment / community activity.
Both leagues will be shut to new entrants as of 01/01/24.
***NEW ARTICLE – CAPOS GW4***
Many thanks to me, Gear and Jamie Mc for this weeks picks. Great work all and well done Jamie for standing up to Evil Rosco!
Yes – thanks for the article. Even though Haaland is being outscored by someone most weeks in FF, the vast majority still captain him. Takes some bottle to go against the crowd…
It’s just a numbers game with him. If you do go against and it pays off your rank will jump loads.
If it dosent you could lose 500k in your rank from 1 player
Some food for thought for sure. Thanks for all the work guys. I’m considering wild carding and wanted to get your thoughts First would you wild card this team? I’ll post my first WC draft in the comments. With 2 defenders down and 0FTs it feels like WC time but I am open to other ideas.
WC draft:
It’s not a bad team IMO – You can definitely play a starting 11 even though you got some injuries.
Seems like you already did your free transfer. Looking at your WC team – you didn’t really change much besides the 2 spurs players, cash, and rodrigo.
I think you can hold your WC at least till international break. Depending on how things go you could off load Varane to make cash for Maddison next GW.
I say hold till next week.
Cheers. Thanks for the sanity check.
I would hold WC as it looks like you’ll be fine for this gw
+1
That was a good laugh …. and I needed it this morning.
Thank you boys – top work.
Hmm GP, apparently that whisky last night did not pay off (or maybe Rangers were on the stuff too???) – oh well, you guys are well placed in the SPL.
How are you going?
I’m alright, but itching to get into the FPL seriously – feel like I’m skating on the surface at the moment!
See yah round mate!
Do something, do nothing. Not sure what to do this week.
1. Bring in Bowen/Sterling for …..
2. Udogie/Cash for Beyer and bench ….
3. Hold FT
If you have funds itb Mitoma to Bowen/Sterling isn’t a bad call. Brighton have 4 in 6 hard games coming up.
Of the 2 sterling is the better with the chelsea fixtures coming up
3.4 itb so all options are open
Get rid of Stones or pedro?
Awoniyi has been in form but there are other budget forwards where you could swap out Pedro. (I am holding Pedro for 1 more GW and then getting rid of him personally)
If you want to bring in Sterling either Mbeumo or Mitoma IMO – but idk personally both of them could have a great GW.
I would take care of the injured players if you have 2 transfers.
I’d deal with a defender for this week.
Nice article guys. Honestly thinking Sterling for this week as a punt. But, too timid for not going Haaland cappo.
Totally agree with you Constantine, has to be Haaland to keep up with everybody else