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)

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)

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)

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)

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

Follow @DCoelho

The Gallant Pioneer — Still crying in Holland…

Follow @MitchellC_FF247

Jamesimmo — Haaland

Follow @James777Simpson

Ivan — Haaland

Follow @IvanGB111

Swirly — Oooh, you’re Haaland

Follow @theswirly

Matt — Haaland

Follow @MattyMcveigh

Loud Atlas — Haaland

Follow @FantasyFooty247

Smash — The Usual

Follow @Chrismartin1984

Kop — Haaland

Follow @KenLyons79

Rosco — Haaland

Follow @eugoogooly

Ellefcee — That Nordic fella

Floydeth — Haaland

Follow @TinkerManFPL

Init — Beto, like Haaland on steroids, vs Doncaster…

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Gear — Haaland

Follow @Lukerouthorn

Stone Frog — Haaland

Follow @StoneFrog638

OddDane — Erlingho Brautinho Haalando

Jamie Mc — Haaland

FPL Dizz — The Nordic Meat Shield

Follow @DizzFpl

VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL

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