Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 5
Welcome to Captain Picks Gameweek 5! Proper football cannot come back soon enough. Fantasy football Twitter has dried up to the point that people are now analysing the difference Liverpool’s new specialist throw-in coach has had on the players’ throws. Apparently Andy Robertson can now throw to 69% more of the field than he could before. Some things are better left unanalysed.
If there is anything worse than an international friendlies break, it is an international break where the ‘friendlies’ are dressed up as competitive matches. At least with friendlies I did not care when England lost, but this new league left me somewhat disappointed on Saturday night when Spain walked away victorious. Bring back friendlies, I say. That way the English could have pretended that the players were not trying last night, much like I used to do when losing on FIFA. You could probably remove ‘used to’.
After Bry’s imaginative book review and James’s, erm, ‘thing’ (yes, you did actually read that article on this site and not the one you use your incognito browser for), I decided that I should get more creative for this article. After putting considerable thought, trees, and pens into coming up with something entertaining, I remembered something; I am not creative. Whilst some children could immerse themselves in deep fantasy with action figures and lego, I just broke them or threw them at my brother. Whilst some children would be picked to be the creative, charming protagonists in the school play, I was responsible for holding up the props. And whilst some people can write captaincy articles through the medium of a book or sex appeal review, I will be my boring old ‘statsy’ self.
Sergio Aguero (Fulham (H))
After being castigated by Init for stating the obvious in my fixtures article, and deciding to do as he says, and not as he does – ‘Man City are good and Cardiff are bad’ – I have added a bit of spice to my chocolate-collared showstopper this week. Ooo, someone’s been watching Bake-Off. However, quite often the boring option is the ‘correct’ option. Man City are at home to Fulham and Salah is away at Spurs. Even before looking at the stats it seems like a no-brainer. Just captain Aguero.
He has had the most shots (20) in the league so far this season, 12 of which were inside the box. Fulham are conceding 20 shots on average per away game, the fourth highest in the league, whilst Man City’s average of 28 shots per home game is unparalleled with nearest rivals Spurs three shots down. If my maths is correct, there will be sh*t ton of shots on the Fulham goal, and Aguero will take a handsome chunk of them.
Man City have already scored eight at home in two games (albeit six against Huddersfield) whilst Fulham have conceded five on the road so far. Heck, even Brighton put two past them and missed a penalty just for fun. Alfie Mawson may be introduced into the starting line-up after impressing in the Carabao Cup, but that should not deter you from picking the Argentine – the youngster was not able to prevent City from putting five past Swansea last season!
Man City scored 61 goals at home on their way to lift the title last season, scoring 2+ on 16 occasions. Jokanovic is taking his lambs to the slaughter this week, the only difference to that idiom being that the players are well aware of the beating that awaits them in Manchester (I’m talking about football, rkid, now take your Adidas jacket off). I remember saying something about the boring option being the ‘correct’ option.
However, ‘Captain PICK’ does not have the same ring to it, so here is a set of lads that are all pretty good at football too.
Gabriel Jesus (Fulham (H))
Aguero’s partner in crime is first up. Gabriel Jesus comes with a larger rotation concern, I think, but then who knows bar Pep? Aguero is probably ‘due’ to be benched. Sorry, I said it. Jesus has only started two matches so far, and was brought off before the hour mark against Newcastle. In the two games he’s started he has averaged a shot in the box every 16.4 minutes, which is the best in the league (exc. sub appearances) (by over six minutes!). If he is on the pitch (and I do say ‘if’ cautiously), he might even take more shots in the box than Aguero and if you don’t shoot, you don’t score. Then again, if you are benched, you don’t score.
Eden Hazard (Cardiff (H))
After easing himself back into things again, Hazard has scored two and assisted two already this season, scoring in both the matches he started. In 28 starts last season he scored 12 and assisted four, and at home he only scored four and assisted one. However, Chelsea struggled last season and Sarri does seem to have reignited the fire in the bellies of the entire team. Not changing his starting position every week should help Hazard re-find his form from previous seasons too; the first four games are an early indication that he has already found it.
Chelsea have already scored ten this season, putting three past Arsenal and two past Bournemouth at home as they look to obliterate the measly 30 goals they mustered at Stamford Bridge last season. They have averaged 24 shots per game at home so far, which is the third best in the league.
Cardiff have only conceded five so far, although it could easily have been seven but for the back-to-back penalty heroics of their goalkeeper, Neil Etheridge, and not conceding against Huddersfield is about as surprising as finding out that Theresa May is awful at dancing.
What is perhaps more concerning is that he scored two of the three shots he took in the box in the last two matches. However, he has always been ‘clinical’, scoring just over one in every five shots in the box last season and just over one in every four the season before that. Do you want to captain someone who would be taking any penalty Chelsea get against Etheridge though? It would be a nervy minute or so, that’s for sure. And quite possibly a frustrating couple of minus points after that minute!
Marcos Alonso (Cardiff (H))
Perhaps, though, it is time captain his teammate. Yes, a defender. Four of the current top five points scorers are defenders and Mendy, Alonso, and Holebas have just four clean sheets between them. It might feel a little daunting to captain a defender, but Alonso has had six shots in the box and four more shots than any other defender in the game so far. I have only ever captained a defender once; Leighton Baines scored a penalty, kept a clean sheet, and snatched three bonus points to return a cool 30 points. Alonso has a hand in the free-kick hat and, although he is not on penalties, he does spend much of his time in the penalty box, as Hazard has testified!
Fortunately for Alonso and his fantasy owners, the rest of the team does not forget to defend, having kept two clean sheets already. This fixture is as good as any to take the punt on him with the bookies giving Chelsea the shortest odds of the weekend to keep a clean sheet (4/6, at the time of writing). Cardiff has not scored on the road yet and their overall tally of just two goals puts them at the bottom of the goals table with Huddersfield and West Ham. Huddersfield and West Ham.
Fortune favours the brave, although it is neither constant nor predictable, so don’t expect any favours from Lady Luck.
Callum Wilson (Leicester (H))
Ahh, Callum Wilson. My ultimate FPL troll. Ever since his first hat-trick in the Premier League I knew he was going to be trouble. He seems to have the terrible habit of losing his shooting boots whenever I bring him in and then immediately finding them again when I get rid of him. This time I started the season with the more expensive version, Josh King. Callum Wilson steals the penalty from King and misses. For a brief period of time, I thought I had finally won the war. Then he scores two goals, grabs three assists and consequently rises by £0.2m. P***ing glorious.
Yet I have not learned my lesson; once again I will dance with Callum Wilson. Bournemouth scored two against both Everton and Cardiff (and missed a penalty). Leicester were poor away from home last season, conceding (joint) second most (38) and their first two matches away from the King Power this year will hardly pump optimism into the fans’ veins; an out-of-ideas United side put two past them and even Southampton, who blanked eight times at home last season, managed to score against them. Until Jonny Evans ousts Wes Morgan, I cannot see Leicester raking in the clean sheets.
Wilson currently leads the way for in the box shots with 14. A promising figure given that in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 campaigns he was averaging a goal roughly every 3.5 in the box shots he took. Don’t show me up again, Callum.
I know what you are thinking. Where is the spice I added to my chocolate-collared showstopper? Well I was going to tip Walcott but thought better of it, so if he bags you heard it here first and I told you he would. And if he doesn’t, well, I didn’t tip him, did I? Spicy.
Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 5. This article was written by AT.
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AT – many thanks for the article, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite not having to read it since there was no way I was ever captaining anyone but Kun this week
Any thoughts on this? 2FT, 0.1m ITB.
I’m doing Bavies to Dunk, and then switching my midfield a bit. I want Pedro, then Maddison, who can wait a week – which to get rid of first out of Micky & Jota?
Just do Mikhi to Pedro then surely, no need for the hit?
I’d say Mkhi out first.
How is the ff247 family feeling about David Silva?
I can’t speak for other family members – in fact if we are related we generally keep quiet about it – but David Silva is very high indeed on my watch list, in fact second only to Alonso.
One of my options this week is Robertson to Alonso and B Silva to D Silva.
But I have injured players littering the side and may have to hold fire on D Silva for the moment: my bench needs repairing before all the rottaion kicks in.
What’s your feeling, brother of mine?
‘rotation’
No need for correction Monsieur Kralin – if we imagine you in a dentist’s chair, trying to communicate (with great difficulty – each hard consonant helping to extract embarrassing pieces of vegetable matter, with a dental assistant pretending they didn’t notice), then the word ‘rottaion’ is perfectly comprehensible! In fact if you try to pronounce terms like ‘Sergio Aguero’ in the same manner, then you’ll probably come close to the original hispanic pronunciation!
Well, that WAS rather long-winded wasn’t it? And I just wanted to say ‘yeah no worries’!
On a professional note, I am determined to keep Salah (+ Mane + Firmino) & B Silva (ie. Ber-arhdo for those FPL playing dentists out there!), but have traded PVA from Palace & brought in Holebas – good decision, or just another jerk following the pack???
Adios!
That’s a wonderfully bonkers reply, AJW. Really enjoyable.
A quick question for you, vaguely related to the theme of dentistry: who do you think would win a fight between Aguero and Kane? I’m working on something at the moment and that’s a key question I can’t quite work out.
And to answer your question, Holebas is sound, I may have had a closer look at the Wolves’ defenders myself but you may have their goalie. I wouldn’t worry anout being a jerk following the pack, we all do it, or me anyway, my two transfers so far this season have been Walcott and Mkhi.
only dead fish go with the flow
Funnily enough I was reading about crowds the other day.
You 2 need some professional help, at least I am sure we are not related so I can sleep easy
When JG Ballard presented Crash to his publishers, a reader there said, famously, ‘this author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!’
Ballard considered that one of the best compliments he ever received. Though he also claimed that he never reread <i.Crash.
I’m more a fan of The Atrocity Exhibition…
Nah, that collection’s not my cup of tea my friend
haha – well brother,
I have the same feelings about David Silva. Although a somewhat sideways move, I am really considering Bilva to Dilva for the foreseeable future. Dilva’s stats are very nice and I can’t help but shake this feeling he will see less rotation risk with KdB out of commission, something that was not the case when Pep made his initial Dilva needs to rest more comments!
But of course, I am debating between that being a wasteful transfer or a promising one
His last game he looked dangerously good
Was Dilva on Int duty? That maybe gives you your answer mate.
http://www.the42.ie/david-silva-retires-international-football-spain-4178985-Aug2018/ There ya go, he’s rested.
His now being on free kicks is another string to his bow. He’s knocked one of those in as well.
Much more likely to see him in the box as well.
I am very tempted but unless Tomkins makes a miraculous recovery I have to tidy him up first; I also have Walcott.
Thanks for the compliments Kralin (and the others) – I always find it helps to make light of certain situations, in order to foster camaraderie. I’m sure Joseph Heller (Catch 22) & lil Sammie Beckett would have experienced similar difficulties with publishing, but cannot claim to know (even with Internet information checks a systematic part of our daily lives nowadays, I’m one of those ‘too lazy’ ones, so prefer to admit my own ignorance!).
Let’s get back to the affair at hand ….this week’s lineups! I do have Jonny from Wolves, so feel comfortable in this knowledge. Others include:
A fight between Harry Kane & Sergio??? Hmm, I’d think that Aguero would score a points win, as Kane would probably wish to take all measures to preserve his good looks (as well as his chances to get the Golden Boot, so to avoid physical injury at all cost!). If the said fight actually took place, the stadium authorities might like to have “You’re So Vain” (by Carly Simon I think???) as the theme music when Harry entered the ring!
Ooops FPL fans, another absurd exchange between Kralin & one of his kwazy korrespondants!
Ederson – Fabianski
Mendy – Obi-Wan – Alonso – Holebas + Jonny
Mane – Salah – Moura – B Silva – Jorginho –
Firmino – Arnie – Kamara
You all have the right to laugh about my front row (forwards), but I took the Liverpool Big 3 at the start of the season, with the very promising Arnie, but things have fallen a bit flat in that dept. Am looking to reshuffle, but will give them all some time to adapt before selling. By the way, have made a total of 7 transfers this year – that’s too many I know!
Its good or bad?
Salah to Hazard
Mitro to Vardy
-4 pòint.
Not good for a -4
Not sure on the ditching Salah plan personally especially for a hit. However if you are getting rid you have to spend the cash really
Bad in the sense that with three injured players you have other fish to fry.
Bad also in that Mitrovic’s form is pretty hot at the moment. I appreciate this week’s game isn’t easy, and Fulham’s fixtures are mixed, but he looks like someone worth holding onto.
Good in the sense that Vardy is a handy player to have.
Thanks all.. i guess no transfer for me this weeks. Save the FT.
Maddison or Pereyra is u had to pick one?
Fixtures says Maddison
+1
Cheers all.
Mahrez needs to go from my team
Maddison. He’s the next Mahrez for Leicester, probably.
Do you mean that he’s going to get a contract with City next year, to be employed as a professional bench-warmer for those cold Mancunian night matches, with his obvious talent remaining largely ignored, causing him to not fit in?
Just jivin’!
AJW- Don’t mind if he scores a 200+ season and i happen to own him for the current price..
Had forgotten about that possibility! Cheers!
So we’re almost back and I managed my target of not looking at FPL over the last week, so as not to be lured into hastily WC-ing. Just had a good read of all the missed articles and great reads, all of them. I’m a little confused as to what to do now though. Not having Alonso is hurting me. Kun C / Salah V
Would love some input.
1FT 0itb
@ohyesali
I would wait one game week and then upgrade Luiz to Alonso
You will have to downgrade either Mkhitaryan or B. Silva to raise the funds
Is shaw to Alonso
Mahrez to Maddison worth a-4?
I think do, yes..
That is ok.
Yeah I’d do that
Yeah I’d do that in a heartbeat! Maddison looks like he will deliver points on this fixture run