Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 9

Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 9 2017/18

Welcome to Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 9. Earlier this year myself and my better half (I’m lucky to have her she tells me frequently) moved into our ‘forever’ home. I call it this as moving home is horrific so I’ll never be doing that again. Our ‘new’ home is over 100 years old and as such needs a lot of care and attention. Weekends are now a non-stop onslaught of DIY hell (with every possible sport media outlet playing in the background). Frequent trips to the local DIY store have replaced lounging in front of Sky Sports all weekend and my FPL team has suffered accordingly. Well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Much like an old house your FPL team needs constant care and attention, neglect it for too long and before you know it you’ll be half way through the season wondering how James Ward Prowse is still in your starting 11 (amazingly this is the case for 0.8% playing FPL) and you have some bloke on your bench whose never played, dropped to 3.9m and shifting them seems harder than stripping woodchip off the wall.

Whatever general state of disrepair your FPL team is or isn’t in currently, most of you will hopefully have at least a couple of this week’s Captain picks to choose from, so without further ado it’s time to down tools and peruse this week’s contenders for your armband.

Harry Kane – home vs Liverpool
If I had to choose a player to help me paper a wall, Harry would be my man. He’s a big fella so that would obviously come in handy, but its his sheer determination and hard graft that leads me to think, Harry is always the go to guy to help you out of a sticky situation. If Harry doesn’t get it right first time you know he’ll persevere. Another Wembley blank against Bournemouth in GW8 doesn’t tell the full story; Kane still registered 6 goal attempts (as a comparison Jesus had 2), which leads me to think that surely it’s only a matter of time until he starts scoring at ‘home’ in the Premier league this season.

This week its Liverpool who head to the capital to face the “Harry Kane team”, they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet on the road this season conceding 11 goals in their 4 matches away from Anfield to date, whilst this data is somewhat skewed by their 5-0 hammering at the Etihad, there’s little doubt that Harry will have plenty of opportunities to add to his 6 goal tally against Liverpool’s porous backline.

Romelu Lukaku – away vs Huddersfield
The world has gone mad; well 102,379 FPL managers have gone mad. That was the number who ditched Lukaku in the 2 weeks prior to GW8. I can only presume these crazy folk looked at the upcoming fixtures, and seeing 3 red boxes in Manchester United’s GW 8–11 fixtures was enough to convince them it was time to let go of a man who had previously scored 7 in 7 this season. In GW8 Big Rom cut a forlorn figure and managed only one shot during Manchester United’s goalless draw with Liverpool. Frustrated and unable to influence what was his first real test against one of the leagues so-called ‘bigger clubs’. A further 25,373 have already ditched Lukaku this week already; perhaps the crazy folk are not so crazy after all? It won’t have gone unnoticed however, that amongst Manchester United 3 red boxes was a lovely green box, which just so happens to be this game week away to Huddersfield.

Huddersfield had a strong home start in the Premier League, clean sheets against Newcastle and Southampton prompted investment in their budget backline, but the wheels came off in their last home fixture against Spurs where they were whopped 4-0, they’ll not be looking forward to the visit of second placed Manchester United this gameweek.
Romelu Lukaku is a beast of a man, dynamic pace and strength are just two of his key attributes, he has a lot in his (ahem) ‘toolbox’ (ok enough tenuous DIY references now), don’t be surprised if he fills a few of those 116,752 ‘crazies’ with regret by adding to his 7 goals. As big Rom himself once said “If I get the ball and start running just get out of the way because you’ll be on the floor.” Hells bells!

Tammy Abraham – home vs Leicester
Maybe you’ve been lucky with your captain picks this season, if you’ve went with the big three up front you’ll have hopefully picked Lukaku, Kane, Kane, Jesus in that order over the last four game-weeks. Chances are though, like myself you’ve lucked out on more than one occasion and perhaps you’re looking for something a little different?
Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham could be the man you are looking for. With 70,360 new owners at the time of writing, Tammy’s (what’s wrong with Kevin?) brace at home to Huddersfield has clearly brought him to the attention of those seeking a more frugally priced 3rd striker.

The Chelsea loanee has already scored 4 goals this season and looks to be an integral part of Paul Clements side; he even managed to coax an assist out of Tom Carroll – no mean feat!

Leicester have conceded 7 goals on the their travels this season. A 2-0 defeat in GW3 at Old Trafford followed their 4-3 defeat at the Emirates on the opening weekend of the season. Whilst a 1-1 draw at Huddersfield and a 0-0 away to Bournemouth in their last two away fixtures have shown signs of improvement they’ll not relish a trip to a face a Swansea side full of confidence after last weeks home win.

Tammy is owned by a meagre 8% so is something of a differential. 21 points in his last two fixtures at the Liberty Stadium bodes well, so if the usual suspects have let you down then maybe Tammy is your ‘man’ (despite the lady moniker).

Raheem Sterling – home vs Burnley
The much-maligned AOA chip has been consigned to the FPL history books (thankfully). The free hit Chip that replaced it this season seems to be a welcome inclusion, but imagine if we got a new chip every season? Who would like a ‘Manchester City Chip’ that like the Free Hit Chip allowed you to pick as many Manchester City players for one week only? Last weeks 7-2 victory over Stoke means City have now scored 17 goals in their last 3 fixtures at the Etihad. Back to back 5-0 home wins against Liverpool and Crystal Palace were a sign of things to come, but few could have predicted that they would have beaten Stoke by as many goals as they did.

Perhaps this week’s five captain picks should simply all have been Manchester City players? A glance at the top scoring midfielders and forwards in FPL shows Manchester City occupy 4 spots in the top 6 midfielders and 2 in the top four forward slots. There’s merit in all six of Manchester City’s attacking assets but Raheem Sterling’s form has shown he’s not only a worthy inclusion for your starting 11 at present, but also your captain’s armband. Level on six goals with Kane, Morata, Aguero and Jesus, last week he scored, provided 2 assists and collected 2 BPS ending the GW as the highest scoring FPL player of the week with 15 points. More than 112,000 FPL managers have already added Sterling to their squads.

Burnley travel to the Etihad with impressive form on the road this season. A 1-0 victory away to Everton in GW7 followed 1-1 draws away to Liverpool and Spurs after their surprise 3-2 win at Stamford Bridge in GW1. Clearly more defensively astute than Stoke, they have had an element of luck on their side having conceded more shots than any other team in the league this season. The Clarets may provide a slightly sterner test for City, but it would be a brave man who bets against another comfortable City victory, it’s not a case of will they score but more of how many.

Gabriel Jesus – home vs Burnley
I may not have gotten away with giving all 5 of my captain picks to Manchester City players, but I don’t think many will quibble allotting them 2 slots this week.

As the FPL community went into meltdown over Sergio Aguero’s miraculous recovery prior to GW8, it was Jesus who once again led the line against Stoke. Once again he proved why he’s a more than competent understudy to King Kun. Another 2 goals taking him to 6 for the season, he’s also registered 3 assists and picked up maximum BPS on three occasions. Jesus currently has 21.2% ownership with 90,540 FPL managers adding him to their squads already this week, you would imagine a good percentage will also hand him the armband.

As with Sterling, Jesus comes with the usual Pep rotation caveat. If he’s benched then that will likely mean that Aguero plays, so if you have Kun (I’m thinking of you Smash) then he’s not a bad alternative, or Silva…or Sane…Or KDB.

My final word on City is simply; pick your poison and roll with the punches, they will all get minutes and as we know… points.

Good luck this game-week, keep the faith, don’t give up (BigPopz we’re here for you dude) and may the FPL gods smile upon us all this week.

Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Captain Picks Gameweek 9

This article was written by Rosco.
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Gameweek Tracker GW9-14