FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 31
Welcome to FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 31
There will have been a fair bit of disparity in scores last week, across many a mini-league, and most of it will have simply come down to owning / captaining Kane. Out of the top 5 captained players amongst ‘live’ teams (Kane, Bruno, Salah, Bamford & KdB) only Kane made it into the weekly FPL ‘Dream Team’. The rest of it was made up with the likes of Pereira, Trezeguet, Mendy and Callum Robinson (who?!).
There will be no prizes for guessing how most of our panel from last week fared then, outside of our Kane picker;
1. Matt – Kane, 26 points.
Top spot, by a mile, thanks to 2 goals and all 3 bonus points. Should have been fairly obvious really though; he was playing vs Newcastle…
2. James – Raphinha, 12 points.
The only one of our panel who didn’t actually captain Kane in his own team. His own team would have been 3rd here.
3. Init – Bruno, 10 points.
No penalty, no party fror Init and Bruno. And James!
4. Rosco – Bamford, 4 points.
He may be last here but he won’t care a jot as he top scored in our FF247 Contributors League with a whopping 81.
Let’s go see what this week’s panel can come up with. And before we begin we should offer a warm welcome back to an old friend in the shape of Beka Chan, who has been off becoming the Professor of America, or some such stuff.
Smash – Salah vs Villa (H)
Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images
Salah was back to scoring ways in a very convincing 3-0 away win at Arsenal this past week. In the last four game weeks only Harry Kane has had more shots than Salah. This builds on the important goal he scored in the champions league against Leipzig, the brace he scored for Egypt and yet another vs Madrid last night. Liverpool have started to look (a bit) back in form so that should mean Salah is back in the FPL points. We remember the hauls from previous seasons and with Salah still in the golden boot race now just might be the time to back the Egyptian king once again.
Beka – Kane vs Man United (H)
Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images
Let me take you back to Week 4 where Harry Kane & the Spurs came up against Man United…remember that game? I sure do and if memory serves me correctly, Kane came up with 2 goals and an assist and brought all those who captained him a very generous 32 points! Sure, that was 27 weeks ago but the opportunity is there for Kane to continue to impress and I’m not alone in this belief!
For those who know me, I like to look at stats and data but also trends. Did you know that despite being the most expensive forward in the league, Harry Kane was the 4th most traded IN player for GW 30? 77,270 managers decided that despite the hefty price tag of £11.7, he warranted a spot on their team. Personally, I don’t know why anyone would NOT have him selected but 52.1% of league players do not. And, if you did not captain him during Gameweek 30, perhaps you felt the pain of others passing you in your respective leagues; that is unless someone had West Brom’s Pereira who delivered 2 goals and 2 assists but alas, that’s highly unlikely as only 1.8% of folks own him!
Sure, Manchester United may be 2nd in the league and have the league leader in points, Bruno Miguel Borges Fernandes onboard, but with home court advantage, the ability for Kane to breakthrough any defence is there. I also believe there is a psychological advantage as Kane is riding on the numeric coat-tails of Fernandes. I believe the fire is in Kane’s belly to surpass Fernandes’ 214 as he is only 10 points away/off! In all, the opportunity and motive for Kane to succeed is there! Good luck!
Kop – Jota vs Villa (H)
Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Despite the disaster against Madrid, I still believe that Jota is a good shout for the armband, and here’s why. Against Arsenal, despite Liverpool dominating, the score was locked at 0-0 on 61 minutes when Jota entered the fray. Three minutes later, he’d broken the deadlock and picked up another late on. He’s clinical. He had two chances and scored with both. Over the course of the season, he’s scored with 32% of his goal attempts. Now this might not seem very high but consider that Salah and Kane have scored 19.6% and 17.4% of their respective chances.
I appreciate that Emi Martinez is currently the highest scoring keeper in FPL and has 14 clean sheets to his name. However, over the past five games, he has only kept the one clean sheet.
Finally, for those of you trying to make up ground the opportunities to do so are slowing ebbing away and it’s perhaps time to take a gamble or two. Perhaps it’s time to hand Jota the armband!
Init – Sterling vs Leeds (H)
Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
The other problem here is that having only just scraped a win against Dortmund Mr Pep will no doubt have a big eye on that 2nd leg next Wednesday. For the record; KdB, Gundogan, Foden and Mahrez all played 90 mins on Tuesday night. Sterling, Kun and Torres all did 90 on the bench, with Jesus popping on for a cameo. The logic here is obvious. In theory. But this Pep, so anything is conceivably possible and logic usually goes out the window in his office.
But why have I targeted this fixture in particular? Mainly because Beka took Kane, in all honesty! But still, let’s give it a go…
Leeds are pretty good at conceding goals away from home, one of the best in fact. They have conceded 30, only Southampton have let in more at 33 but 14 of those were against the Mancs (9 & 5 in 2 games). Leeds are just far more consistent than that! 4 @ Palace, 3 @ Chelsea, 6 @ Man U, 3 @ Spurs, 4 @ Arsenal. Probably worse than all that… 1 @ Newcastle!!! The 30 against is also literally twice as many as 7 other teams in the league.
Oh and City are pretty good at scoring at home… their 36 at home is 7 more than Utd in 2nd place and is literally twice as many as 10 pothers in the league. You get the gist here.
The problem comes back to the problem. Which is the problem.
Sterling should start, or will he?!
The confessional…
This is where we ask our entire writing team to tell us who they think they will pick this week…. There are more caveats and get out clauses than a Lionel Messi contract but this is their initial gut feeling based upon who they actually own.
DMC — Salah
Beka Chan — Kane
Jamesimmo — Salah
Swirly — Salah
Horse — Kane
Matt — Kane
Loud Atlas — Kane
Smash — Salah
Kop — Kane
Cookie – Lacazette
The Gallant Pioneer — Salah
Rosco — Salah
Ellefcee — Salah
Floydeth — Jota
AT — Salah
Init — Salah
Mito — TBC
VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL GW31
Thanks for reading FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 31.
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Wish me luck guys. And do great yourselves.
Good luck LRL – still a day left to wreck havoc on that side!
Great choice of midfielders if I should say so myself
I wanted TAA but but…Nice side.
Thinking of Leno too then get in Lloris just before the double.
Yep. Lloris to Schmeichel would make sense in gw33 imo.
You’re swimming funds you mad man, downgrade Twatkins and Martinez and get Trent
Current wc team. Tell me where I’m going wrong. Planning to swap salah for son next week
Nice team
Help needed people.
Wildcarding this week.
Struggling to fill the team. Got 2 slots left, 6.3m ITB, and trying to build the team with BB in mind for next few weeks maybe.
Salah or Jota? Different goalies?
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
You need to raise another 3m at least to fill those spots
So you either loses Salah to Jota or start trimming the rest of your squad.
Nat Philips is cheap at 4m and plays
Rudiger at 4.6 ?
I’d lose Scmichael / Neves / Dallas for starters.
Good luck
What about this revamped wc draft?
Leaves me with 0.1m
I’d be content with that defence. Does Bamford to Iheanacho give you enough to put Johnstone back to Schmeichel ( or Mendy / Leno ) ?
If I did the Iheanacho move Otieno, I am left with 5.3m, so could only do Mendy or Leno.
Is Bamford not a better move than Iheanacho? I know Leicester have the better fixtures, but what about game time etc?
The team is good and you are right, Bam is better than Ihean. I just wasn’t keen on Johnstone. You could work with this for a few weeks then GW35 after Tot have played New you could review for the last four weeks by selling Son.
Agreed Otieno – just trying to get a decent side, with 15 playing players.
Once Spurs have played the double gameweek I can re-assess. Plus, Spurs have already played Newcastle
Sorry, I meant after they played SHU in GW34
Otieno – that seems more logical…lol
Shame though as they have good fixtures after that….. shall see how it goes.
Need to figure out when best to use Bench Boost
OK, I am back. Like you guys said, forget disappointments and finish the season.
I no longer care about my initial team and now concentrating on team B.
Currently OR 60,436 and my aim is to finish in top 50K.
2 FT and 2.2 ITB
Any ideas?
What? No Salah? I’m disappointed in you Ivan
Dane, you know my love for Salah
Jota will do a better job
Raphinha to Lingard?
Konsa/Burn to Rüdiger?
Think I missed the train for that one. Chelski’s CS days are over and the upcoming fixtures are not the best.
Son to Sterling(c) this week then back for next ?
Otieno, that sounds like a good plan
Hi everyone wc team any suggestions? I’m thinking of going without son as I want to keep laca need to try new things to gain
With that in mind it looks just fine, you could always grab Son for Salah next week as a defensive tactic if need be.
Good evening gents, currently have 1FT 8.7m itb which is just enough money to do Lingod & Dallas to Salah & TAA for a -4 hit. Do you reckon’ it’s worth doing?
Don’t you want to try and keep Lingard (to Lingard a little longer?) for a while? He seems like a THE active member of WHU who is likely to burst forth at any given moment (and against any given opposition!). A walking West Ham time bomb, if I may say so (he was so dormant at United that this ‘eclosion’ is surprising I know!). Just my thoughts!
Thanks mate I do want to keep him actually, he’s probably my best transfer in this season. But keeping him means I need to make extra moves to free up funds for TAA
Jota and TAA instead – then Son to Salah in gw33?
Thanks, it’s an Interesting idea but was actually planning to capt Salah. Not sure if I have the guts to go with Jota.
I’d be keeping Lingard, and not sure on particularly rushing for Trent.
Thanks Init, seems like it’s a good entry point to get TAA. More importantly, can’t decide who to sacrifice for Salah which will impact how or when I can get TAA. Who would you take out between Gündoğan and Raphinha?
Just do Gundo to Salah for now. Losing Gundo has the side benefit of giving you 11 for GW33 and you can save your FH for a possible problem in GW36 or a last fling in GW38 to drop the beach boys if you need a differential push in your ML.
Thanks Otieno. That’s a good point. Might just have to hide behind the couch when City plays Leeds.