FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 37
It’s probably fair to say that not many of us got quite what we expected or hoped for out of GW36. It was short, sharp and brutal. GW37 does at least have a full compliment of teams to choose from. Whether that will make it much better remains to be seen, as rotation will probably be at a premium again with the short turnaround after the past weekend and also ahead of the next one.
As for our GW36 picks it was feast or famine really. And to pay on a previous theme from GW35 the bleeding obvious once again won the day;
1. Matt – Salah, 20 points. A solitary goal was enough to take vicyory this week, which probably says a lot.
2. Kop – Kane, 16 points. Our only other goalscorer but Kop and Kane owners alike would have wanted a tad more.
3. Horse – Son, 6 points. The best of the worst.
= 4. Cookie – Antonio, 4 points. Antonio killed his Saturday night fun.
= 5. Init – DCL, 4 points. Is probably past caring never mind surprised.
Rosco – Fernandes v Fulham (H)
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
The end is nigh. Not in the biblical sense, but given the year we’ve had you could be forgiven for a sense of impending doom at any given moment. But no, the Premier League draws to a close in what has been another strange season, and even though I’m personally having a decent FPL season, even I will be glad to see the back of this one.
GW37 will see the return of fans, albeit in limited numbers. Come Wednesday, I’ll be at St James along with 9999 other Geordies looking to cheer on the manager of the month Steve Bruce or something like that. Tuesday night will see the same number head to Old Trafford and if you’re putting your armband on Bruno, you’ll be hoping they stay in the stands and off the pitch this time.
Following 19 points in the GW35 ‘triple’ and a rest at the weekend, Bruno Fernandes is naturally a strong contender for the GW37 armband. The draw of captaining the Red Devil’s Portuguese talisman, in a home game against the relegated Cottagers seems a no-brainer. If anyone was concerned that Scott Parker’s men would come out fighting following their demotion from the Premier League, then such notions were quickly dispelled in their 3-1 defeat at St Mary’s. Indeed, Fulham looked very much the Championship side they will become next season.
Bruno has had the FPL season most predicted. He sits top of the FPL point scorers (240pts) thanks in no small part to his 18 goals and 13 assists. 12 double-digit returns make him the go-to choice most weeks, and as the highest owned player in the game (51%), his effective ownership will likely once more be 160%+. Bruno is currently £11.4m, you won’t get him that cheap next season. Don’t be surprised to see Bruno as one of, if not the most expensive player in the game come next season. So get him while he’s cheap if you don’t have him, and unless you’re feeling a little ‘Cookie’, do the sensible thing and hand him your armband once more this game week.
Kop – Salah v Burnley (A)
Fck me! 94 minutes into this afternoon’s match I was sorely regretting saying that I’d write a piece for this week’s capos article and the fact that I’d picked Mo Salah was tipping me over the edge! I needn’t have feared as Alisson Becker saved my mood. Everything was right in the world once more!
I’m sure I can dig up a few stats to highlight why you should hand the armband to Mo this weekend but before the stats, I’ll highlight something more important. Desire, something to play for. The battle for the top 4 is hopefully going to go to the final day of the season as Chelsea, Leicester & Liverpool fight it out for the last two spots. These three teams have more to play for than any of the other 17 teams in the league. With Chelsea & Leicester facing each other on Tuesday night they somewhat cancel each other out, leaving Salah against Burnley as the standout option.
Ahead of GW36, I tipped Harry Kane for the armband as he was fighting for the golden boot. Salah & Kane are now tied on 22 goals with two games left and Salah will be desperate to win it also. Although, he may not swear on his daughters life!
Stats? Over the past four gameweeks he ranks 1st (39) for penalty area touches, 5th (15) for goal attempts, joint 2nd (8) for attempts on target and joint 4th (11) for chances created.
Stats are great but it’s returns that matter and over the last four gameweeks he’s registered three goals and an assist, and hasn’t blanked over that period.
Don’t overthink things this week and just give Mo the band…
Smash – Kane vs Aston Villa (H)
(Photo by Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)
We are running out of weeks, if you don’t want to take risks with the captaincy then Harry Kane is your man. Only Bruno Fernandes has more FPL points than Kane’s 230. He needs the goals on a personal level as he’s going for the golden boot. What we want in an FPL player is a personal incentive to be greedy and to score goals and Harry has just that. We also know he wants to win the golden boot as he openly says he wants to win it every year. Back to scoring ways against Wolves, and if you want to cheer him on you might as well captain him as just owning him isn’t enough. Kane could have hauled v Wolves and it was the same last week against Leeds. When Kane scored against Wolves I don’t think my rank moved so why not just captain him.
We want a team that’s bad at defending when captaining one of our players and recent form suggests Villa are on the beach. Aston Villa at home is the opposition and they are just not water tight any more having conceded another 3 goals against Crystal Palace. They only have one clean sheet in their last ten games so the chances are they will concede and Kane is nearly always the man to score the goals for Spurs. In the last 4 game weeks no team has conceded more goals than Villa and only Newcastle and West Brom have conceded more shots. Lastly if you like xG Kane has the highest compared to all his captain rivals this week in the last four game weeks. So Kane scored in his last game, has the highest xG (for captaincy rivals) and is playing against the weakest defence; that smells like captaincy to me.
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.
Jamesimmo — Bruno
Swirly — Bruno
Horse — Salah
Matt — Bruno
Loud Atlas — Salah
Smash — Bruno
Kop — Salah
Cookie – Salah
The Gallant Pioneer — Salah
Rosco — Bruno
Ellefcee — Salah
Floydeth — Salah
Init — Bruno
Thanks for reading FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 37.
VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL GW37
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Hello folks.
Is my bench order/keeper choice correct?
Yes, gtg.
Probably yeah.
Thanks both.
As it is looks good, LRL
Hi lads, big 2 weeks ahead for me. I’m leading my mini league by 65 points. Winning gets 500 quid.
Below is my team and my opponents team. His team looks better to me but 65 points is quite a big gap.
For my transfer this week, do I bring in Greenwood for Jota to minimise the difference in squads? Or do I go for the points and bring in raphina? I could even save it for the final weekend. Not sure what to do at all!
Wait until the deadline and see if any leaked lineups come out again. Can use that to decide if you should bring in greenwood. If not on lineup, could do the raph transfer. Need to get him out though as Bowen is on bench nowadays. If no leaked news I’d probably do greenwood anyway.
+1
+2
Sounds good to me mate. Where’s would I keep an eye out for the leaked lineups? I’m leaning more towards greenwood as a damage control transfer but I’ll wait off a bit and see
I missed the Man City leaks myself. However, this Twitter account posted leaks before the deadline: https://twitter.com/LetsTalk_FPL/with_replies. He reposted information from Sam Lee who is the Man City correspondent for The Athletic. Otherwise, you’ll have to scour twitter. Of course, there is no guarantee any info will be leaked.
I’m not convinced Bamford will start tonight
I have that same feeling mate, and its making me think of a 4ph for Antonio
Rodrigo has scored 3 in the last 2 from the bench, I’m not sure what to do
Looked at a few Leeds forums and the general consensus is that Bamford starts with Rodrigo in behind. A few predicted lineups I’ve seen tend to agree with this. Kilch being out could help this.
From post match interview:
Explaining the substitution, Bielsa added: “Rodrigo drops a little bit deeper than Patrick. And in the beginning of the second half, we needed to link more the midfield and the attack.”
Two Leeds reporters have given their lineups. One has Bamford starting, the other has Rodrigo starting but said “While I don’t expect Bielsa to follow my lead, I would give Rodrigo a go from the start at St Mary’s Stadium.”
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/leeds-united-line-up-southampton-20616376
Take from that what you will. Personally, I think Bamford will start again.
I will keep Bamford this week. but ditch next week i think
I’m going 4-5-1 formation
Hey everyone!
1 FT, 0.1 ITB. I am all over the place but I’m playing for fun in the last two, so not too bothered with a -4 ph. Options I am considering are:
1) Jota to Raphinha/Harrison/Torres/Willock (no idea as they all look good on paper)
2) Watkins to Antonio (a bit boring but he looks like he is due to score)
3) 1) & 2)
4) Greenwood & Watkins to Raphinha/Harrison & Cavani (they promised the guy a different feeling when the fans are back to Old Trafford)
5) Coady & Jota to TAA & ESR
6) any other exciting idea is welcomed
Thank you all
Jota to Willock or Saint-Maximin is the ‘move on paper’ I think.
Cheers GP! But then I need to play one of Watkins or Nacho and their fixtures don’t look too promising. Antonio/Bamford or even Rodrigo look way more exciting. You reckon I should get any of them for a hit?
If you’re playing for fun get Antonio in. Underlying stats suggest he’s due.
Cheers leeboy! Well, 57 points behind my ML leader and having pretty similar teams, I reckon it’s game over for me. We have the same attacking 8 with the difference he has Raphinha and I have Bruno (his defensive line is quite buffed). I presume he will only do 1 FT to sort Jota’s injury, so I will need to go with something different and try to have some fun in the process.
Hi guys. I am 9 points behind in my mini league. Got 0.2m ITB and 1 FT. My head is telling me to roll the transfer to have some flexibility in GW38. My heart is telling me to do Jota > Willock this week and bench Lingard. What should I do???
Leave that as is and have 2FT.
Who to captain?
Bruno
Salah
Kane
Am I GTG or should I do Jota to Raphina transfer? Concerned about falling even more behind after last week’s horror. Anything else?
Thinking I will need to get rid of at least Godfrey and DCL next week…
Thanks and all the best everyone!