FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 4

Welcome to FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 4.

Shiny Old Toys

Ok then class, hands up, who did well with their armband last week?

Cue silence.

A week for the differential, evidently. The answer was of course Vardy as he was top scorer and would have netted you a cool 34. But he was away vs Man City, and given the alternatives he wasn’t exactly top of most peoples list.

Top of our list last week were Jimenez with 0 points, Kdb and Werner with 4 and Kane and Salah with a slightly more respectable, but still rather dissapointing 10. And all that was doubled.

The ‘Confessional’ all had some combo of the above too, so we can’t even point to a glory seeker there.

Let’s go see if this week’s panelists stick with the tried and tested, the obvious if you like, or if someone is brave enough to go out on a Bowen / Hourihane shaped limb…

Smash – Jamie Vardy v West Ham (H)

Jamie Vardy, if you had not noticed, is the highest scorer in the game. Hes not the new shiny toy and he does not play for the fashionable Liverpool, Man United or Man City teams. He’s on a cool 32 points and when you look at your mini league not many people even own him. A hat-trick against City last week shows he can score against anyone. Form over fixture? Right, well, as Leicester are at home to West Ham this week Vardy has both. I could list a load of stats about Vardy, some of them actually neagtive: his XG is low and he’s not having many touches of the ball in the box but stats really don’t tell the full story here. He always defies all the stats and just finds a way to always score goals.

Should I be worried that Vardy Is flagged?
Brendan Rodgers: “Vards I think will be fine, he’s just got this hip issue which has been ongoing. It normally settles down after a few days and then he works himself back into the game. He just has this impingement on his hip, so we think he’ll be fine.”
Jamie Vardy “I’ve just got a slight issue with my hip, I think it’s a bit of growth in one of the bones, it just clicks every so often and just gives me a bit of pain. It’s no issue. I’ll be absolutely fine.”

So in short, don’t worry about the injury. Vardy is an established striker who was top scorer last season in the Premier League and is leading the way this season. He has a home game against West Ham and he’s on penalties so what’s more to like? Leicester will get a lot of penalties (already had 4 this season) and Vardy himself and Barnes like falling over in the box too, which helps. You should really just be asking yourself why you don’t own Vardy and why are you not also thinking about captaining him. Perhaps permanently.

Init – Danny Ings v West Brom (H)

You all know that fantasy asset that just seems to always allude your grasp: the one who you sort of knew you should really own but just never seemed to get round to doing so. In the past for me it has been Arnautovic (when at Stoke, even sometimes at West Ham), Rashford and Martial constantly, maybe even Payet when he starred at West Ham too. The list could go on, the point is that Ings is my current kryptonite.

Why don’t I own him? I don’t actually know, logically I should. He’s been FPL GOLD for ages now. He should almost be set and forget. But more on that later!

You came here to find out why we would recommend certain players for the armband this week. Here’s a whistle stop tour on why you should plant it on Ings this week:

The Saints have only scored 3 goals thus far: Ings accounts for the lot.

He’s on pens: and pens are very much in vouge!

He’s scored 22 goals in 38 appearences in the PL for 2 seasons in a row now. Consistent.

West Brom have conceded 11 in 3 so far, the most in the league.

So why don’t I own him? Probably because we all had shiny new toys to play with such as Werner and Mitrovic, forgetting that the likes of Vardy, Jimenez and Ings are proven stalwarts still worthy of playing with.

Whether I will actually own him is up in the air as I’ll almost certainly be buying either him or Vardy this week, I’ve just not decided which one yet. A Wildcard is not out of the equation and if so both will be in. If it’s one or the other then I don’t know which way I will go yet but whichever one it is will be captaining my team.

MattX – KdB v Leeds (a)

Despite their recent clean sheet Leeds are still one of the worst defences in the league. They have conceded 7 goals in their first two games. Bielsa has either forgotten defending is a thing or he believes that Leeds are like Liverpool and Man City who can outscore most teams. City have only played two games in the league, so it is a very small sample size to make judgements from. After a good performance against Wolves, City subsequently collapsed massively against Leicester! Vardy absolutely destroyed the City backline in a 5-2 win but that could create the perfect opportunity for FPL managers. Pep and his players will want to respond in a massive way especially with Liverpool, Everton and Leicester still being unbeaten.

KDB had an off day against Leicester but in the first game of the season for City (against Wolves) he bagged a goal and assist. His goal of course being a penalty! This is perfect for those who own him as Leeds have conceded three penalties already this season and with KDB as the taker it could boost his chances of scoring big. The other plus to why KDB could have a big haul has been alluded to above, Leeds can’t defend! Leeds are a very attacking team who press high up the pitch, this leaves a lot of spaces in behind that a player of KDB’s quality could exploit.

One caveat I feel I must remind you of is City’s lack of a ‘proper’ striker due to Aguero and Jesus being out injured. This might not be too damaging though as City play Sterling through the middle and have a plethora of wingers to choose from. With the speed Sterling has and the space Leeds will likely leave, KDB should find a lot of opportunities to play Sterling through.

The Gallant Pioneer – Mohamed Salah v Aston Villa (a)

I didn’t own Salah in GW1. I didn’t own KDB in GW2. I now own both (via a wildcard). My captain record so far is PEA (twice – reasonably happy) and Werner (2 pointer – sad). I am currently ranked 4,571,108.

It is in my mind now just to back Salah or KDB every week from here on in. I’m not smart enough to be too clever in FPL so the armband is just going to one of the penalty-taking powerhouses and this week I have Salah at Villa and KDB at Leeds.

I have fallen on the side of the Egyptian for GW4 as I think this is the first real test of Aston Villa – the Midlanders have been able to take care of 10-man Sheffield United and a very weak Fulham with obvious ease – and they must now tackle the Champions and their 100% league record, delivered handsomely with nine goals.

Thanks of course to his electric start against Leeds in GW1, Salah is the highest scoring Liverpool player so far with 28 points combining those initial three goals and an assist versus Arsenal on Monday. On checking the Captains Poll I see that as of Wednesday afternoon, he leads the way with just over 25% of the vote so clearly I am not alone in thinking that he’s a good selection for the armband.

And if not, there’s always next week, or the week after, or the week after.

Kop – Raul Jimenez v Fulham (H)

In last weeks article my pick was a certain Raul Jimenez. He and his Wolves teammates didn’t half make a show of me. Seriously, who loses 4-0 to West Ham?! Wolves only managed two shots on target…at least Jimenez managed one of them!

Now most people would cast the Mexican aside and tell him to go out and cut the grass. But not me. I’m a forgiving type, I’m willing to give everyone a second chance, particularly someone of Jimenez’s quality.

Don’t forget he had scored in each of the opening two game-weeks and despite his poor showing against West Ham his stats across the first three games of the season stand up against all other options this week.

Finally, there’s this week’s opponents, Fulham. When Fulham got relegated back in 2018/19, they conceded 81 goals. Joe Bryan made 28 appearances and Tim Ream made 26 in the 2018/19 season and for some reason Scott Parker thinks they’re good enough this time around. They’re not! They’ve conceded 10 goals in their opening three games and it’s not as though the standard of opposition has been top quality.

Wolves will score on Sunday. More importantly, Raul will score on Sunday. And if he doesn’t? He’ll be cutting my grass on Monday!

Guy – Richarlison Dominic Calvert-Lewin v Brighton (H)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin is this year’s anointed ‘value’ forward, and for good reason. With 5 goals to his name through three games, he’s tied with Vardy for most goals in his position – and he’s been a bargain since he started the year at just 7.0M (now rising to 7.4M). In FPL terms, a goal is a goal is a goal. It doesn’t matter how the points got there, he scored them, and that’s good enough. And all of that holds true in a snapshot as small as three games.

Looking ahead though, you have to sense that his torrid pace won’t be sustainable for huge returns week in and week out – and for his price, maybe they don’t have to sustain these levels for his future output to feel justified. But instead of waiting for DCL’s inevitable decline in scoring to take effect, now may be the time to move to Richarlison, who I feel has a much much higher ceiling. It sounds crazy I know. Why move from the cheaper option at 7.4M and 35% ownership to a more expensive 8.0M option with just a single goal (and 3 assists)?

First off, Richarlison is the penalty taker for Everton. And in a season such as this, that might be the only rationale a person would need to make a player swap. But more than that, the actual statistics paint DCL as more of a poacher this year, whilst Richarlison is getting things done on a level that DCL hasn’t even sniffed at. And that added statistical boost will translate into more FPL points over the course of the year. To date, Richarlison gets a touch on the ball every 1.4 minutes against DCL’s 3.0 minutes per touch. Richarlison nearly triples DCL’s passing rate, and his dribbling and take-on stats are nearly 4-5 times what DCL has done. Let’s face it, if you’re trying to equate this to an FM save where you just need a poacher to stand in the box and take his chances, DCL would fill that role better than anybody in the game right now. And speaking of standing in the box and taking your chances, Richarlison has 28 touches in the penalty area this year against just 13 for DCL. All signs are pointing at Richarlison taking his FPL score to the next level. Oh yeah, Everton play Brighton at home this weekend, as if you needed more convincing from 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.

DMC — Kevin De Bruyne

Follow @DCoelho

Jamesimmo — Mohamed Salah

Follow @James777Simpson

Swirly — Danny Ings

Follow @theswirly

Horse — Raul Jimenez

Follow @harryhorse2

Matt — Raheem Sterling

Follow @MattyMcveigh

Loud Atlas — Mohamed Salah

Follow @FantasyFooty247

Smash — Kevin De Bruyne

Follow @Chrismartin1984

Kop — Mohamed Salah

Follow @KenLyons79

Cookie – Kevin De Bruyne

Follow @SteveCook9

The Gallant Pioneer — Mohamed Salah

Follow @MitchellC_FF247

Rosco — Mohamed Salah

Follow @eugoogooly

Elleffcee — Divock Origi

Floydeth — Mohamed Salah

Follow @TinkerManFPL

AT — Kevin De Bruyne

Follow @Fpl_AT

Init — Jamie Vardy

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Mito — Kevin De Bruyne

Follow @TheLegendMito21

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Thanks for reading FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 4. This article was written by FF247.

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