FPL Captain Picks GW29

Welcome to FPL Captain Picks GW29

No Salah, no problem. Well, it might be… The problem is who else to pick, such as we have all become so accustomed to simply sticking it on Mo recently, and reaping the rewards for doing so. T least we know how Arne Slot feels.

With no Liverpool, Villa or Newcastle goes a fair few candidates. No disrespect Palace, but I can’t say I’ve captained one of yours this season. That still leaves 8 games and therefore 16 teams to choose from. Let’s go see who Jamie Mc, Kop and Init think we should be considering.

Jamie Mc – Chris Wood vs Ipswich (A)

With Liverpool having a blank game week this weekend then the “Set & Forget” Salah captain option is not an option.

Throw in the absence of Newcastle’s Isak, Villa’s Watkins and Palace’s Mateta due to the Carabao League Cup Final this weekend then our captain choices become limited.

Throw in the absence of the injured Jackson, Havertz, Calvert-Lewin, Antonio, and the suspended Cunha then our captain choices become even more limited.

Most of us have long disposed of Haaland so unless you have a few free transfers then I would not be ripping up my team to bring in the mis-firing Robot especially at the expense of Salah.

So, who should you be captaining this game week???

I present for your consideration Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood (£7.3m & 47.3% ownership).

If Nottingham Forest are to maintain their quest for Champions League football next season, then no doubt Wood will be the man who could fire them into the promised land.

Most of us will already have this high-flying Kiwi in our squad so your free transfer for this game week will hopefully be for someone else to get to eleven players or close to eleven players for the reduced game week set of fixtures.

With 172 points, Chris Wood is the fourth highest points scorer in the game. Wood happens to also be the top point scoring forward in the game. Wood has scored eighteen league goals so far this season again the fourth highest goal scorer in game and third highest goal scoring forward in the game with a single goal behind Isak and a further goal behind Haaland; who would have thought that at the start of the season.

At the time of writing, 192,126 managers have transferred Wood into their squad resulting in a £0.1m price increase with 13,119 managers deciding to now go without. According to FPL Statistics, Wood is currently at 29.9% with another 108,708 transfers required for a further £0.1m price increase.

Nottingham Forest have a more than decent run of fixtures until the end of the season with eight of their remaining ten leagues games against teams in the bottom half of the league table with a game week 31 fixture at home to Aston Villa and a game week 38 fixture at home to Chelsea their only fixtures against teams in the top half of the table.

Oh, and one final point, I fully recognise that a kiwi is any of a small genus of flightless New Zealand birds with rudimentary wings, stout legs, a long bill, and grayish brown hairlike plumage – courtesy of Google.

Kop – Bruno Fernandes vs Leicester (A)

With Mo Salah not featuring this weekend, Cole Palmer horribly out of form and Erling Haaland not exactly proving value for money, we have for the first gameweek in some time scope to think outside the box in terms of captaincy.

“We are being the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United”. The words of United manager Ruben Amorim , following their 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton. These are hardly the words to inspire you to captain a United player this weekend.

There is however one United player who stands head and shoulders above his teammates, and this is of course Bruno Fernandes. Ignore Roy Keane!

Over the past three gameweeks he has two goals, two assists and seven bonus points. As a result, he is now the clubs joint highest scorer in the league with six, while he also has nine assists. While these numbers are solid, they’re not necessarily worth singing and dancing about. However, it’s worth remembering that he faces Leicester this weekend.

Southampton are undeniably the worst team in the league, but in fairness Leicester aren’t a whole lot better. They’ve conceded 62 goals to date and have only kept 1 clean sheet from their 28 games. Surely, even United can comfortably beat them?! Well, …
Ignore United. Back Bruno!

Init – Haaland vs Brighton (H)

Ooof, Haaland got a kicking above didn’t he? Which to be fair is more than he got vs Forest last time out. Hardly inspires any confidence in picking him this week, never mind captaining him.

In the absence of Mo though, he does somehow still feel like the go-to hero. Maybe it is more to do with associating the armband with a potentially explosive player, than any actual facts, or indeed form. It’s the hope that kills you, but the hope is always there with Erling, as on his day he can suddenly turn it up to 11, and boom. It’s just that ‘his day’ now seems like a bit of a distant memory. No reflection on him really, just City in general.

For what it’s worth, City are at least at home, where they have still racked up 28 goals in 13 games, the 4th highest in the league. Erling himself has 10 of those (half his tally), and of course that includes a hat-trick last time out there vs Ipswich. So he’s hardly a busted flush who has forgotten where the goal is.

Brighton have conceded 24 on the road, only Villa outside of the bottom 4 have conceded more (you really can make stats say anything you want if you stare at them long enough!).

Look, it’s one of those – he can, if City can, and they sort of need to start winning some again at some point if they are to get into the CL next season.

I appreciate that none of that is particularly awe inspiring or indeed confidence building but if you had to put a tenner on anyone scoring a hat-trick this weekend then it wouldn’t be Wood or Bruno….

The confessional…

We forgot to ask them again…!

This will be updated on Thursday evening.

DMC —

Follow @DCoelho

The Gallant Pioneer —

Follow @MitchellC_FF247

Jamesimmo —

Follow @James777Simpson

Ivan —

Follow @IvanGB111

Swirly —

Follow @theswirly

Matt —

Follow @MattyMcveigh

Loud Atlas —

Follow @FantasyFooty247

Smash —

Follow @Chrismartin1984

Kop —

Follow @KenLyons79

Rosco —

Follow @eugoogooly

Ellefcee —

Floydeth —

Follow @TinkerManFPL

Init —

Follow @AdamalcockFF247

Gear —

Follow @Lukerouthorn

Stone Frog —

Follow @StoneFrog638

OddDane —

Jamie Mc —

Peter Pan —

Thanks for reading FPL Captain Picks GW29.

Follow @FantasyFooty247

VOTE ON THIS WEEK’S CAPTAIN POLL

FPL FIXTURE TRACKER

Both leagues will be shut to new entrants as of 01/01/25.