Welcome back for another round of FPL captaincy debate!
Well, I went ahead and did it. If you read last week’s column, you may recall I was threatening to use my Free Hit chip entering the weekend with three players between Newcastle and Aston Villa I would normally be starting, unavailable, along with a useless bench, only one free transfer, no money in the bank, and no Manchester City coverage. This was my first attempt at ignoring the standard strategy of saving this chip for a double gameweek, and the results were...really good by the end of Saturday. Come Tuesday morning, however, it has to be said, it was a chip wasted.
When the FPL site updated after Saturday’s games, I had a round rank of 100k, catapulting my overall rank from 800k to 300k. I was ecstatic. Of all the players I had brought in, all but one returned something. Of all the players I dropped for a one-week experiment, none burned me by dropping them. And then...Sunday came. Take Saturday’s results and reverse them. I missed on returns from Salah, Son and Kane. I thought I had picked a week where I could fade these players while simultaneously maximizing on the Man City fixture, among others. Turns out, in the end, yes I finished with a green arrow. But I did not climb the ranks nearly enough to validate using my chip.
Luckily, I was mentally prepared for an outcome like this. Part of the rationalization of playing my chip when I did was the thought that - if Kane and Son come good, that will hurt my fantasy ambitions but should result in overall happiness because it should signal a Tottenham victory over Arsenal. That is precisely what I got. A north London derby win, top of the league, a green arrow and just a few more weeks to endure of this tumultuous calendar year...in exchange for a Free Hit chip? Fine. As I often like to say, “You can have that”. I mean, come on, did you see Sonny’s goal? I enjoy one of my players cementing the status of “LEGEND” in real time.
Right, so in an unorthodox season where I am doing some unorthodox things, this week’s captaincy debate is looking rather straightforward. There are a few very common names playing some very attractive fixtures. They all have plenty of reason to be selected for the armband, so let us try and narrow our decision down with this Week 12 edition of Captain Obvious...
Heung-Min Son (9.6m)
Rostered % - 58.9% (rising fast)
Total points - 100 (10 Gs, 3 As, 14 BPs)
Opponent - Crystal Palace (away)
Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the first player this season to get to 100 points! After a tense goalless draw with Chelsea the previous weekend, Spurs returned to their scoring ways and, once again Son and Harry Kane have found what Kermit the Frog could only descrIbe as a Rainbow Connection. Son made the most of his limited chances. He registered only one shot and one key pass, but those both would up contribute to goals, assisting Kane while scoring himself in what is becoming vintage Son fashion. Give him space on the edge of the box to put the ball on his right foot and his accuracy right now is so remarkable, you pretty much know the ball is going in as soon as he connects with it.
Only two things to even debate right now when it comes to Son’s armband viability. One, will he and the rest of Spurs regulars be fit coming out of their Europa League match on Thursday night. Spurs are all but guaranteed a ticket to the knockout stage, but winning the group is on the line, so José Mourinho might want to use some key players, but I highly doubt either Son or Kane start. Still, having to write this column before that match is even played, clearly it is necessary to check on the status of Son before the Friday night deadline. The other debate is, well, should you have one of Son or Kane and you back Spurs this weekend, then your armband choice is made easy for you. But what do you do if you happen to roster both? I’ve said before and I maintain the philosophy - Son and Kane are neck and neck after a considerable portion of the season has been played, so clearly either can be a solid captaincy pick. However, I think Kane’s penalty duties make him just a little more safe. We still need to address the opposition, but I will save that for when Kane enters the discussion.
Mo Salah (12.3m)
Rostered % - 32.8% (rising steady)
Total points - 87 (9 Gs, 3 As, 10 BPs)
Opponent - Fulham (away)
When I said this week’s picks were looking straightforward, this is about as standard as it gets. A healthy Salah is always in the armband debate. A healthy Salah who has attacking returns in his last four appearances and facing Fulham this weekend? Well, it feels like he deserves a super-tier of his own. Having missed one game this season, Salah is not far behind Son on a points per game basis (about 8.7 for Salah to Son’s 9 points). He is coming off a great performance against Wolves, getting a goal/assist combo meal, maximum bonus and his highest FPL round score since his opening weekend hat trick. You might remember ahead of last weekend’s game against Brighton that I flat out predicted an assist for Salah, as he was simply not finding them despite being among the league leaders in key passes. Well, he has assisted in his last two games now, and those were the product of the only two key passes he delivered in that stretch. It would be nice to see Salah’s shot totals rise to where they were earlier in the season (he registered seventeen shots in the first three games of the campaign, while taking only fifteen over his last five), but regardless, he is in the kind of form right now where you would be feeling confident in captaining him in virtually any fixture.
So, you are telling me the Reds get to take on Fulham? That’s not only a “good” fixture, that is one you plan transfers around. Yes, it seems picking on Fulham is a good strategy if you stick with it, rather than giving it a try every so often. I say that because the two times I have tried it, with Raúl Jiménez and Jamie Vardy, I was not very satisfied with the results. But, “usually”, backing a star player who you trust as a captain in most weeks against Fulham is a smart move. You might say, oi, Steve - the Cottagers only conceded two goals on the road to a very tough attack in Manchester City. Mahrez got nothing there, Jesus got nothing there. Fulham’s defense is better now than at the start of the season. To which I would respond to that with - while, yes, those statements are true, 1) City could have easily put five or six on the board last weekend. They were quite unlucky to only find the net twice and 2) can you imagine how spent Fulham’s defense could look this weekend, playing the Reds immediately after enduring the barrage of attacking from City. Yeah, I think Liverpool will score two at least, with three or more being even more realistic.
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Jamie Vardy (10.3m)
Rostered % - 29.7% (about the same as last week)
Total points - 74 (9 Gs, 3 As, 13 BPs)
Opponent - Brighton (home)
Vardy is in solid form, but he has been somewhat quiet about it. In the last six league games, he has done well in providing attacking returns in five of them. However, only on one of those occasions did he put up a double digit score. There is just something about those double-digit returns that send fantasy managers into a shopping frenzy. In a week where I feel the armband is going to be overwhelmingly committed to Son, Salah or Kane, Vardy appears to be the closest thing to an “against the grain” pick. Despite solid form and a solid fixture, his armband rate this week should be pretty low. Now, Leicester are another side that have a Europa League match still to play, so it is rather unfortunate to have three of my top four picks this weekend be in this boat, but luckily, this is the final midweek group stage round of the European cup competitions.
The Foxes, like Spurs, have already punched their ticket to the knockout stage of the Europa League but still have tonight’s match to decide the winner of their group and that affects the pots these clubs will be mixed in for drawing those knockout matchups, so Leicester will want to win their group if at all possible. That said, I doubt Vardy starts this, with Kelechi Iheanacho getting a look instead and the England striker only coming on in the later stages if need be. Still, as small a chance of this match changing the status for Vardy this weekend is, it is paramount as a fantasy manager to confirm that status before the weekend deadline.
Harry Kane (10.9m)
Rostered % - 40.2% (rising slowly)
Total points - 98 (8 Gs, 10 As, 15 BPs)
Opponent - Crystal Palace (away)
Right, I will wrap up my shortlist of best captain choices the same way I started it, hyping up a Tottenham asset. Do I really need to explain what makes Kane a good armband choice at this point? Because I would much rather spend this paragraph devoted to praising the man’s rebirth under José Mourinho. Everything you need to know about Kane is seeing him with double-digit assists after eleven games. Absolutely astonishing. He is the complete player in his absolute prime and, if there was ever a moment for my club to do the unthinkable and snatch a title during my lifetime, this is it. Like Son last week, Kane had one shot on target and one key pass and they both resulted in Tottenham’s two goals. This is the deadliest pair of attackers in football right now. The chemistry is palpable. I don’t know when this wave will crash but I am having a hell of a time riding it until then.
So, as alluded to when talking about Son, what are Spurs chances looking like with a trip to Selhurst Park this weekend? Well, there is a positive and a negative if you are looking to profit from Spurs. The negative is, Palace are typically pretty sound defensively at home. I mean, they will concede to good attacks, they are not a fortress by any means, but they rarely get blown out on their own ground, even by the best of opponents. So this may be a week where two goals is all you get maximum from Spurs, perhaps only one. If you are looking for a higher-ceiling play, then I think you have to consider Salah or another Liverpool option. What you will get from Kane is a very high chance of being involved in an attacking return, even if Tottenham only find the net once. Be optimistic though. I think you can count on a couple of goals from Spurs here against what has been a patchwork Eagles back line that has had one of the softer schedules in the opening eleven weeks.
Other options - Right, the Manchester derby. With United at home to City, that actually makes it easy for me to be down on Bruno Fernandes this weekend. No, I cannot fault you if you want to back him, but I prefer using him away versus at home and this is simply one of the tougher and possibly tighter games United will have all season. City, on the other hand, I still feel like a healthy Kevin De Bruyne always needs to be in the mix and if I were to have a “Top 5” on my shortlist, instead of four, KDB would have been that extra nominee. Otherwise, Pep being Pep, I cannot say for sure who he will go with, and that is never a situation you want to have when assigning an armband.
Another fixture with popular captaincy choices around both clubs, and therefore sort of making things easier by cancelling themselves out, is Everton versus Chelsea. Personally, I am not happy at the moment with two attacking Toffees and none from the Blues entering this game because, personally, I think Chelsea are going to win this one handily. Dominic Calvert-Lewin could once again poach a goal, get a consolation somewhere, but my money is on the Blues here. I am thinking about dropping James Rodriguez for Mason Mount of all things with my free transfer, but that sort of underscores the difficulty of assigning an armband to a Chelsea player. One week we are on the Timo Werner bandwagon, the next we are all thinking Hakim Ziyech. This, for me, is a situation where you want some Chelsea coverage but probably don’t want to double down with a captaincy designation.
Finally, let me get a little crazy. James Ward-Prowse is in the form of his life. And, when you are a dead ball specialist, that translates to fantasy gold. He is showing us set piece magic I have not seen since vintage Gylfi Sigurdsson. So dangerous and on the end of every dead ball. Playing at home to rock-bottom Sheffield United this weekend, I simply felt weird not giving him a mention here. Maybe you don’t feel confident enough in him for armband purposes, but you should at least feel very optimistic about having him in your side this weekend, should you be so fortunate.
Hit me up on Twitter @FuzzyWarbles and let me know your thoughts on who you’ve nominated for captain and why. Good luck with your selection this weekend and may your arrows be green.
