CAPTAINCY HYPE 2017/18: FPL Gameweek 22
Picking a Captain to double down on in the Fantasy Premier League is the most important question asked ahead of each of the 38 Gameweek's in the Premier League season. There's a lot of self-help out there for FPL enthusiasts, with our Hype Team providing three major considerations for the armband for each and every Gameweek. We'll be detailing the Essential choice for captain, a popular alternative that's pushing the consensus, and a Wildcard pick to add to the chaos. Captaincy can make of break a Gameweek so strap in tightly, it's time to lose your marbles. All aboard.
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek Deadline
For the 2016/17 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. The Premier League website lists each FPL deadline, you can always ask on social media, and you can also view a real time countdown on our Weekly Hype page
CAPTAINCY HYPE: 2017/18 SEASON PERFORMANCE
In each Captaincy Hype article we track our progress throughout the 2017/18 FPL season. Below you can check how our Captaincy selections have performed by week to week in the Fantasy Premier League.
GW1
Essential: Romelu Lukaku (Man United 4-0 West Ham) - 13pts
Alternative: Roberto Firmino (Watford 3-3 Liverpool) - 12pts
Wildcard: Josh King (West Brom 1-0 Bournemouth) - 2pts
GW2
Essential: Romelu Lukaku (Swansea 0-4 Man Utnited) - 6pts
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 1-0 Crystal Palace) - 1pt
Wildcard: Steve Mounie (Huddersfield 1-0 Newcastle) - 1pt
GW3
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 1-1 Burnley) - 2pts
Alternative: Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Man United 2-0 Leicester) - 5pts
Wildcard: Alvaro Morata (Chelsea 2-0 Everton) - 12pts
GW4
Essential: Romelu Lukaku (Stoke 2-2 Man United) - 6pts
Alternative: Alvaro Morata (Leicester 1-2 Chelsea) - 6pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal 3-0 Bournemouth) - 1pt
GW5
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 0-0 Swansea) - 2pts
Alternative: Gabriel Jesus (Watford 0-6 Man City) - 6pts
Wildcard: Eden Hazard (Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal) - 1pt
GW6
Essential: Sergio Aguero (Man City 5-0 Crystal Palace) - 11pts
Alternative: Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal 2-0 West Brom) - 13pts
Wildcard: Benjamin Mendy (Man City 5-0 Crystal Palace) - 0pts
GW7
Essential: Romelu Lukaku (Man United 4-0 Crystal Palace) - 6pts
Alternative: Dele Alli (Huddersfield 0-4 Spurs) - 2pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal 2-0 Brighton) - 6pts
GW8
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 1-0 Bournemouth) - 2pts
Alternative: Jamie Vardy (Leicester 1-1 West Brom) - 2pts
Wildcard: Raheem Sterling (Man City 7-2 Stoke) - 15pts
GW9
Essential: Gabriel Jesus (Man City 3-0 Burnley) - 1pt
Alternative: Eden Hazard (Chelsea 4-2 Watford) - 5pts
Wildcard: Tammy Abraham (Swansea 1-2 Leicester) - 2pts
GW10
Essential: Sergio Aguero (West Brom 2-3 Man City) - 0pts
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 3-0 Huddersfield) - 4pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal 2-1 Swansea) - 2pts
GW11
Essential: Sergio Aguero (Spurs 1-0 Crystal Palace) - 2pts
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (West Ham 1-4 Liverpool) - 15pts
Wildcard: Riyad Mahrez (Stoke 2-2 Leicester) - 7pts
GW12
Essential: Romelu Lukaku (Man United 4-1 Newcastle) - 6pts
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 3-0 Southampton) - 16pts
Wildcard: Glenn Murray (Brighton 2-2 Stoke) - 1pt
GW13
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 1-1 West Brom) - 8pts
Alternative: Gabriel Jesus (Huddersfield 1-2 Man City) - 4pts
Wildcard: Callum Wilson (Swansea 0-0 Bournemouth) - 2pts
GW14
Essential: Alvaro Morata (Chelsea 1-0 Swansea) - 1pt
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (Stoke 0-3 Liverpool) - 13pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal 5-0 Huddersfield) - 8pts
GW15
Essential: Mohamed Salah (Brighton 1-5 Liverpool) - 5pts
Alternative: Alvaro Morata (Chelsea 3-1 Newcastle) - 8pts
Wildcard: Riyad Mahrez (Leicester 1-0 Burnley) - 6pts
GW16
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 5-1 Stoke) - 12pts
Alternative: Eden Hazard (West Ham 1-0 Chelsea) - 2pts
Wildcard: Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool 1-1 Everton) - 1pt
GW17
Essential: Harry Kane (Spurs 2-0 Brighton) - 2pts
Alternative: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 0-0 West Brom) - 3pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (West Ham 0-0 Arsenal) - 3pts
GW18
Essential: Eden Hazard (Chelsea 1-0 Southampton) - 6pts
Alternative: Jamie Vardy (Leicester 0-3 Crystal Palace) - 2pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle) - 3pts
GW19
Essential: Raheem Sterling (Man City 4-0 Bournemouth) - 13pts
Alternative: Jamie Vardy (Arsenal 3-3 Liverpool) - 10pts
Wildcard: Charlie Austin (Southampton 1-1 Huddersfield) - 6pts
GW20
Essential: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 5-0 Swansea) - 9pts
Alternative: Sergio Aguero (Newcastle 0-1 Man City) - 2pts
Wildcard: Charlie Austin (Crystal Palace 2-3 Arsenal) - 2pts
GW21
Essential: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool 2-1 Swansea) - 14pts
Alternative: Alvaro Morata (Chelsea 5-0 Stoke) - 2pts
Wildcard: Alexis Sanchez (West Brom 1-1 Arsenal) - 5pts
Totals
Essential Total: 13 (1), 6 (2), 2 (3), 6 (4), 2 (5), 11 (6), 6 (7), 2 (8), 1 (9), 0 (10), 2 (11), 6 (12), 8 (13), 1 (14), 5 (15), 12 (16), 2 (17), 6 (18), 13 (19), 9 (20), 14 (21) = 127 points
Alternative Total: 12 (1), 1 (2), 5 (3), 6 (4), 6 (5), 13 (6), 2 (7), 2 (8), 5 (9), 4 (10), 15 (11), 16 (12), 4 (13), 13 (14), 8 (15), 2 (16), 3 (17), 2 (18), 10 (19), 2 (20), 2 (21) = 133 points
Wildcard Total: 2 (1), 1 (2), 12 (3), 1 (4), 1 (5), 0 (6), 6 (7), 15 (8), 2 (9), 2 (10), 6 (11), 1 (12), 2 (13), 8 (14), 6 (15), 1 (16), 3 (17), 3 (18), 8 (19), 2 (20), 5 (21) = 88 points
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ESSENTIAL PICK
Our Essential picks for captain are selected each and every week on our main Twitter account, @RealHypeTrain, with four highly selected FPL options battling it out for alpha status amongst fellow FPL players.
Gameweek 22: Essential
Player: Harry Kane (TOT)
Position: Forward
Player Price: £12.8 million
Player Selection %: 39.1%
Amidst constant bombshells of player rotation in a hectic Xmas period, we've a Double Gameweek to contend with in the FPL. It has been a rough ride for players over December, with massive highs or desperate lows that make you consider your longevity as a Fantasy sports player.
Ahead of Gameweek 22 we're at the tail-end of a fixture bombardment which has absorbed much of December into a sloppy mess of watching Premier League football. The highlight of the month, no doubt (if you own him), has been Harry Kane's back-to-back hat-tricks against Burnley and Southampton.
The six goals and 34 points from the last 2 fixtures undoubtedly puts The Hurrikane in pole position for the essential captaincy pick this week, so much so that we're not even running a poll this week for the position.
If Kane doesn't tickle your fancy though, Spurs are flush with midfield prospects in Alli, Eriksen, or Son, who might be a rankings breaker if thy steal the show in fixtures away to Swansea and West Ham at Wembley.
Dele Alli
Position: Midfielder
Player Price: £9.0 million
Player Selection %: 13.3%
Goals: 4
Assists: 8
Bonus Points: 7
Overall Points: 92pts
Christian Eriksen
Position: Midfielder
Player Price: £9.2 million
Player Selection %: 15.6%
Goals: 5
Assists: 6
Bonus Points: 15
Overall Points: 107pts
Heung-Min Son
Position: Midfielder
Player Price: £8.1 million
Player Selection %: 8.5%
Goals: 6
Assists: 4
Bonus Points: 6
Overall Points: 87pts
Of the three the form sits with Dele Alli, fresh off a 15 points performance at Wembley against Southampton. Eriksen offers more stability, but you never know when the points will arise. Son is the lowest owned of the three and is the left-field pick of the four to captain, but the perfect pick if you're going to bank on chasing the leading pack in your mini-league.
Do we think Kane will play both games? Of course he will, but there is also the potential for Fernando Llorente to play against his old club, Swansea, in the first DGW22 fixture. The poetic justice in all of this, of course, would be Llorente being amongst the goals against the former club, whilst Kane looks on from the bench.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ALTERNATIVE PICK
Our Alternative selection for captain typically commands a smaller FPL ownership percentage, but can be reserved for The Hype Train's own gut instincts on who could be captaincy inspiration.
Gameweek 22: Alternative
Player: Sergio Aguero (MCI)
Position: Forward
Player Price: £11.6 million
Player Selection %: 19.9%
Our alternative captaincy pick has been the most interesting topic at Hype Train HQ over the past two days as we deliberated the final round of fixtures before FA Cup third round matches.
With Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, and Mohamed Salah, casualties of Gameweek 21's fixtures there is a much smaller pool of captains to pick from if you're not going to bank on Harry Kane.
We tried best represent the viable options heading into the New Years games by vouching for Vardy at home to Huddersfield, and strangely enough, Eden Hazard, who has been given a lifeline here as injuries to Salah and KDB open the door for further conideration with the Belgian, despite being massively off form.
The outcome, of course, saw Sergio Aguero massively profit due to Gabriel Jesus's injury at Crystal Palace, with the Argentine forward just beating the in-form Marko Arnautovic, who is also part of the Double Gameweek, to a victory.
Aguero's victory has a lot of favour when remembering back to Man City's last encounter with Watford, which was a 6-0 victory at Vicarage Road earlier in the season. On that day Aguero scored 3 goals and assisted to completed a 20 points haul.
The only downside for prospective owners is KDB's injury, which puts doubt on if Man City can continue to dominate sides as they have done all season. Granted, Watford haven't won since Gameweek 13's 3-0 victory at Newcastle, and are sitting ducks, but we're yet to see a Man City side without De Bruyne and David Silva this season.
If this might put you off Aguero, then Marko Arnautovic, who has scored 4 goals in his last 3 games, might be the man for you.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE WILDCARD PICK
Our Wildcard selection is one of the ten differential picks that is featured in our Weekly Wildcards article. This captaincy selection has a very small percentage of owners in the FPL, and is our left field option.
Gameweek 22: Wildcard
Player: Sadio Mane (LIV)
Position: Midfielder
Player Price: £9.3 million
Player Selection %: 6.5%
Mohamad Salah came off the match against Leicester not only the rightful victor, but with an ‘injury’. Now, we use asterisks because Liverpool are masters of the spin-doctor treatment when it comes to the management of their squad. We believe that Klopp might be exaggerating the extent of Salah’s injury to justify the exclusion of the King of Egypt at Turf Moor on New Years day. Klopp has been itching to give him a rest, and with Man City in the league, and Everton in the FA Cup, there are bigger things on the horizon than this Burnley game in the German’s thoughts. Klopp has said he will ‘use the larger squad’ on repeated occasions, leaving the door open to Mane to continue cementing his place in the team.
The expected forward line includes Solanke/Firmino (CF), Mane (RF), and Coutinho (LF). Injury to Salah means that Klopp can’t risk too much rotation, Burnley are still a stern team to beat, and you need a bit of trickery from the Magician to unlock a team like Burnley (the Brazilian will play every minute to ensure there are now rumours of Barcelona lurking about, as they will be). Honestly, if we could have anyone as a differential captain this week it would have been Coutinho, but we can’t, although we are happy with Mane after notching an assist against Leicester. Mane will move into his preferred position on the right flank, and be the main outlet like he was last season. This game will be about Mane and Coutinho.
Here are the main stats about Liverpool going into gameweek twenty-two:
Liverpool are undefeated since gameweek nine when they lost to Spurs.
Liverpool have won their last two games in the Premier League, scoring seven goals in the process.
Liverpool have also scored twelve goals in their previous three away games: Brighton (5), Bournemouth (4), and Arsenal (3).
Liverpool have kept three clean sheets from their last five games.
Sadio Mane registered an assist in the last league game against Leicester.
Burnley haven’t won in their last three games, and have shipped five goals in those fixtures, and keeping one clean sheet.
Want to know more about The Hype Train?
The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in the Fantasy Premier League (#FPL), providing beautiful graphics and weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb ranking tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review movies, live sport, and professional wrestling.
As well as providing FPL articles on our website, we are a founding Contributor to the new Fantasy Football Hub, where you can find more unique articles, including weekly Power Rankings, from The Hype Team. You can support us and read exclusive members only content for just £2 per-month by clicking here.
The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog 2016' by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), with the final presentation held at Old Trafford in Manchester.
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All aboard.
