FPL Heisenberg's Captain Series
Welcome to the latest article in a new series for the 2020/21 Fantasy Premier League season from @FPL_Heisenberg for FPL Bet. In this weekly series, Heisenberg will be looking into the best captaincy options, as well as ‘outside of the box' captaincy choices for each Gameweek. Heisenberg has a proven track record in FPL, having finished inside the top 32k in each of the last 6 seasons, including a best finish of 836th. Let's cook!
Gameweek 20 Captains:
Bruno Fernandes (Fixture: Sheffield United, Home)
Bruno Fernandes delivered for managers yet again in Gameweek 19, and he now has 20 attacking returns this season, which is more than the likes of Salah, De Bruyne and Son. He's central to everything Man United do and he takes penalties, which as we all know, United win a lot of them!
Further to the attacking returns in the league, he also added a goal from a freekick against Liverpool in the FA Cup, despite getting a well-deserved rest from the start, playing just 24 minutes which is perfect for FPL managers.
What Bruno has working in his favour this Gameweek is his fixture. With De Bruyne out injured, and Liverpool and Spurs big guns playing each other, he's the standout option on paper facing bottom of the league Sheffield United. Don't rule out some of the below players having great Gameweeks though…
Ilkay Gundogan (Fixture: West Brom, Away)
Gundogan has been a revelation in his new role, arriving in the box late to score goals. He scored 5 goals in the last 7 games, followed by only playing 22 minutes in the FA Cup (where he grabbed an assist) and therefore he is nice and rested for Gameweek 20 at away to West Brom.
His underlying numbers in recent Gameweeks are very good too, as pointed out here:
With De Bruyne out and Gundogan converting a penalty vs Aston Villa, it is likely that he will step up should Man City get a penalty against West Brom. Will Man City be able to kick on further and build upon their free-scoring performances in both the league and cup? For those captaining Gundogan, they'll sure hope so.
Patrick Bamford (Fixture: Newcastle, Away)
I tipped him in previous articles and he hasn't disappointed. The Englishman has had a great season so far, with 15 goal contributions playing in a team who see plenty of action in both penalty areas! In terms of the underlying statistics he's performing very well out of all players for non-penalty expected goals, so I expect this to continue in Gameweek 20 against a poor Newcastle side.
Withj a trip to St James' Park, hopefully Steve Bruce will continue to play a style which leads to the opposition getting plenty of chances. I cannot see Newcastle being able to stop Leeds scoring, and hopefully Bamford can be involved in the goals that do inevitably flow.
Another important factor is Klich was previously on penalties, but now Bamford's scored the one he took he could be on them for the foreseeable future.
Harry Kane (Fixture: Liverpool, Home)
Harry Kane really is looking back to his absolute best this season with the most goal contributions of any player in the league with 23 in total.
Kane has been a goal threat for many years in the Premier League, but his assist threat is something he's added to his game. His passing ability has always been exceptional, but tactically he was more the man to get on the end of passes, now he's dropping into the number 10 position at times to feed the lightning quick lethal finisher Heung-Min Son. The stats show how much better he's become creatively, with the highest expected assists score in the league with this season and the most big chances created.
Harry Kane is top for overall points this season, ahead of other premium assets such as Salah and Fernandes. Benefitting from Harry Kane's new found creativity, Heung-Min Son is a genuine captaincy option too, especially as he gets an extra point per goal and also has the possibility of a clean sheet point too.
‘Outside of the Box' captain:
Joao Cancelo (Fixture: West Brom, Away)
The Man City creative defender is only selected by under 13% of FPL players at the time of writing, and therefore will be a huge captain differential, with your mini-league rivals likely to captain one of the premium assets like Bruno Fernandes for example.
The Portuguese has been performing very well recently, getting plenty of shots away and performing well creatively too, without seeing an attacking return in a Premier League game since Gameweek 6. He got an assist in the FA Cup, despite a cameo from the bench so expect more attacking returns from him shortly.
He's part of a team that has the best defence in the league, so the chances of a clean sheet are high, especially as they are playing West Brom. A clean sheet plus an attacking return (which is a very realistic scenario) would almost certainly guarantee a double-digit haul from Cancelo.
Thanks for reading the latest article in this captaincy series from FPL Heisenberg, be sure to follow @FPLBet and @FPL_Heisenberg on Twitter so that you don't miss the weekly article. Agree or disagree with these captaincy picks? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!
