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!
Double Gameweek 26 Captains:
Bruno Fernandes (Fixture: Chelsea, Away and Crystal Palace, Away)
Bruno Fernandes is central to everything Man United do, and, importantly he takes penalties which as we all know, United win a lot of them! His away record is phenomenal too, he's performing well in the attacking metrics away from home too, proving it's no fluke.
It was a surprise to see Bruno start in the Europa League match this week, however, he was taken off at half time, saving him for the league games so he could very easily do damage at Selhurst Park and Stamford Bridge.
Bruno is the top point scorer in FPL this season and is a very reliable option, week in week out. He's my number one choice for captaincy this week.
Harry Kane (Fixture: Burnley, Home and Fulham, Away)
Harry 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, only Grealish (12) and Bruno (12) have more assists than Kane (11) this season
The good news for Kane is he's been fully rested in the last two Europa League games, meaning he isn't racking up unnecessary minutes leading to burnout or injury, so you'd assume he is fairly nailed on for 90 minutes in both games of the double vs Burnley and Fulham.
If you don't have Kane in your FPL team then maybe you fancy putting the armband on his teammate, the South Korean international Son who's also a good choice this Gameweek.
Mo Salah (Fixture: Sheffield United, Away and Chelsea, Home)
Liverpool have struggled this season, but this hasn't stopped Salah from leading the golden boot race with 17 goals. Furthermore, his season-long form is still strong, with 17 goals and 4 assists in the league so far.
He's been consistently performing well in all the key metrics such as creating chances, shots on target, shots in the box, expected assists and expected goals and I have no doubt this will continue this Gameweek. Furthermore, as Mo is on penalties, that is another route to points for the Egyptian King too.
He has a mixed double in terms of the fixtures, with a very favourable game on paper vs Sheffield United then a harder fixture vs Chelsea. Could we see Mo return with a bang with 2 fixtures in Double Gameweek 26? Those who captain him will certainly hope so.
‘Outside of the Box' captains:
Harvey Barnes (Fixtures: Arsenal, Home and Burnley, Away)
The Leicester midfielder is only selected by around 17% 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 Salah, Bruno, Kane etc.
The Englishman has had a return to form with 2 goals and 2 assists in his last 2 games and now looking more nailed on for game time, playing every game since Gameweek 13. In terms of the underlying statistics he's performing very well recently, getting plenty of shots away, more so than Son for example…
Facing Arsenal and Burnley, I cannot see either team being able to stop Barnes, Vardy and co scoring, and hopefully Barnes can be involved in the goals that do inevitably flow.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Fixtures: Southampton, Home and West Brom, Away)
After a great start to the season, Dominic Calvert-Lewin went off the radar following some blanks and then an injury. He returned with a bang against Leeds and Man United then picked up a knock. Luckily, he's back and ready to start following a substitute appearance vs Liverpool where he earnt an assist after being fouled for the penalty.
In terms of the underlying statistics at the start of the season, he was top for non-penalty expected goals for all players in the league. He was getting himself into the positions where he's most likely to score goals, in the central areas of the penalty area, with most of his goals being one touch finishes � something he and Ancelotti have been working hard on.
His output suffered recently when Lucas Digne, Richarlison and James Rodriguez all missed games through injury. With those players now back in the game, supplying chances to Calvert-Lewin he should have an increased chance to score goals.
Everton have a great double, facing a struggling Southampton side and a poor West Brom side. These could be two great games for Calvert-Lewin to excel in.
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!
