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 4 Captains:
Harry Kane (Fixture: West Ham, home)
Let's get straight into the goal threat stats with Harry Kane. He has taken the joint most shots (alongside Mo Salah) so far this season with 19, has the most shots on target with 10, the second most shots in the box with 14 (Salah has 15) and has the second highest expected goals with 3.53 (only Jamie Vardy has a higher score with 3.82). Couple this with his new found assist threat, we have Harry Kane back as a genuine captaincy contender against any opposition.
We all know that 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, with the highest expected assists score in the league with 3.2, the most big chances created with 6 and the most assists with 6.
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. The stats make for very interesting reading, there's not much between Kane and Son at all:
Mohamed Salah (Fixture: Everton, Away)
Mo Salah is again a top-pick for captaincy in Gameweek 5, despite facing a reasonably tough away fixture against a rejuvenated Everton. Having said that, he scored a brace away at Villa Park, the only two league goals Aston Villa have conceded in the league this season, proving Mo's ability to score against any team in the league.
The Egyptian King has started the season well with five goals and an assist in just four league games. He's taken 15 shots in the box so far this season, the highest in the Premier League this season. According to Fantasy Football Hub's expected goals (xG) metric, he has an xG of 3.23. I should note this was helped considerably by the two penalties in Gameweek 1, but, with penalties becoming more frequent this season, there's even more reason to target penalty takers for your captaincy decision. His assist threat is good too, with an expected assists score of 2.25, second only to Harry Kane for that metric so it could be argued he's been unfortunate only to register one assist so far this season.
Raheem Sterling (Fixture: Arsenal, Home)
Manchester City have had an indifferent start to the season with a win, a loss and a draw. However, it's only a matter of time before they start to find their 5th gear, and when they do the main benefactor of this could be Raheem Sterling, who may be deployed as the central striker in the absence of Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero. The underlying stats for Sterling aren't the best, but for me that's down to Manchester City not being at their best as a team. A home fixture for Arsenal could be tough, but The Gunners always have the potential for a defensive collapse, which again would benefit Manchester City's number 7.
However, there's an argument to go for the Sterling's teammate, the Belgian international Kevin De Bruyne who is also capable of big hauls and is currently Man City's penalty taker.
‘Outside of the Box' captains:
Jack Grealish (Fixture: Leicester, Away)
Although the Aston Villa talisman is currently selected by around 16% of FPL players at the time of writing, he will still be a huge captain differential, with your mini-league rivals likely to captain one of the premium assets like Salah, Kane, Sterling etc.
The Villa captain will be full of confidence following 2 goals and 3 assists in a truly remarkable 7-2 win at Villa Park against the reinging champions, Liverpool. If he can keep that attacking momentum going, then Jack Grealish could score well again away against Leicester.
Leicester's defence took a battering at home to West Ham in Gameweek 4 conceding three goals, proving they have vulnerabilities at the back.
Harvey Barnes (Fixture: Aston Villa, Home)
One of my differential captain picks in Gameweek 5 is the £7.1m Leicester midfielder Harvey Barnes. Currently sitting at less than 7% ownership at the time of writing � he is a huge differential, especially if you captain him! I think it's fairly safe to say that of those who own him, very few of them will be throwing the armband on him.
He had a big score in Gameweek 2 scoring one and assisting one, but followed this up with two blanks in Gameweek 3 and 4. It would've been considered a very favourable fixture for Leicester against Aston Villa last season, however, The Villains have looked good defensively this season, with Mo Salah being the only player to score against them in the league this season. Barnes has the underlying stats to back it up, as mentioned earlier, Barnes has taken 11 shots in the box so far this season, only four behind league leader Salah.
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!
