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!
Harry Kane (Fixture: West Brom, away)
Let's kick things off with Kane's goal threat stats, the seven Gameweeks of Premier League data shows us that According to Fantasy Football Hub's stats section he has taken the second most shots (one behind Salah) so far this season with 31, has the joint most shots on target with 14 and has the third highest expected goals with 5.45 (only Vardy and Salah have a higher score with 5.69 and 5.70 respectively).
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 4.34, the most big chances created with eight and the most assists with eight.
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, especially considering Spurs play West Bromich Albion, who are statistically the the worse defence so far, conceding 16 goals which is the most of any team. The underlying stats back this up too, with an expected goals conceded score of 13.62. Couple this with the fact that Spurs have the most goals this season, this is a recipe for goals and assists for Kane and Son.
Heung-Min Son (Fixture: West Brom, away)
Benefitting from Harry Kane's new found creativity, Heung-Min Son � the joint top goal scorer in the league alongside Calvert-Lewin � is yet again a genuine captaincy option. Joint top with his teammate Harry Kane in overall points, the underlying statistics show that this is no fluke as he's in the top 3 for that metric as well, alongside Kane and Salah.
When comparing Kane and Son away from home this season (which is a small sample I must note) Son is ahead in goals scored, 7 to 3 and in FPL points, 53 to 42 � Son is top for all players in these metrics away from home too. With an away fixture to West Brom in Gameweek 8, I fancy the South Korean to continue his hot streak in front of goal away from home.
Timo Werner (Fixture: Sheffield United, Home)
Timo Werner is back on our radars following his goal at Burnley last week, especially as he's facing a struggling Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea are coming into this game in good form, 13 goals in their last five games, so I fear that Chris Wilder's men could be on the end of a spanking.
The German international started the season fairly well, taking his time whilst adjusting to a new league, country, culture etc. However, in more recent games he's improved markably as he has three goals and an assist in the last three league games. Depending on your team structure, you may not have a slot for a striker and therefore you can't squeeze Werner in, but, you may have his teammate Hakim Ziyech who could also perform well this week following his haul against Burnley last week.
‘Outside of the Box' captains:
Jamie Vardy (Fixture: Wolves, Home)
Top Stat: despite playing less minutes than the players like Calvert-Lewin, Kane and Salah he is still second for all players in terms of expected goals 5.69 � bettered only by Salah slightly with 5.70.
Although the Leicester talisman is currently selected by around 19% of FPL managers 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 Kane, Son, Salah etc.
The Leicester number 9 will be full of confidence following one goal and two assists in a big win away at Leeds for the Foxes. He also got a goal from the bench in the previous game away to Arsenal. If he can keep the attacking momentum going, then Jamie Vardy could score well at home to Wolves.
Diogo Jota (Fixture: Man City, Away)
One of my differential captain picks in Gameweek 8 is the £6.4m Liverpool midfielder Diogo Jota. Currently sitting at less than 5% 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.
The Portuguese man has three goals in 214 minutes since joining Liverpool, that's a goal every 71.3 minutes. He also scored a hat trick in the Champions League on Tuesday night, potentially forcing Klopp to start him over/with Firmino in the Premier League more often. A tricky fixture at the Etihad means you've got to have some huge cojones to go for this one!
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!
