CAPTAINCY HYPE 2018/19: FPL Gameweek 12
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 12 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: 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 12: Essential Captain
Player: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
Position: Midfielder
GW12 Fixture: Fulham (H)
Player Price: £13.0 million
Player Selection %: 35.2%
FPL players are embarking on a final round of Premier League fixtures before the third and final international break of the season, and with it, the last big captaincy decision before a busy fixture list leading into December.
Gameweek 12 pitted usual faces against one another, with Eden Hazard, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Sergio Aguero the hot prospects for captain this week. This week might prove to be even more daunting for a few Fantasy players (myself included) who doesn't have a single one of these options leading into this week.
Mohamed Salah was the runaway victor this week with 77% of the vote, with Liverpool facing Fulham in the early kick-off on Sunday.
If you've been following Liverpool this season, or if you've been following @HypeTrainSam on Twitter, you'll know that things haven't all been rosy this season, despite The Reds remaining unbeaten in the Premier League.
Liverpool have struggled getting out of first gear this season and have been found out the longer the campaign wears on. A total of 3 wins in their last 9 matches doesn't bode well for Liverpool's fortunes in all competitions, a season which hit a new low when Jurgen Klopp's side lost 2-0 in Serbia against Red Star Belgrade - a win which was the first by any any Serbian side in the current 'Champions League' era.
Speak to a die hard Liverpool fan and they'll give you a worrying tone that the club has changed its tactics, that the heavy metal pressing and front-football football is over. Many fans are suggesting that the loss of Assistant Manager, Željko Buvač, is crippling the finite tactics that made Liverpool tick as a unit last season.
Fortunately, a home tie against Fulham is the perfect distraction and the perfect time to rediscover some attacking verve. As for the man himself, Salah has blanked in 5 of his 11 appearances this season, though the Egyptian has failed to score in leagues games against Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal.
Salah's selection is criminally obvious this season, especially considering the midfielder has only amassed 2 bonus points this season, though the threat of explosive potential against the league's bottom side will be too hard to ignore for a majority of FPL players this weekend.
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 12: Alternative Captain
Player: Alexandre Lacazette (ARS)
Position: Forward
GW12 Fixture: Wolves (H)
Player Price: £9.7 million
Player Selection %: 13.7%
The second of our home captaincy picks this week sees us go to capital side, Arsenal, and their FPL potential this weekend with the visit of Wolves.
Arsenal battled back heroically against Liverpool and fully deserved a point against The Reds, with goal-scoring duties falling squarely on overlooked French attacker, Alexandre Lacazette.
Despite 5 goals and 4 assists to open the season for The Gunners, Lacazette was once again overlooked for the French national side, which means his sole duty as a player right now is to keep his club form. Without the pressure (or injury risk) of the international break, Lacazette well and truly remains a solid alternative captaincy pick, especially given Wolves's slip in form in October.
Nuno Espírito Santo's side have lost their last trifecta of Premier League matches (against Watford, Brighton and Spurs), with a trip to in-form Arsenal hardly the ideal tie to return to winning ways, and our gut instinct suggests that it'll be a long Sunday afternoon for Santo's side.
Lacazette's only real contender this week was Marko Arnautovic, though with Huddersfield winning their first game of the season against Fulham this past Monday, it's probably best to keep the armband off the Austrian, that is of course aided by persistenct doubts about his availability as injuries stack up in the first-half of the season.
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 12: Wildcard Captain
Player: Alvaro Morata (CHE)
Position: Forward
GW12 Fixture: Everton (H)
Player Price: £8.7 million
Player Selection %: 2.6%
We round off our potential captaincy musings for the week by unleashing an enigma in the English game. Chelsea's Alvaro Morata, who at times couldn't score in a brothel, has had a few weeks to remember, first scoring in Chelsea's impressive 4-0 away win at Burnley, before bagging a brace against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Morata's been a joy to watch, in truth, and could have had double-digits worth of goals in the past three weeks had his shooting boots not been laced with butter. Chelsea played direct to Morata against Crystal Palace, with Morata winning the key battles against Mamadou Sakho and James Tomkins, though the tide of anticipation only real turned when Eden Hazard was introduced as a second-half substitute. Hazard played in Morata almost instantly for his second goal.
Morata's 13 point haul means that he has accumulated more bonus points (3) than Mohamed Salah has this season, and like with Lacazette, all 3 of our captaincy picks have scored 5 Premier League goals this season and have dipped and risen in form.
Everton's away record this season against top 6 clubs this season (a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal and a 2-1 defeat at Man United) suggests that Chelsea are justified favourites for the tie at Stamford Bridge, which of course puts Alvaro Morata in a healthy and usable position this weekend as the unbeaten Blues aim for 12 games without defeat this season.
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.
