CAPTAINCY HYPE 2018/19: FPL Gameweek 15
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 15 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 15: Essential Captain
Player: Harry Kane (TOT)
Position: Forward
GW15 Fixture: Southampton (H)
Player Price: £12.4 million
Player Selection %: 24.1%
With little time to digest the week just gone, Fantasy players typically scrambled in an attempt to figure out a good strategy when given a midweek round of games. Our four essential captaincy picks attempted to pull the gaps in case your team isn't going to be up to scratch this week.
With Southampton visiting Wembley, Fantasy players have taken the plunge to veer away from the usual suspects in Sergio Aguero and Mohamed Salah, with Harry Kane earning a captaincy birth this week with 48% of the vote.
Is Kane the obvious go-to pick this week, as a near majority of our poll voters believe? If you take the Forward's individual returns into account, life is a lot simpler. Kane has managed returns in each of his last 4 outings, with 3 goals and a lone assist to his name in that time, resulting in 24 points (an average of 6). The Hurrikane is supplying a steady stream returns and entertain a Southampton sitting in 18th place with just 9 points from the opening 14 games of the season.
Spurs also feature in a healthy run of Fantasy fixtures until Gameweek 22, with Harry Kane unlikely to be dropped in any fixture should the England international remain in good health.
You scratch away a little at what looks like to be a comfortable home win, and there are points of conversation to glance over that might make one raise their eyebrows with curiosity.
Hot off the press, Mark Hughes was recently released from Southampton, putting this encounter into new tettitory. It is just impossible to gauge how well the squad will or won't react, especially given the magnitude of the fixture they're in. There's every chance that The Saints could take advantage of Spurs losing the recent North London derby against Arsenal, and might pray of defensive fragility, especially with Jan Vertonghen unavailable through suspension. A change of direction at the last minute could be enough to seed doubt about a Kane captaincy as the pattern of Southampton's play could change at a dime.
Spurs strolled to victory over Southampton in the corresponding fixture last season, with Harry Kane a highlight of the fixture, though this is a new day. Before Arsenal kicked a ball, the plan for FPL players was to bring in Kane due to his fixture potential, but then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice against Spurs to change the topic of conversation this week to a cheaper option in attack from a London team, begging the question, is Kane indispensable?
History suggests we're reading into this, though a single bonus point from 4 fixtures in which Kane has scored or assisted suggests that his impact and pull in matches has been wavering this season in parts and might not provide the dynamic return you're looking for.
With all those considerations, if you're one of the quarter of players who trust in one of their own, it'd be almost impossible not to hover the captaincy over Kane for what appears to be a sure thing this coming midweek.
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 15: Alternative Captain
Player: Raheem Sterling (MCI)
Position: Midfielder
GW15 Fixture: Watford (a)
Player Price: £11.5 million
Player Selection %: 18.9%
Next up we're treading familiar ground with our alternative captaincy pick with Raheem Sterling earning the honour for a second consecutive Gameweek this season. Sterling also featured on our essentials list this week due to the potential caution over Sergio Aguero, but he's still within his right as al alternative pick due to an ownership still below 20% - something which is almost unheard of in a player with 100+ points in FPL this season.
We're just going to get to the point with Sterling because every single media outlet in the world will be raving about Sterling's form this season, and even those that despise the England international (whatever the reason) will have some form of respect in their hearts for how the midfielder is performing this season.
15 attacking returns from 12 appearances is incredible, with Sterling providing a range of steady and explosive FPL points in later October and November. Last week we stated that instead of Aguero being the tip of the spear for City, that it is Sterling typically on the end of attacking play for Man City - this week we go one step further and praise Sterling for his maturity in fixtures, which is greatly aiding his Fantasy outlook.
The winger is the go-to player for City in the absence of David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, that was made crystal clear in Man City's tricky 3-1 home win over Bournemouth. A trip to Watford should offer similar hurdles for Pep Guardiola's side to ocveromce, though we not only expect Sterling to start, we expect him to be the feature piece on the back of newspapers yet again.
Sterling's outperformed Kane in 4 of the last 5 Gameweek's so it captaincy (in theory) should be a relatively easy pick to make. The Englishman also has a lot of room to grow in price with another big performance, so we wouldn't delay on bringing in the FPL's best player so far this 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 15: Wildcard Captain
Player: Javier Hernandez (WHU)
Position: Forward
GW15 Fixture: Cardiff (H)
Player Price: £6.2 million
Player Selection %: 1.5%
The differentials are always captained by a player that has a combination of quality, reputation, form, and a little bit of luck. That perfectly describes West Ham’s Mexican forward Chicharito, and it was a real surprise to see him in the starting line-up, but it was a perfect move by the Hammers who enabled both of their sharpest talents to combine on the pitch.
Chicharito and Arnautovic showed a good understanding against Newcastle, and they linked up well to break down a stubborn defence. Manuel Pellegrini shouldn’t rotate the team that dominated the Toon, and it was the poaching nature of the Mexican forward who made the difference, and against Cardiff they might need that again. Chicharito is a player who has excelled everywhere he has been without much credit.
Wherever it be…Manchester, Madrid, Leverkusen, and now London, he is a player of immense quality in the box. There is not a shadow of doubt behind his ability to impact a game, and his status as an overlooked player makes him the perfect differential to come out of nowhere and be captain this week.
Players in-form play, and if he can keep up the good form then he may be able to cement a place in the starting eleven, putting a question mark over Marko Arnautovic as a forward. We have been waiting for this time when Chicharito could captain us in a fixture like this, and with differentials you strike when the iron is hot.
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.
