CAPTAINCY HYPE 2018/19: FPL Gameweek 20
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 20 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 20: Essential Captain
Player: Harry Kane (TOT)
Position: Forward
GW20 Fixture: Wolves (H)
Player Price: £12.5 million
Player Selection %: 32.0%
It's a little after midnight with the hours quickly passing before the Gameweek 20 deadline. Living the life of this author, you're looking to justify the acts of a few players to bank on as your captain for this weekend's round of games, and fortunately with just a day between deadlines, the choice appears obvious.
Kane Kane, for a second consecutive week, has won by a slight majority in our captaincy polls, with Mo Salah's marginal 21% the nearest competition for Kane's 51% majority backing.
Spurs have made it very, very easy to back this up and we could point you towards a million stats why as a unit they're ticking in all the right areas.
- After losing 4-2 at Arsenal during Gameweek 14, Spurs have won all 5 of their PL fixtures
- In their 5 wins, Spurs have scored 17, conceded 3 and kept 3 clean sheets. 11 of those goals have come in their last 2 games; a 6-2 win at Everton (GW18) and a 5-0 home win against Bournemouth (GW19)
- A trio of Spurs midfielders all managed 10+ FPL points during Gameweek 19. None amassed maximum bonus points in a 5-0 win against Bournemouth...
Christian Eriksen (13pts): 1 goal, 1 assist, 2 bonus
Son Heung-Min (13pts): 2 goals, 1 bonus
Lucas Moura (11pts): 1 goal, 1 assist
- Spurs are the first team to feature the top FPL player in consecutive Gameweek's. Son Heung-Min's 21 points topped GW18, whilst full-back Kyle Walker-Peters finished GW19 as the top player with 18 points.
- Son Heung-Min was the 5th player to register 20+ FPL points in a single Gameweek, and the first to return the following week. Son scored 21 points against Everton during GW18, managing 2 goals and 2 assists, before scoring a brace of goals against Bournemouth during GW19.
With a travelling Wolves side visiting Wembley Stadium this weekend, FPL players have flocked towards Spurs and the above stats in their masses, and who could blame them? Right now you either love Son and Eriksen, or loathe them to your darkened core.
Harry Kane is Mr. Consistency right now, with just a blip against Leicester on his record, with the England captain recently scoring against Wolves in Gameweek 11's 3-2 away win.
The cards is decked for a high-scoring affair yet again, and if that is the case, then Kane is surely the number one suspect for Fantasy points this weekend, and it appears as if the FPL Community largely agree given the landscape of fixtures this weekend.
Worse comes to worse, the chances are your mates will do the same, or god forbid, your FPL Cup or Head to Head opponents, so at the very least you'll escape a potential meltdown - even though our personal pick for the week, Mohamed Salah, has been knocking it out of the park in recent weeks.
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 20: Alternative Captain
Player: Eden Hazard (CHE)
Position: Midfielder
GW20 Fixture: Crystal Palace (A)
Player Price: £11.0 million
Player Selection %: 37.4%
Looking elsewhere for solid captaincy picks this week, the deck is stacked with options across midfield and forward lines ahead of Gameweek 20, and with a sizeable chunk Eden Hazard, we're noticing that many are left with no resort but to captain the Belgian this week.
Part f being a Fantasy sports website is helping people put out fires in their FPL teams, both online, at work, and of course to mess with close friends with strange and bizarre selections. What we've noticed is that with a wide spread of premium options (Kane, Salah, Aubameyang, etc), you can't have them all, though the trend is if you don't have Kane or Salah, odds are massively in your favour that Eden Hazard is present, and he's the only viable option ahead of an away day at Crystal Palace.
Crystal Palace are tricky customers of late, winning superbly at Man City before failing to breakdown a stubborn Cardiff side at side at home during Gameweek 19 in a 0-0 draw, so it is probably fair enough to suggest that it is hard to know which Palace side will turn up against a Chelsea side who recently just beat another side, Watford, 2-1 away from home, with Eden Hazard the main port of call for creativity and Fantasy points.
Hazard has provided returns in 5 of his last 6 appearances, with a blank in a surprise 1-0 home defeat to Leicester during Gameweek 18 the only blip in a surge of recent form. The midfielder has earned 48 points from those 5 remaining fixtures, include double-digit returns away at Brighton and Watford either side of the humbling against Leicester.
The tag that Hazard is a troll or inconsistency, if you look purely at the numbers, just isn't true. 13 returns from 18 matches is exceptional form, even if some of the returns are minor (assists off the bench during Gameweek's 1 and 2 for example).
The lesson here is that there is no better alternative than Hazard this week, especially if you're looking for a differential to spice up a tricky Cup or Head to Head encounter. Hazard's form on the road is what has propped him back up to the second best player in the game (behind Salah).
The only crux might be risk of rotation, but we're at the stage where we don't listen to Mauricio Sarri suggest that Hazard is 'tired' and 'fatigued' all the time. He always seems to start and one way or another, is becoming a weekly talking point.
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 20: Wildcard Captain
Player: Gerard Deulofeu (WAT)
Position: Midfielder
GW20 Fixture: Newcastle (H)
Player Price: £5.4 million
Player Selection %: 1.4%
Yes, that is right, you are reading the name of a budget midfielder as the differential captain. Gerard Deulofeu has burst into life in the last set of fixtures and has two goals and an assist with returns coming against Cardiff and West Ham. Travelling to Vicarage Road at the weekend is Newcastle who recently shipped four goals against a rampant Liverpool, and Rafa will be wary of his countryman in this fixture who has the pace and raw ability to unhinge the Toon on their travels.
Newcastle are in danger of hitting a run of form that could make or break their season, all it takes is one, maybe two, bad results to be threatened with relegation in their position. Watford on the other hand are a team who are looking to break ground in the top half of the table and are potentially in running for a Europa League qualification place which is their aim.
Watford are finding their home a more comfortable setting to pick up wins, and Deulofeu is the man to be giving Rafa sleepless nights, and whilst we know what we get from the likes of Success and Deeney who are more conventional forwards, the pacey forward has more dynamism which makes him a larger threat to Newcastle’s clean sheet. This makes the Spaniard the perfect differential, and a logical choice to place our captaincy faith in for the coming weekend.
We have a history of selecting Watford forwards in these types of fixtures with a degree of success, but instead of placing the usual faith in Deeney, we are looking at the out-of-position Deulofeu to fill the role in this fixture.
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.
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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.
