Captaincy Picks 2019/20: FPL Gameweek 10
Picking the right captain in FPL can make or break your season and has a massive impact on your final overall rank come the end of the season. We attempt to ease the burden of any potential captaincy stress by offering a host of worthy selections ahead of each Gameweek - an Essential that is voted by the FPL Community, an alternative of our choosing, a Dark Horse who might spring a surprise, and a lowly selected Differential - to cover the bases. All aboard.
Fantasy Premier League: Gameweek 10 Deadline
For the 2019/20 Premier League season, the FPL deadline will be one hour before the commencement of the week's first game. Our website provides a real-world countdown timer for the the upcoming Gameweek, whilst you can read our latest Fantasy articles from the season on our 2019/20 FPL weekly hype sub-section.
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 10: Essential Captain
Player: Raheem Sterling (MCI)
Position: Midfielder
Fixture: Aston Villa (H)
Player Price: £12.1 million
Player Selection %: 38.0%
Captaincy poll results:
Reason for victory:
After a treble of captaincy blanks whilst in the position of our 'essential' pick during Gameweek's 4-6, in which Sterling amassed a mighty 5 points across 3 matches, Sterling and City options took a 3-week break from contention, with an enticing home game against Aston Villa rearing FPL players back towards Raheem Sterling as the top contender.
Sterling is in this position due to Mo Salah playing Spurs at home and having just returned from injury, Sergio Aguero being a rotation risk, Arsenal proving lacklustre in attack, Chelsea in a testing away game, and Man United massively off the FPL radar.
Does Sterling deserve the adulation to be in this role, purely from an FPL perspective? Absolutely not. A hat-trick in midweek in a Champions League rout of Atlanta, or more goals and assists whilst away with England on international duty, just doesn't cut the mustard for the slowly depleting 38% of Sterling.
In FPL, Sterling picked up his first assist of the season during the 2-0 away win at Crystal Palace during Gameweek 9. The assist is only 1 of 2 FPL returns across 6 matches, with Raz scoring during Gameweek 7's 3-1 away win at Everton. Sterling's only return at home was a goal against Spurs during Gameweek 2, whilst the only 10+ point return came during Gameweek 1's 5-0 away win at West Ham, with Sterling scoring a treble that would go on to be the catalyst for major deception leading in to a home match against Villa.
We'd love to write an essay that backs up Sterling's attributes and likelihood of getting among the goals at the weekend, but Man City doesn't work like that - the only credence to be had with them is that it is the default captaincy pick to choose from if you're stuck with decisions. There's a reality which can see Sterling rotated and benched again, so we'll save any potential applause for after the Gameweek comes to an end, as we and many of the FPL player base, have been feeling the burn in recent weeks with a host of captaincy failings.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE ALTERNATIVE PICK
Our Alternative selection for captain typically commands a smaller FPL ownership percentage than our Essential poll winner, though this pick is usually reserved for The Hype Train's own gut instincts on who could be captaincy inspiration for the upcoming Gameweek.
Gameweek 10: Alternative Captain
Player: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
Position: Midfielder
Fixture: Spurs (H)
Player Price: £12.4 million
Player Selection %: 30.7%
Reason for selection:
This isn't the week to mess around and the perfect opportunity to return to basics. Man City have their coverage in Raheem Sterling, with the other part of the equation being a return to basics with Salah. Liverpool host Spurs in the only high-level close contest this week, which also gives Salah the perfect opportunity to appear in this position as an alternative.
The Egyptian King didn't feature during Liverpool's 1-1 draw at Man United during Gameweek 9 due to an ankle injury, but swiftly returned 3 days later and scored in Liverpool's 4-1 Champions League win at Belgian outfit, Genk.
Salah has a good record scoring against Spurs, scoring 6 goals in 8 games against the travelling London side. Add in set-piece potential (if there is any to be had this season), and the aged old method of a Sterling/Salah combo might just work out.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE DARK HORSE PICK
A new captaincy selection this season sees us introduce a Dark Horse pick, which will be a player who typically has a good scoring record against an opposing team, or a player in good form that is being overlooked due to other popular captaincy picks.
Gameweek 10: Dark Horse Captain
Player: Raul Jimenez (WOL)
Position: Forward
Fixture: Spurs (A)
Player Price: £7.1 million
Player Selection %: 10.4%
Reason for selection:
The most obtuse and obscure figure to select a potential captaincy figure from, without doubt, is the encounter which sees Wolves travel to Newcastle for the early game on Sunday.
Ticket sales are low in the North East, and goals are at an absolute premium in that region of the world, even though they recently registered a 1-0 home win over Man United during Gameweek 8. Wolves might just be a Europa League side that have travelled to Slovakia in a winning 2-1 effort against Slovan Bratislava, but they're a decent side in form. Who scored the winner against Slovan? Raul Jimenez, of course.
Raul has been in good form overall and is fit enough to survive rotation in the Premier League and Europe's second-tier continental competition - either that or he is too indispensable not to be featured in every single game.
Last time out in Premier League action, Jimenez scored Wolves's equaliser in a 1-1 home draw against Southampton, though without VAR ruling out 2 goals for the Mexican international, the 7-points earned on that occasion could have been a lot healthier.
Newcastle are without Fabian Schar this weekend, and the eye-rolling returning 'hero' that is Andy Carroll (give me strength), which gives the edge to Raul and Wolves in an away visit they won last season, and in truth, we think they'll do the same again this season.
CAPTAINCY HYPE: THE DIFFERENTIAL PICK
Our Wildcard selection is one of the ten differential picks that is featured in our Weekly Wildcard Differentials article. This captaincy selection has a very small percentage of owners in the FPL, and is our left-field option.
Gameweek 10: Differential Captain
Player: Danny Ings (SOU)
Position: Forward
Fixture: Leicester (A)
Player Price: £5.9 million
Player Selection %: 2.8%
Reason for selection:
Welcome back to the captaincy madhouse. Last week our gamble didn’t pay off with Wesley Moraes (AVL), even if it was the right fixture to back. This time around we look at a fixture that most fantasy managers will consider as a formality, with most neutrals favouring Leicester to walk away with the points. We are here to bust up the party and showcase a striker who has been uprooting trees in recent weeks and condemning Champions League teams to the dreaded score update that breaks hearts: clean sheet wipe-out. Southampton’s Danny Ings boasts five returns from nine Gameweek's and looking back in retrospect he has some impressive scalps to start the season. Here are his respective returns so far this season:
Ings's Premier League Goals:
GW2: Goal vs. Liverpool (H) GW3: Assist vs. Brighton (A)
GW7: Goal vs. Spurs away (A)
GW8: Goal vs. Chelsea (H)
GW9: Goal vs. Wolves (A)
You may be surprised to hear that Ings has scored four of Saints nine goals in the Premier League, which is just under half of their total goals at 44% of their output. Facing off against Leicester in the Friday night game gives Ings a chance to notch another goal against a team who finished in the top ten last season. Ings appears to prefer playing in higher profile matches, and if you were a betting person the odds are in your favour of backing Ings to be Mr. Reliable in this fixture. Leicester don’t have a flawless defensive record, which should give owners of Foxes defensive assets a nervous sweat during the game.
Ralph Hasenhüttl hinted in his presser that Southampton are in dangerous territory of relying on Danny Ings for goals, with the Austrian wanting a greater team emphasis on sharing the goal scoring responsibilities. He also had some nice words to say of the Englishman as Ings has started his second season with the Saints in fine form:
“At the moment he feels physically very well, and he can play 90 minutes which is something he couldn’t do so far. A good pre-season and the last few weeks helped him massively and confidence is high with the goals and you can feel in every session he has a lot of confidence in front of goal. This is a result of very hard work and changing a few habits - taking less touches, running more from deep and coming into positions to score. We showed him things to do he can do better and he is doing it and maybe it helps him score more now.”
Things look on the up for Ings, and every team who wants to survive the drop to the Championship need a striker like Ings to weather the nerve shredding relegation scare. Ings is a man in seriously good form, is currently rotation proof, cheaper than most forward options, and has proved that he is also fixture proof due to his goal scoring exploits against top half teams. Sergio Aguero (MCI), Pierre-Emerick, Aubameyang (ARS), and Tammy Abraham (CHE) are the flashy options that most fantasy managers are looking at this week, but we are looking at this fixture with optimism after Ings has proven his worth as the go-to man at Southampton.
Ings left Liverpool for Southampton, and ironically, he would be the type of player that the Reds transfer committee would be tracking from their usual fishing spot.
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The Hype Train is an entertainment website founded in 2015, specialising in Fantasy sports reporting, starting with Fantasy Premier League (FPL), before expanding to MLS Fantasy coverage in 2018.
We pride ourselves in providing beautiful graphics, statistics, in-depth analytical reporting and free weekly insight for hopeful players attempting to climb rankings tables. We are also occasional media reviewers, with a keen interest to review games, live sport, and professional wrestling.
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All aboard.
