Captaincy Picks 2019/20: FPL Gameweek 24
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 24 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 24: Essential Captain
Player: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
Position: Midfielder
Fixtures: Wolves (A) and West Ham (A)
Player Price: £12.4 million +
Player Selection %: 28.6%
Captaincy poll results:
Reason for victory:
Much like Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Liverpool are inevitable. Runaway Premier League leaders, Champions League holders. Club World Cup winners. The swagger brought upon by a couple years of consistency has made Liverpool a few trophies away from holding football's equivalent of the Infinity Gauntlet. This current incarnation of The Reds is dangerously close to becoming one of the single-most dominant club sides in the history of the sport.
On course to smash Man City's 100 points tally from the 2017/18 season, Klopp's side look like they might get close to the 110 mark based on current form of collecting 91 points out of a possible 93 in the league since losing to 2-1 away to Man City last season at The Etihad. Part of that record has seen Mohamed Salah involved in 28 consecutive wins for Liverpool - a record he holds with no other mortal man (though we're not sure about that last part).
The Egyptian King has got his swagger back and was leading the celebrations after an injury-time strike sunk Man United at Anfield in a 2-0 win, a result which saw Liverpool record their seventh consecutive clean sheet, whilst Salah, the current 5th best player in FPL with 133 points, has now amassed Fantasy returns in his last 3 outings (2 goals, 1 assist, 2 bonus, 23 points).
Salah gets the nod ahead of Africa's best footballer from last year, Sadio Mane, with a combination of immediate form and set pieces edging in Salah's favour ahead of games away at Wolves and West Ham for the first Double Gameweek of the season.
The decision is quite simple, which puts the rest of our article in danger. Who isn't captaining a Liverpool player this week unless you're an inactive team? Salah flies for flag for the Champions elect this season, with the only real difference the competition within the club about who gets those expected points against winnable opposition.
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 24: Alternative Captain
Player: Jamie Vardy (LEI)
Position: Forward
Fixture: West Ham (H)
Player Price: £10.1 million +
Player Selection %: 48.5%
Reason for selection:
Are the cracks beginning to show at Leicester? Beaten at a dogged Burnley side last weekend, with the side previously losing 2-1 at home to Southampton during Gameweek 22, life after losses at Man City (GW18) and Liverpool (GW19) has begun to test the patience of some owners selecting Jamie Vardy in FPL.
Vardy's last Premier League was during the 3-1 defeat at Man City, with the 17-goal Golden Boot leader both injured and rotated in recent weeks, damaging his credentials (slightly), with the Englishman's outing at Burnley his worst of the season, with Nick Pope saving Vardy's well-struck penalty in the second-half.
A fat score of zero was the collective nightmare of half the game and occasionally the script is written - it's what happens when you harbour responsibility at a football club. Nevertheless, confidence is still high based on the small sample of voters in our alternative poll, with not too many people interested in even considering a secondary option given Liverpool's saturation of Gameweek 24 coverage.
Vardy didn't appear in the reverse fixture against West Ham (GW20) due to the birth of his child, though with West Ham showing the occasional sign of life since David Moyes arrived to a lukewarm (if that) reception, this has the hallmark of a comfortable home win and if you should follow one bit of free FPL advise (we know, what on earth are we thinking?), it's go with what you know, and if you know the basis of this season, it's that Vardy is worth his weight in gold given the right opponent.
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 24: Dark Horse Captain
Player: Anthony Martial (MUN)
Position: Midfielder
Fixture: Burnley (H)
Player Price: £7.9 million
Player Selection %: 13.2%
Reason for selection:
Call us slightly off the boil, but it's 1:30am in the morning in the UK and this 9-5 worker has to put his head down to rest at some point, though not before writing, arguably, the appeal of our Dark Horse captaincy pick this week - a piece of advise that even we as writers will most certainly ignore.
Marcus Rashford has been in the spotlight after hurting his back in Man United's cup replay against Wolves, due to carrying the weight of goals and expectations on his back this season, the cauldron of pressure has eventually weighted and set, with United missing their key central attacker. Without the likes of Alexis Sanchez (what's he up to nowadays?) and Romelu Lukaku to utilise, it is likely that Anthony Martial will occupy the Forward role at United, with Mason Greenwood coming in at times.
Point being, even though this very likelihood is almost certainly not going to happen, wouldn't it be predictable that when most predict United to struggle for goals in a home encounter against Burnley, that Martial rises from the ashes of continued despair and injury agony to score and be the main FPL points earner this coming midweek?
If you're a die hard United fan who will only captain one of his own, then this one is for you. 8 consecutive starts, 5 goals and playing as the out-and-out Forward, might just unlock some magic and potential when Ole needs it most.
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 24: Differential Captain
Player: Joe Gomez (LIV)
Position: Defender
Fixtures: Wolves (A) and West Ham (A)
Player Price: £5.2 million +
Player Selection %: 4.0%
Reason for selection:
Each week in our Differentials article, Sam Austin profile a differential captain and has opted for a Liverpool defender in Joe Gomez to lead the line during Gameweek 24's action. You can read the article by clicking here, as well as by interacting with the embedded tweet below.
Want to know more about The Hype Train?
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.
In 2019, Hype Train Football Club was formed, becoming the first Fantasy Football website to take to the field. HTFC is a socially active team across social and web channels, providing regular match highlights, match reports, comprehensive player statistics and unique player profiles.
The Hype Train were nominated and shortlisted for the 'Best Football Blog' in 2016 by the Football Bloggers Association at their annual Football Blogging Awards (The FBA's), and were again shortlisted as a finalist in 2019 in the 'Best Fantasy Football Blog' category.
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All aboard.
