Captaincy Picks 2019/20: FPL Gameweek 25
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 25 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 25: Essential Captain
Player: Mohamed Salah (LIV)
Position: Midfielder
Fixture: Southampton (H)
Player Price: £12.5 million +
Player Selection %: 35.6%
Captaincy poll results:
Reason for victory:
Safe to say that everyone saw this coming. Nobody needed a psychic or crystal ball to tell them who was the best option this week, especially when everyone else for whatever reason is a major doubt for the Gameweek. Jamie Vardy (LEI) has only just returned from injury and has been in poor form, Tammy Abraham (CHE) is now injured again, Raul Jimenez (WOL) has a tough fixture away at Man United, Danny Ings (SOU) has the unfortunate task of going to Fortress Anfield, and Sergio Aguero travels to Spurs which could be a tough fixture to navigate as Pep will consider rotating after a midweek game against Man United where they progressed to the final of this year’s League Cup.
Mo Salah won this week’s captaincy poll by an absolute landslide, and it isn’t even up to debate as to why, he is simply the best option than anyone else who is going to be playing this weekend. The only other player that might have been in contention with Salah this week was his Liverpool teammate, Sadio Mane. The Senegalese forward was injured in the Double Gameweek which was a heart-breaking thing for many a fantasy player as he was widely triple captained in GW24.
Mane’s exclusion makes Salah’s captaincy against Southampton an even more enticing option, and there is also the factor that Salah thrives when he is ‘the’ man that is relied upon to get the crucial goal. Salah is often underappreciated as his attacking returns have become a regular occurrence that people don’t talk about, and his returns aren’t as explosive as Aguero who only tends to get most of his fantasy points through explosive purple patches.
The Egyptian King has secured thirteen returns this season from the twenty-four games the Reds have played, and Salah missed three of these due to injury. This fantasy conversion rate is a staggering 62%, and of those thirteen returns six of them have been in the double-digits, with the most recent one coming against West Ham when Salah grabbed a goal and an assist in a dominating performance. The case for Salah this week is concrete and irrefutable as the essential captaincy.
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 25: Alternative Captain
Player: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (ARS)
Position: Forward
Fixture: Burnley (A)
Player Price: £10.7 million
Player Selection %: 14.6%
Reason for selection:
Fresh from suspension after a horror tackle on Max Meyer during Arsenal's 1-1 draw away at Crystal Palace (GW22), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang comes back into contention and gets a pick as our alternative captaincy pick, with Arsenal one side to keep an eye on as they travel to Burnley (GW25), before hosting Newcastle (GW26) and Everton (GW27) - a trio of sides that can be defensively strong on their day.
Auba gets the nod due to his general consistency. Burnley may be living off a high after beating Man United 2-0 at Old Trafford (GW24), though football changes quickly, with Mikel Arteta's side adapting well when in difficult situations - take the 2-2 draw at Chelsea as a hallmark of a shifting identity at the club - with the Gabon international scoring in 3 of his last 4 appearances.
There's no basis for logic, or reason, this is just one Gameweek where we wished we personally owned the rested Forward, especially as Leicester, Chelsea, Man United, Wolves, Everton, Spurs and Man City are all in testing fixtures, we're having to dig deep to find players we feel comfortable in this role. It's like we're going with the best padded CV in an interview, instead of taking a chance with anyone that has experience not related to the role.
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 25: Dark Horse Captain
Player: Raul Jimenez (WOL)
Position: Forward
Fixture: Man United (A)
Player Price: £7.6 million
Player Selection %: 21.9%
Reason for selection:
A 6-0 away win for Man United over Tranmere Rovers will have giant, earth shattering ramifications that will change the landscape of Fantasy Premier League forever. Players you once owned in FPL will be thrown to the wayside as you consider new and adorned attacking and defensive players. Once again, foes of The Red Devils will tremble in horror as a new wave of optimism at Old Trafford sweeps the footballing world ahead of a dominant period in the 2020's.
That, or business as usual resumes ahead of Gameweek 25.
Wolves visit Man United with the hosts for Saturday's late game losing back-to-back games 2-0, first at Anfield against Liverpool (GW23), before losing at home to Burnley (GW24), with Jay Rodriguez scoring a goal of the month contender to sink David de Gea to his knees once more.
The perfect dark horse captaincy pick falls to Raul Jimenez, who in light of the captaincy options available this week, doesn't look like a half-bad option as a legitimate consideration. Raul has 17 attacking returns in FPL this season (11 goals, 6 assists, 22 bonus), with the Mexican international scoring 3 goals in the last 2 matches.
Personally, in the limelight of a televised encounter on Saturday evening, we are struggle at seeing how Man United will keep Traore quiet for the entire game, with Luke Shaw and/or Brandon Williams in for the games of their life given the speed and power of Traore. A big performance will also add to the potential reality that Wolves could qualify for the Champions League this season.
With Salah the essential and a host of options juggling for a distant second place, why not take the punt of Raul or Traore this week? The crippling reality for United fans is that Wolves won't respect their hosts this weekend like Tranmere did in the FA Cup and have enough goal threat to keep the pressure cooker on Ole Gunnar Solskjær turned up to maximum.
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 25: Differential Captain
Player: Callum Wilson (BOU)
Position: Forward
Fixture: Aston Villa (H)
Player Price: £7.4 million
Player Selection %: 4.9%
Reason for selection:
Each week in our Differentials article, Sam Austin profiles a differential captain and has opted for a Bournemouth attacker in Callum Wilson to lead the line during Gameweek 25'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.
