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Captaincy is such a massive part of Fantasy Premier League. A good choice can send you soaring up the standings and a bad one could see you plummet. This makes picking a captain an integral part of our gameweek planning. So, who are the best choices this week? I want to take a look at three options which I would describe as the 'Shield', 'Sword' and 'Punt' options.
The Shield Option
So what is the Shield option? Basically, it’s a player who, along with having high ownership, is likely to also be highly captained (in most cases the most captained) in a gameweek. For this, there really can be only one option, who is Mohamed Salah. The second most owned player in FPL, top scorer in the league the last two seasons and the top FPL points scorer the last two seasons, Salah has been a phenomenon.
Playing a Southampton side that shipped three to Burnley on the opening weekend, Salah will be highly captained and looks set for another decent return, despite his 120-minute excursion in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday night. If you captain Salah, you know you can’t suffer too badly.
The Sword Option
The Sword option, similar to the Shield option, is likely to be highly owned, but not captained by as many people. The means that if he performs it gives you a greater chance at rising up the standings, but if he fails, the risk of falling is much greater too.
This week, the standout choice here is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. With six goals and one assist in his three games against this week’s opponents Burnley, ‘Auba’ has the pedigree to deliver big this week. Despite their clean sheet last week, Burnley still conceded plenty of chances to Southampton.
In addition, they are much poorer away from home, whilst Arsenal are a force to be reckoned with at the Emirates. The return of Alexander Lacazzette should also provide a boost for Aubameyang’s prospects. If you want a captain to try and steal a march on the rest, the Arsenal forward is your man.
The Punt Option
This one is very different. We’re talking about a player whose ownership is less than 10%. This basically means that even if everyone who owned him captained him, his ‘effective ownership’ (ownership percentage + percentage of owners who captained him) would still be very low.
There were a few candidates this week such as Richarlison and Teemu Pukki but in the end, I went with Jaime Vardy. Chelsea looked defensively suspect in both their games so far (league and Super Cup) though the return of N’Golo Kante should help. But Vardy has an incredible record against the big six having scored 34 times in matches. Furthermore, David Luiz's departure and Antonio Rudiger's injury leaves Chelsea with inexperienced options at the back.
Brendan Rodgers has set Leicester up to get the best from the English striker and with that record, he could thrive again. But the risk is obvious. If he fails, you risk losing massive ground on rivals. But could the risk be worth the potential rewards?
