Gameweek 34 Captain Data
These games are barely giving a humble blogger enough time to set his own team (I someone failed to 'confirm' my changes last week, resulting in Rooney getting the arm band over Van Persie), never mind look too far into the future. It's on that note I offer a lowly apology for the lack of attention for the upcoming double gameweeks. I hope to get something out early next week, but in the mean time our good friends at Fantasy Football Scout have you covered.
Onto this week then. What we lack in depth we gain in quality as both Van Persie and Rooney look like irresistible options this week. Indeed, there isn't too much analysis to add here. If you purely want to maximise your chance at points, it's tough to look beyond Van Persie. He leads or ties in every key metric other than P90, which Rooney edges by 0.4 points. Despite Wigan's result this week, I'd still suggest there is a gulf in quality between them and Villa, giving Van Persie the better fixture in terms of both likelihood of success and upside. For all the hand wringing over McLeish's Villa side, they've only conceded more than two goals on three ocassions, and they were all against quality opponents (Arsenal, City and Chelsea). Wigan on the other hand have conceded three of more goals on no less than 10 occasions, though to be fair, not once since Jan 31.
Van Persie is picking up 58% of the votes in the FFS poll making Rooney a differentiator of sorts. I like that play much more than rolling the dice on a risky transfer so those looking to gain ground should really look at Rooney who is almost as good a play as Van Persie on paper but will surely attract far fewer captain votes.
If you're really desperate to gain ground then Valencia and Walcott look like a good pair of options, though I'm not sure this is the week to be getting cute with your captain pick. I'd prefer to stick with one of the elite options this week then take a chance on someone like Cisse next week, or even one of the double gameweekers (Miyaichi or an emerging Petrov look like the best picks there).
I start this post every week hoping to come up with a real hidden gem but of late it's been pretty boring stuff. Hopefully the data is at least giving you some clues as to how to pick between the elite pair, and it has generally been pretty reliable over the past weeks. Just how effective it is will be analysed after the season.
Comments
Anyone vs Wolves should surely be captain from here on in?
Thanks for all your hard work Chris, 'tis much appreciated.
The main drawback is probably that you don't have time to do proper analysis before the transfer
There was a point in the season where Chris mentioned that team value was overrated as he could buy the current dream team with his low team value but what about now? Wouldn't it benifit you to not have to chose who to leave out from Dempsey, Bale, Walcott, Valencia and Siggy?
I hope I'm not sounding confrontational as I respect his opinion alot but it seems we just dont see eye to eye on this aspect of the game which is prefectly fine.
The point about injuries is true but the risks are pretty minimal imo. I don't buy players before the games are over as you are more likely to get hurt in a game than in training. I mean how often has a player u wanted to bring in gotten hurt during the week?
That said, I haven't concerned myself unduly when I do the trade and I still sit upon a team valued to about 109 + 1. That would be lower of course where I to sell but the main point is that I have got value as a bonus to points. And for all the remaining games I have no problem getting the players I want