Sky Sports Focus – Captaincy Analysis

In our next article on the Sky Sports Fantasy game, we assess our captaincy options. This includes the various ways you can change your captain and also incorporates our preferred strategy up until the end of September. The aim, of course, is to try and exploit this feature to our benefit and increase our points potential.

As in most Fantasy games with a captaincy option, the player with the armband earns you double points, be it positive or negative. For a look at all the rules in the Sky Sports game, click here.

Swapping the armband

Fantasy managers are handed ONE swap per Gameweek and a Gameweek runs from Friday at 00.01am until 00:00 the following Thursday. This is different from last season, to take into account Friday matches, which occurs in Gameweek 2 when Villa host United. The trick here, of course, is to have your captained player featuring early in the Gameweek and then use your one swap to a player who takes to the field later in the week, therefore getting two captains out of your one change. In order to repeat this process, though, the player you selected as your captain for the Sunday/Monday should ideally play next week on the Saturday.

Banking

On occasion you may wish to ‘bank’ your captain swap – for example your captain plays on the Saturday but none of the matches over the Sunday and/or Monday look appealing. Instead of letting it go to waste, it’s a good idea to use your swap after the fixtures but before the current Gameweek has finished (best to wait up until Thursday evening in case of injuries etc) to set yourself up for the incoming rounds of fixtures choosing a player who features early of course.

Transferring Skippers

If you transfer your current captain out of your team and acquire a replacement, the incoming player will take over the armband and this will not use your one allocated swap. This tactic can work in two ways – you can make the trade and still have a captain switch to follow or, if you’ve already changed your captains, the transfer gives you another armband option for the Gameweek. You can also transfer your captain out multiple times if it’s a week with fixtures also on the Tuesday and Wednesday, for example, and have multiple captains in a given round of matches.

Playing the Blanks

When the Premier League takes a break for international or FA Cup matches, the blank week still has relevance when it comes to captain swaps, as it still counts as a Gameweek. This means you can use your one captain swap during this week and so be more adventurous with your armband choices the weekend beforehand.

Risk/Reward Tactics

Over the course of the season all these scenarios will feature in our strategies. As we assess each Gameweek, the risk/reward of using player transfers will have to be balanced, as quite often I found that quality out performed quantity and so having Sergio Aguero as my one skipper for the week could outperform using transfers to have Sadio Mane twice, for example – again, it’s a judgement call and can go either way. Planning your captaincies well in advance has its advantages as it means you can determine which route to navigate through the fixtures and not end up stuck with an unwanted armband choice and forced into a transfer. As always, though, injuries and form come into the equation and it’s important to remain flexible and re-write your plan regularly to stay on top of the game.

Our captain plan

In truth, this season is a bit of a nightmare when it comes to captain strategy – with the way that fixtures have fallen, we’re rarely afforded a strong Saturday/Sunday rotation. Here we bring you the most cautious approach we could find that still uses premium options from the top teams; this is without using any transfers, so misses out on quite a few opportunities for additional captains. Nonetheless, we think it’s a good blue print to use as a starting point, allowing you to add in extra captains at your discretion.

Following this means that as long as you have a player from Arsenal, Man United and Man City, you should have no issues navigating the first eight Gameweeks. As already mentioned, there are several blank fixtures, whereby using a transfer or targeting a player from a “lesser team” that has good Saturday to Sunday to Saturday rotation will result in more captains but with a possible loss in quality. This is probably the hardest part of the Sky game to get right – whether to take the plunge and spend transfers for extra captains or hide behind the sofa and hope playing safe works out. In the end it comes down to a judgement call and a little luck.

If you have followed our articles up until now and you add this plan to your repertoire you should be armed with all you need for a successful season.

SKY SPORTS FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT LEAGUES

We’ve already set up the official Scout League with a top prize of £1000 on offer to the winner once again. If you’ve tinkered with your Sky team and are looking to get involved, our league name is FFScout and the code is 8009000.

Finally, we’ve set up a community article to exclusively deal with Sky Sports Fantasy teams. Those looking to get involved with the discussion should click this link.