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4 November 2016 96 comments
Your Mum's Athletic Your Mum's Athletic
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This article aims to find out the best Fantasy Premier League captaincy option for the forthcoming Gameweek  by combining bookies odds with form and fixture.

In each of the previous four Gameweeks this method has proved successful, with Alexis Sanchez’s brace earning those who backed him with the armband a 26 point haul.

In truth last week was an easy win for the method, with many of the big hitters, including Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez delivering. Only an inspired Tom Heaton performance kept another popular candidate, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, from delivering.

Before I take a look at Gameweek 11’s best captaincy targets let’s have a quick recap on how I use odds, form and fixtures to come to achieve this.

REFINING THE ODDS

For this method I take six popular captaincy options, according to the FFScout captaincy poll and rank them 1-6 according to their likelihood to score according to the bookies. I then give the same 1-6 ranking according to the difficulty of the fixture, which is worked out using goals conceded, big chances conceded and shots in the box (SiB) conceded from the last four games.

I then apply the same ranking to form, looking at points per game, goals and assists over the last four games.

I understand that the odds segment can sometimes heavily outweigh others (e.g. Aguero is always likely to be low odds for scoring) so the fixtures and form elements could be used separately if you so wished.

With that in mind let’s take a look at Gameweek 11’s results.

Odds

RankPlayerOdds To ScoreImplied Probability
1Aguero1/266.67%
2.5Austin11/842.11%
2.5Coutinho11/842.11%
4Hazard6/440.00%
5Sanchez13/838.10%
6Lukaku9/430.77%

Fixtures

RankPlayerFixtureGoals ConcededBig Chances Conceded            SiB Conceded
1AustinHUL (A)117                                                                    46
2HazardEVE (H)46                                                                    28
3SanchezTOT (H)24                                                                    24
4AgueroMID (H)24                                                                    22
5.5CoutinhoWAT (H)24                                                                    17
5.5LukakuCHE (A)00                                                                    23

Form

RankPlayerPPGGoalsAssists
1.5Lukaku8.7532
1.5Hazard8.7531
3Sanchez621
4Coutinho5.7512
5Austin4.7520
6Aguero4.52`1

Results

RankPlayerFormFixtureOddsTotal              Total Rank without odds factored in
1Hazard1.5247.5                                   1st
2Austin512.58.5                                  2nd
3.5Sanchez33511                                   2nd
3.5Aguero64111                                     6th
5Coutinho45.52.512                                     5th
6Lukaku1.55.5613                                     4th
Taking odds, fixture and form into account, Eden Hazard is the likeliest to deliver according to this method, with the same outcome applied when odds are not factored in. Certainly the table suggests other Chelsea assets (Diego Costa) could well be a fruitful captaincy choice this Gameweek as well.
Interestingly, without odds factored into the equation, Sergio Aguero finishes last in our table. Despite a seemingly ‘easy’ fixture (MID), the north east side has only conceded four big chances in the last four Gameweeks and an impressively low 22 goal attempts conceded in the box in the same time period.
It’s worth mentioning Southampton’s Charlie Austin as well. Hull have conceded seven big chances and 46 goal attempts in the box over the last  four Gameweeks. But Thursday’s Europa league exploits are well worth keeping an eye on as history suggests Premier League teams do not fare too well after midweek fixtures.
96 Comments Login to Post a Comment
  1. Zombie
    • 12 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    This is sensational and freaky . Burn the witch!!!

  2. djpete
    • 12 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    You are now my God.

  3. MoSalah Dosa
    • 10 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    Take a bow !!!

  4. Patio Kev
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 11 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    True story - I genuinely only captained Hazard this week because of this article.

    Fantastic stuff, thank you so much YMA, I just hope you are also following your own advice to reap the rewards.

  5. John t penguin
    • 11 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    I want you to have my puppies

  6. Hy liverpool
    • 12 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    YNWA YMA 😀

  7. tm245
    • 14 Years
    9 years, 1 month ago

    First Saturday transfer of the year. Feels good.

    1. tm245
      • 14 Years
      9 years, 1 month ago

      Oops, wrong thread -- but FYI in case you were wondering.

    2. Still Unsure
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Anichebe? 😉

        1. tm245
          • 14 Years
          9 years, 1 month ago

          Alonso - can't handle missing someone's points AND their price rise when I wanted them previously.

          1. Still Unsure
              9 years, 1 month ago

              Nice move. He's on my list but Hazard has come in for me.

      • tm245
        • 14 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Hey, I've liked these articles. I see that some of the people disagreeing with the method have focused on the odds/bookies. Do you have a sense of what would happen if you used your method on just form and fixtures?

        I'm hoping to work on a captaincy review article of the first part of the season, and was thinking that form, fixtures, underlying stats would be good metrics, but was also thinking of including something like the captain's poll as a more subjective category as well.

        Regardless, keep these coming, they're a nice way to think about such an important decision in FPL.

        1. Your Mum's Athletic
          • 14 Years
          9 years, 1 month ago

          look at the last column in the results table.....

          1. tm245
            • 14 Years
            9 years, 1 month ago

            Cheers, that makes sense - not sure how I missed it the first time.

            1. Your Mum's Athletic
              • 14 Years
              9 years, 1 month ago

              Giggity

      • A.T
        • 15 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Oo er missus

      • Springbank
        • 10 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        YMA if you don't win the community article of the month I'm starting a hunger strike!

        Absolute legend..

        I suspect a lot more of us on here - including myself- will pick the run away leader of next GW article. It will be so very typical if for the first time it doesn't come out right 😀

        1. how now brown cow
          • 11 Years
          9 years, 1 month ago

          Hoping YMA doesn't pick anichebe or someone for comic effect!

      • Bolivian Seaman
        • 15 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Nicely done, very surprised by the result but it worked! I will be reading with anticipation 🙂

        1. 1966 was a great year for E…
          • 15 Years
          9 years, 1 month ago

          Your forum articles and YMA's are the best community articles on here.

      • 1966 was a great year for E…
        • 15 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Damn, son!

      • HVT
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 15 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        Brilliant, hats off-need to start taking notice of your articles!

      • MoSalah Dosa
        • 10 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        So.. When can we expect the next article. Earlier the better.

        Cheers

      • how now brown cow
        • 11 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        No pressure for the next gameweek!!

        Method or luck I'm still not sure but results have been amazing. There will have been many doubters this week, me included.

        Great stuff.

      • lahi
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 14 Years
        9 years, 1 month ago

        I just remembered today(Didn't occur to me earlier bc I'm a non-owner) that you recommended Hazard as the top pick from this article. Good stuff!