Premium Striker Options

It is safe to say most teams are facing the headache of choosing two premium forwards from a group of five players.

These, for many, are Sergio Aguero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Diego Costa, although arguably concerns around the latter’s fitness and future at Chelsea make this a four man list for now.

Picking the right combination will be crucial from now until the end of the season. This article aims to offer some guidance on who are the best picks based on a number of criteria:

• Form
• Fixtures
• Security of playing time
• Consistency
• Goal involvement
• Points ceiling (aka captaincy potential)

Form

This list looks at the Fantasy Premier League points earned over their last six matches.

Ibrahimovic – 58

Kane – 41

Lukaku – 28

Costa – 24

Aguero – 22

Fixtures

Here we rank the teams in order of their next six fixtures to establish who appears to have the easiest incoming run of games. For this the 1-5 measure (with 1 being the easiest and five the toughest) that FPL uses is my guide. The lower the total the better the fixtures.

Lukaku – 13

Ibrahimovic – 14

Aguero/Costa – 15

Kane – 17

Security of starts

This is a must for high priced players. Not only do you want them to start every game, you want to be confident they’ll last the 90 minutes to maximise their chances of scoring points. Players are ranked by the percentage of minutes they have played when available.

Ibrahimovic – 100% (1800/1800)

Costa – 98% (1676/1710)

Lukaku – 96% (1646/1710)

Kane – 94% (1353/1440)

Aguero – 91% (1232/1350)

Consistency

The thing we want from all of players, not least the premium ones, is points, and lots of them. Players bringing in a points haul but blanking for several weeks are incredibly frustrating. Here are the players ranked by the percentage of appearances they return at least a goal or assist.

Costa – 75% (15/20)

Ibrahimovic – 65% (13/20)

Kane – 56% (9/16)

Lukaku – 50% (10/20)

Aguero – 47% (7/15)

Goal Involvement

The ideal Fantasy forward is the one who is most involved in his side’s goals. This also indicates that they carry strong assist, as well as goal, threat. Players are ranked here by the percentage of team goals they have been involved in when on the pitch.

Ibrahimovic – 61% (19/31)

Lukaku – 52% (16/31)

Costa – 49% (19/39)

Aguero – 46% (12/26)

Kane – 39% (15/38)

Points Ceiling (aka captaincy potential)

Expensive players are expected to score heavily and are priced as such. They should therefore be captaincy contenders capable of a points haul (10+). Players are ranked here by percentage of appearances resulting in 10+ scores.

Aguero – 27% (4/15)

Ibrahimovic – 25% (5/20)

Kane – 25% (4/16)

Lukaku – 25% (5/20)

Costa – 16% (3/19)

Overall Results

The players are awarded points here based on their rank within each category, 5 for first, 4 for second and so on. The results are:

Ibrahimovic – 27

Lukaku – 21

Costa – 18

Kane – 15

Aguero – 13

Conclusion

Choosing two of these players is always going to be difficult but hopefully this analysis will help you make your mind up.

It has shown that Costa scores little and often, which hampers his captaincy potential. Current speculation that he may be about to move to China also dents his prospects.

Aguero can be an exceptional captain but is falling in his appeal, especially due to security of starts and disciplinary record.

Lukaku isn’t the most reliable but certainly has the fixtures. Meanwhile, Harry Kane may not have the best fixtures but has strong form.

The runaway leader though is Ibrahimovic, who offers potential across a range of metrics.

Looking at this list the ideal premium striker pairing would be to ensure the big Swede is in your side supplemented by either Lukaku, if you are a fixtures based manager, or Kane, if you favour form.