Next up is our usual Friday evening members’ article as we take a closer look at the leading armband candidates for the upcoming round of fixtures.
To start off, we run the rule over the Captain Poll contenders, then examine the Opta numbers and Rate My Team rankings before pinpointing a differential or two to help with your armband dilemma.
The Captain Poll
Prior to being forced off against Anderlecht last night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the runaway leader in our previous Gameweek 34 Captain Poll for Manchester United’s upcoming pair of fixtures.
The veteran’s knee injury – with
reports suggesting he could be out for the season – forced us to reset the Poll earlier this morning, affording you another chance to assess the lay of the land.
This time around, United’s Marcus Rashford edges Middlesbrough frontman Alvaro Negredo into second spot.
Backed by 27%, Rashford’s goal and assist in the 2-1 win over the Belgians means he has now scored in three of his last four across all competitions. With the rest of United’s attackers misfiring, he’s been drafted in by over 144,00 FPL managers in the last 24 hours.
Yet his upcoming pair of hosts won’t make it easy – Burnley and Manchester City are amongst the top six sides in terms of resilient home defences, having conceded just 14 and 15 times in front of their own supporters.
United’s raiding right-back Antonio Valencia’s 3% of the votes cast. The Ecuadorian produced attacking or defensive points in eight of his last nine, though he’s started just one of the last three due to his manager’s late-season rotation.
Handed 21% of the votes, Negredo has netted twice in five fixtures under Steve Agnew and has the best pair of fixtures of any Double Gameweek frontman as the Teesside team travel to Bournemouth before hosting Sunderland in midweek.
The Cherries have conceded at least twice in seven of their last eight home matches, while David Moyes’ side have a single clean sheet on their travels all season.
By comparison, encounters with Liverpool and Spurs look tougher tasks for Christian Benteke (9%). A trip to his former employers at Anfield could still see the Belgian in profit – Jurgen Klopp’s side have injury worries at the back and have registered just one clean sheet in seven at Anfield.
At home to Spurs is far from straightforward, yet Benteke – with goals in three of the last four Gameweeks, including a ten-point tally at Stamford Bridge – has the form to prevail.
Only 3% are willing to gamble on Wilfried Zaha, while less than 1% are considering his team-mate Andros Townsend. The pair have both produced two goals and three assists in the previous six Gameweeks in a run that has seen the latter average seven points per appearance.
Golden Boot rivals Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku are rated as the best single-Gameweek prospects, earning 9% and 7% of the votes respectively.
The Spurs man has delivered double-figure hauls (20, 13, 12) in each of his last three starts ahead of a trip to Palace, while Lukaku has scored in nine successive appearances for Everton against weekend hosts West Ham.
7 years, 2 months agoHmm.. trying to decide between Zaha and Townsend.
Here are some stats from their last 6 matches:
Goals/Assists: both 2 goals and 3 assists
Shots per 90: Zaha 2.6, Townsend 2.0
Shots on Target per 90: Zaha 0.5, 0.7
Key passes per 90: Zaha 1.9, Townsend 2.7
Other:
Zaha takes majority of shots inside the box compared to Townsend taking them mostly outside the box
Townsend on corners (I think)
Townsend BP magnet
Owndership: Zaha 16%, Townsend 3%
I think Zaha is more likely to score as he takes more shots and most of them in the box but Townsend more likely to assist with more key passes. On this basis I should pick Zaha.
Having said that, Townsend actually has more shots on target despite less shots overall. He is also a bonus magnet with 3 occasions where he's got maximum bonus despite only getting one goal or assist in high scoring games. If he's also on corners, that is pretty big with Benteke in the box.
So I'm leaning towards Townsend as a differential but if Zaha goes big it could hurt with a lot of people in the top 50k having him...