The captaincy debate for Gameweek 12 of Fantasy Premier League is all about one man: Mohamed Salah (£12.3m).
He may have scored 22nd Champions League goal for Liverpool midweek, making him the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in the competition, but another 90-minute outing has his owners worried about a benching at Fulham.
Nevertheless, he remains the favourite for the Gameweek 12 armband and, as per usual, the Captain Sensible article is here to test the best candidates against recent data.
Even though this could prove one of the most one-sided captaincy decisions in recent FPL history, there is still plenty to sink our teeth into, comparing the underlying numbers of form players against the defensive displays of their upcoming opponents.
As this uses extensive data from the Fantasy Football Scout Premium Members Area, only those with a valid subscription can access it in full.
Captain Poll
Unsurprisingly, the aforementioned Egyptian midfielder has dominated the Gameweek 12 captaincy poll, securing the biggest majority any Fantasy asset has managed on the site so far this season.
Since making a full recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19), Salah has put up 20 FPL points in two matches, seemingly having regained form and confidence much sooner than some may have expected.
However, what is surprising is the lack of similar interest in Sadio Mané (£12.0m), who does not even make the top-five captaincy picks according to our voters.
That’s in spite of the Senegalese international getting (nearly) full rest in the Champions League and, therefore, more likely to start the next two league fixtures than Salah.
The same goes for Diogo Jota (£7.0m), whose Gameweek 11 benching also makes him more likely to feature heavily than Salah, who remains the people’s choice, regardless of his full Champions League appearance on Wednesday.
Outside of Salah, not a single Fantasy asset has been backed by more than 6.5% of voters ahead of Gameweek 12, his majority over second-placed Harry Kane (£10.9m) standing at a whopping 44.6%.
Just 6.3% fancy the Spurs striker more than Salah, despite the fact that he has 11 more points than him this season and Crystal Palace have just one clean sheet in 2020/21.
Son Heung-min (£9.6m) is set to face the Eagles’ brittle defence this weekend too, and even the fact that he is the current leading points-scorer (100), fewer than 5% of our site readers think he is a trustworthy recipient of the Gameweek 12 armband.
Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8m) and Jamie Vardy (£10.3m) join Salah and Kane in the top-five, backed by 6.2% and 5.5% respectively, the two of them preparing to take on Manchester United (away) and Brighton (home).
Interestingly, a Friday-night meeting with West Ham is enough to convince 5.3% of voters to get behind Patrick Bamford (£6.2m) as the skipper of their team.
Key Matches
Fulham v Liverpool
3 years, 4 months agostrongly considering putting the armband on Vardy (BRI) or Robertson (ful). Brighton's high line will favour Vardy, that said, Leicester aren't playing well. As for Robertson, he was unlucky not to pick up an assist vs Wolves and the fulham game is as good as it comes for a clean sheet.
So, who's thinking the same?