Voting in the Gameweek 13 captain poll has now opened, with this weekend’s set of matches perhaps not offering one glaringly obvious candidate for the armband.
With Sergio Aguero (£11.4m) and Mohamed Salah‘s (£13.0m) home and away fixtures dovetailing nicely until this point, those who like to play it safe with their captaincy picks have had a fairly easy ride for the first three months of the season.
Manchester City and Liverpool are both away from home in the same weekend for the first time in 2018/19 however, and while West Ham United and Watford aren’t overly formidable opposition, the fixtures are potentially tricky enough to make us consider other alternatives for the captaincy.
Aguero’s indifferent form away from home is well-documented, with the Argentinean striker having registered only one attacking return (a goal at Cardiff City in Gameweek 6) in five appearances on the road this season.
What should be noted, though, is that four of those five away fixtures were against Arsenal, Wolves, Liverpool and Spurs.
Salah meanwhile is yet to register an attacking return in five appearances against the clubs currently sitting in the top half of the Premier League table but did of course score four goals against the Hornets (at Anfield) in March.
Raheem Sterling (£11.2m) and Sadio Mane (£9.9m) are two very viable armband alternatives from the two title-chasing clubs.
Sterling has featured in all five of City’s away fixtures this season and is averaging more FPL points than Aguero (4.8 versus 2.6) on the road.
Mane is doing likewise compared to Salah, averaging 5.0 points in away matches compared to the Egyptian’s 4.12.
The Senegalese midfielder has blanked in six of his last seven Premier League starts, however.
A home fixture against Cardiff City has seen Richarlison (£6.9m) take an early lead in our poll, with the Brazilian midfielder seemingly set to continue “out of position” up front against the Bluebirds and having plundered 15 points in his last home league game.
Injury doubts and yellow flags still cloud our judgement of several captaincy candidates, with Anthony Martial‘s (£7.6m) availability for the weekend still in question after he pulled out of the France squad with a thigh injury.
Martial is certainly FPL’s form player: the French midfielder has scored on six occasions and registered an assist in his last five Premier League starts.
Crystal Palace, United’s opponents this weekend, haven’t won a league match since Gameweek 5.
Glenn Murray (£6.6m) and Raul Jimenez (£5.8m) are two cut-price forwards who enjoy an appealing home fixture in Gameweek 13 and would be “sensible” differential picks in such a wide-open Gameweek, while the true mavericks among us may even be eyeing up Matt Doherty (£4.9m) – if fit – given that the league’s lowest goalscorers, Huddersfield Town, visit Molineux on Sunday.
Joe and I discuss the various captaincy options for Gameweek 13 in the video below, with our regular “Captain Sensible” members’ piece to follow later in the week.
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