Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers are a fickle breed, with successive blanks for Erling Haaland (£14.0m) earning swift re-categorisation in some corners from ‘perma-captain’ to potentially expendable.
And ahead of Gameweek 9, the Norwegian – who boasts a strong home fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion – once again faces tough competition from Liverpool’s Egyptian and Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean.
As usual, the Captain Sensible article is here to highlight which assets have the best chance of hauling.
First, we will assess the fallout of the captain poll, before then analysing the best options, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Saturday’s 11:00 BST deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
Man City’s toughening fixture schedule and a recent downturn in underlying numbers have eased Haaland’s dominance of our Captain Poll in recent weeks.
After a break-neck start to his second season in the English top flight – serving up eight goals and one assist in just six matches – the Norwegian blanked in back-to-back Premier League matches for only the second time.
Nevertheless, Haaland tops the Gameweek 9 Captain Poll as Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls make their way to the Etihad, backed by just over four in ten of the total votes cast by users at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, an explosive 15-point haul at the Amex Stadium catapulted Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) to joint-top of the Fantasy player standings – and very much into our captaincy thoughts ahead of the Merseyside Derby at Anfield in Saturday’s early kick-off.
The Egyptian has been a model of consistency this season with only Ollie Watkins (11) topping Salah’s nine attacking returns so far.
But three double-digit hauls in his last four matches suggest the right-winger has found top gear, and is backed by a mite over one-third of our users to maintain that form.
Son Heung-min (£9.5m) occupies third place with 7.75% of the vote, followed by Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.9m) with James Maddison (£8.1m) a long way further back.
THE PLAYER STATISTICS – LAST SIX MATCHES
