Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers must brace themselves for the third of seven Gameweeks across this calendar month. Erling Haaland (£14.0m) is the main contender for captain ahead of his Gameweek 16 visit to Luton Town but, as is customary, let’s deep-dive into the Opta data to uncover any chinks in the Norwegian’s armoury.
Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Newcastle United offer Haaland’s main competition, alongside a differential or two for the anti-template brigade.
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 GMT deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
Haaland blanked for just the fifth time this season in Manchester City’s 1-0 loss at Aston Villa, as Leon Bailey (£5.5m) propelled Unai Emery’s side into the Champions League spots.
And he really should have scored. A quick-fire duo of chances – both big ones – saw Haaland denied twice, with his 0.65 expected goals (xG) tally being the only contribution from Pep Guardiola’s lot.
Yet this has done little to dampen the armband enthusiasm. The former Molde man is backed by just under six-tenths of users at the time of writing.
Mohamed Salah (£13.1m) suffered the ignominy of an early substitution in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Sheffield United. A congested winter schedule brings the Egyptian closer to the rotation ‘red line’.
Four shots and two on target – both joint match-leading totals – showed promise from the attacker, who ultimately failed to net for a third successive league match.
Still, slightly under one-fifth of users think he’ll find his shooting boots against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
In third place is Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m), followed by Hwang Hee-chan (£5.7m) and Darwin Nunez (£7.7m).
THE PLAYER STATISTICS – LAST SIX MATCHES
