Here’s our fantasy premier league captain tips GW31 article where we look at ways of assessing the best captain pick for the gameweek. We look at the fixtures, the bookies odds, the FPL advice site polls, who the FFGeek contributors are captaining, some stats and the FFGeek choice. We also look at the results of the transfer in and out polls plus polls for how many hits are you taking this week and how many active players will you have
fantasy premier league captain tips GW31 – plus transfer poll results
The fixtures
The Bookies Team win odds
Fulham v Liverpool £1.24 – Salah, Mane, Firmino
West Ham v Huddersfield – £1.55 – Anderson, Arnautovic
The Bookies player odds
Here’s a bookies anytime goal scoring odds up to £2.40 for £1 invested as of Friday afternoon. It assumes the player starts and doesn’t count assist potential
£1.75 – Salah, Mane
£1.95 – Arnautovic
£2.05 – Vardy, Firmino
£2.10 – Chicharito, Wilson, Hazard, Higuain
£2.15 – Ashley Barnes
£2.30 – Anderson, Rondon
The FPL advice site Polls
Here’s the FFGeek captain poll. Thanks very much for taking the time to vote:
Site 1 % | FFGeek % | Site 2% | Site 3 % | Site 4% | |
Salah | 46 | 58 | 54 | 70 | 38 |
Mane | 26 | 35 | 41 | 19 | 41 |
Wilson | 5 | 1 | n/a | 4 | 6 |
Vardy | 4 | 2 | n/a | 7 | 5 |
Btw, the FFGeek poll and site 2 and 3 asks who will you captain. Site 1 asks for the best captain and site 4 is silent. The FFGeek poll went up after the UCL match. Site 1 and site 3 before. I’m not sure when 4 went up.
FFGeek contributor captain picks
Here’s the link to the FFGeek contributors teams article 1
Contributor | Captain |
Joseph Crilley | Salah |
Rob Reid | Salah |
Alex Ball | Mane |
Keith Spencer | Salah |
FPL Word | Salah |
Mikael D | Mane |
Jordan Sadler | Mane |
Costas Chari | Salah |
Sergio Torija | Salah |
Yaniv Salomon | Salah |
Mikael H | Salah |
Stephen Troop | |
Andrew Ferguson | Salah |
Robert Cosgrove | Salah |
Prakhar Patel | Salah |
So 11 for Salah (79%) and 3 for Mane (21%)
Some stats
So I’m going to look at Salah and Mane’s stats
Gametime
With an International break after GW31 and no FA Cup commitments I would be surprised if either were rested
Salah
Here’s Salah’s stats away against non top 6 sides
So returns in 6 of 9 games and overall numbers look very good. The last 2 games were blanks though which is the concern.
In my my last 10 gameweek form tables Salah is 4th for midfielders on projected FPL points for xG/xA. Mane is 5th.
Mane
Here’s Mane’s starts against non top 6 sides away
So returns in 4 of 7 games . Only 1 return in the last 4 though
In my recent last 10 gameweek form tables Mane is 5th for midfielders on projected FPL points for xG/xA. Salah is 4th
The Fulham home defence against top 6 sides
So while the average of 3 goals conceded per game is bad the xG conceded and the shots are not too bad. Having a poor GK doesn’t help though.
In my recent last 10 gameweek form tables they are 20th on xG conceded.
So overall the Fulham defence has conceded 68 goals from 30 games and is ranked 20th on that basis. In xG conceded overall they are ranked 20th.
At home they have conceded 28 from 14 games and are 19th ranked on that basis. On xG conceded at home they are 15th but concede way more goals than they should for the xG against them..
Comparison tables
Here we put the 2 captain candidates averages together
So Salah leading in every category except average minutes.
Summary
Gametime wise I would be surprised if either Salah or Mane didn’t start.
Salah has pens when Milner is off the pitch
The bookies odds are the same for Salah and Mane at £1.75 ATGS
The polls have Salah and Mane way above anyone else. The average is around 50% Salah and 30% Mane
As for the contributors picks 11 are for Salah (79%) and 3 for Mane (21%)
The stats favour Salah comprehensively over Mane in terms of non top 6 opposition away. Both have recently seen a drop off though. Form home and away over the last 10 sees them pretty neck and neck in terms of underlying stats. However Mane has 8 goals in his last 8 gameweeks. Salah has 3.
The FFGeek choice
For me the polls and the stats mean I will be going with Salah.
The transfer in and out polls. The hits polls and the active GW31 players poll
See the full polls in the captain poll article
Thanks again for voting
See who the FFGeek contributors are transferring in
See also current 4k OR Jordan Sadler’s free hit team and Rob Reids free hit teams article
There’s our FPL form article and our best underlying stats from GW30 only
See also our 10 top FPL managers article and the early FFGeek team articles and last season’s 715 OR finisher Andrew Ferguson’s team
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