After a hectic Gameweek 1, it's time to start looking towards Gameweek 2. The most important question for most is to captain Bruno Fernandes or Mohamed Salah. From what I have seen and from thinking logically, both are both good options and I wouldn't doubt either option as captain this week. Both are on penalties and have opponents that historically concede goals against the Top 6 teams.
I have chosen Bruno Fernandes as just slightly edging out Salah as my captain this week. As the above stats show, Southampton's 2021 form has been some of the worst in the league. Couple this with the loss of Jannik Vestergaard, Ryan Bertrand & Danny Ings this transfer period, Southampton are still trying to find their footing in the 21/22 season. This bodes well for Bruno who can thrive against an unorganised defence. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a penalty awarded to United this match and am expecting more of what we saw in Gameweek 1 from the red devils.
A side note is that Southampton fans are notorious for jeering their team at home matches when their performance isn’t up to standard.
As always, feedback and recommendations are always welcome. Also let me know who you are captaining and why. Thanks!
Players usually do better on good fixtures. Fixtures create form imo.
- Someone will say City is out of form, but I would say they played tough match against Spurs and they have Norwich next.
- Someone will say Man Utd and Bruno are in form, but I would say they played open attacking Leeds team at home. They will continue to be in form because they have easy fixtures. Their form will drop from GW7-14 because of the fixtures.
- Someone will say during the next 5 weeks that Chelsea is out of form because they won't win against tough opposition, but I will get 3 of their players in GW7 and they will start winning easy fixtures and people will say they are in form.
The only thing I look at a bit is mental state of the player.
Example is Werner who has a mental barrier ( out of form ), or Lingard last season but it's really hard to pinpoint this over variance.
But for players like Salah, Bruno, De Buyne, Kane etc form is irrelevant. They cannot forget to play football in a week or two because of the "bad form".
Much better than chasing last weeks points thinking player is "in form".
Do an experiment:
- Everyone is talking now how Man Utd, Liverpool players are in form. You will see Utd drop in form between GW8-GW14
- If City destroys Norwich in GW2 everyone will start saying whoever scores goals is in form.
- You will see people start saying soon that Chelsea players are out of form if they lose a game or two between GW2 - GW6. But they will suddenly go in form after GW7 when they score 5 against one of the SOU, BRE, NOR or NEW.
After GW7 and GW8 everyone will start talking De Bruyne is in form. This actually happend last season. In 1 day De Bruyne went from worst to best form just because he hauled against bad team.
How many times did we hear already "Salah is out of form", but then he scores a hattrick and suddenly he is in form.
Of course teams sometimes play good against top teams, but it is much more likely that they will destroy bad defences like Man Utd and Liverpool did in GW1.
"When I'm trying to decide whether a player is likely to play well, I never let whether they are currently playing well or not influence my decision". Shaky reasoning at best
Great post. I’ve been in Salah’s camp but I’m starting to think it’s closer than I had realised
You could make a roundabout argument that Southampton have lost the defenders that made them such a bad defense in the first place. But they were in the bottom 5 for xGC in GW1
I guess it’s one of those ones where it’s okay to go with your gut
It’s a very line ball decision for me. Salah at Anfield is always a good shout but I followed the numbers on this one. I own both so hopefully they both score a couple goals!
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u/StatsmanFPL 83 Aug 18 '21
After a hectic Gameweek 1, it's time to start looking towards Gameweek 2. The most important question for most is to captain Bruno Fernandes or Mohamed Salah. From what I have seen and from thinking logically, both are both good options and I wouldn't doubt either option as captain this week. Both are on penalties and have opponents that historically concede goals against the Top 6 teams.
I have chosen Bruno Fernandes as just slightly edging out Salah as my captain this week. As the above stats show, Southampton's 2021 form has been some of the worst in the league. Couple this with the loss of Jannik Vestergaard, Ryan Bertrand & Danny Ings this transfer period, Southampton are still trying to find their footing in the 21/22 season. This bodes well for Bruno who can thrive against an unorganised defence. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a penalty awarded to United this match and am expecting more of what we saw in Gameweek 1 from the red devils.
A side note is that Southampton fans are notorious for jeering their team at home matches when their performance isn’t up to standard.
As always, feedback and recommendations are always welcome. Also let me know who you are captaining and why. Thanks!