by FPL Punisher

Hello everyone,

Well the dust hasn’t even settled on a crazy GW24 and we have just a few days to work out what to do for DGW25.

One of the key questions is whether to triple captain a Manchester City player. Now before people instantly dismiss the idea, citing Pep Roulette let’s consider it more carefully.

The Opposition

There is no doubt that Manchester City have incredible attacking players and Everton and Arsenal are hardly the most impenetrable of defences, what’s more Arsenal and Everton are ball playing teams, they are not built to “park the bus”, Everton may try to play a counter attacking style but they simply do not have the players to play a defensive game vs a Manchester City attack, both teams best hope lies in keeping good possession when they do have it and to be clinical. However, neither Everton or Arsenal are in good form which makes this less likely.



Form

Next let’s consider the Manchester City players form, Leroy Sane has been in great form, in recent weeks he has been outscoring Sterling and even against Newcastle showed he’s quality in various moments in the game. Sterling is also a good option, Sterling is a goal scorer and last season and at times this season he has shown that he is capable of huge hauls.

Now we cannot review player form without looking at the Newcastle performance, Manchester City were disappointing against a stubborn Newcastle defence. Players showed flashes of quality but did not sustain it through the game, also against Huddersfield Manchester City did not really come alive until a short period in the 2nd half.

So it seems simple right, a poor performance vs Newcastle and a patchy performance vs Huddersfield, add rotation equal should mean you cannot triple captain a City player. Well it’s not that simple….



The nature of Newcastle/Huddersfield

Firstly, Newcastle & Huddersfield are both “bus teams”, they are built on strong organised defences first and foremost and games against them can be difficult as there is much less room in behind for players to run in behind defences as well as less room in midfield for creative midfielders. Arsenal and Everton are not those sort of teams they will attack Man City and therefore leave more space in behind for Man City’s pace merchants, Arsenals’ and Everton’s Mindset is to attack and not park the bus like Newcastle & Huddersfield, this will leave both defences vulnerable to the break and as both teams will leave more players upfield, it will leave more space during general play as well. Second, both teams have 1 good holding midfielder, the other players are more playmakers and passers of the ball than midfield destroyers, this compares to Newcastle and Huddersfield who have many more of those players in the centre of the pitch. This gives more creative players more room than in the previous fixtures. Finally, Arsenal and Everton are not in great form, Arsenal are in a defensive shambles and they look fairly toothless going forward, Everton are in a similar form, probably slightly better defensively but not great.

Pep Roulette

So let’s talk rotation, there are 3 alternative options to Sterling, Bernardo Silva can play on the wing and of course Mahrez can also play there, however Mahrez certainly seems out of favour and Bilva’s best position is centrally, the 3rd option is to play 2 upfront with wing backs but with Mendy working he’s way back from injury and with pep rotating he’s 2 strikers this seems unlikely at the moment (but keep on Mendy news), I see Bilva as a potential realistic starting threat significant enough to rule Sterling out especially with my previous analysis of Sane outscoring Sterling recently.

Now let’s look at Sane, we know Pep thinks width on the left is important and therefore only one man can displace him…. Mendy, Mendy is working he’s way back from injury and in a tough game vs Arsenal I would say it is unlikely, the Everton fixture is possible but not certain, it would depend on Mendy’s fitness at the time but it is highly unlikely he plays the full 90 even if he was fit. Then we have to consider that sane and Mendy have started together on a number of occasions meaning he may not necessarily displace him. Then we have the final argument specific to sane, he is THE in form player for Man City and now being 5 pts behind their Merseyside rivals they NEED to win every game. Now some of you may point to the Chelsea game in gw26 as a possible cause of possible rotation in the Everton game, however Everton away is a tough enough fixture to not to be taken for granted.

The final point is both Sane and Sterling were rested in both cup games giving both players substantial breaks over the cup period and this is also comforting to Manchester City player owners.



The alternatives

Ok guys so if you think there are better alternatives than triple captaining a City player then let’s look at them but remember some of these DGW’s may not even happen because of cup results:

DGW32/35

The traditional wisdom is to Wildcard GW30, Free GW31 then use your chips GW32/35 but there is a problem with this, BGW33 follows directly after DGW32, transitioning from a DGW team to a BGW is problematic, yes of course you can use your Wildcard GW30 to maybe choose some BGW players but this will immediately impact the effectiveness of your DGW as a whole and you will be limited to which players you can pick.

OK so let’s look at the DGW32 & 35 fixtures:

DGW32

Spurs have Liverpool away as one of their fixtures so that is a full avoid, Both United and City play each other so again not great fixtures, that leaves Arsenal and Chelsea, Chelsea have Everton (A) (which if they are knocked out of the FA cup could become the Brighton game from GW27) and Cardiff away, good fixtures, now Arsenal have Wolves Away and Newcastle at home, again good fixtures (although I would give the edge to the Chelsea fixtures).

DGW35

Spurs and Man city play each other so that pretty much eliminates each other from the conversation, that leaves Chelsea and Man Utd, Chelsea have West Ham and Burnley at Home, great fixtures to be sure, Man Utd have solid fixtures in Wolves and Everton away.



OK so as we can see we have 3 clear options:

Lacazette/Aubameyang in DGW32

Hazard in DGW32/35

Rashford/Pogba DGW35



Firstly, as stated previously we don’t know which of these will happen, an Arsenal option in DGW32 seems like a decent option but you also have to consider that Arsenal hardly look great at the moment, Auba does not pass the eye test at the moment and he’s underlying stats are not that great recently. Lacazette’s mins can be restricted and there is the threat of Auba starting up front and Arsenal starting another midfielder (although unlikely right now transfers and form may change this).



Next we have Hazard, right now can any of us say that they could trust him enough to captain him? Let alone triple captain him, yes the fixtures are great but if you are in a team that at the moment is averaging 1 goal per game at the moment, I cannot consider you in this conversation.



Rashford/Pogba have a OK double in GW35 but both are away with Wolves currently on form at the moment, this I see as probably the best option as it does allow you to bench boost in GW32.



The Hazard Extra Double

There is a chance of Chelsea getting an additional DGW with Brighton + 1 other opponent at the end of the season but right now can any of us say that they trust a normal captaincy never mind a triple captaincy on Hazard, no of course not which is way as of now we cannot consider this as an option, in addition this is not even certain as Chelsea would have to reach the semis of the FA cup (which right now does not look likely).



Single game week

Of course you could triple captain Salah in a single game week but this is not ideal and waiting too long into the season with this runs the risk of possible champions league rotation affecting he’s service and mins.



Conclusion

You should seriously consider triple captaining Sane GW25, the alternatives are either weak, uncertain or compromise your GW33. There is no easy answer to this but I am personally highly likely to do so, the alternatives are extremely unappealing/risky and right now, yes triple captaining Sane has risks but I believe this is a calculated risk, comparing Sane to the alternatives right now I feel more confident in Sane as the correct option for me than the others, my GW33 squad will not be compromised and as I feel this is important then Sane is not just a gamble that may or may not come off as others may suggest, he is the logical choice. Overall triple captain is a risk when and who you play it on but from my perspective Sane should certainly be seriously considered.



The writer is a FPL enthusiast, you can follow him on twitter (@s_winyard).

