The FPL Banger boys return with their latest set of Fantasy Premier League tips for Gameweek 16, once again opting to hand the captaincy to ever-impressive Chelsea star Cole Palmer.
FPL Banger’s Gameweek 16 Tips
Welcome back to our Fantasy Premier League series for the 2024/25 season, provided by Siva & Sam, the twisted minds behind the weekly FPL Banger Podcast.
All the talk this week has been about the new Assistant Manager Chip, but we’ll discuss how to best use that chip closer to GW24 when it becomes available.
BEST CAPTAIN
Cole Palmer (£11.1m) – Fixture: Brentford (H)
Captaincy feels genuinely difficult this week.
You could make a viable case for captaining any one of Palmer, Salah, Saka and even Isak this week. In fact all of the teams playing at home in GW16 are teams with good FPL picks, except for Southampton. And Man City of course.
At the start of the week, I had the armband on Mohamed Salah. He’s been unbelievably consistent, blanking only twice all season including returning 6 double digit hauls in the last 7 gameweeks. And as impressive as Fulham were in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal last week, the Cottagers will come into this game without 2 of their starting center backs, as Calvin Bassey is suspended and Joachim Andersen remains injured.
However there are a couple of factors that sway me towards Palmer.
Unlike Salah, Palmer (and basically the entire Chelsea starting XI) were rested midweek. Brentford have a much worse defensive record compared to Fulham, conceding 28 goals all season (the joint 4th worst in the league). And Brentford have lost 6 out of their 7 away games, conceding at least 2 goals in all of those defeats.
In short, it’s close. Very close. But I’m sticking with (C)ole.
TOP PICKS
David Raya (£5.6m) – Fixture: Everton (H)
Predicting which goalkeeper might actually score some FPL points ironically feels quite pointless. Teams just don’t keep clean sheets at the moment, with just 1 single clean sheet in GW15.
That being said, I’m backing David Raya to re-discover his early season form this week as Everton travel to the Emirates Stadium. Having Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the opposing team has got to improve your clean sheet potential by at least 20%.
Joe Gomez (£4.9m) – Fixture: Fulham (H)
A more superstitious person than me might be scared to select a Liverpool center back.
At the start of the season, Quansah was the hot property, until he was hauled off 45 minutes into GW1. Next it was Ibou Konate, until he picked up an injury in the Champions League. Joe Gomez is the latest candidate to step into this position, but I don’t think past events should cloud anyone’s judgment here.
Gomez is the cheapest route into what is probably the best defence in the league. With no return date for Konate in sight and a very favourable fixture run for Liverpool, let go of your fear. Let’s Go. Mez.
Brennan Johnson (£6.7m) – Fixture: Southampton (A)
We did select Jarrod Bowen in this slot last week and he didn’t disappoint.
Speaking of disappointment though, Tottenham.
Spurs’ season reached a new low this week as they lost at Bournemouth, blew a 2-0 lead against Chelsea and drew 1-1 at Rangers. Ange is on the brink and a failure to win at Saints might just be the end of him. With that in mind, I expect him to go all out and as bad as Spurs have been, scoring goals has not been a problem for Brennan Johnson.
Southampton will also be without Jack Stephens and Jan Bednarek, not to mention Aaron Ramsdale who is still injured. I’m backing Johnson to save Ange for another week.
Alexander Isak (£8.6m) – Fixture: Leicester (H)
Much has been made of Leicester’s uptick in form since the arrival of Ruud van Nistelrooy. A 3-1 win against West Ham was followed by a thrilling 2-2 comeback against Brighton as Jamie Vardy rolled back the years with a goal and assist in the last 5 minutes.
However the Foxes’ defence still looks leaky as they conceded 4.64 xG in these 2 games – no surprise when your starting 2 center backs are Jannik Vestergaard and Connor Coady. All this bodes well for Alexander Isak, with 2 goals and an assist in his last 2 games.
In what I am sure is a massive shock to everyone, Callum Wilson is injured again which means that Isak will play the full 90 minutes in his preferred no.9 role. With no midweek European action for the Magpies this season, I think business is about to pick up.
Thanks for reading the article in this new series for Sportscasting. Be sure to follow @FPL_Banger for more FPL tips and hints including their weekly podcast and team reveals.
