Fantasy Premier League

FPL experts: Is it time to stop captaining Haaland?

10 Oct 2023
Haaland Salah lead image

Some of the world's top managers on who they will hand the armband to over the next five Gameweeks

Related Articles
FPL Pod: Should you sell single Gameweek players?
Is it no longer essential to own Haaland in Fantasy?
FPL team news and player injury updates

The Scout's panel of Fantasy Premier League experts give their thoughts on Erling Haaland (£14.0m) and how often they plan to captain the Manchester City star following his back-to-back blanks and ahead of a mixed run of fixtures.

Pranil Sheth (@Lateriser12)

Haaland is definitely a good captaincy option but perhaps not an autopick. Despite his recent form, he's still capable of producing multiple returns in any match. I'm captaining him against Brighton & Hove Albion and AFC Bournemouth and looking at Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) or Son Heung-min (£9.5m) as alternatives in the other weeks.

See: Is it no longer essential to own Haaland in Fantasy?

Utkarsh Dalmia (@ZopharFPL)

I still plan to captain Haaland in two of the next five Gameweeks - against Brighton and Bournemouth. Salah has great fixtures in the other three Gameweeks and he will be getting the armband then.

Haaland and Salah's next five fixtures
Player GW9 GW10 GW11 GW12 GW13
Haaland BHA (H) MUN (A) BOU (H) CHE (A) LIV (H)
Salah EVE (H) NFO (H) LUT (A) BRE (H) MCI (A)
Sam Bonfield (@FPLFamily)

In the eight Gameweeks so far, I have moved the armband away from Haaland three times already, captaining Salah twice and James Maddison (£8.1m) once. Over the next 10 Gameweeks, I can only see myself captaining Haaland on three occasions.

FPL experts' captain choices GW9-13
Expert GW9 GW10 GW11 GW12 GW13
Pranil Sheth Haaland Salah Haaland Salah Son
Utkarsh Dalmia Haaland Salah Haaland Saka or Salah Salah
Sam Bonfield Haaland or Son Salah Haaland Saka Saka
Ben Crabtree Son Salah Haaland Saka Saka
Nick Harris Son Salah Haaland Saka Son
Pras Haaland Salah Haaland Salah Haaland
Ben Crabtree (@FC_CrabDogg)

I have mixed the captaincy up so far, but have had little success with the alternatives. Given fixtures and form, I will continue to look at Son for the armband while Bukayo Saka (£8.6m), providing he returns from injury soon, has some great fixtures coming up too.

Nick Harris (@WGTA_Nick)

Haaland is still a strong option, but it should never be the case that he is just auto-captained without consideration for alternatives each week.

Pras (@Pras_FPL)

If there is a fixture where there is a viable alternative, such as in Gameweek 8, then on a case-by-case basis, you can look elsewhere. Haaland on merit is still the best captain in most weeks, though. 

View all the latest FPL tips ahead of Gameweek 9 in Fantasy Premier League

Latest Videos

More Videos