Should FPL managers Triple-Captain Haaland in Gameweek 2?

Erling Haaland’s (£15.0m) home match against Ipswich Town has persuaded many managers in Fantasy Premier League to play their Triple Captain chip. 

More than 400,000 have activated the chip, which triples your captain's points instead of doubles, and can only be played once all season, for Gameweek 2, with the vast majority expected to play it on the Manchester City forward in his first home outing of 2024/25.

See: More information on Triple Captain chip

Notably, last season the promoted clubs suffered immediate relegation due to their poor defensive displays, conceding more goals than any other sides.

Assessing Haaland’s displays against those sides – Burnley, Luton Town and Sheffield United – clearly highlights his huge goal threat.

Per 90 minutes against promoted clubs in 2023/24, he averaged 6.33 shots in the box and 2.67 big chances – more than any other player with 200+ minutes in such matches. 

While Alexander Isak (£8.5m) pushed the Norwegian closest on 2.39 big chances per 90 minutes, the rest of the big-hitters fared very poorly. 

Indeed, Haaland’s shots in the box and big chances per 90 minutes against promoted clubs were more than TWICE the totals of Cole Palmer (£10.5m), Kai Havertz (£8.0m), Mohamed Salah (£12.5m), Bukayo Saka (£10.0m), Son Heung-min (£10.0m) and Phil Foden (£9.5m).

Furthermore, the Man City forward’s 2.67 big chances per 90 minutes matched the COMBINED TOTAL of Palmer, Salah, Son, Saka and Foden.

Big-hitters v promoted clubs 23/24

Essentially, then, if you’re going to consider Triple-Captaining a big-hitter against a promoted club, Haaland offers the greatest goal threat by some margin. 

Haaland's displays over the opening Gameweeks of last season offer further encouragement. He delivered his second-best score of the season in his second home match, earning 20 points thanks to three goals and an assist against Fulham in Gameweek 4. 

Haaland’s relatively low ownership of 53 per cent could be another factor in his favour. 

Last season, for example, he was typically selected by over 70 per cent of managers each Gameweek, so if you Triple-Captained him and he produced a big haul, the impact on your overall ranking wouldn't have been too significant due to his huge popularity.

However, with nearly half of the 9.3million managers this season NOT currently owning him, Triple-Captaining Haaland could be a very powerful tactic in driving you up the rankings.

Whether you should play a chip so early in the season is another matter entirely, as you could keep it until later in the season when a small number of Double Gameweeks are expected.

Having patience and waiting until a player has TWO matches in a Gameweek has typically been the preferred tactic, although it's worth noting there are likely to be fewer bumper Double Gameweeks in 2024/25 due to changes to the FA Cup schedule.

Best alternatives to Haaland

By assessing the per-90 minutes statistics across all home matches last season, Liverpool pair Salah and Diogo Jota (£7.5m) look the best alternatives to Haaland for the Gameweek 2 captaincy.

Haaland's 4.6 shots in the box and 1.65 big chances were both league-high totals in such contests in 2023/24.

However, Salah’s 1.60 big chances pushed the Norwegian closest of any player in home matches. Jota - who played as a centre-forward in Arne Slot's first match in charge in Gameweek 1 - averaged 3.97 shots in the box to rank third among all players. 

Son’s numbers ahead of Spurs’ home encounter with Everton are far less convincing, with his 0.48 goals per 90 being more or less HALF the 0.95 of Jota.

When that factor is combined with Arsenal’s tricky trip to Aston Villa and Palmer’s lack of form, the list of genuine contenders is narrowed down to Salah and Jota as the ones who look the likeliest to rival Haaland for goal threat in Gameweek 2.

Home matches 23/24