Tottenham Hotspur duo Harry Kane (£12.5m) and Son Heung-min (£10.9m) are the standout captaincy candidates in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 32, ahead of their trip to Villa Park on Saturday evening.
However, given Everton’s underperformance under Frank Lampard, is there a case to be made for Bruno Fernandes (£11.6m) or Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.2m)?
And there may be other viable alternatives, too, including Mohamed Salah (£13.3m) and Bukayo Saka (£6.8m).
First, we will assess the fallout of the captain poll, before then analysing the best options, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Friday’s 18:30 GMT deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
Harry Kane is the leader of the captain poll in Gameweek 32 ahead of his visit to the Midlands, with 40.31% of total votes from our users at the time of writing.
Team-mate Son Heung-min is in second place, backed by 16.73%.
Mohamed Salah occupies third place with 8.59%, followed by Bukayo Saka and Bruno Fernandes with 7.77% and 7.4% respectively.
HARRY KANE/SON HEUNG-MIN
Harry Kane wasn’t on the scoresheet in last weekend’s 5-1 win over Newcastle United but did provide an assist for Matt Doherty (£4.9m) which put Spurs in front early in the second half. He was also absolutely integral to their performance, which Antonio Conte alluded to following full-time.
After a slow start to the campaign, the England captain has now racked up 12 attacking returns in his last eight matches and has been involved in a whopping 18 Opta-defined ‘big chances’ (11 of his own, seven created for others) in that time. Whether popping up in the box to finish off moves or creating opportunities from deep, Kane seems to be heavily involved week-in, week-out these days.
As for Son, his attacking play over the last two games shows that whatever mini-slump he had is a thing of the past. The South Korean has five goals and one assist in his last six Premier League outings, and probably would have scored a hat-trick in Gameweek 31 with a little more composure. However, he has now reached 20 goal contributions in each of the last six Premier League seasons, while this campaign is shaping up to be his most productive yet.
At home, Son has scored nine goals in his last nine top-flight appearances, while his overall tally of 11 is the most of any player. On the road, however, there have been suggestions that he struggles. In terms of actual returns this season, it’s hard to dispute that theory, with just three of his 14 Premier League strikes arriving away from home, but when examining the key recent underlying numbers, there isn’t a huge disparity.
SON – LAST SIX MATCHES HOME/AWAY
| Home | Away | |
| Minutes | 502 | 517 |
| Goals | 6 | 1 |
| Assists | 1 | 3 |
| FPL points | 51 | 32 |
| xG | 3.44 | 2.14 |
| xA | 1.17 | 1.56 |
| xGI | 4.61 | 3.70 |
| xGI delta | +2.39 | +0.30 |
It’s also worth noting that Son has only taken three additional shots in the box at home in that time, while his touches and passes received in the final third are largely the same.
Now, in an attempt to distinguish the best Gameweek 32 captain, here are Son and Kane’s numbers on the road across the last six matches.
2 years, 8 months agoLeicester XI v PSV: Schmeichel, Ricardo, Evans, Fofana, Castagne, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Albrighton, Maddison, Barnes, Iheanacho
Leicester Subs: Jakupović, Justin, Vestergaard, Amartey, Thomas, Choudhury, Braybrooke, Marçal-Madivadua, Lookman, Daka
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West Ham XI v Lyon: Areola, Fredericks, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Antonio
West Ham Subs: Fabianski, Coufal, Yarmolenko, Vlasic, Noble, Diop, Masuaku, Johnson, Král, Randolph, Alese, Perkins