Season Verdict
Haaland or Bruno again, and who sits out?
The same captaincy dilemma a week later, plus a bench call between two midfielders.
Published · Updated with result
Flipped before the GW2 deadline with a coin app, before FPL Shrine existed. Each call was flipped once and never re-rolled, and the screenshots below are the originals.
A week on, the armband question hadn't gone away. Haaland was away at Crystal Palace, Bruno at home to Ipswich, and after both scored 2 in GW1 nobody felt sure of anything. We also had a midfield spot to fill: Pascal Groß or Mamadou Sangaré. Two flips.
Flip 1 · CaptainHaaland or Bruno, round two
The dilemma
Same two names, new fixtures. Haaland (£15.5m) went to Crystal Palace. Bruno (£12.0m) had Ipswich, another promoted side, at home.
The case for Haaland
- He got the best chances against Bournemouth in GW1, even while blanking.
- He was in more than 6.7 million teams, so captaining anyone else was the riskier move for your rank.
The case for Bruno
- A home game against a promoted side.
- Fantasy Football Fix projected Bruno 7.6 points and Haaland 6.0.
The doubt: he had almost no shots in the box at Hull in GW1.
Why it was genuinely 50/50
The polls had swung towards Bruno (37% to 26% in AllAboutFPL's) and the models agreed. But his GW1 numbers were thin, and Haaland is Haaland. Enough doubt on both sides to leave us stuck.
The flip
The coin said Bruno
What happened
Bruno scored a hat-trick and added an assist in a 5–2 win: 23 points, the biggest single-match haul of his FPL career. Haaland scored twice in a 4–1 win at Palace with maximum bonus for 13. A good score, just not 23.
| Option | GW2 points | As captain |
|---|---|---|
| Bruno Fernandes (coin's pick) | 23 | 46 |
| Haaland | 13 | 26 |
The coin's pick beat the other option by 20 captain points.
Flip 2 · BenchGroß or Sangaré?
The dilemma
Two midfielders, one place in the team. Groß (Brighton, £5.5m) was away at Chelsea. Mamadou Sangaré (Brentford, £5.6m) was away at Leeds. We flipped for the one to bench.
The case for starting Groß
- Brighton opened with a 4–0 win over Aston Villa and had the top two scorers of GW1: De Cuyper (17) and Hinshelwood (16).
- He was in 1.27 million teams, against 0.9 million for Sangaré.
The case for starting Sangaré
- He scored 14 in GW1, with two assists and a clean sheet against Spurs. We only got them thanks to the Bench Boost.
- Groß managed 2 points in that 4–0.
Why it was genuinely 50/50
One had the points, the other had the team in form. We couldn't split them.
The flip
The coin said bench Groß
What happened
Groß scored and assisted in a 4–3 defeat at Chelsea: 13 points, all of them on our bench. Sangaré played 90 minutes at Leeds for 4.
| Option | GW2 points |
|---|---|
| Groß (benched by the coin) | 13 |
| Mamadou Sangaré (started) | 4 |
The player the coin benched outscored the starter by 9.
What some well-known managers did
All five captained Bruno, so the coin landed where the experts did. FPL Mate, who had held the Bench Boost back a week, had the big score.
| Manager | Chip | Captain | GW2 points |
|---|---|---|---|
| FPL Mate | Bench Boost | Bruno | 150 |
| Ben Crellin | None | Bruno | 115 |
| Let's Talk FPL | None | Bruno | 112 |
| Pras | None | Bruno | 111 |
| FPL Focal | None | Bruno | 107 |
From public FPL team data. Links open X in a new tab. These managers have no connection with FPL Shrine and are mentioned for comparison only.
GW2 in summary
- 101Our GW2 points
- 81FPL average
- 255,722Our overall rank
101 points and our rank still slipped from 201,604, because it was a high-scoring week everywhere. The captaincy flip landed; the bench flip left 13 points sitting next to the subs. Calafiori (11) and Haaland (13) helped in the starting XI.
The Coin's record
- 1Right
- 1Wrong
- 1Level
- 1Long-term calls
After GW2. A head-to-head flip counts as right if the coin's pick outscored the other option, wrong if not, and level if they tied. For a bench call, the coin's pick is the player it benched, so it's right if that player scored less. Long-term calls (chip timing, and squad moves like which keeper to keep) play out over weeks, so we report what they've returned but leave them out of the right-or-wrong count. All GW1 to GW5 flips are pre-launch. See every Verdict.
More Verdicts
Sources
- Official FPL data: fixtures, player points, prices, ownership, our team's and the managers' public team data, chip counts and averages.
- Top FPL Gameweek 2 captain picks (AllAboutFPL)
- FPL Gameweek 2 captaincy (Fantasy Football Fix)
- Brighton FPL Gameweek 2: De Cuyper offers massive returns (We Are Brighton)
- Premier League Team of the Week: Gameweek 2 (Chase Your Sport)