I suggested making Sophia Smith your Round 1 captain before the season started, and that was one of about two total recommendations that I got right in my season preview article. Smith started the season on a tear, logging 82 points through the first four weeks. She was captained by over 40.9% of all FNWSL managers in Round 7. This is one of the highest percentages we’ve ever seen in FNWSL and rightfully so – she’s the most prolific goal scorer on the league’s most prolific offense. For context, the next three most popular captain picks in Round 7 were Lynn Williams (8.3%), Alex Morgan (7.4%), and Trinity Rodman (3.9%). Look for Smith to be a popular captain choice again in Round 8 with an enticing home game against Chicago.
But is Smith still an every-week lock for captain? She’s averaged only five fantasy points over the last three rounds and hasn’t scored a goal since the international break. If you are looking for a little more consistency in your captain, there are five players that have scored double-digit fantasy points in each of the last three weeks: Lynn Williams, Kylie Strom, Megan Rapinoe, Trinity Rodman, and Hailie Mace. Considering their goal scoring potential, you could definitely justify giving the armband to Williams or Rodman – with less competition for goals, I’d lean towards Williams. Rapinoe may not be getting enough minutes to justify the armband, as she didn’t get a full 90 until last week.
The two defenders, Strom and Mace, are both interesting differential options. In fact, both were captained by only a single FNWSL manager in Round 7 (send me a tweet @MansersAnswers if that was you)! Between these two, I’d lean towards Mace. While classified as a DF for FNWSL, she generally plays left midfielder for Kansas City and has been leading the team in chances created – a valuable combination considering she’ll also get clean sheet points. Strom has a more difficult matchup this week – home to Washington – but is probably the most differential captain you could select this week (her success in the Orlando back line is the other thing I got right in the pre-season).
Personally, I’m going to stick with Smith this week considering the matchup. However, it does seem that other captains are worth consideration moving forward. Lynn Williams is probably the best long-term option – and even though she passed Smith as the highest-scoring player in FNWSL last week, she was still captained by less than 10% of managers. Williams does have a difficult matchup this week in what may be the NWSL’s game of the week: Gotham visiting OL Reign on Sunday afternoon. So if you really want to go differential this week, choose one of the Washington FWs on the road in Florida: probably Rodman or Ashley Hatch, who was only captained by 0.7% of managers in Round 7.
Who are you captaining this week? Comment or tweet @MansersAnswers!