Best FPL Captain Picks Gameweek 4
Choosing the right captain can make or break a gameweek and even a season. You won’t get it right every time, but getting it right more often than not is the single biggest lever you have.
Below are the strongest captain options for Gameweek 4, ranked by our projected points. The order already accounts for how likely each player is to start — a forward who might be rested is worth less than his raw projection suggests, and the ranking reflects that.
Gameweek 4 Captain Pick
João PedroChelsea · HUL (H)Deadline Saturday 12 September at 12:30 · projections updated Saturday 5 September
Best FPL Captain Options for Gameweek 4
| # | Player | Fixture | Projected Points | To Start | Goal Odds | Assist Odds | Return Odds | Owned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  João Pedro | HUL (H) | 7.48.2 if he starts | 90% | 60% | 34% | 74% | 72.2% |
| 2 | Cole Palmer | HUL (H) | 6.97.7 if he starts | 90% | 49% | 27% | 63% | 21.8% |
| 3 | Morgan Rogers | HUL (H) | 6.87.6 if he starts | 90% | 45% | 32% | 63% | 28.0% |
| 4 |  Erling Haaland | MUN (a) | 6.37.0 if he starts | 90% | 55% | 19% | 63% | 71.2% |
| 5 |  Alexander Isak | FUL (H) | 6.06.7 if he starts | 90% | 50% | 20% | 60% | 20.1% |
| 6 |  Bukayo Saka | SUN (a) | 5.56.1 if he starts | 90% | 31% | 26% | 49% | 11.4% |
| 7 | Maxence Lacroix | HUL (H) | 5.46.0 if he starts | 90% | 15% | 15% | 28% | 8.2% |
| 8 | Antoine Semenyo | MUN (a) | 5.25.8 if he starts | 80% | 33% | 24% | 49% | 18.2% |
| 9 | Dominik Szoboszlai | FUL (H) | 5.25.7 if he starts | 90% | 28% | 28% | 48% | 38.7% |
| 10 | Cody Gakpo | FUL (H) | 5.16.4 if he starts | 80% | 36% | 24% | 52% | 13.9% |
Odds are subject to change and update through the week. Every player’s projection is on our FPL points predictor.
How the ranking works
The order is our projected points weighted by how likely each player is to start. That matters more than it sounds: a forward projected at eight who only starts half the time is worth less as a captain than one projected at seven who always plays.
Where the two figures differ meaningfully, the table shows both — the weighted projection it ranks on, and what the player would be worth if he definitely started. A large gap between them is rotation risk, and it is usually the thing worth thinking hardest about.
The goal, assist and return percentages come from published market odds rather than being calculated by us, so nothing about them is coloured by what we expect. They assume the player starts. Our projection is what we expect once the chance of starting is factored in — and where the two disagree is often the interesting part.
If you are torn between two options, the higher-listed player is the better pick on the numbers. That is not the same as the safer pick — see below.
Captain points matter more than anything
Roughly a quarter of your total points across a season come from the armband, and in some seasons closer to a third. No other single decision you make each week has that kind of leverage.
It cuts both ways, though. Captaining a heavily owned player who hauls gains you nothing on the field; captaining a differential who hauls gains you thousands of places. Our effective ownership data shows how exposed you actually are, and the most captained table shows what the top 10k are doing.
Don’t forget your vice captain
If your captain plays no minutes, your vice captain gets the double instead. Most weeks this never comes up, which is exactly why people leave it on whoever happens to be second in their squad.
Two things make it worth thirty seconds. Late team news has become more common, so a captain being withdrawn in the warm-up is a real risk. And if a fixture is postponed at short notice, a vice captain from the same match is no use at all — pick one from a different game.
Our predicted lineups are updated as team news lands, and are the quickest way to check both before the deadline.
How good are your captain picks?
You can see how your own choices have fared against the average manager, gameweek by gameweek, with our FPL captain picks analyser. Enter your team ID and it shows every armband decision you have made this season and what it was worth.