FPL GW35 Captain Picks: Who to Captain This Gameweek
GW35 captain picks with Salah ruled out for the season. The Haaland case, the Bruno case, and two differentials worth the swing.
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GW35 deadline: Friday 1 May 2026, 18:30 BST. Already locked, so this guide is also a reference for repeating the same template logic in GW36 and beyond. Assumptions: Mohamed Salah confirmed out with a muscle injury, expected back 24 May (post-season). Treat any squad still listing Salah as captain by default as broken.
The headline for GW35 is what isn’t on your captaincy shortlist. Salah, the safest armband in the game for two seasons running, is ruled out with a muscle injury and not expected back until 24 May. That’s after the final whistle of GW38. If you owned him, you’ve already played GW34 with someone else on the armband and you’re now choosing your next four captains from a thinner pool.
The good news: GW35 has a clean captaincy hierarchy if you read fixtures correctly. The bad news: the obvious pick is also the most owned, and the differential window is narrow because everyone knows the template is broken.
The short version
Captain Haaland over Bruno because the Etihad fixture profile is softer and Haaland’s shot volume floor is higher. Differentials are a Crystal Palace asset against a brittle backline, and a Forest forward riding a four-game scoring streak. Avoid Liverpool attackers and any Newcastle asset against Chelsea.
Captain Pick 1: Erling Haaland (FWD, £14.6m)
Projected: 7.60 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.86, xA 0.09, pStart 78% Form: 24 goals, 7 assists, 212 points on the season
Haaland leads the GW35 forward projections by a clear margin. The model has him at 7.60 expected points with an 0.86 xG, which is the kind of single-fixture shot quality that puts a 13+ haul firmly in the distribution. His season form has dipped to 3.8, but the underlying numbers are unchanged: 116 shots, 25.88 xG, and 6.8 home points per game. When City play at the Etihad with three points still meaningful, he is the captain.
The risk is rotation. Pep has openly said he’ll manage minutes with European football already settled, and Haaland’s pStart of 78% is lower than you’d want from a captain. Check the Friday presser. If he starts, he’s the pick.
Why not Salah: He’s injured. This is no longer a debate.
Captain Pick 2: Bruno Fernandes (MID, £10.4m)
Projected: 7.39 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.36, xA 0.58, pStart 84% Fixture: Manchester United vs Tottenham (H), implied xG 1.71
Bruno is the safer captain if you’re protecting rank. His 7.39 projected points is just behind Haaland but with a starting probability of 84%, which is meaningfully higher in a week where rotation is the dominant variable. The xA of 0.58 is the highest of any midfielder in the model, and his combined xG+xA of 0.94 is the second highest single-fixture creative load this week.
The fixture is the cleanest part of the case. Spurs at Old Trafford with implied home xG of 1.71 is the second-best home scoring environment in the GW. United are 1.60 to win, which means around 60% probability, and a Bruno haul is highly correlated with a comfortable home win.
Why pick him over Haaland: If you lost Salah late and your team has no MCI cover, Bruno is the closer match for what your captain was supposed to do.
Captain Pick 3: Cole Palmer (MID, £10.5m)
Projected: 2.72 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.14, xA 0.10 Form: 1.5
Listed third because the projection is genuinely poor and you should think hard before backing him. Palmer was a default captain six weeks ago. His season xG is 8.87 and xA 1.97, but the form line has collapsed: nine goals, two assists, and a price falling fast (net transfers minus 3,879 high). The model now rates him at 2.72 pts for GW35, which is bench fodder for a £10.5m asset.
Captain Palmer only if you’re 50,000+ ranks behind your mini-league leader and need a swing. Even then, there are better differentials below.
Differential 1: Jean-Philippe Mateta (FWD, £7.6m)
Projected: 5.35 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.34, xA 0.02, pStart 30% Set-pieces: Crystal Palace #1 penalty taker
A genuine differential. Mateta’s GW35 projection (2.54 pts on its own fixture) understates the upside because the model marks him at 30% pStart, which assumes Glasner rotates ahead of the FA Cup final preparation. If Mateta starts, his xG of 0.34 plus penalty duty puts him in 8+ point territory in a winnable home fixture. Crystal Palace are also rising in the price market (net transfers high).
Captain Mateta only if you’ve confirmed he starts from Friday team news. Otherwise, he’s a non-starter risk you can’t afford on the armband.
Differential 2: Morgan Gibbs-White (MID, £7.6m)
Projected: 4.46 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.22, xA 0.03, pStart 75%
Forest’s Gibbs-White is rising fast (net transfers 3,830 high) and the model rates his GW35 fixture at 3.50 pts on the back of 0.125 xG and a clean bonus floor. The bigger reason to consider him is the run that follows: 4.46 in GW36, 5.29 in GW37, 5.51 in GW38. He’s a captaincy floor for a four-week window, not just GW35.
For GW35 specifically, treat him as a punt only if you’ve already locked the rest of your team’s pick and need a sub-15% owned alternative.
Captains to avoid
Any Liverpool attacker. With Salah out, Wirtz (3.42 projected), Ekitiké (price falling, net transfers minus 3,760), and Szoboszlai (3.42 projected, price falling) are all bad captain bets. Liverpool’s xG remains strong as a team but the individual creative output without Salah hasn’t redistributed cleanly.
Anyone from Newcastle. Gordon carries a 75% chance of playing tag (hip injury) and Isak’s underlying numbers since arriving at Liverpool have been thin (3.25 xG in his Liverpool stint, no home advantage in the data). The Newcastle attack against Chelsea is a coin flip for both clean sheet and goals.
Presser watch
The single deadline check for GW35 is Pep on Haaland minutes. If Pep signals rotation, drop to Bruno. If Haaland is confirmed, captain him with no hesitation. The Friday Crystal Palace team news matters only if you’re seriously considering Mateta as a swing pick.
Bottom line
Captain Haaland if he starts, Bruno if Pep telegraphs rotation. Mateta and Gibbs-White are real differentials but only with confirmed minutes. Salah is out for the season, plan accordingly.
For the transfer side of the same problem, see our GW35 transfer watchlist and the broader four-week strategy in FPL rank recovery: how to climb in the final 4 gameweeks. The GW34 captain picks is the previous deadline’s read if you want the lineage on Bruno and Semenyo as captaincy options. If you’re saving a Triple Captain for the City DGW in GW36 or the season-closer, our Triple Captain guide for the final gameweeks walks through the math, and the bench boost chip guide covers the other half of the chip stack.
Load your squad into FPL Pilot to get a captain rec ranked against your actual fixture list.
Projections from FPL Pilot model based on production data as of 2 May 2026. Salah injury status confirmed via FPL API. Rotation risk assessed against pStart probability and recent press conferences.
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