FPL GW37 Captain Picks: The Penultimate Setup for GW38

GW37 deadline: Sunday 17 May 2026, 11:00 BST. Assumptions: Salah out for the season. City DGW already played in GW36, with most chips spent there. Free transfer for GW37 is best understood as setup for the GW38 chip play, not a standalone improvement.

GW37 is the strangest captaincy week of the run-in. The City double is behind us, the GW38 chip-play (Bench Boost or a saved Triple Captain) is one week ahead, and most managers go into this week with a free transfer they’re trying to use without breaking the squad they need next week. The captaincy decision tracks the same logic: pick the highest-floor option who plays, ignore the differential temptation, and save your variance for GW38.

The short version

Captain Bruno Fernandes on the model number (6.08 vs Haaland’s 3.37), Haaland if you don’t own Bruno and his minutes profile holds, Gibbs-White as the differential pick rising into form. Avoid Crystal Palace and Liverpool attackers in this specific GW. Don’t play your Triple Captain here unless you’ve already burned every other chip.

Captain Pick 1: Erling Haaland (FWD, £14.6m)

Projected: 3.37 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.32, xA 0.03, pStart 78%

Haaland’s GW37 projection drops to 3.37 because the model bakes in a tougher fixture context than GW35 or GW36, but the underlying floor is intact: pStart 78%, xG 0.32, and the bonus profile that historically delivers a 6+ score even on weaker shot weeks. He remains the highest-projected captaincy floor for owners who don’t want variance.

The risk is the same as every City week now: Pep rotation. If you owned Haaland for the GW36 DGW, the question for GW37 is whether you trust him for one more start. If you do, captain him. If you don’t, drop down.

Captain Pick 2: Bruno Fernandes (MID, £10.4m)

Projected: 6.08 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.29, xA 0.43, pStart 84%

Bruno actually overtakes Haaland in the GW37 projection (6.08 vs 3.37). The fixture is a softer matchup with implied home xG above 1.5, and Bruno’s combined xG+xA of 0.72 is the second-highest creative load in the GW. His pStart of 84% is the captaincy stability you want in a week where every other premium has rotation noise.

If you only have one of Haaland or Bruno in your team, captain whichever you own. If you have both, captain Bruno on the model number alone.

Captain Pick 3: Morgan Gibbs-White (MID, £7.6m)

Projected: 5.29 pts (model) Underlying: xG 0.30, xA 0.04, pStart 75%

Gibbs-White’s projection is climbing through the run-in: 3.50 in GW35, 4.46 in GW36, 5.29 in GW37, 5.51 in GW38. The xG of 0.30 in GW37 is striker-tier shot quality from a £7.6m midfielder, and his pStart of 75% is reasonable for the price. He’s also a price riser (net transfers in 3,830 high), which means owning him by GW37 is a meaningful price-equity advantage over the rest of the run-in.

Captain Gibbs-White if you’re chasing rank and the top-two are widely owned in your mini-league. Otherwise, treat him as an essential differential pick rather than a captaincy bet.

Differentials worth a look

Kevin Schade or Igor Thiago (Brentford) if their fixture lands as one of the better attacking matchups (verify on day). Brentford’s expected goals across the run-in trend toward attacking returns, and Thiago is the locked penalty taker.

A Brighton midfielder like Hinshelwood (4.44 projected GW36) if his minutes hold steady. The xG of 0.41 in his last reported projection is striker-grade, and at sub-£5.5m he sits in the differential band.

These are not first-choice captains. They’re the rank-swing levers if you’ve already spent your premium budget elsewhere.

Captains to avoid

Crystal Palace attackers (Mateta, Sarr, Eze). GW37 doesn’t include the home matchup that made them differential captains in GW36. Mateta’s projection drops to 2.65 single-fixture, Sarr to 0.79 (rotation-heavy). Without the DGW context, the underlying numbers don’t justify the armband.

Cole Palmer. GW37 projected 2.35 pts, form 1.5. Not a captain.

Anyone in a coin-flip fixture. GW37 has more than usual: Tottenham vs Newcastle, Wolves vs Tottenham, Everton vs Chelsea. Stay away from any captain whose fixture has implied scoring xG below 1.4 on either side.

The chip question

GW37 is not the chip week. GW38 is a single gameweek for every club this season, but it remains the season-closer with maximum captaincy variance, so it is still the right home for a saved Triple Captain or Bench Boost if your team is built for it. The DGW36 chip play has already passed.

Burn a chip in GW37 only if you have two unspent and the GW38 deadline is too close to your free transfer to make the second chip viable.

Presser watch

Two checks before the deadline. First, Pep on Haaland minutes one more time. If the rotation pattern from GW36 continues, your Haaland captaincy is a lower-floor punt. Second, Forest on Gibbs-White workload. He’s been the engine of their attack and any minute concerns drop him from differential to skip.

Bottom line

Captain Haaland if his minutes hold, Bruno if you want the model-leading floor, Gibbs-White if you need the swing. Save your chips for GW38, use your free transfer to set up that chip play, and don’t reach for differentials this week unless your rank position requires it.

For the transfer side of the GW37 setup, see our GW36 transfer watchlist which covers the moves you should be making this week. The GW35 captaincy notes cover where the Haaland-vs-Bruno math first opened up after Salah went out. The framework for the chip stack is in our Triple Captain final gameweeks guide and the Bench Boost chip guide. Rank-recovery context across the full run-in is in final 4 gameweeks rank recovery. And if GW38 is your true chip target, the GW38 single-gameweek preview is the post to read once it lands.

Load your squad into FPL Pilot to get a captain rec ranked against your actual GW37 fixture list.

GW37 projections are forward-looking from the FPL Pilot model based on production data as of 2 May 2026. Calls assume current injury status (notably Salah ruled out) and Pep rotation patterns hold. Verify the deadline, the team news, and any late-week injury updates.