Mohamed Salah leaves it uncomfortably late to deliver yet more returns for his huge Fantasy Premier League (FPL) ownership and an equally large section of managers who hand him the armband.
It wasn’t quite 83 minutes of hell for Salah’s 3.6 million owners, but after the perfect storm of his Gameweek 31 four-goal romp against Watford, the Liverpool midfielder’s late winner at Crystal Palace in Saturday’s early kick-off was more a matter of relief than rejoicing.
More than two million – 34.4% of all FPL managers – backed him with the captaincy and were rewarded with a seven-point haul in the 2-1 win, although he missed out on bonus for the fifth time in six Gameweeks.
With Wildcards now to the fore and Liverpool without a Double Gameweek for the run-in, captaining the Egyptian is not necessarily the fire and forget option of recent weeks.
But his consistency remains staggering. He’s now scored or assisted in 23 of his 29 starts and in seven of his last eight Gameweeks, scoring 11 times.
Salah’s ownership continues to rise despite that lack of a double-header to come, with sales of Liverpool assets concentrated elsewhere.
Sadio Mane was jettisoned by 50,000+ going into Gameweek 32, only for the midfielder to score Liverpool’s equaliser and extend a run of returns to five straight matches (three goals, three assists).
That ended up benefitting a relatively modest number of FPL managers – Mane is owned by a mere 11.1% – whereas Roberto Firmino’s blank stung the 48.8% owners who have made him the most popular forward in the game.
The Brazilian fired six shots at Selhurst Park, a joint hight for the Gameweek. But he has just one goal and an assist from the last four Gameweeks – Liverpool have scored ten in that time – and the 62,000+ who sold him going into the weekend might well be the start of a more concerted exodus. Firmino is currently second only to the injured Sergio Aguero for sales.
The Reds’ Champions League quarter-final tie with Man City on Wednesday was presumably behind Mane’s 63rd-minute withdrawal, although a booking for a first-half “dive” also played its part.
But his replacement, Adam Lallana, lasted just five minutes before going off with a thigh muscle problem that lessens coach Jurgen Klopp’s rotation options among his attacking players.
The Liverpool boss was not optimistic on Lallana’s injury post-match.
“I haven’t spoken with him but I saw him. It’s absolutely bad. We don’t know exactly what he has, but in the first moment and then I saw him going down it looked really serious, to be honest.”
Whether that keeps Liverpool’s front three starting for the foreseeable future remains to be seen, but with a Merseyside derby sandwiching the two legs of their European tie with City, rotation is probably a decision Klopp will leave for Gamweek 34’s visit from Bournemouth.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, as expected, replaced the injured Joe Gomez at right-back today, with the fit-again Nathaniel Clyne on the bench, while James Milner came in for Emre Can and provided an assist as the German international missed out with a back problem.
One player seemingly immune from rotation is left-back Andrew Robertson and he marked his tenth straight league start with another fine return.
Luka Milivojevic’s penalty denied the Scottish international a third clean sheet in four matches, but his third assist in five Gameweeks helped him to maximum bonus, and he’s earned extra points every time he’s produced attacking returns in that time.
With the Liverpool fixture out of the way, Palace’s run-in (bou BHA wat LEI stk WBA) is now set fair, although the lack of a Double Gameweek will keep interest in their key assets to a bare minimum.
Milivojevic (4.9) underscored his budget capabilities with his ninth goal of the season – seven of those have come from eight penalty attempts.
Wilfried Zaha was fit to start and earned the assist for the spot-kick. He’s now won four penalties this season, joint-top with Raheem Sterling.
