Mohamed Salah’s already high ownership is on the rise, furthering the case for Fantasy Premier League managers to include him in their squads even if they are uncertain about his new price.
We also saw some big transfer fluctuations in the goalkeeper position in the last seven days while large numbers of managers persist in owning assets unlikely to be involved in Gameweek 1.
Such decisions could allow for an opportunity to make real headway on the majority of rivals in the early part of the season.
GOALKEEPERS
Fantasy managers are already moving fast to replace Nick Pope (£5.0m) in their squads after the Burnley man sustained a shoulder injury at Aberdeen on Thursday night. A week ago he was one of the most popular goalkeepers on 17 percent ownership but recent developments have caused that figure to drop to just 6.8.
Moving in the opposite direction is new Liverpool signing Alisson Becker (£5.5m) who has amassed 9.9 percent backing in his first week as an FPL option.
Julian Speroni (£4.0m) has emerged as the most fashionable goalkeeper in the cheapest bracket with 14.8 percent opting to save some money on him. However, the Argentinian is believed to be third in the Crystal Palace pecking order behind Wayne Hennessey (£4.5m) and Vicente Guaita (£4.5m). It’s possible that his popularity increased this week to accommodate an upgrade from Pope to Alisson.
David De Gea (£6.0m), Lukasz Fabianski (£4.5m) and Jordan Pickford (£5.0m) have remained largely stable as the top three, with 30.1, 23.0 and 21.6 percent ownership respectively.
DEFENDERS
We should expect to see plenty of fluctuation before Gameweek 1 when it comes to defenders, considering that four of the top five most-owned have some form of question mark over them.
Despite still being absent from their respective pre-season training camps, Kieran Trippier (£6.0m) and Harry Maguire (£5.5m) still hold down the top two spots in this classification.
Charlie Daniels (£4.5m) is the most popular option likely to play in Gameweek 1 with 17.0 percent backing. However, his starting berth will be at risk in Gameweek 4 after new Bournemouth signing Diego Rico (£4.5m) returns from his three-match suspension.
Marcos Alonso (£6.5m) remains steady on 16.8 percent ownership and certainly looks more assured of game-time than he did before Chelsea’s first pre-season friendly, in which he started. However, he was replaced by Emerson Palmieri (£5.5m) at half-time and Alonso should be considered very much under review considering that Maurizio Sarri prefers to play with traditional full-backs.
Just below Alonso is another Gameweek 1 doubt in Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m). The Liverpool man was once the most fashionable defender in the whole game but following England’s continued progression at the World Cup, he dropped to third last week and now comes in as the fifth-most owned stopper. Although his backing is still fairly sizeable with 16.1 percent invested in him, both Nathaniel Clyne (£5.0m) and Joe Gomez (£5.0m) look likely to threaten Alexander-Arnold’s pitch time.
Despite more doubts hanging over whether he will feature for Huddersfield this season, Scott Malone has actually extended his lead at the top of the £4.0m defender ownership charts. From what we’ve seen so far, the most likely to start from that price point is Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and some Fantasy managers are slowly picking up on that. In the last seven days he has gone from 2.6 percent ownership to 3.9.
MIDFIELDERS
Mohamed Salah’s (£13.0m) return to action has extended his lead as the most popular player ahead of the 2018/19 season. In one week the Egyptian has added a further 2.6 percent of managers to his following. The more his ownership increases the more dangerous it could become to go without last season’s record-breaking top scorer, regardless of his hiked price.
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.0m) still sits in second place remaining stable in 27 percent of squads, even though he is still absent from Manchester City’s pre-season training squad and could miss Gameweek 1.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s (£7.0m) price and potential has him as the third-most popular still, although he has experienced a two percent drop-off in the last seven days. He may pick up more backing from Fantasy managers if De Bruyne is confirmed as absent in the build-up for the opening weekend.
Also likely to mop up some De Bruyne sellers on the eve of 2018/19’s first match is his Man City colleague Leroy Sané (£9.5m), who already has one summer pre-season goal under his belt. He sits just behind Mkhitaryan on 18.8 percent ownership.
Deep-lying midfielders Ruben Neves (£5.0m) and N’Golo Kanté (£5.0m) are both in the top 10 most-owned in their classification, despite relatively low potential for Fantasy returns. Meanwhile, options in the same price bracket like Aaron Lennon, Kenedy and Helder Costa, all of whom play in more advanced positions, have just 0.5, 3.4 and 1.0 percent ownership respectively.
FORWARDS
Marko Arnautovic’s (£7.0m) recent form has seen him jump back into the top four most-owned among forwards. Seven days ago, the Austrian had been overtaken by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.0m)’s 24 percent, who has five pre-season goals. Arnautovic has found the net four times in three matches triggering a small rise back to 25 percent ownership.
At the top of the forwards charts, Roberto Firmino (£9.5m) and Harry Kane (£12.5m) remain stable on 37 and 33 percent respectively. The large number of managers invested in the pair will need to pay close attention to our Scout Notes for the remainder of pre-season to see if either of them will be available for Gameweek 1 following World Cup campaigns.
Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) is still the third-most popular striker with 31.2 percent ownership, despite his switch from midfield over the summer.
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