Mané outscores Salah again as Liverpool penalty plot thickens

Fantasy Premier League midfielders Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) and Sadio Mané (£9.8m) were both in the points again on Monday night as Liverpool won 2-0 at Crystal Palace.

However, there was disappointment for both of them in terms of the penalty-taking pecking order.

There was also a second successive clean sheet for the Reds as they continue to look like a team worth tripling-up on in 2018/19.

We’ve gone over the final match of Gameweek 2 to pick out the key Fantasy talking points.

CRYSTAL PALACE 0-2 LIVERPOOL

Goals: James Milner (£5.5m), Sadio Mané (£9.8m)

Assists: Mohamed Salah x2 (£13.0m)

Mohamed Salah (£13.0m), Sadio Mané (£9.8m) and Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) appear to be the three players required for the optimum Liverpool triple-up, all three of them picking up returns against Palace on Monday night.

Salah’s two assists ensured that he now has seven goal involvements in as many Premier League appearances. At Selhurst Park he was Liverpool’s chief goal threat firing off six shots. No FPL midfielder managed more than that in Gameweek 2, Chelsea’s Pedro (£6.5m) the only one level with him.

Meanwhile, Mané’s late strike, assisted by Salah, means he remains ahead of his Egyptian colleague both in goals scored and FPL points after Gameweek 2. The Senegalese international has found the net three times in 2018/19 to Salah’s once, and he leads him 26 to 17 on total FPL score. With 45 percent of Fantasy managers still giving the heavily priced Salah a wide-berth, Mané’s latest haul will certainly encourage the debate over whether he can cover the output of last season’s Golden Boot winner.

Salah’s shot count on the season is certainly hard to match, he has had 10 efforts on goal to Mané’s six. But the pair are equal when those shots are filtered to in the box (six) and whether they were on target (four). Throw in Mané’s advantage when it comes to bonus, he has five compared to Salah’s zero, and there really is an interesting case to argue that he is the better option. Obviously we will need more matches before coming to a conclusion on that, but Mané’s popularity will almost inevitably rise before a Gameweek 3 home meeting with Brighton.

Trailing away in the Liverpool coverage debate though, is striker Roberto Firmino (£9.5m). Another peripheral performance from the Brazilian sees him now way behind Salah and Mané. He has had just two shots in two matches so far, only one of those was in the penalty area and neither was on target.

However, the need for a third Liverpool attacker seems to have been completely dissipated by the strong performances of left-back Robertson anyway. He and Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) remain close in ownership (around the 17 to 18 percent mark), but the Scot has outperformed his defensive colleague so far, FPL-wise. He has one assist and three bonus points, while van Dijk no goal involvements and zero bonus. Furthermore, Robertson has created more chances and the former Southampton man is yet to register an attempt on goal, normally one of his specialities. That is not to take anything away from van Dijk’s stature as a player outside of FPL. He continues to be one of the main reasons why Liverpool are yet to concede a goal in 2018/19, having won all of his tackles on Monday night, accounting for nine of his team’s 13 succesful aerial duels, making eight clearances and doing all of that with 92.4 percent passing accuracy.

“No-one even thinks about the cost (of van Dijk) now, he is in this market, and he is worth it. It is not important for us.” – Jurgen Klopp

There still remains a case for the inclusion of Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.0m) who looks more assured as the first-choice right-back with each game. He was a regular attacking outlet for Liverpool on Monday night and supplied more crosses than any defender other than Kieran Trippier (£6.0m) in Gameweek 2. Given that he could save £1.0m compared to Robertson, he should continue to hold onto just under 20 percent ownership.

Another crucial talking-point from the match was that of the Liverpool penalty-taking situation. Mané was believed to be the favoured option for spot kicks after scoring two in pre-season while James Milner (£5.5m) netted one but missed another. However, it was the former England international who stepped up to take the penalty after Salah was fouled in the box, much to the disappointment of Mané’s 30 percent ownership. The Senegalese might still be in the frame considering that Jordan Henderson (£5.5m) has now returned to match action. He came on in the 66th minute in a straight swap for Milner, both in terms of position within the 4-3-3 and the captain’s armband. Therefore, Mané may become the penalty-taker if Henderson starts the next match at Milner’s expense – after all, Naby Keita (£7.5m) and Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) have impressed in central midfield so far and look like they could keep their places. We certainly need a little more data before declaring outright who the Liverpool spot-kick taker is.

One thing we can be fairly confident on is that Salah is not going to be too involved with penalties this season. The fact that he was not considered for Monday’s spot-kick despite winning it is quite telling, especially as one of Mané’s pre-season penalties was also given after a foul on Salah.

For those heavily invested in Liverpool, they will be happy to know that, despite overseeing another win, another clean sheet and more goal involvements for his key players, manager Jurgen Klopp still believes there is room for improvement. If the Reds can make the changes the German is looking for, their players will continue to go from strength-to-strength as Fantasy assets.

“It is difficult to always deal with these situations, but I was happy defensively. I wanted more offensively, and the full-backs to be involved more. We still had three or four good situations, where we were perhaps a bit unlucky. It wasn’t a brilliant game for us. We won it because we scored in two very decisive moments. If we’re not brilliant we usually lose, but we didn’t this time. That’s unusual for us.” – Jurgen Klopp

It was a night of mixed emotions for the 22 percent ownership of Crystal Palace right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.1m). He played well once again, showing defensive strength and, from his days as a winger, the ability to get forward too. To be able to own a player of his qualities in a team that should keep plenty of clean sheets this season for well under £4.5m is hugely exciting for Fantasy managers. However, Wan-Bissaka was caught out in the second-half by Salah’s breakaway run and, in fouling him, was sent off. He will now miss the Gameweek 3 trip to Watford but will return in Gameweek 4 when Southampton come to Selhurst Park. For that reason, it would make little sense to sell him for that period. Keeping him on the bench for one week should do little damage to Fantasy squads.

The starting berth of Gameweek 1 goal-scorer Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.5m) has now come under threat following Max Meyer’s (£6.0m) first appearance of the season. He came on for the former Leicester City in the second-half in a straight swap, which could suggest the German will become the first-choice there. At this stage it is hard to know whether or not Meyer will claim the left-midfield position as is own, simply because his pre-season with Palace was virtually non-existant. He played zero minutes in the friendly matches over the summer while Schlupp registered 352, and may still have a week or two left to make his case for staying in the starting line-up.

Finally, the vast majority of Fantasy managers should take some encouragement from the fact that both Liverpool and Crystal Palace named unchanged sides for this match. Yes, there may be some doubt over whether the Reds’ central midfielders or Schlupp can hold down their place, but both sides should be considered on the more settled side of the Premier League right now when it comes to team selection. Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) continues to operate as a centre-forward and there is has been no rotation of Klopp’s full-backs yet.  That is all good news considering how popular the assets of Liverpool and Palace have proven in the early part of the season.

CRYSTAL PALACE XI (4-4-2): Hennessey; van Aanholt, Sakho, Tomkins, Wan-Bissaka; Schlupp (Meyer 83’), McArthur, Milivojevic, Townsend (Ward 79’); Zaha, Benteke (Sørloth 70’).

LIVERPOOL XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Robertson, Gomez, van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold; Milner (Henderson 66’), Wijnaldum, Keita (Lallana 87’); Mané, Firmino (Sturridge 90’), Salah.

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