Six-time top 5k finisher Utkarsh Dalmia – aka Zophar – talks us through the Liverpool options after Double Gameweek 24 was confirmed.
With Utkarsh drawing heavily on stats from our Members Area, a large chunk of this article is available only to subscribers.
It’s been a tough Christmas period. Games have been coming thick and fast and with the turnaround so short between fixtures, Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers have barely enough time to digest the information from one Gameweek before another is upon us.
The confirmation that Liverpool and West Ham will enjoy a Double Gameweek 24 (due to their postponed fixture in Gameweek 18) has grabbed headlines and, given Liverpool’s dominant form in the league, surely three assets is almost a requirement. Their players are already highly owned:
- Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) – 39.5% ownership
- Sadio Mané (£12.3m) – 37.7% ownership
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) – 34.1% ownership
- Mohamed Salah (£12.3m) – 24.7% ownership
- Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) – 18.9% ownership
The ownership indicates that most teams already feature at least one of Mané or Salah with at least one Liverpool defender. The question before managers then is where to invest in for the third asset: attack or defence?
Despite conceding the fewest goals in the league (14), Liverpool have kept just six clean sheets, approximately one every third game. They registered a total of 20 shut-outs last season, an average of just over one every two games, so there has definitely been some regression there. However, it is worth mentioning that they have banked four clean sheets in as many matches since Joe Gomez (£5.1m) was partnered alongside van Dijk, so there are signs of improvement and their defence definitely warrants investment.
Their two full-backs are compared using the Comparison Tool in the Members Area for the last six Gameweeks, with Robertson on the left and Trent on the right in the below graphic:
An FPL veteran of 10 seasons, Utkarsh Dalmia has been a member of the site right since 2009 and has finished in the top 5k in six of those campaigns, with a best finish of 17th in 2010. A Chelsea fan based in India, he relies heavily on statistics for his FPL decision-making process.
