Mohamed Salah (£12.3m) has staked a big claim over the top 10,000 Fantasy Premier League managers for Gameweek 12.
The Liverpool midfielder was the most transferred-in asset for this weekend and the best performing managers appear to have joined the bandwagon in time for Sunday’s trip to Fulham.
Not only has he increased his ownership at this level by roughly 20%, but Salah is also the most captained among the top 10k.
As you can see, the Egyptian is set to dictate much of the green and red arrows on Sunday as 42.6% of the top 10k have handed him the armband.
That is at least 15.8 percentage points more than any other option, Harry Kane (£10.9m) finishing second on 26.8% captaincy ahead of facing Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
The disparity between the two most popular skippers has helped Salah match Kane for effective ownership at this level for Gameweek 12.
As you can see from the list above, both players have effective ownership in the top 10k of 97% for Gameweek 12, indicating how powerful their attacking returns can be this weekend.
Son Heung-min‘s (£9.6m) double-figure haul against Arsenal has convinced 9.9% of managers in this rank bracket to back him for the armband.
Upcoming opponents Crystal Palace have given up the third-highest number of chances on the right-hand side this season so the South Korean could also have a big hand in re-shaping the top 10k.
Despite coming third in the captaincy race, he is still a force to be reckoned with at this level, boasting the third-highest effective ownership for Gameweek 12, his figure of 89.8% behind only Kane and Salah.
And for all the talk of Everton’s challenging fixtures, the top 10k have largely kept faith in Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£8.0m), still owned by 72.2% of them.
A Gameweek 12 meeting with Chelsea, the best team for expected goals conceded (xGC) over the last four matches is, of course, still a massive test for the Toffees’ main man.
Unsurprisingly, this season’s top-level managers did most of their transfer work in midfield ahead of Gameweek 12, with Salah at the centre of their restructuring.
The Egyptian sat in 31.7% of top 10k squads for Gameweek 11, his ownership at this level increasing by 22.9 percentage points between the two deadlines.
Last time out saw Diogo Jota (£7.0m) creep above his colleague for top 10k ownership for the first time this season but the knock revealed on Friday sees the Portuguese international slip down the pecking order of the template again, losing 12.4% support over the last week.
Interestingly, we see the same with Bruno Fernandes (£10.9m), who may have been deemed by some as the sacrificial lamb in a deal to sign Salah.
Despite scoring six points from the bench and facing Sheffield United away from home midweek, the Manchester United man has dropped from being the most-popular midfielder in the top 10k to the third-most.
He was in 72.4% of these teams for Gameweek 11, his ownership dropping off by 12.6 percentage points in the wake of his London Stadium benching and Salah’s 14-point haul against Wolves.
Jack Grealish (£7.7m) has also benefited from the shift in midfield picking up an increase of 6.9 percentage points now that he is back in action following last week’s postponement against Newcastle.
And, as a result of changes elsewhere, and transfers in, Son has reclaimed the top 10k’s top spot among midfielders.
The top-three forwards hold onto their places in the template but their ownership levels have altered a little.
As already mentioned, Calvert-Lewin’s is down while Kane and Patrick Bamford (£6.2m) have both proven more popular in Gameweek 12.
The Spurs man has risen from 63.5% to 70.9% top 10k ownership since scoring and assist in the north London derby.
Bamford has been turned to as an enabler for Salah moves this week, borne out in the top 10k as well. He was owned by 38.3% of them for Gameweek 11 but sits in 54.4% of such squads after Friday’s Gameweek 12 deadline.
Very few chips were deployed by the top 10k for Gameweek 12, the Bench Boost proving the most popular intriguingly, with 1.8% of such managers deploying all 15 of their players.
Such a decision was replicated somewhat at an overall level too with 1.3% of managers worldwide opting for a Bench Boost.
Overall chip usage
That said, it would appear that the chips were of more interest to the rest of the world, according to the data.
As you can see, despite just 0.9% usage for the Triple Captain among the top 10k, 1.3% deployed it worldwide.
1.5% of the top 10k played their Wildcard for Gameweek 12 which gives us a chance to look at some of the changing ownership trends in more detail.
Son (84.9%) and Kane (71.2%) remain popular even among those with no concern for free transfers, the two players the most popular in their respective positions among these Wildcard squads.
Reece James (£5.3m) is preferred to Ben Chilwell (£6.2m) among Chelsea defenders while 29.4% of these Wildcarders are prepared to pay a bit extra for their Southampton clean sheets thanks to Jannik Vestergaard‘s (£4.8m) goal threat.
