We continue our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 9 Scout Notes with analysis of Manchester United v Liverpool.
For a briefer summary of all six of Saturday’s games, click here, while the footer at the bottom of this piece will direct you to our detailed Scout Notes on the other Gameweek 9 action.
MANCHESTER UNITED 0-5 LIVERPOOL
- Goals: Naby Keita (£5.0m), Diogo Jota (£7.5m), Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) x3
- Assists: Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m), Keita, Jota, Jordan Henderson (£5.0m)
- Red cards: Paul Pogba (£7.6m)
- Bonus: Salah x3, Keita x2, Alexander-Arnold x1
SALAH SHINES… AGAIN
Mohamed Salah (£12.9m) kept up his relentless FPL form with a hat-trick and assist as Liverpool recorded a thumping 5-0 win at Old Trafford on Sunday.
As a result, the Egyptian bagged his sixth double-digit haul of the campaign, which means that he has now equalled last year’s tally in just nine Gameweeks.
He’s now an astonishing 50 FPL points clear of any other player, having reached his century quicker than in any of his four previous seasons at Anfield. Just to underscore how exceptional his form is, he only passed the 100 mark after Gameweek 15 of his record-breaking 2017/18 campaign.
As for the Reds, a second consecutive 5-0 away win ensures that they have scored at least three goals in all eight of their road trips this term, while overall, they also rank top in all of the key attacking metrics.
Above: Liverpool players currently dominate this season’s big chances table
JOTA HITS DOUBLE DIGITS AS MANE BENCHED
Diogo Jota (£7.5m), who started alongside Salah and Roberto Firmino (£8.9m) in attack, racked up 11 FPL points via a goal and assist, but is still yet to receive a single bonus point this season.
As the Portuguese featured on the left of Liverpool’s front three, that meant Sadio Mane (£11.9m) had to settle for a place on the bench, which manager Jurgen Klopp touched on in his post-match interview:
“We have to use the squad, that’s how it is. In a game like this, you don’t want to be changing six or seven times. But Diogo (Jota) before the international break was in outstanding scoring form then went to the national team, slightly injured and needed a little bit of time to come back.”
Klopp also explained his decision to hand Ibrahima Konate (£5.1m) his second Premier League start of the season, and therefore drop Joel Matip (£5.0m), ahead of kick-off:
“Ibrahima is training at the highest level and, of course, Joel is a great player, but we cannot just push it through all the time. We saw a few things where we thought it would be a good game for Ibrahima. Hopefully he will have a good game.”
Elsewhere, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m) bagged his third double-digit haul of the season courtesy of an assist and clean sheet, though the one blemish on an otherwise perfect day was an injury to the impressive Naby Keita (£5.0m).
“We have to see how serious it is. It was very painful but we’ll see. We won’t know until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.” – Jurgen Klopp on Naby Keita’s injury
After their win, Liverpool remain unbeaten in 13 matches this season across all competitions and are one point behind Premier League leaders Chelsea heading into Gameweek 10.
UNITED COLLAPSE
Man Utd were booed off the pitch at Old Trafford on Sunday, after suffering a humiliating defeat to their rivals.
While we had flagged the Red Devils’ worrying defensive numbers last week, which had seen them concede four at Leicester City and twice against Atalanta during the run-up to this game, the nature of this collapse was remarkable, as United had largely been good against the big sides last season.
However, they were outclassed in every area in Gameweek 9, and as a result, have now taken just one point from their last four matches, with a goal difference of -8 during that time.
They have also conceded more big chances than every other team aside from Newcastle United and Norwich City, which could be good news for Harry Kane (£12.1m) and Son Heung-min (£10.2m) on Saturday, though they will of course need to improve themselves.
Man Utd rank 18th for big chances conceded so far this season, with 22.
To compound United’s misery, they were reduced to 10 men when Paul Pogba (£7.6m) was shown a straight red card for serious foul play following a heavy challenge on Keita. The Frenchman is now suspended for three Premier League matches and will miss the meetings with Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Watford.
Man Utd XI: de Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood (Pogba 45), Fernandes (Cavani 62), Rashford (Dalot 62), Ronaldo
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Keita (Oxlade-Chamberlain 63), Milner (Jones 27), Salah, Jota, Firmino (Mane 76)
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM GAMEWEEK 9
- Saturday review in brief
- Arsenal 3-1 Aston Villa: Tierney injury latest as Aubameyang and Smith-Rowe impress
- Chelsea 7-0 Norwich
- Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle: Is Wilson the best sub-£8.0m forward?
- Everton 2-5 Watford
- Leeds 1-1 Wolves: The latest injury news on Raphinha and Marcal
- Southampton 2-2 Burnley: “More goals” to come from budget FPL defender Livramento
- Brighton 1-4 Man City: Why Duffy was benched and Foden’s fine form
- Brentford 1-2 Leicester: Vardy and Mbeumo injury latest
- West Ham 1-0 Spurs: Antonio back among the goals as Son and Kane’s blanks are assessed
- Man Utd 0-5 Liverpool: Klopp talks rotation after Salah continues best-ever FPL start
