Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) is the standout captaincy candidate in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Double Gameweek 26, as Liverpool take on Norwich City and Leeds United at Anfield.
However, given the Egyptian’s recent schedule, which has already seen him rack up over 1000 minutes of action in 2022, is there a case to be made for team-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.5m)?
First, we will assess the fallout of the Double Gameweek 26 Captain Poll, before then analysing the best options, Rate My Team (RMT) and the Premier Fantasy Tools ratings ahead of Saturday’s 11:00 GMT deadline.
THE CAPTAIN POLL
In a predictably one-sided Captain Poll, Mohamed Salah is the runaway leader, having gained a whopping 79.39% of total votes from our users at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, team-mate Trent Alexander-Arnold sits in second, having been backed by 8.49% of FPL managers.
Aaron Ramsdale (£5.1m), Bukayo Saka (£6.4m) and Diogo Jota (£8.5) make up the rest of the top five, though the Portuguese is falling, having picked up a midweek injury.
MOHAMED SALAH
Having already racked up 16 goals, 10 assists and 181 points, FPL’s top-scorer Mohamed Salah now faces the two teams with the worst defensive records in the division.
No matter what caveats we might apply about managed minutes, the fact is that the Egyptian has two favourable opponents, back-to-back at Anfield, in a Double Gameweek.
Norwich City’s recent improvements under Dean Smith were put in some perspective by Manchester City’s 4-0 win at Carrow Road last weekend, while Leeds United have conceded 26 goals and not kept a single clean sheet in their last nine matches.
The rotation risk has to be acknowledged, of course, and with Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League tie and an EFL Cup final against Chelsea sandwiching Double Gameweek 26, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see a degree of tinkering from Jurgen Klopp in the coming matches.
The German certainly has plenty of options at his disposal, even accounting for the loss of Diogo Jota (£8.5m) to injury, with Luis Diaz (£8.0m), Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino (£8.7m) all vying for starts, plus squad players like Takumi Minamino (£5.1m), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£5.8m), Harvey Elliot (£5.3m), Divock Origi (£4.8m) and Kaide Gordon (£4.5m).
Notably, Salah has also featured for a total of 1051 minutes from 11 appearances in 2022 already, as broken down below.
