Managers in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) have an interesting week ahead, as Gameweek 25 is a blank for four teams yet a double for four others.
Whether the plan is to use free transfers, take a four-point or activate the Free Hit chip, one club dominates the thoughts of the FPL community. They’re a side heavily backed during recent seasons but left alone throughout their under-par 2022/23 campaign – Liverpool.
Their Double Gameweek 25 coincides with some much-needed domestic momentum, thanks to consecutive wins and clean sheets over Everton and Newcastle United. Suddenly, finishing in the top four looks doable.
Even in crushing defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday, there was at least some encouragement from an attacking perspective.
Let’s investigate which of the Reds’ assets are best for matches against Crystal Palace (a) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (H).
HOW MANY DO WE NEED?
Whilst four Liverpool players exceed 10% ownership overall, a focus on more active managers shows just how differential these names will be in Double Gameweek 25.
Using the data from LiveFPL, here are last week’s ‘owned by’ numbers from inside the top 500k.
These are huge falls from grace for Mohamed Salah (£12.6m) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m), who have been deemed FPL royalty during the past few seasons.
Those figures will, of course, rise significantly this week but we’re unlikely to see Haaland/Rashford-esque numbers come Friday night.
So perhaps it’s not really about how many Liverpool players we need but more about how many we want. Being proactive rather than reactive.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Out of the FA Cup, their schedule will still be affected by the competition should Fulham defeat Leeds United in the fifth round. In that case, the Gameweek 28 clash at Anfield will not take place and Liverpool will be forced to blank.
It was announced on Monday that they will be one of 12 teams to have a Double Gameweek 29, although it involves trips to Manchester City and Chelsea.
A Saturday-Wednesday-Sunday turnaround in Gameweeks 25-26 is on the generous side, as we could have easily had one fewer rest day on either side of the Palace game.
Such is Liverpool’s chase to break into the top four, the gaps in between games shouldn’t bring too much of a rotation issue anyway – especially if they don’t reach the next round of the Champions League.
To make up for lost time, Jurgen Klopp simply needs to go as strong as possible in every match.
MAIN FPL TARGETS
MOHAMED SALAH (£12.6m)
After a streak of FPL blanks, the FPL king has attacking returns in two consecutive Premier League games and provided both a goal and an assist on Tuesday night versus Real Madrid.
It certainly makes it easier for managers to justify the fairly straightforward move from either Kevin De Bruyne (£12.4m) or Bruno Fernandes (£9.8m), knowing Salah is back in form.
We can see below how his ‘per 90’ underlying attacking stats compare with the last two seasons, to determine whether he’s less involved, unlucky or just worse at scoring.
