In his latest article, two-time Indian Fantasy Premier League (FPL) champion Lateriser gives an opinion on Liverpool players ahead of Gameweek 23, as his long-running Erling Haaland (£14.7m) experiment is about to end.
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I gave it a good go but my Haaland experiment is now over. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out and it was quite funny that the final match involved Manchester City finally exploding into a 6-0 win where Haaland could only muster one goal. Oh well.
Although the champions are next facing the slightly leaky Chelsea defence, it is time to sell because – as you may have heard – a Double Gameweek is coming.
IT’S A LIVERPOOL FEAST
By beating Lille in the Champions League, Liverpool have confirmed this double and they even have a weekend game against Ipswich Town beforehand. Plus, a dead rubber game against PSV Eindhoven.
One of this week’s articles brought up a lovely visual:
You’d think that the first-choice XI faces Ipswich and the backups take part against PSV. Yet there is no clear-cut first choice outside of Mohamed Salah (£13.7m) in their front three. The defence looks fairly stable but with uncertainty over Ibrahima Konate’s (£5.1m) fitness and Andrew Robertson‘s (£5.9m) place.
Here’s some data from Gameweek 12 onwards:
After Salah, Cody Gakpo (£7.5m) has played the most minutes amongst attackers, with the caveat of Diogo Jota (£7.2m) being injured and Darwin Nunez (£7.0m) not putting his hand up for most of this period.
But Gakpo’s underlying data is also pretty good. He’s only behind Salah in this period for non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI, 5.61) as well as attacking returns (six). If wanting to pick between Gakpo, Luis Diaz (£7.5m) or Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.3m) in attack, I’d lean towards the Dutchman.
It might seem a bit of a short-term pick, as we’d ideally hold onto Liverpool assets for a while. But should Gakpo’s minutes look dicey after Double Gameweek 24, there are many forwards to buy.
DOUBLE DEFENCE
While pretty much every FPL manager agrees that Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) are the top two Liverpool picks, your third spot is largely team-dependent. I like the idea of people getting an extra defender like Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m). He has a habit of popping up with a Double Gameweek goal and the Reds could rack up a few home clean sheets up until Gameweek 33.
With Alisson Becker (£5.5m), I’m hesitant because having Arsenal’s David Raya (£5.6m) as an expensive goalkeeper hasn’t gone particularly well for me. Furthermore, Liverpool could blank in Gameweek 29.
So if you’re a Lukasz Fabianski (£4.1m) owner, buying Alisson would require the Pole still being West Ham United’s starting stopper by that blank, which we don’t know because new boss Graham Potter mentioned an Alphonse Areola (£4.2m) injury. Fabianski hasn’t been playing too well either and Potter does tend to prefer goalkeepers who are comfortable with the ball.
If Liverpool do indeed blank in Gameweek 29, a Fabianski benching will then corner you into either a goalkeeper transfer, playing with 10 men or using a Free Hit. Although activating the chip at this stage might end up being a popular strategy regardless.
My favourite third picks are therefore Gakpo in attack and van Djik in defence. The lingering question marks over Konate’s availability keep me away from him.
Of course, you could hold fire and not buy a third Liverpool player until more information comes in, such as another Double Gameweek being announced. It could bring an immediate desire to use the Assistant Manager chip on Arne Slot. Having said that, I’m still cautious about Liverpool’s two away trips in Gameweek 24.
MY GAMEWEEK 23 TEAM
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That’s all from me this week. You can view more on this week’s episode of The FPL Wire with myself, Pras and Zophar.
