Eight-time top 10k finisher Zophar hosts his weekly Q&A, giving his opinion on Mohamed Salah (£14.5m), Alexander Isak (£10.4m), a Gameweek 5 Free Hit and Aston Villa assets.
You can read his Gameweek 5 team reveal here.
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Q: Why are people moving away from Mohamed Salah? He isn’t at his best but he is a consistent scorer with good minutes. With so many cheap enablers, it seems best to own him until we know who is worth it from the Liverpool attack. He looked more involved against Atletico Madrid and is also on penalties in an attacking team. His “bad fixtures” might also benefit him as he won’t play a low block the full 90 minutes.
(via Lallana)
A: Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) has had a slow start to the season. Despite getting two goals and an assist over four matches, the underlying numbers have been poor. Five shots in the box is what we expect from Salah in a single game, not over four matches.
The main reason for people wanting to move away from Salah is Erling Haaland (£14.2m). He’s racked up over 1.5 non-penalty expected goals (NPxG) per game and honestly, he should have had more than the five goals he’s already scored. I think Phil Foden (£8.0m) has shown some glimpses of his old self in the last two games, as well, which only bodes well for Haaland’s supply line.
Now, I’m not saying Salah is not a good pick. He’s still a fantastic option but when you decide you want to prioritise Haaland, it comes down to how you spread the rest of the money. Is Salah + Kiernan Dewsbury Hall (£5.0m) better than Cole Palmer (£10.4m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£9.0m)? I think Haaland’s next three are all better for captaincy than Salah’s, too. Gameweek 8 is the only one that’s perhaps debatable.
So, going with a Haaland + Salah version is perfectly viable – it’s just that you are likely to be missing some other big hitters like Palmer and Gyokeres, who also come into a great run of fixtures soon.
Q: What do you need to see from Alexander Isak in Gameweek 5 to consider him going forward? What threshold of minutes played, chances, goals, etc?
(via Four Letter Wirtz)
A: Alexander Isak (£10.4m) played more minutes than even his own manager expected in midweek but Arne Slot was quick to caution us that the Swede won’t play 90 minutes this weekend.
The link-up with Florian Wirtz (£8.3m) and Salah was there for all to see and it’s only a matter of time before he’s a regular in that Liverpool team. Could he still see some rotation or early subs with Hugo Ekitike (£8.8m) in a Champions League week? That’s still possible.
I think after the next international break is when I would be considering Isak. By then, Liverpool’s fixtures are kinder and we’ll get to see some patterns of how Slot is managing his minutes. He really should be fully up to fitness by then.
Q: Why are so many Erling Haaland owners reluctant to play the Free Hit this Gameweek? It has an obvious upside; your best player against the league’s best defence away can be traded for the second-best FPL player playing at home to a lower mid-table team.
(via @Afpltenniss)
A: The problem with playing the Free Hit this week is that there are very few fixtures with high upside potential. Liverpool’s game against Everton is probably the only one-sided match-up this week, so if you do Free Hit, who are you really going heavy on? Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and City are all ‘avoids’ in potentially low-scoring games.
So if you feel the Liverpool triple-up and Salah captaincy is enough reason to warrant the Free Hit, go for it.
Q: What to do with Aston Villa players?
(via @SilentBats)
A: As an Ollie Watkins (£8.8m) and Morgan Rogers (£7.0m) owner, I feel your frustration. I expected things to improve but their display against Everton was very poor, without a single big chance over the 90 minutes.
This is a bit of a last-chance saloon for them, as the opportunity cost of holding Villa players is increasing now with more good picks being available in their price brackets.
I will find it difficult to hold Watkins through Gameweek 6, despite his fixture in Gameweek 7, if he looks disappointing again, with Haaland and Gyokeres both options.
In midfield, if you don’t have Antoine Semenyo (£7.5m) yet, then I would consider shipping Rogers out for him this week.
Q: We ask this every week but is Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah viable from Gameweek 6 onwards? I have doubts about Cole Palmer’s minutes moving forward, although he did play 90 minutes tonight. There are cheap midfield enablers like Moises Caicedo and Tijjani Reijnders, while we only need one premium defender like Gabriel Maghalhaes. We can’t just write Salah off
(via @FPLGunnar)
A: As mentioned above, you will be restricting yourself from a lot of other good options. From Gameweek 6/7 on, Palmer and Gyokeres are great picks and you will likely want some Arsenal defence as well. Going with both the £14.0m+ guys is going to cut you off.
Man City’s fixtures take a turn for the worse from Gameweek 9 onwards, so perhaps then you can look to bring Salah back or even potentially Isak for Haaland at that point.
Q: Given the surfeit of good low-cost defenders and midfielders, and no must-have premium midfielder, would you agree that, post-Wildcard, the template will be three big forwards? If so, which three would you expect to predominate from Erling Haaland, Joao Pedro, Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak?
(via Scout user: bencaraway)
A: I’m not sure about the post-Wildcard horizon you’re mentioning here but I think from Gameweek 6, the ideal front three looks like Haaland, Gyokeres and Joao Pedro (£7.8m). Isak will also likely be a factor at some point, but it’s going to be difficult to accommodate him instead of Pedro. It is doable but then you’ll probably have to sacrifice Palmer.
