What Salah’s hat-trick means for FPL squads

It was all about Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) on Saturday lunch-time as Liverpool were 4-0 winners at Bournemouth.

Even though the Reds may have had half an eye on an important upcoming Champions League test, they waltzed to victory at the Vitality Stadium.

With Salah bagging three goals in the game, we are assessing whether or not he has made a welcome return to his Fantasy form of the 2017/18 campaign.

Bournemouth 0-4 Liverpool

Goals: Mohamed Salah x3 (£13.0m)

Own Goals: Steve Cook (£4.6m)

Assists: Roberto Firmino x2 (£9.2m), Andrew Robertson (£6.4m)

Mohamed Salah once again asked very difficult questions of Fantasy Premier League managers all over the world as he scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 4-0 win at Bournemouth. Some of his owners were planning on selling him after the trip to the Vitality Stadium, just ask Joe, and others even moved him on in their Wildcard squads – just ask Neale! But now, moving on an asset after a 21-point haul would take some serious guts.

Lining up at centre-forward, Salah was, not surprisingly, the chief goal threat in the match with no player registering more shots on goal than him. Furthermore, his four shots in the penalty box were three more than the four players tied in second place on just one. Crucially, no player created more chances at Bournemouth than Salah either. Those statistics may really worry those that don’t own the Egyptian, as he has been recording underlying numbers which prove how complete a Fantasy asset he can be this season.

“Whatever you do in a football game, you need someone to finish it off. What Mo did around his two goals in the second half was just exceptional. I don’t know at the moment a lot of players who would have scored these two goals. The first one, it is a foul actually but he wants to score the goal so he stays on his feet and scores it. It was not the most impressive finish but I would say it pretty surprising [for the goalkeeper]. His third goal was outstanding as well; really, how we set it up and all that stuff was good.” – Jurgen Klopp

Anyone looking for mitigating factors for this hat-trick display could find one or two to ease their pain. The first is that Bournemouth’s defence has deteriorated in recent weeks, overtaking even Burnley for shots allowed in the penalty box in the four matches prior to Gameweek 16. By that logic, it stands to reason that Salah will find it difficult to replicate his 21-point haul against Manchester United in Gameweek 17 or at Wolves the following weekend, for example. Meanwhile, the Cherries’ vulnerability was exacerbated by recent injuries. Callum Wilson (£7.0m) missed out entirely, meaning that Eddie Howe’s men asked few questions of Liverpool and allowed them to dominate the game. Furthermore, they were missing both Dan Gosling (£4.8m) and Lewis Cook (£4.8m) from central midfield, the latter now out for at least six to nine months with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

Meanwhile, questions still stand over the difficult of Liverpool’s upcoming fixture schedule with Napoli (home), Manchester United (home), Wolves (away), Newcastle (home) and Arsenal (home) before the end of the month. A trip to face Manchester City is also their first fixture of 2019.

Roberto Firmino (£9.2m) is slowly creeping into the Fantasy conversation as he provided two assists. He has now been involved in six of Liverpool’s last 11 Premier League goals. While Salah has taken more of a forward’s role in recent weeks, those numbers are still encouraging. Meanwhile, Sadio Mané (£9.8m) overcame his injury doubts to earn a place on the bench and appear as a second-half substitute. In fact, the Senegalese international would have scored were it not for Steve Cook (£4.6m) deflecting Andrew Robertson‘s (£6.4m) cross into his own net.

The ongoing battle between Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.4m) for the title of ‘best Liverpool defensive asset’ swung back in the favour of the Scot on Saturday. He was back in the starting line-up having missed the midweek trip to Burnley with a dead leg. Robertson produced his fourth assist of the campaign, chalking up a tenth clean sheet and pulling in two bonus points in the process. That was his third double-figure haul of the season, while Alexander-Arnold was nothing more than an unused substitute at Bournemouth. It was the second time in a matter of days that the Englishman was named on the bench, only featuring at Turf Moor because of a Joe Gomez (£5.1m) injury. Jurgen Klopp is clearly protecting Alexander-Arnold with that important Champions League in mind but seeing him benched twice in a row will still be discouraging for his 30% ownership.

James Milner (£5.6m) was the man named at right-back in Alexander-Arnold’s place, proving once again his versatility. While the midfielder still has the appeal of corners and penalties on his side, the fact that Klopp views him as an alternative at full-back again, with Gomez’s injury, does count against him for Fantasy. Furthermore, his start at Bournemouth was his first consecutive one in the league since Gameweek 5.

“It’s no problem. I thought it could be a problem, but obviously, he would have even played goalkeeper in game number 500! We need to flexible, all of us, in the period – different positions, different jobs to do in the games. But it’s only slightly different and Millie knows it from his time at left-back. We are a very offensive-orientated team, which means he is very often in a comfortable area. With his experience, and especially against Bournemouth with the counter-attack, you need all the defensive skills as well. Fraser, Brooks, Stanislas or whoever are all nice and speedy, King as well. It’s a job to do, but it’s nice to be part of the 500 Premier League game of Millie.” – Jurgen Klopp

Xherdan Shaqiri (£7.0m) did not produce any attacking returns at Bournemouth but is slowly securing his place in the Liverpool team. This was his fifth consecutive start in the Premier League, his longest run this season. In that time he has completed 90 minutes just once, but the fact that Klopp has managed his minutes in light of Liverpool’s busy schedule does show his importance to the side.

Bournemouth were a shadow of the usual selves in this particular match. Obviously playing against Liverpool was always going to hamper their attacking prowess anyway, but they sorely missed Callum Wilson. Eddie Howe revealed the injury before the game and lamented his absence in his post-match comments.

“Callum has a slight hamstring issue, which we don’t think is too bad but he misses this week. It’s a big blow but Junior comes in, who is a very good player and will give us a lot of quality.” – Eddie Howe

“We missed Callum today. He brings us that unique mix of physicality and pace which I think would have troubled Liverpool’s back-line more than we did today. That’s no criticism of the lads who did play. We re-shuffled and felt we might get more of the ball in dangerous areas but that didn’t really materialise. I don’t think his injury is going to be long-term. He’s got a grade one hamstring injury, so we’ll try to get him fit for Wolves.” – Eddie Howe

Owners of Bournemouth players were a little concerned by Howe implying he would rotate, but their minds were actually largely set at ease on that subject by the team-sheet. Yes, the absence of Wilson was hugely frustrating but none of the changes Howe made to the side that beat Huddersfield was made out of choice, all of them were enforced. The back-four remained the same, King kept his place up front while Junior Stanislas (£6.0m) and Andrew Surman (£4.6m) came in for the injured Wilson and Cook.

Ryan Fraser (£6.3m) had a largely anonymous game, creating no chances across the 90 minutes. That’s the first time his creativity was that low since facing Arsenal in Gameweek 13. That shouldn’t take away from his overall appeal though as he continues to offer decent value long-term. The only games this season in which he has created no chances have been against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea with Wolves and Brighton coming up next.

Bournemouth XI: Begovic; Daniels, Ake, S Cook, Francis (Rico 83′); Stanislas (Mings 83′), Lerma, Surman, Fraser; Brooks (Mousset 65′); King.

Liverpool XI: Alisson; Robertson, van Dijk, Matip, Milner; Fabinho, Keita (Lallana 65′), Wijnaldum; Firmino (Henderson 81′), Salah, Shaqiri (Mané 65′).

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