Close to 10% of Fantasy Premier League managers in the top 10,000 have already played their second Wildcard for the 2019/20 season.
Before the Gameweek 23 deadline, 5.5% of those at this level had already pulled the trigger, but that figure rose to 9.6% on Saturday morning.
That’s the biggest increase from one Gameweek to the next since the second Wildcard became available.
It has not escaped our notice that those re-shaping their squads this weekend have done so just days before Double Gameweek 24 when Liverpool have two relatively favourable fixtures.
Therefore, we have examined the selections made by these high-performing Wildcards to see how they are investing in Jurgen Klopp’s team.
It seems clear that top 10k managers playing their Wildcard in Gameweek 23 are favouring the offensive double-up on Liverpool options.
Sadio Mané (£12.4m) and Mohamed Salah (£12.3m) are both among the most popular midfield assets, but Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) is the only Liverpool man among the most fashionable defenders.
The Senegalese international is the most widely-owned of the trio, sat in 80.2% of Wildcard squads in the top 10k for this weekend, Salah only in 41.6%.
Meanwhile, Alexander-Arnold has been selected of 76.6% of these managers, while Andrew Robertson (£7.0m) does not break into the top-five.
Brandon Williams (£4.1m) has been chosen by 47.1% while 29.5% still retain some faith in Çaglar Söyüncü (£5.1m).
Todd Cantwell (£4.9m) remains the go-to fifth-midfielder, it would seem, with 51.5% of Gameweek 23’s top 10k Wildcarders selecting him, making him the third-most-popular in this position.
Meanwhile, 28.7% have seen enough from Jack Grealish (£6.5m) to believe he is worth holding onto. That decision was rewarded as he scored Aston Villa’s only goal in a 1-1 draw at Brighton.
Interestingly, 34.8% of these managers have taken the opportunity of a Wildcard to get Sergio Aguero (£11.8m) into their sides.
The Manchester City forward now has five goals and an assist in his last two outings as he netted twice against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.
It would appear that the large remaining majority of the top 10k has not yet made a final decision on their Liverpool triple-up.
Alexander-Arnold (79.5%) and Mané (76.6%) are already sat in the vast majority of squads at this level, but they are the only two Reds’ players present in the Most Owned template.
By comparison, Salah has an ownership of 29.3% among the top 10k while Robertson is sat on 21.5%.
Roberto Firmino (£9.3m) continues to offer potential as a differential, owned by just 6.5% of top 10k managers in Gameweek 23.
Fantasy managers who captained Jamie Vardy (£10.1m) will be hopeful of green arrows in Gameweek 23 after Kevin de Bruyne (£10.7m) blanked against Crystal Palace.
The Belgian was unfortunate not to get any attacking returns on Saturday afternoon but, nevertheless, he left a large number of Fantasy managers with a captaincy blank.
De Bruyne was the most-backed for the armband this weekend both in our captain poll and among the top 10k.
In this upper echelon, 38.3% handed him the captaincy after his nine-point haul against Villa’s porous defence.
However, in the end, Palace’s back-line proved to have more about it than the Villans, leaving the door open for Vardy-backers to get the upper hand.
The Leicester man was captained by 32.1% of the top 10k for Gameweek 23 ahead of a Sunday afternoon trip to an out-of-form Burnley.
However, the real winners, depending on Vardy’s exploits at Turf Moor, are those who backed Aguero for his 13-point haul against Palace.
Just 8.8% of the top 10k backed him with the armband – almost certainly acting as the fuel for a big green arrow considering his still relatively low ownership at this level.
The 6.4% who went for Mané and 4.7% who captained Salah will be hoping for similar hauls against Manchester United considering de Bruyne’s blank.
4 years, 3 months agoIf Rich is fit for next gw was thinking of doing:
Grealish & Abraham -> Richarlison & Deeney for free.
Thoughts?