New FPL Transfers Liverpool Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson

New FPL Transfers Liverpool Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson

Hello and welcome to New FPL Transfers Liverpool Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson. Liverpool started last season in electric form and in some circles they were being spoken about as potential league champions. A lack of depth within their squad and possibly a lack of a plan B eventually saw them fall away and ultimately they did well to finish 4th. Last season they had no European football to contend with meaning they were free to concentrate on the league. This season they will have European football to deal with although it remains to be seen what night of the week they will play. One thing is for sure and that is that Liverpool need to add both depth and quality to their squad. They continue to be linked with Virgil van Dyke, despite issuing a public apology ending any interest they may have had in the Dutchman and Naby Keita although it’s looking highly unlikely they’ll prise the Guinean away from Leipzig so for now let’s concentrate on two players they have actually signed.

Mohamed Salah
Position: Midfielder
FPL Price: £9.0m

At the end of last season if you’d been asked to guess what position Liverpool’s first summer signing would play you’d probably have gone with a centre back, a left back or a defensive midfielder. You might even have gone with a keeper or a forward. I seriously doubt any of you would have chosen an attacking midfielder. However Jurgen Klopp’s first summer signing was indeed Mohamed Salah (we’ll ignore Solanke for the sake of this article!) who arrives at Anfield from Roma for the princely sum of £36.9m. Yes, the very same Mo Salah who managed just 13 league appearances and two goals across his two seasons with Chelsea. Some might label him a flop but they may have said the same of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne…clearly there’s life after Stamford Bridge. Initially he went on loan to Fiorentina and then to Roma before moving permanently to the Italian capital. In 81 Serie A appearances he managed 35 goals and 20 assists which clearly suggests that Liverpool have bought a talented player.

The Egyptian is quick, direct & skilful, and should therefore feel at home in the Liverpool attack. When Sadio Mane left on international duty in January and got injured at the end of the season Liverpool clearly lacked pace but this issue has certainly been addressed with the addition of Salah. But where is he likely to start? He’s predominantly left footed, preferring to come in off the right flank. Assuming Klopp continues with his favoured 4-3-3 I expect Salah to start on the right with Mane moving to the left although I’d envisage the two regularly swapping positions.

So what of his FPL prospects? Let’s ignore Roberto Firmino as he’s been reclassified as a forward. Therefore Salah’s direct competition for a place in our teams is likely to come from Sadio Mane (£9.5m) and Philippe Coutinho (£9.0m). Continuing with our assumption that Klopp sticks to his favoured 4-3-3 this is likely to see Coutinho (assuming he stays at the club) drop a little deeper and play as the most advanced of the midfield 3. This was initially a concern for me until our very own Mito pointed me in the direction of some stats which indicated that the Brazilian scored three in three when starting from a central midfield position last term so I certainly wouldn’t discount him. Mane is 0.5m more expensive than the other two so the games creators obviously expect him to score more points and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with such an assumption. However he has missed the early part of Liverpool’s pre-season and therefore might take some time getting up to speed. Salah has impressed to date in pre-season and has found the back of the net on three occasions and his link up play with Coutinho is already something to behold. Just like last season picking the correct Liverpool midfielder will be akin to choosing between Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence. My advice at this early stage is to pick one and stick with him, and on the evidence of pre-season Salah is certainly a contender.

Andrew Robertson
Position: Defender
FPL Price: £5.0m

Oh how we rejoiced when the powers that be at FPL towers reclassified James Milner as a defender. We now had another penalty taking defender on our hands and as a result Milner began to appear in a significant number of RMTs. Unfortunately this joy was short lived as Jurgen Klopp has brought in Andrew Robertson from relegated Hull for an initial fee of £8m which could eventually rise to £10m. The young Scot has enjoyed something of a meteoric rise having only made his senior debut at the beginning of the 2012/13 season for Queens Park in the Scottish 3rd division. He only remained with the division 3 outfit for one season before moving to top flight Dundee United. The step up in quality was nothing to the youngster and his displays saw him move to Hull City and the English PL. In his three seasons with Hull he’s been relegated from the PL twice and won promotion from the Championship via the play-offs. This is another step up in quality for the Scottish international and Liverpool fans will be hoping he can leave his mark on the club like one or two other Scottish internationals have done before him!

What of his FPL prospects? Personally I expect Milner to start the season (assuming the injury he picked up in the Asia Cup isn’t serious) but I fully expect Robertson to put pressure on him and he has certainly not been bought merely as back up. Upon his arrival Klopp stated “This addition gives us fantastic competition in the left-back position now. Obviously, James Milner did very well for us last season there and can play most positions on the football pitch.” He also spoke about Alberto Moreno & Jon Flanagan but I don’t see either of them seeing much game time. Robertson’s underlying stats from last season indicate that he didn’t offer a huge threat going forward and this will be an area on his game which he will hope to build upon. However, he didn’t make a single error which led to his opponents having a shot on goal…I doubt any of his new colleagues could make such a claim. Should Liverpool somehow manage to become more solid at the back this season and should Robertson secure himself a regular spot in the first XI he could yet become quite an interesting prospect but for now there’s too much uncertainty over the left back spot.

Thanks for reading New FPL Transfers Liverpool Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson. This article was written by Kop Warrior

Follow @s
KenLyons79

The Fixture Tracker…