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
The Fixture Tracker…
Now that I’m finding it impossible to fit the players I want into my team, I think it might be best to hear some community thoughts on the ‘must-haves’ with the end of helping those struggling, like myself, to pick a team. So, who would make up the four outfield players of your FPL five-a-side team?
For me it would be Jesus (/Aguero), KDB, Kane and Alonso.
For me it’d be: Trippier, KDB, Lukaku, Soton/Brom Def
Can’t ignore the solid fixtures for Soton /Brom, Trip for his price and the attackers speak for themselves.
Yep, got all the defenders you have mentioned. Lukaku/Kane is killing me, maybe I shouldn’t go for two City attackers but can’t help but think it’s worth a punt.
It could pay off nicely and sometimes you’ve got to go with your gut!
I did just read somewhere that Brom flatter to deceive and only kept 6 clean sheets last season?
Yeah they did, although was quite atypical for them and registered a far few where they conceded just the one. Also, came ninth for fewest shots conceded inside the box, so should do better this year. Hegazi, the new loanee, looks impressive too. Hoping he plays!
AT, ALonso, Trippier, Bertrand/Soton def, KDB, Eriksen/ Alli(erik for me), Mane/Cout, Jesus/Kun, Kane and Lukaku for now
Can you afford all that!?
Lukaku and Trippier
Morning all . Time to spice things up with the Captains Poll , don’t ya think ?
Morning Yogis. I need a team I’m at all happy with before I even start thinking about captains!
The GW1 poll is now live Yogis
Well done init , now I got more worries bwahahaaa
My team is kinda settled for now , so it would be great to see capo picks .
Hi Guys, see what you think of my team
Looks as solid as any I’ve seen.
Not much love for Rooney on here because of his fixtures and (probably) deeper position on the pitch behind the front man but he’s capable of scoring against anybody on his day.
You’ll struggle if one of your defs doesn’t play, though. Couldn’t you swap Kompany for someone a bit cheaper and have a playing 4.5def on the bench?
cheers
Maybe Rooney to Jrod and upgrade bench?
cheers
I was considering Rooney myself as a one week punt until I saw him live last week! It’ll be interesting to see what Koeman does with him in the next game partly because of how poor he was but also because of the stark difference when Sandro came on up top.
Hey boss, whatsapped you earlier.
cheers
Morning all
Thoughts on this team, better coverage of the top teams. Think I’m close now………
Looks good.
What is the thinking behind Walker over a Chelsea/United def? Their fixtures?
Should get forward like Alonso but .5 cheaper and yeah fixtures
Same team as my latest draft mad hatter except I got bailly instead of walker and ince for millvojevic
KDB and Gayle
or
Ritchie and Jesus
I feel the majority will say the first pairing but I’m leaning towards the 2nd as they’ll both be on penalties (if Aguero isn’t on the pitch)
Milburn,
As expected, I think the first pairing for me. Based on KDB in my opinion having more guaranteed PL minutes in comparison to Jesus that’s all.
cheers GP
Anyone who has Kane is their draft side worried about:
1. His slow starts at the beginning of the Season
2. His form away from home (Wembley=home this Season)
3. That bloody big price tag (lol)
I have him in my team but Spurs pre-season doesn’t exactly fill me with a whole load of confidence, I know they are only glorified friendlies but surely you’d want to show your manager what you can do – not sleep walk your way through games.
I’m not sure why he gets panned for slow starts to be honest. Last season he scored 2 and assisted 1 in his first 5 games. Not great, but not exactly bad. True, his 2015/16 start was awful but I wouldn’t read into it too much – he was only 22!
Also, do you not think a big part of being ‘at home’ is the fans?
I don’t know, look at how West Ham struggled last Season… Arsenal struggled for ages and still do at the Emirates. Some teams mentally it just seems to take a toll on them.
Wembley could play into Spurs hands – big pitch, big occasion for away teams so less likely/able to sit tight and stay compact.