As the new season is approaching, FPL managers are in the conundrum again to pick either Salah or Mane or to get them both in.
I ran a poll in twitter to get the pulse of the managers and 53% managers voted they’ll go for Salah and 25% chose Mane while 11% voted that they’ll snap up both.
Salah had a breakout first season with Liverpool scoring 32 goals taking Fantasy Premier League by storm. However, Mane stepped up last season to record his best tally of goals and points in a season. In Salah’s first season, both him and Mane scored a combine 42 goals (32 and 10) but last season it was 22 each. Their combined 44 goals was more than the total goal scored of five other PL teams last season.
This has lots to do with Klopp’s change of tactics last season. He made the full backs bomb forward and raid in crosses with Mane and Salah being the target. And with teams defence focused more on Salah, Mane thrived. Mane scored against Leicester and Palace away at the start of last season, both teams who defend deep and counter attack. In fact, Salah’s only hattrick came in against Bournemouth, when Mane only played 25 minutes in that game.
However, Mane’s away from dipped significantly after, with more than two thirds of his points coming in home games. He scored 6 double digit haul at home compared to 3 away hauls. In total, he had one more double digit haul (9) than Salah(8).
Mane also played 178 mins lesser than Salah last season, that’s like two games lesser than the Egyptian king. Had he played in them, he might have as well won the boot. He was disposed 1.3% per game compared to Salah’s 3.1%.
That being said, the man doesn’t like to assist. He only has 3 assists compared to Salah’s 12 last season which talks volumes. Also, there were so many instance where he hit over the bar than to pass it to a teammate, who would have just tapped it into the net. I assumed that would have worked against him when it comes to BPS.(players lose points when they shoot off target), but surprisingly, he got more BPS than Salah last season (24 to 18). I conclude that Mane’s selfishness could both work for and against his favour this season. That’s something Klopp would probably work on pre-season.
I’m expecting Klopp to not change his tactics much as Liverpool go all guns blazing for their first title since 1990. So expect the full backs to provide similar service with Mane and Salah sharing the goals again. Salah was the only player in Mane’s position last season to register more shots in the box and to create big chances.
Verdict
FPL managers will heavily back Salah(12.5), as usual at the start of the season and for a valid reason. Stats wise, the Egyptian is still the better option and he can destroy your OR on his day. He will also be on penalties when 34 year old Milner’s off the pitch and will definitely pitch in more assists than his counterpart.
With Liverpool’s defence offering excellent value for money, doubling up in Midfield or defence is a decision left to the managers. I’d ideally have both Salah and Mane but if I’m doubling up the defence and that £1m fund from Salah(£12.5M) to Mane (£11.5m) means upgrading a player elsewhere in your team to boost your overall expected points (e.g. from Maddison to Siggy), then I believe Mane will provide more than decent cover for Salah’s points while the other upgrade you made improves your score further.
Written by FPL Wolf (@FPLWolf)
