Salah and Mane are currently training in Qatar after winning the semi-finals of the ongoing Club World Cup. This means that back in England, the EPL match between the leaders of the league and West Ham will be postponed, setting up the first blank GW of the season, albeit a small one. Multiple Liverpool players have a high ownership percentage among FPL managers, today we have a look at what strategies you can follow to circumnavigate this mini BGW18.

Liverpool Fixtures

Only 6 teams in the Premier League have let in 20 or less goals in their net. Liverpool is one of them, and they face 4 of the remaining 5 in their next 5 matches after the blank. These are some of the tightest defenses to play against considerably limiting the amounts of expected attacking returns as compared to the rest of the year. Also Klopp has never shied away from resting his players during a busy period and Liverpool have some closely placed matches on 26th, 29th Dec and 2nd Jan. Considering this, your team should not have more than 1 defender and more than 1 attacker from Liverpool going into GW18.



Player Prices, Expected Price drops and Ownership numbers

The most owned Liverpool players include the defending trio of Van Dijk, Trent and Robertson and two attackers, namely Mane and Salah. Robertson has already dropped in price once, and is very unlikely to have another price drop, but a -0.1 looks certain for Mane/TAA owners. The table below shows ownership numbers, followed by the current price and expected price drops over the next three days.

Player Ownership Position Price Exp. Price Drops Van Dijk 39.2% DEF 6.4 0/0.1 Mane 37.0% MID 12.2 0.1/0.2 TAA 28.8% DEF 7.3 0.1 Salah 21.0% MID 12.2 0.1 Robertson 19.9% DEF 7.0 0/0.1

Which players to keep? (Holding Value approach)

Value = the current price of the player – the price you bought the player for. This point is applicable only for Mane, as the other 4 players haven’t built up much value for your team. If you want Mane back in your team after the tough patch of fixtures (next 5), it makes sense to keep him in your team if you have bought him for anything lesser than 12.1. But if he is not a part of your team in your future plans, this week is the best week to transfer him out and cash in the profits. For all the other players, rather than looking at the value they hold, FPL managers should look at which players they have on their bench.

How strong is your bench?

If your team has 2/3 players who are nailed to play, on your bench, you can get away with benching your Liverpool players. And that is not a tall ask considering the number of golden bench players this season, namely Lundstram, Kelly, Cantwell, Rico and even Dendoncker.

Possible replacements

All in all, if you decide to hold players it should be one of Salah/Mane and one of the three defenders Dijk/TAA/Robertson. Let’s have a look at the possible replacements for these players.

Midfielders

Player Team Form Price Fixtures KdB MCI 8.0 10.3 LEI, WOL, SHU Alli TOT 8.0 8.7 CHE, BHA, NOR Son TOT 7.8 10.1 CHE, BHA, NOR Zaha CRY 6.8 6.2 NEW, WHU, SOU Maddison LEI 7.8 5.2 MCI, LIV, WHU Moura TOT 7.0 5.2 CHE, BHA, NOR Sterling MCI 11.8 4.8 LEI, WOL, SHU

Defenders

Player Team Form Price Fixtures Baldock SHU 5.2 4.9 BHA, WAT, MCI Tomkins CRY 5.0 5.0 NEW, WHU, SOU Kelly CRY 4.6 4.4 NEW, WHU, SOU Vertonghen TOT 4.6 5.2 CHE, BHA, NOR Aurier TOT 4.0 5.1 CHE, BHA, NOR Lundstram SHU 3.8 5.2 BHA, WAT, MCI Fernandez NEW 3.6 4.4 CRY, MUN, EVE

Liverpool play Flamengo in the Club World Cup finals after the GW18 deadline, currently all the players discussed are fit for the match.

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