Who is the best third pick at Liverpool?
Liverpool are still in the race to win the Premier League, and they have attractive fixtures. As a result FPL managers could be considering investing in three Liverpool assets. With many managers already invested in Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold we assess who is the best third pick at Liverpool.
Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold are currently owned by 58.7% and 39% of the game respectively. Salah is the most heavily owned player in the game with Alexander-Arnold third. In the top 10k of FPL managers 8219 managers own both Salah and Alexander-Arnold.
Both Salah and Alexander-Arnold also have a high effective ownership (EO). This means that they are at best going to hold an FPL managers rank, at worst they can be harmful if their EO goes over 100. Therefore the only way to benefit from the Liverpool assets could be to add an additional player to your FPL team. However which one is the best option.
Andy Robertson
Robertson is currently owned by just over 10.8% of FPL managers. LiveFPL tells us that in the top 10k of managers that rises to 43.26%, however this is still a lot lower than the ownership of Liverpool’s other wingback.
The Scotland captain has returned in every fixture that he has featured in since Gameweek 22, with the exception of the Man City match. In that time he has averaged 8.3 points per match.
Since Gameweek 23 across the defenders in the game only injured Matt Doherty has more attacking returns that Robertson. Robertson has five in comparison to six for the Spurs man. His five assists are also more than any other defender in the game in the same period.
Robertson is also significantly cheaper than any of the Liverpool midfielders. Therefore he is the cheapest route of the players discussed here in to owning three Liverpool players.
Sadio Mane
At £11.7m Mane is the most expensive Liverpool asset outside of Mo Salah. Since returning from AFCON Mane has returned 66 points. This averages at 6.6 points per match.
Since Gameweeek 25, Mane’s first game post AFCON, of the midfielders only Son Heung-Min has scored more goals than the Liverpool midfielder. Indeed Mane is tied with teammate Salah with six goals each.
Mane is seventh for goal attempts in this period with 24. This is more than teammates Jota and Diaz.
However, it should be considered that Mane is significantly more expensive that many of the other performing midfielders in the game. Therefore, owning him will likely mean compromises across the rest of the team which potentially managers do not need to take.
Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz
Both Jota and Diaz come with some threat of rotation across the rest of the season. This is especially true with Liverpool still competing in the Champions League, as well as with Roberto Firmino due back from injury.
Jota has returned in four of his last five appearances in the Premier League. Jota has only failed to start in one of those fixtures. Diaz has returned in three of his last five appearances in the Premier League. Although, he has only started in three of those appearances.
Ahead of investing in either of the cheaper Liverpool midfielders FPL managers should pay careful attention to the Champions League starting XI. If either fails to start in Europe they could be a good pick ahead of Gameweek 35.
Overall: best third pick at Liverpool
Owning a third Liverpool player is a good opportunity for FPL managers to differentiate their teams. Doing this will provide the opportunity for a green arrow from the Liverpool matches as they all have good EO stats.
Robertson is the least at risk of rotation and the cheapest of the Liverpool options discussed. Therefore he likely makes the best third pick at Liverpool, especially as he does not take up an important midfielder spot. However, Diaz and Jota also make nice differential picks, as long as managers are happy to accept the occasional benching. Klopp rarely rest them althogether however, and of late both midfielders have returned from the bench.
Sadly Mane is the least attractive option, purely as a result of his price tag. Especially with managers already spending a large percentage of their budgets on Alexander-Arnold and Salah.
Wondering what to expect from the Gameweek 35 fixtures? Check out our recent article.
