Who is the second-best FPL premium: Kane or Salah?
With huge Erling Haaland ownership locking in most managers’ first premium slot, the second one could either be Kane or Salah.
The Norwegian phenomenon has been handed FPL’s joint-biggest starting price of all time. Yet splashing out £14.0m to own him hasn’t deterred 86.3% of managers so far.
So the following question quickly becomes clear: if the budget allows this, should the second premium asset be Harry Kane or Mohamed Salah? Both are £12.5m.
We attempt to answer that here, whilst being fully aware that Bayern Munich are confident of buying Kane and therefore making this comparison irrelevant.
Should there even be a second premium?
As of now, the general community opinion is that having another asset of over £10m is undesirable. If Haaland will be handed the captain’s armband out of fear on most occasions, it’s tougher to justify such an outlay.
Especially when there is a bunch of underpriced midfielders waiting to be collected. Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Bruno Fernandes, Son Heung-min and Gabriel Martinelli cost a maximum of £9.0m, offering superb value for money.
Furthermore, if managers want £8.0m defender Trent Alexander-Arnold, the budget struggles to assemble a satisfying squad.
Kane or Salah?
FPL history
Firstly, let’s remind ourselves why Kane and Salah belong in FPL royalty.
| (FPL | points) | (Attacking | returns) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | Kane 263 | 239 Salah | Kane 39 | 32 Salah |
| 2021/22 | Kane 192 | 265 Salah | Kane 28 | 37 Salah |
| 2020/21 | Kane 242 | 231 Salah | Kane 37 | 28 Salah |
| 2019/20 | Kane 158 | 233 Salah | Kane 20 | 29 Salah |
| 2018/19 | Kane 160 | 259 Salah | Kane 23 | 34 Salah |
| 2017/18 | Kane 217 | 303 Salah | Kane 31 | 44 Salah |
Although Kane preceded Salah’s 2017/18 arrival with a further three massive seasons, the Egyptian has generally been better since. He hasn’t finished below 230 points, a total that Kane has only reached twice in nine attempts.
However, we should be careful about going too far back in time. Kane has the upper hand in two of the last three campaigns, returning at least five points on 30 of last season’s outings compared to Salah’s 22. The Spurs forward was more consistent but Liverpool’s attacker bagged more double-digit hauls.
Fixtures
Using Fantasy Football Scout’s Season Ticker, we see that Liverpool’s opening fixtures are generally tricky. Gameweek 2 provides Bournemouth (h) but it could be a trap. Not only did Salah somehow blank in last year’s 9-0 equivalent thrashing but the Cherries have improved since then and have piqued curiosity with their appointment of Andoni Iraola as new manager.
Spurs have their own dugout appointment in Ange Postecoglou. Pre-season has hinted at the attacking football to come but Man United provide tough Gameweek 2 opposition. Salah has more appeal on that weekend.
Afterwards, things like rosier for the north London side but pre-booking transfers for Gameweek 3 is a risky procedure.
Team structure
It certainly wouldn’t be a straightforward switch to buy either £12.5m asset a few weeks into the game. Managers may feel uneasy with having a top-heavy front line of Haaland and Kane, although it worked brilliantly last season.
On the other hand, the list of appealing midfielders is hard to whittle down into four or five places. With a £100m budget, there will always be some sort of sacrifice needed – go for one where the alternatives are more spectacular.
Ultimately, there’s the FPL mantra that it’s easier to downgrade from a premium than upgrade to one. By beginning with Salah in midfield, there’ll be a spread of price points that allow managers to react quickly and jump on any bandwagon.
Conclusion
An underwhelming Liverpool season still delivered 239 points and 32 goal involvements, so Jurgen Klopp’s side returning to par could make Salah hard to ignore.
It’s just a matter of whether FPL managers will ever stray from Haaland’s captaincy and is it more sensible to instead own multiple £8.0m to 9.0m midfielders.
