Elite FPL managers have nailed their colours to the mast with three Liverpool stars dominating their most popular players list in gameweek 13.
By analysing the movements of a group of 1,000 managers with multiple top-10,000 finishes to their names, we can find out what the best of the best do to prepare their sides.
And what our elite sample are doing is stocking their squads with Jurgen Klopp’s finest footballers.
Mohamed Salah
What else is there to say about Mohamed Salah? The Egyptian is the elites’ favourite player and – at 98.9 per cent selection among them in GW13 – he has never been more popular with the best.
The numbers speak for themselves – the £13m midfielder has scored 131 FPL points at more than 10 points per gameweek courtesy of 11 goals and nine assists.
Salah ranks number one for Threat among midfielders and number three for Creativity – his lowest Threat score is 38, while gameweek two was the last time he failed to produce at least one goal or one assist.
The attacking winger has claimed maximum bonus points on four occasions this season while he has returned double figures for FPL points in six separate gameweeks.
Furthermore, Salah has played 90 minutes in every league game this season for Liverpool, who are averaging three goals a game this term.
It should come as no surprise then to see that – of their 13,000 captaincy picks this season – our elite sample have handed Salah the armband 8,685 times.
The rest of Liverpool’s 2021 fixture list will see them face Everton, Wolves, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham, Leeds and Leicester, a kind festive schedule which probably won’t harm Salah’s popularity.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Trent Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, was selected by more than 90 per cent of our elite sample in GW13.
The Englishman looks to be finding the sort of form which has helped make him one of the best right-backs in the country in recent years, scoring one, assisting seven and claiming seven clean sheets.
At £7.9m Alexander-Arnold is the priciest defender in the game, but with good reason – he ranks number one for Creativity among the Premier League’s defenders, providing service for the finest attack in the division.
The 23-year-old has returned double figures points returns on five occasions this season, while he has registered a Creativity score of more than 50 in five separate fixtures also.
With 88 FPL points so far, Alexander-Arnold is the second-highest scoring FPL player ahead of GW14, and while his price looks set to hit £8m, he will be worth every penny if he continues to perform as he is.
Diogo Jota
The Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino trio will go down as one of the Premier League’s greatest, but already Diogo Jota is threatening to muscle his way in.
The Portuguese attacker, who arrived at Liverpool from Wolves in 2020, is starting to look cheap at £7.7m having scored seven goals this season including three in his last two appearances.
Jota was backed by more than half of our elite sample in GW13 – two goals and a Threat score of 124 against Southampton justified such esteemed popularity.
The question now is whether he can keep Firmino out of the Reds XI – when he does play, it is rarely for 90 minutes.
That said, Jota has missed just one game entirely in the league this season, while Klopp would surely struggle to bench the 24-year-old as long as he is finding the net?
Whether it is Jota or Firmino who fill the centre-forward position in the future, the elite have been clear: Liverpool are the team to invest in right now.
