Manchester United players proved popular with elite FPL managers as the Red Devils embarked on a rare triple gameweek.
We regularly track the team selections of the top 1,000 FPL bosses with multiple top-10,000 finishes, to get a sense of the decisions being made by the game’s elite.
There was plenty to consider this week, with a number of teams facing double gameweeks alongside United’s unusually hectic schedule.
Manchester United’s triple threat
With rotation almost inevitable as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer prepared for fixtures against Aston Villa, Leicester and Liverpool inside five days, the elite went hard on Red Devils – though an upcoming blank gameweek may have tempered enthusiasm a little.
Bruno Fernandes was this week’s most popular choice of captain, with 760 of our sample of 1,000 opting for the Portuguese midfielder, but 137 left him out of their squad altogether.
After a strong showing in recent weeks, Mason Greenwood rose to a season high ownership of 40.9% amongst top bosses and rewarded them in the first part of United’s triple header with a goal and three bonus points against Villa for his third double-digit return in four matches.
Luke Shaw is also more popular than ever – he has only provided one attacking return in his last 10 outings but he has scored higher on the game’s Creativity metric than any other defender. Our seasoned managers are clearly banking on Shaw converting his potential into points.
No distractions for Liverpool
Liverpool’s Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota were all among the most selected by elite FPL bosses this week – reflecting both a double gameweek and a relatively easy run-in.
The Reds, who beat Southampton on Saturday and face United on Thursday, have three winnable fixtures to close out the season, as they go all out to secure a Champions League spot with no distractions from other competitions.
Salah, who is owned by 88.7% of top managers, Alexander-Arnold (74.9%) and Jota (59.8%) should have an opportunity to pick up points against West Brom, Burnley and Crystal Palace – three matches with a Fixture Difficulty Rating of two.
Not everyone is seeing double
It isn’t all about double and triple gameweeks, as a couple of FPL favourites with only one fixture this week cling on to their popularity thanks to comparatively easy run-ins.
Stuart Dallas (32.6%) and Harry Kane (58.1%), who faced each other at the weekend with the Northern Ireland international scoring in Leeds’ 3-1 win over Tottenham, are both still popular with top managers.
And with West Ham, like Leeds, facing only bottom-half teams in their remaining three fixtures, Jesse Lingard (59.1%) also looks a good bet for the rest of the season.
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