FPL Question Time – Salah vs Mané, international break and Wildcard tips

More names from our panel of Fantasy Premier League managers are back to answer your questions, this time as we go into the first international break of the campaign.

The big question which we’ve had plenty of submissions on is whether Mohamed Salah (£13.om) should come out of our squads.

We’ve got some opinion on that conundrum while the subjects of transfers during the international break and Wildcard tips are also discussed.

Once again, we had an overwhelming response to our request for questions. Unfortunately, we can only answer a handful each week but keep your queries coming in for the rest of the season.

Here’s a reminder of who is on the panel for your Gameweek 4 Question Time:

James Egersdorff – You can’t get much more experienced than this man when it comes to FPL. After yet another season inside the top 5,000 managers in 2017/18, James is a Fantasy Football Scout ‘Hall of Fame’ legend.

Tom from Who Got the Assist? – One half of one of the fastest growing FPL podcasts of recent times.

Holly Shand – Founder of the popular Fantasy Football Community website and recent video star for Official FPL.

QUESTION ONE – JAMES EGERSDORFF

Do we have enough information to be reasonably sure that Mane provides a better points return over Salah and if so, should we be looking to move Salah on?

James: “The lack of a double-digit return from the ‘Egyptian King’, combined with the smoking hot start to the season from Mané has led many FPL managers (myself included!) to investigate the possibility of doing the unthinkable and removing Salah from our squads.

“As a pre-Gameweek 4 Wildcarder, it’s fair to say the idea of cashing in on Salah did look attractive. I spent the week tinkering with my squad given with treasure trove of riches his £13m opened up. It looked like a combination of Mané and Hazard versus Salah and a (roughly) £7m midfielder here.

“It’s definitely a tough choice. We’ve only had four Gameweeks played and therefore only a small sample of data to base such a potentially season-defining decision on. So I kept the Egyptian in my squad.

“We must ask ourselves ‘do we feel that Mané and Salah will maintain their current performance levels?’ Mané is flying right now, with a score of 9.8 per game to Salah’s 6.8. To put that into context, if they were to continue that over 38 Gameweeks, Mané would smash the all-time FPL high score record (303 set by Salah last season) with a whopping 372. Do we really think he’s capable of doing that?

“On the other hand, Salah would weigh in with just over 258, which in fairness isn’t a million miles away from his optimum points per game levels seen in 2017/18.

“Working the figures again, this tells us Salah is underperforming against last year’s figures by around 15 percent, whereas Mane is massively overperforming, even when we factor in his 10-game absence last season.

“The question FPL managers need to ask themselves therefore is whether they feel Salah will make up the performance level deficit and return to the mean and whether Mane can continue to outperform his mean score by such a high margin.”

QUESTION TWO – HOLLY SHAND

How much team value can you potentially earn playing your Wildcard during the international break and is it worth using if your squad doesn’t need a major fix?

Holly: “The international break tends to be a steadier time for price rises and falls than many expect. So I’d expect perhaps just one or two players rising twice, to give the all important £0.1 million gained value.

“However, if you cannot afford the price swings to ditch underperforming assets for the in-form players, the Wildcard can still be valuable.

“Beware the fixture swings and chasing early season points though.

“Liverpool in particular have a tricky upcoming spell.”

QUESTION THREE – TOM

If you are not planning to use the Wildcard for Gameweek 5, how many point hits should we consider taking to make up an injury and suspension filled squad? Also, should we be making early transfer considering how fast players prices are rising?

Tom: “How many hits should we consider? Well, obviously this depends very much on your team and what the situation is.

“If you are dead set on keeping your Wildcard, I’d focus on getting a good XI out for Gameweek 5, after International Break, rather than fixing bench fodder – unless you are doing a combination move as part of your hit (i.e. moving a £4.5 defender down to a £4.0 to free up cash).

“That being said, I’d be thinking that if you need multiple hits to deal with your team’s injuries and suspensions then there’s no need to be stubborn about pulling your wildcard; your squad needs it.

“Should we make early transfers considering how fast players’ prices rise? It depends in what context.

“If there’s little to no midweek action, as we’ve seen at the start of this season, then an early transfer is a risk that can be worth taking.

“However as we saw with Wilfried Zaha and Kevin de Bruyne picking up training ground knocks you are never immune from a shock injury.

“But as we start to enter the period where continental football and other cup competitions return, I’d advise being more cautious with your early transfers as you may end up needing a hit to fix an impetuous move.

“Essentially: you’ll remember your overall rank at the end of the season, not your team value.”

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