FPL Gameweek 6 Tips – Super Salah becoming a must-have
Mohamed Salah is becoming almost impossible to ignore in Fantasy Premier League.
The Egyptian is the game’s second highest-scoring midfielder and fourth highest-scoring player overall.
However, 11 players – including five midfielders – are more popular than Salah (£12.5m), who can be found in almost 28% of teams at the time of writing.
Erling Haaland’s £14.1m price tag has seen many managers opt against a second premium – but the Liverpool star’s consistency makes it difficult to justify his continued exclusion.
We take a look at why you should try to bring Salah in ahead of his Gameweek 6 clash with West Ham United.
Super Salah
Salah’s detractors may point to his tally of just two goals from five games – but the 31-year-old’s xG of 3.91 is bettered only by Haaland among Premier League players and more strikes are sure to follow if he continues in this fashion.
Furthermore, the Egyptian’s underrated creativity has been pulled into focus following a pair of assists in the 3-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, taking him to a total of four for the campaign so far – the joint-most in the division.
Salah also leads the competition’s charts for expected assists (2.01), while only Kaoru Mitoma has assisted more shots on target than his eight – proving this is no unsustainable flash in the pan.
His six goal contributions overall – from an expected goal contribution of 5.91 – are again second only to Haaland and further demonstrate the right winger’s remarkable consistency in attacking areas.
Those contributions have been spread out evenly as well – he has registered at least one attacking return in every Premier League game so far this season.
West Ham
West Ham have collected 10 points from a possible 15 at the start of this season and sit sixth in the Premier League table, just three points behind Liverpool.
On paper, this would appear to be a difficult fixture for Salah and the Reds – but it may be kinder than it seems.
The Hammers sit deep and allow their opponents to dominate the ball – they rank bottom of the league for total passes in opposition possessions (2,983), average opposition possession duration (29.53 seconds) and average opp possession height gained (36.8 metres).
However, despite looking to set up a compact block out of possession, David Moyes’ men have not been particularly proficient at preventing teams from working the ball into dangerous areas, also sitting 20th in the competition for opposition sequences ending in the final third (473) and percentage of opposition sequences that end in the final third (59.13%).
As a result, they have faced a hefty 90 non-penalty shots, with 35 of those hitting the target – only newly promoted Sheffield United have a worse record. Budget goalkeeper Alphonse Areola (£4.1m) has kept out 28 (80%) of the latter and has played a significant role in the team’s positive start.
Furthermore, West Ham have demonstrated a tendency to be careless with the ball in deep areas – no side in the league has lost the ball more times inside their own half (259), while only Bournemouth have recorded more dangerous ball losses in their own half than the Hammers’ 39.
With plenty of time on the ball in advanced areas against a team who concede a high number of shots and give possession away cheaply in dangerous areas, Salah could be set to continue his superb streak.
All visualisations in this article were produced with the Twenty3 Toolbox. For more information, please get in touch below.