No Salah Experiment Aborted
Kane's injury takes away the final reason not to have Salah. I know that nothing is confirmed but the news that it is the same ankle as he already had trouble with was enough for me. I had him in mind as my GW23 captain and that now becomes very moot. I wouldn't mind betting against Salah if I had a captain as good or better but I now don't see one. So I have done Kane, Anderson
Rashford, Salah (-4) and made an end of the matter.
GW21 Hazard 3pts v
Salah 2pts; Captaincy N/A;
Total +1.
GW22 Hazard x2 10pts v
Salah x2 22pts;
Total -12.
Adding 4 points for the hit now taken that means the net cost to me of the manouevre was
-15 points. To put that in context, Playing Button over Fabianski in GW22 cost me 7 points on its own.
Oh, how happy it would have made me had he saved Salah's penalty.
I don't think any conclusion can be drawn about a player being "essential" in all honesty. The fact is that Liverpool have had 4 penalties awarded in the last 4 PL games, all without Milner on the pitch and 3 of them taken by Salah. I wish the 4th one had been too; he was my captain that week.
But the continual returns he has had have relied on a rate of penalty awards that is unusual to say the least. Unfortunately for me, he had another in GW22 and my captain (Hazard) didn't. Just one of those things.
The strange thing is that my expectation of GW21/22 (the 2 games I have been without Salah) played out pretty exactly. I thought both would be tough for Liverpool, and they were. I also thought that Klopp would not chase the PL title by all-out-attack and his comments after the Brighton game confirm that. I think doubling on the Liverpool defence may even be more important in the long run than having Salah. But not in GW23.