Liverpool’s attacking big guns are hard to split.
First, let’s examine the underlying stats.
Salah has been a more prolific shooter than Mané over the past 2 seasons.
Whereas Salah’s shot frequencies have been 1 every 23.9 and 20.2 minutes, Mané has managed 1 every 35.4 and 31.3 minutes.
Further to this, Salah has registered 131 shots on target over the past 2 seasons, while Mané has only registered 68 shots on target.
Salah also betters Mané over this period in terms of creativity, creating on average 1 chance every 47.0 minutes, compared to Mané’s 1 every 55.4 minutes.
While Mané loses out in these categories, he makes up for it in terms of FPL bonus points. Salah has more shots, but this also means that he misses more opportunities.
Due to this, Salah’s BPS score is affected negatively unlike that of Mané, who takes fewer shots to score a similar amount of goals.
Second, let’s look at the FPL return stats. Salah returned in 61% of games last season, but Mané only managed to return in 50% of his games.
Salah was also a better captaincy option last season, averaging 8.3 PPG against bottom 6 teams, compared to Mané’s 7.1 PPG.
A few more pieces of information must be noted.
Salah played 13 out of his 38 Premier League appearances at centre forward last season, as opposed to his usual right wing position.
Interestingly, 53% of Salah’s 34 FPL returns came in these 13 games at centre forward.
This is worrying, because in just 13 games at centre forward, Salah provided more FPL returns than he did over 25 games on the right wing.
Also, only 1 of his 8 double digit returns came from the wing.
This season, it is likely that Salah will revert back to his right wing spot, where he was far less prolific last season.
However, Salah provided almost all of his returns in the 2017/18 season from the right wing, so let’s hope that this is just an anomaly.
Although Salah’s returns on the right wing are definitely something to keep an eye on, we’d still opt for him over Mané.
Then, if Salah struggles to start the year, you can downgrade to Mané if need be.
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