After Mohamed Salah picked up an injury during Liverpool’s 3-0 Champions League win over Manchester City, fantasy football managers spent the week wondering whether the Premier League’s leading goalscorer would be selected for the Merseyside derby at the weekend.
With 29 goals from midfield, Salah is this year’s must-have player, but with Jurgen Klopp unsure if his star footballer would be fit, fantasy football managers everywhere had tough decisions to make.
What they probably didn’t expect was this triple omission from the Liverpool manager.
📋 Your #LFC team for today's derby…#EVELIV 👉 https://t.co/QquZcN8ZnT pic.twitter.com/zMJvJrYeYg
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 7, 2018
Not only was Salah left out of the squad entirely, but the Fantasy Premier League’s second most selected player, Roberto Firmino, was left on the bench.
1,903,644 managers own BOTH Salah and Firmino!#FPL pic.twitter.com/gxEGIDLKS1
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) April 7, 2018
Meanwhile, young full-back Andrew Robertson was the third popular Liverpool player to be left out, having accrued quite the FPL following in recent weeks.
SCOUT: Robertson’s injury absence another blow for recent investors in Liverpool’s squad. He’s increased by 317,041 in ownership since GW24#FPL #EVELIV pic.twitter.com/NE6NtxdgNN
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) April 7, 2018
Tough times for those who decided to back some of the game’s best performers.
I have Salah as my captain and Firmino as my vice 🤦🏽♂️
— iKane (@JnrKane) April 7, 2018
😢😢😢😢
— Mpumi (@phumza_007) April 7, 2018
Salah and Firmino owners dropping in anguish like this 😩#FPL pic.twitter.com/DkXRegu8oS
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) April 7, 2018
However, not everybody was feeling hard done by – this manager sold both one minute before the deadline.
@kys_cream got rid of both at 11.29 👀
— Lee (@holding88) April 7, 2018
Will the decision prove to be the right one in the long term?