Premier League Fantasy Football Tips 2021/22 – Liverpool

Premier League Fantasy Football Tips 2021/22 for Liverpool by @CoysFPL.

In this team preview series, Dan previews all 20 Premier League teams ahead of the 2021/22 season including season expectations, expected lineups, best player picks, under the radar gems, and players to avoid.

Find all our other Premier League 2021/22 Team Previews here which will be continually updated as the season draws closer!

Liverpool 2021/22 Season Expectations

Liverpool had a rather underwhelming season last term, finishing third in the Premier League and reaching only the Quarter-Final of the Champions League.

The lengthy absence of Virgil Van Dijk played a part in that, with the Red’s dropping points in games they really shouldn’t have, conceding far more goals and losing the key man in their indirect set-piece threat.

The lack of fans at Anfield foresaw a huge dip in results, dropping points on nine occasions in the Premier League. In comparison, during their title winning campaign they only dropped points once at Anfield in the Premier League. As well as that, they only scored 29 Premier League home goals, 23 less than their title run.

In conclusion, Liverpool’s season couldn’t have been more disruptive. Captain Jordan Henderson, talisman Van Dijk and fellow centre halves Joe Gomez and Joel Matip all missed lengthy periods through injury, whilst signing Thiago failed to make an impression until the end of the season.

The Reds actually finished the season as the in-form team, topping the league in the last thirteen games as they grasped a Champions League spot.

This season, I expect Liverpool to in the title race, and are the team I am currently backing assuming Manchester City fail to sign Harry Kane.

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Liverpool 2021/22 Expected lineup

Alisson, Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson will undoubtedly make up the defensive five when fit. Meanwhile, Joe Gomez should be favoured to Joel Matip and new signing Ibrahima Konate.

Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara should be the midfield three, although either of the latter two could be dropped for Diogo Jota occasionally in an attacking tactical switch to a 4-2-3-1.

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are certain starters, whilst Roberto Firmino is also likely to start ahead of Jota.

Liverpool Best Players:

Mohamed Salah is the first player on my team sheet. He is Liverpool’s main goal threat, with penalties and a huge open play goal threat.

His worst Premier League goal involvement tally for Liverpool in a season is 28, and he is probably the most consistent performer in the Premier League. He ranked second last season in the league for shots per game and first for shots in the penalty area per game. If anyone is essential, it’s him.

Despite a disappointing campaign last season, Trent Alexander-Arnold remains the top defensive option in my opinion. He actually ended the season remarkably well, with a goal, four assists and five clean sheets in the final ten Premier League games.

With Van Dijk back, we should see a rise in clean sheets, and Alexander-Arnold always has direct free kicks and indirect set-pieces to fall back on. He tallied two goals and seven assists in the Premier League last season, compared to four goals and thirteen assists the season before and a goal and twelve assists the season before that.

Of all Premier League players that played over ten games in the three defensive positions, Trent had the second most shots per game and also created the second most chances per game.

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Liverpool Under the Radar Players:

Andy Robertson is only slightly worse of an option as Alexander-Arnold, given Trent’s extra shot output, mainly from free-kicks. Robertson shares indirect set-pieces with Alexander-Arnold and registered a goal and seven assists last season. Alexander-Arnold had exactly one extra shot per game, which is actually a rather lot. He also made 0.4 more key passes.

Virgil Van Dijk is a huge threat from set-pieces. He scored five in Liverpool’s title winning season and four the season before. With Trent and Robertson’s delivery expertise you can see why. That being said, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold still offer more attacking threat, and will therefore justify the extra cash.

Sadio Mane‘s form dipped last season, only scoring 11 and assisting eight. In comparison, the season before last he scored 18, and the campaign before that was Mane’s best with 22 Premier League goals to his name.

His dip in form may have been caused by the signing of Jota, or the team’s overall drop off. Mane still ranked sixth last season for shots per game in the league, and of the classified midfielders in the official Premier League Fantasy game, only four scored more.

Salah will undoubtedly and deservedly cost more, given his penalty duties and extra general open play goal threat, but I quite like the idea of doubling on the pair given their nice early fixtures.

Diogo Jota isn’t in my expected eleven but will get a fair share of starts and a lot of minutes off the bench. Coming off the bench isn’t much of an issue for him: he scored four in his seven substitute appearances last season, and often came on for longer than twenty minutes.

He also had the most shots per 90 minutes in the Liverpool squad, as well as the rest goal record per 90 minutes.

Fantasy Premier League 2021/22 Tips – Team Previews and Best Players

Liverpool Players to Avoid:

Roberto Firmino doesn’t quite cut it as a Fantasy option for me. He has failed to register double figure returns in terms of both goals and assists in the last two Premier League seasons, and as a rather costly forward, that isn’t sufficient.

Find all our other Premier League 2021/22 Team Previews here which will be continually updated as the season draws closer!

Do you play or want to learn how to play Fantasy Premier League?

Our How to Play FPL Guide is a great place to get started whilst our Ultimate FPL 2021/22 Guide has everything you could ever need be a successful FPL manager.

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