In a Gameweek where many of the top captain picks in Fantasy Premier League failed to deliver, Sadio Mane (£11.7m) proved a major exception.
The winger scored Liverpool's first goal and set up their second in Saturday's 2-1 home win over Leicester City, claiming 12 points.
Mane was among only three of the 20 most-picked captains to produce attacking returns, along with Tammy Abraham (£7.7m) and Raul Jimenez (£7.1m).
The Senegal international is now the third-top scoring player in the game on 57 points.
He has supplied double-figure hauls in three of his seven starts this season.
Yet Mane's ability to produce explosive returns has yet to convince FPL managers when it comes to selecting a captain.
Mane's captaincy rank GW1-8
| GW | Captained by | Captain rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 228,088 | 6 | 1 |
| 2 | 252,240 | 6 | 13 |
| 3 | 216,954 | 8 | 3 |
| 4 | 216,672 | 7 | 8 |
| 5 | 312,160 | 7 | 15 |
| 6 | 354,334 | 7 | 2 |
| 7 | 302,567 | 8 | 3 |
| 8 | 251,736 | 8 | 12 |
He was only the eighth-top armband pick for Gameweek 8, backed by 251,000+ as their skipper.
And that reluctance has been reflected across the season, where Mane has yet to be among the top five captains in any Gameweek in 2019/20.
After helping Senegal reach the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in the summer, Mane featured as a substitute for Liverpool in Gameweek 1.
But he has since started each of the subsequent seven Gameweeks, providing 56 points.
By comparison, his team-mate Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) has 43 points over the last seven Gameweeks.
That not only strengthens Mane's appeal as a more cost-effective option in the Liverpool attack, it also highlights his potential to be a major armband alternative to the Egyptian in 2019/20.
