Fantasy Premier League

No Salah, no problem for GW1 Manager of the Week

By The Scout 14 Aug 2018
Mohamed Salah, Liverpool

See how a daring decision to leave out the game's most popular player helped one manager become the best of Gameweek 1

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A bold decision not to own Fantasy Premier League's most popular player proved a masterstroke by Lewis Osborne.

The English manager's team scored a massive 125 points despite the absence of Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) from his squad.

Instead, Lewis backed Sadio Mane (£9.6m) and captained Salah's Liverpool team-mate for a superb 32-point haul.

FPL Manager of the Week GW1
Maximising the Salah money

But it was at the back where Lewis really reaped the benefit of his no-Salah gamble.

The money saved by not investing in FPL's most expensive player enabled him to opt for three premium-priced defenders: Andrew Robertson (£6.0m), Marcos Alonso (£6.5m) and Benjamin Mendy (£6.1m).

All three brought in double-digit returns, with Mendy's 15 points from two assists, a clean sheet and maximum bonus the best of the bunch.

They were supported by Manchester United full-back Luke Shaw (£5.1m), whose first FPL goal helped him to 11 points, and eight points from goalkeeper Ederson's (£5.5m) clean sheet for Manchester City against Arsenal.

Gameweek 1 was notable for the lack of decent returns from forwards. But Lewis managed to gain points from Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) and Roberto Firmino (£9.5m), who managed a goal and an assist respectively.

The only sour note was Lewis's benching of Crystal Palace's Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.1m), a decision that cost him and 502,288 others 12 precious points.

As the manager who scored the highest points in Gameweek 1 without making use of a chip, Alex wins a copy of FIFA 19, a Nike Merlin match ball and an FPL rucksack and mug.

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