Az From FPL Blackbox Weighs Up Whether Owning Mo Salah and Erling Haaland is Essential For Gameweek 4

I’m Az from FPL Blackbox and welcome to a new series on Sportscasting. I’m back with another round of Fantasy Premier League tips for Gameweek 4.

With a best overall finish of 817th in the 2017/18 season, I have been imparting my knowledge in regards to all thing Fantasy Football ever since.

Az From FPL Blackbox Fantasy Premier League Tips – Gameweek 4

Is owning both Salah and Haaland “essential” in FPL? It’s Wildcard season, with many people activating the chip over this international break and others earmarking it for the next few weeks.

The deliberation FPL managers are facing is how to include Salah and Haaland, the two most expensive assets in the game, and keep a team that is well balanced and includes players from other teams with good fixtures on the horizon.

Using plan.fpl from Fantasy Football Scout, I’ve had a look at the kind of teams we can make if we drop one of Haaland/Salah – or what our best options are if we do decide to keep both. I’ve kept the teams to a max budget of £100.0m, with player prices correct at the time of writing (2pm on the 11th September 2024).

Across all the three drafts, the defence is relatively similar. Trent is an absolute non-negotiable for me no matter what strategy you adopt, and an Arsenal defender looks a must for their run in from Gameweek 6. Rico Lewis is a fun, but slightly risky pick, so if you are getting the cut-price City man, make sure your other defenders can cover if needed to.

In midfield, Eze is featured in all three drafts with good underlying stats and fixtures. Minteh and Rogers are my cut price weapons of choice.

Up front, Watkins hasn’t started the season particularly strongly but I’m backing him to deliver against potentially obliging opponents or you can go for Isak if you are worried about Ollie’s fitness. Joao Pedro is an absolute steal at £5.5m and is in all three drafts.

‘Just Haaland’ Draft

Going with just Haaland means you’ll likely want to take a punt on a different Liverpool midfielder to Salah, with Luis Diaz my preferred choice. 

Diogo Jota and Dominic Szoboszlai are however great options, with the latter seemingly even more nailed on with news of an injury to Harvey Elliot.

No Salah means you can afford both Palmer and Watkins, both with great fixtures for the coming weeks.

‘Just Salah’ Draft

With no Haaland, I’d switch up to a 3-5-2 and go for the slightly more attractive (but pricey) option of a Brentford/Brighton goalkeeper rotation, which gives an incredible set of fixtures right up to Christmas. 

Saliba can then obviously come in Gameweek 6 and Saka is already in place with no transfers needed to get to him.

The team is very balanced, the issue of course is going without the Norwegian. Haaland will be heavily captained vs. Brentford at home, but then plays Arsenal and Newcastle away where you may be able to steal a march with Salah playing Bournemouth and Saka at home to Leicester.

The scary run is when Haaland faces Fulham, Wolves, Southampton and Bournemouth between Gameweeks 7-10. Moving the captaincy around your other premium midfielders would feasibly give you Southampton (Saka), Bournemouth (Saka), Newcastle (Palmer), Brighton (Salah). 

Not a bad set of captains by any stretch, which certainly makes this strategy viable.

‘Both Haaland and Salah’ Draft

It is possible to fit in Haaland, Salah, Saka and Trent – but it does come at the cost of a weak bench, plus having to start three £5.5m or under players every week. 

If you wanted to back against Saka for a few weeks, you could take a punt on Van Der Berg over Pinnock, to free up some money, or alternatively you could go for Heung-Min Son.

Going for Lewis with a Brentford defender and Greaves as backup does worry me slightly, so you could bring the Man City man down to someone a bit cheaper who is absolutely nailed on (my first choice would probably be Lewis Dunk).

My main issue with this team is that how do you run away from players like Minteh or Rogers if they don’t perform or lose their place in the team? Going for one in your starting lineup is okay, but backing on both to deliver every week might be a bit much. 

I fear that if you are using a chip to get to this team, you may be wanting another wildcard in a few weeks to get out of it.

Conclusion

If I was on my Wildcard this week, I’d definitely lean towards either a ‘Haaland only’ or ‘Salah only’ draft. You can create a well-balanced team with plenty of other options in the side that can score points and allows you to be more flexible in moving to other players when form and fixtures turn in their favour.

You can find even more insights from one of the best FPL tipsters, by  following Az on X – @fplblackbox_az