The Scout compares stats of the Liverpool and Man City stars as they continue to dominate

Mohamed Salah (£13.0 million) became the first player to reach 100 points in the 2023–24 Fantasy Premier League with his two goals against Brentford.

With 101 points, the Egyptian leads his closest competitor, Erling Haaland of Manchester City (£14.0 million), by five.

Haaland has demonstrated why he is the most well-liked player in Fantasy by scoring 13 goals to justify his 82 percent ownership.

In contrast, Salah has three fewer goals than Haaland and is only chosen by 46% of managers.

However, over the first 12 Gameweeks, he has been able to match and even surpass the Norwegian in terms of FPL points thanks to his classification as a midfielder in Fantasy Football.

For each goal he scores, Salah receives five Fantasy points, while Haaland only receives four points as a forward.

Midfielders also collect one point for a clean sheet, whereas forwards are not rewarded.

Indeed, it has been Liverpool’s improved defensive displays that have helped Salah into triple figures.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have kept three of their four clean sheets this season in the last four Gameweeks, earning Salah three points to take him past 100 points.

Haaland better for bonus points

On the other hand, when it comes to collecting bonus points, Haaland’s listing as a forward in Fantasy gives him the edge.

For every goal scored, forwards earn 24 points in the Bonus Points System (BPS), which determines the bonus-point allocation in any given match.

As a midfielder, Salah only gets 18 points in the BPS for every goal he scores.

Indeed, Haaland is the top-scoring player in the BPS on 375, while Salah places third on 302, behind the 317 of Newcastle United’s Kieran Trippier (£7.0m).

The underlying numbers show Haaland still has the clear advantage for goal threat over his premium rival.

His 46 shots, 44 shots in the box, 23 big chances and 25 shots on target are all league-leading totals.

Salah, nonetheless, still fares very well. He is second only to Haaland for shots, shots on target and big chances.

The Liverpool star’s all-round style of play is also highlighted by his 11 big chances created, at least three more than any other player this season.

Ultimately, it’s easy to see why Haaland is so highly backed, with the Norwegian very likely to reclaim the Golden Boot award.

Salah may not be able to compete with Haaland on pure goal threat alone, but his midfield role in Fantasy, added to his all-round style of play, makes him just as essential for the rest of the season.

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Liverpool striker Darwin Núñez didn’t score against Brentford on Sunday, but he did display some important new strings to his bow to earn glowing Jürgen Klopp praise.

Darwin Núñez’s remarkable run of assists for Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah continued as the Reds beat Brentford 3-0 on Saturday.

According to Opta, this is only the third time in Premier League history that a player’s first seven assists in the competition have come for the same teammate.

Here, Núñez teed up Salah with a smart touch-and-lay-off on the edge of the penalty area, sustaining their formidable partnership.

No duo has created as many as chances for one another (19) or combined for as many goals (five) in the top-flight this season.

Virtually all of the external noise around the Uruguayan concerns his goalscoring, or more specifically his finishing, but he has had to evolve as an all-rounder this term too in order to nail down a place in Jürgen Klopp’s starting line-up and justify a potential club-record investment.

Even if he was lethal in front of goal, Klopp would have serious reservations about starting him if that was all he really offered.

Against Brentford, he showed signs of becoming a more complete number nine, with Klopp applauding his performance as the team’s ‘connector’.

“All the moments when we could keep the ball on the ground, when we could play football, when Darwin connected the game for us exceptionally, it was super-dangerous for them,” he said in his post-match press conference, via liverpoolfc.com.

Klopp wasn’t just talking about his latest assist for Salah. Núñez completed 22 passes in this game, more than he has in any Premier League match this season, and also set season-highs for progressive passes (six), passes into the penalty area (four) and passes received (30, level with the game against Luton the previous weekend).

In the same vein as Cody Gakpo, he showed a willingness to drop deeper to receive the ball before shifting it forward himself, rather than simply hanging on the shoulder of the last defender waiting for his chance to come.

He did so effectively too, leading the side in those aforementioned progressive passing and passes into the area stakes. He found the space and showcased improved technical skill to hold onto possession in congested areas.

That certainly wasn’t the only thing about his performance that Klopp admired.

The manager also raved about Núñez’s defensive contribution, in particular his ‘insane’ effort to cut off Brentford’s direct approach at source.

“Standout in this defending was really Darwin because it’s all about [that] Brentford wants to play long balls, that’s one thing, but you need to know when, and we can only influence that by one player, when you start the pressing from the center you have to go for the goalie without getting the ball, they pass to the center-half and you follow that, so the work-rate was insane,” he explained.

As per former Reds forward and LFCTV analyst Neil Mellor, Núñez topped the Liverpool charts for distance covered (11.04km) and sprints (28), but what really matters is that this running was effective.

Klopp billed the 24-year-old a ‘racehorse’ last season but that wasn’t entirely complimentary (via This is Anfield), because it reflected the reality that he often chased defenders relentlessly without appreciation for the subtleties of pressing.

The application has never been in doubt, but now Núñez is hunting the ball in a manner more likely to force turnovers.

Largely thanks to him, Liverpool held Brentford to season-lows for both long passes attempted (57) and long passes completed (27).

Coming into the game, we were waiting to see if Núñez could produce a response after his horror miss against Luton, and while he didn’t find the net here — he didn’t really get the clear sight of goal he needed, without straying offside at least — he produced a strong seven-out-of-10 performance without scoring, the marker of a much more rounded center-forward.