Time to Let the Egyptian King Go and Bring Eze or Rice In

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It may pain many FPL managers to admit this, but the decision to move Mohamed Salah for Eberechi Eze isn't just a smart FPL play anymore. At this point of the season, it's mandatory. Right now, keeping Salah is like holding onto a luxury car you know is about to be parked in the garage for a month, while the price of gas is skyrocketing. You need to sell the car and buy a reliable daily driver that actually works. Here is the breakdown of why this move is the ultimate cash-cow transfer, offering maximum short-term returns and crucial long-term flexibility.

Salah's (and Liverpool's) poor form has been evident for a while and most fantasy football managers have sold most of their Liverpool assets at this point. Mohammed Salah is still present in the squads of 24% of FPL managers, however, with many hoping that he will keep scoring points even if Liverpool are in bad form. He's Salah after all, right? Besides, if an FPL manager can find the funds to fit both Salah and Haaland into the same squad, why not keep both and hope the Egyptian King will bring in the points again soon?

The numbers go against this hope, however, and so does the reality of the upcoming AFCON tournament. What's more - Salah's ideal replacements may be becoming more and more evident as both Rice and Eze are in top form.

1. The Cash and The Deadline: Why You Must Act Now

The simple arithmetic is overwhelming. You are holding the game’s most expensive midfielder, Mohamed Salah, currently priced at around 14.2 million pounds - a price that's been dropping but is still overly high. In contrast, Eberechi Eze, who is in hot form and just scored a derby hat-trick, comes in at just 7.6 million pounds - exactly two times less than Salah. And Declan Rice is even more affordable, at 6.9 million pounds right now!

This transfer immediately banks you the money for a Rice + Eze in cold, hard FPL cash. That's enough to completely transform your defense or upgrade a mid-price forward to a genuine premium striker.

2. Salah is Going Away Soon

But the real kicker is AFCON. Salah is heading to the African Cup of Nations in December. If Egypt goes all the way, Salah misses up to six massive Gameweeks around the busiest period in the Fantasy Premier League.

The bottom line: For six weeks during the busiest period of the season, your 14.2 million poubd asset will be scoring zero points. Keeping him is financial suicide and waiting for AFCON before you sell him seems unnecessary either, given his poor form. Selling him now means you avoid the inevitable mass sell-off price drop and free up that massive budget immediately.

3. Salah is Broken (And So is Liverpool)

Even before AFCON, the argument for keeping Salah is weak because he’s no longer the unstoppable force we know. Salah tends to perform well only when Liverpool as a whole performs well, and they don't right now. The team has slumped badly, suffering five defeats in their last six Premier League matches. Plus, Liverpool's shaky defense puts the attack under huge pressure, making it harder for Salah to deliver consistently.

4. Salah is a Penalty Merchant

Dive into the stats and you see a worrying trend: Salah is relying too heavily on penalties to pad his numbers. Over a recent four-game spell, his non-penalty expected goals (NPxG) was a very low 0.31, with one penalty accounting for most of his threat. You pay 14+ millions for an open-play threat, not just a penalty taker.

5. Tricky Fixtures

Liverpool's upcoming games aren't the walkovers they seem. The official Fixture Difficulty Rating (FDR) lists the Sunderland away game as a challenging 3.7 Given their current defensive issues, even games against high-flying Sunderland and Brighton should be considered as tricky as the previous struggles against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace were.

6. Eze and Rice are the Red-Hot Value Picks

In contrast, Eberechi Eze is flying and offers multiple paths to points at a fraction of the cost. Eze is in great form, having accumulated 39 points in his last five matches. Rice scored 31 points in the same fixtures and 71 overall so far this season. Both are consistent starters with good underlying stats. And, unlike with Salah's case, a key factor here is Eze's and Rice's team environment. Arsenal has become a team that excels at creating chances and both Rice and Eze are center pieces for that highly efficient attack.

7. Guaranteed Availability

Unlike Salah, Eze and Rice will be available for every single game across the crucial festive period, securing guaranteed returns while your rivals’ biggest asset is missing.

The Final Verdict

As of writing this, Salah is still picked by about 24% of fantasy football managers, while Eze is in 14% of FPL squads. These numbers are about to shift even more sharply, however, and with them, the prices of both players will shift as well.

The move is a no-brainer: Sell Salah, free up the massive amounts of funds to fix other weaknesses in your squad, and bring in Eze and/or Rice,  as both are highly involved, in-form midfielders who are guaranteed to play and score points throughout the AFCON period. You are swapping a risky, expensive, and soon-to-be-absent player for an in-form value king, strengthening your squad structure massively in the process.