A snazzy new edition of Dream Team for the 2022/23 season is almost upon us.
Eager gaffers won’t have to wait much longer before they can dive head first into the player list.
No doubt most clear-minded bosses will be thinking of including Mohamed Salah in their XI, given the Egyptian finished last season as the outright top points scorer among all assets.
The big question is: how much will Salah cost from the get-go?
We can reveal that Liverpool’s prolific No11 will start at £7.5m.
That represents a £1.5m increase from his starting price this time last year.
Additionally, we’re happy to spread the news that Salah will start the new campaign as the joint-most expensive player in the game – feel free to speculate about who else is top dog.
The 30-year-old racked up 331 points in 2021/22 while no other player made it pass the 300 mark.
His returns waned slightly in the final weeks but the fact is he was in a bracket of his own for the majority of the campaign.
Salah scored 31 goals and provided 15 assists in 51 appearances for the Reds last term, earning eight Star Man awards and 108 points from 7+ ratings along the way.
He earned more points from goals alone (155) than Wilfried Zaha earned overall (144) – and the Crystal Palace talisman finished as the eighth-best forward.
To be honest, there’s barely enough storage on the internet for all stats and comparisons that illustrate just how brilliant a Dream Team asset Salah was last season.
The advantage he has over the other players whose prices we’ve leaked, Darwin Nunez and Erling Haaland, is that he’s proven himself in the Premier League over the course of several seasons.
Salah’s ‘worst’ season in Liverpool colours from an individual perspective came in 2019/20, the year the Reds lifted their first Premier League crown, when he scored 23 goals in all competitions.
He averages 31.2 goals per season for Jurgen Klopp’s side – he’s as close as you’ll get to a sure thing.
The only element that threatened to limit his returns in the coming season was the uncertainty over his future but that was resolved last week when he signed a new three-year contract.
Liverpool will be strong again in 2022/23 and Salah will surely continue to provide regular goals and assists – remember, he won the Premier League’s Playmaker of the Season award as well as the Golden Boot last term.
£7.5m is a hefty investment but all Dream Team gaffers should ask themselves: can I afford to start the season without Salah?
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