Blasphemy, sacrilege!
Only a particularly ungrateful, fickle Dream Team gaffer would criticise Mohamed Salah (£7.9m) for lacklustre returns in recent weeks.
After all, the Egyptian remains the overall top points scorer with 283 to his name at an average of 7.6 per game.
The Golden Boot is already a formality for the 29-year-old, who has scored 20 Premier League goals this season, as his closest competitors, Son Heung-min (£5.2m) and Diogo Jota (£5.4m), are both six goals adrift.
Not only that, only Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m) has more assists (11) than Salah (ten) in the league this term.
The enduring quality of Liverpool’s No11 is beyond question but the nature of Dream Team often means assets are only as good as their most recent Game Week.
Salah has mustered 11 points from his last six appearances – the Reds have played eight games in that time.
Five of those points came via a goal from the penalty spot against Brighton in Game Week 28.
Against Watford on Saturday, he failed to register a shot on target which is rare for any fixture, let alone a home game against a team in the relegation zone.
Salah has let fly with 118 shots in the top flight this season, comfortably the most of anyone in the league, so the fact he failed to test Ben Foster (£1.8m) once came as a surprise.
However, it’s worth noting he was substituted in the 69th minute with Jurgen Klopp keeping one eye on Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Benfica.
There’s probably no need for Dream Team gaffers to do anything rash in regards to Salah’s spell of relative lean returns.
Liverpool have won ten league games in a row and goals continue to come easily enough – they’re averaging over 2.5 goals per game in the league.
A couple of blanks here and there shouldn’t be enough to lose faith in Dream Team’s outright best performer.
Considering he’s averaging a goal every 81 minutes in the Champions League this season, who would confidently bet against Salah finding the net in the Portuguese capital on Tuesday night?
Not only is the Reds’ top scorer likely to end his mini drought (if you can even call it that) sooner rather than later, his huge ownership of 62.7% means his returns are unlikely to be consequential.
At this stage, it’s highly likely that every team near the top of any given mini-league has Salah up front and so whether he blanks or scores a hat-trick, it doesn’t make much of a difference to the standings.
In conclusion, there’s no need to get too cute here – back Salah to the end if he’s fit.