Scout Notes – Pre-Season Round-Up

Premier League champions Leicester kick off their summer schedule with a 2-1 win at Oxford. Promoted frontmen Jordan Rhodes and Andre Gray get amongst the goals again, whilst Andros Townsend is handed a role up front as Alan Pardew trials a 3-5-2 in Palace’s draw against Vancouver Whitecaps.

Oxford United 1 Leicester 2

A goal in each half from Demarai Gray and Jeffrey Schlupp helped Leicester to victory in their first match of pre-season.

Marc Albrighton and new signing Nampalys Mendy sat out a fixture in which Claudio Ranieri, who still awaits the return of a number of internationals, ended up fielding entirely different sides by the final whistle.

Ben Chilwell stood in for Christian Fuchs at left-back as the champions came from behind. Gray, who impressed throughout the first half, equalised from a Leonardo Ulloa pass and Schlupp capped an impressive display from the right flank with the winner.

The assist came from Matty James, making his first appearance since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in April 2015. Tom Lawrence also recovered from the ankle problem that ruled him out of Wales’ Euro 2016 tournament to feature as a second-half sub.

New recruits Ron-Robert Zieler, Luis Hernandez and £16.6m record signing Ahmed Musa all made their debuts, with the latter’s pace catching the eye up front.

Leicester XI: First half: Schmeichel, Simpson, Huth, Morgan, Chilwell, Drinkwater, Choudhury, Gray, Mahrez, Okazaki, Ulloa.

Leicester XI: Zieler, Simpson (Moore 61), Hernandez, Huth (Wasilewski 61), Chilwell (Elder 61), James, Drinkwater (Amartey 61), Lawrence, Schlupp, Ulloa (Musa 61), Okazaki (Muskwe 61).

FC Slovacko 2 West Ham 2

Two of West Ham’s internationals returned to the fray following their summer exertions in a well-fought match against their Czech opponents.

Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Darren Randolph and Ecuadorian striker Enner Valencia both started as the Hammers cruised into a two-goal lead courtesy of Mark Noble and Ashley Fletcher goals either side of half time.

Josh Cullen and Domingos Quina provided the assists.

Slaven Bilic handed Fletcher and Gokhan Tore their first action as Hammers’ players in the second period, while new signing Sofiane Feghouli continued to show flashes of brilliance and Cheikhou Kouyate had his first half of pitch-time.

Sam Byram continued at right-back, whilst Michail Antonio – who missed the club’s brief US tour – stepped up his fitness with a second-half sub appearance.

Despite conceding twice in the last five minutes, assistant manager Nikola Jurcevic was happy with the overall work-out:

“It was a very important test for us, because we were playing a similar opponent to those who we will face in the Europa League qualification games. Now we play Rubin Kazan on Wednesday and we will mix the team again. Maybe we will have some young players at half time, and we will play with more of the experienced players too. We’ll have players like Nordtveit and Cresswell and I think in every game we play we will be better.”

West Ham XI: Randolph (Spiegel 71),Byram, Burke, Rice (Martinez 74), Page (Antonio 46), Noble (Kouyate 46), Feghouli (Tore 46), Cullen, Obiang (Browne 69), Samuelsen (Quina 46), Valencia (Fletcher 46)

Vancouver Whitecaps 2 Crystal Palace 2

Crystal Palace ended their three-date north American tour undefeated as Frazier Campbell scored twice after coming on in the second half.

The striker equalised following good work by Andros Townsend before putting the Eagles ahead from a Connor Wickham assist.

Alan Pardew opted to try out a 3-5-2 formation in the first half, handing Townsend (priced at 6.5 in Fantasy Premier League) an advanced role alongside Freddie Ladapo up front, with Zeki Fryers and Jordon Mutch out wide and Jason Puncheon given a more central midfield role.

Martin Kelly joined regular centre-back pairing Damien Delaney and Scott Dann in defence as Palace started brightly but faded as the half progressed.

The match opened up as the personnel changes mounted up after the break, and Palace were perhaps fortunate to leave Vancouver with their unbeaten record intact.

Post-match, assistant manager Keith Millen took time out to discuss the tactical tinkering:

“We tried a different shape to experiment and we only had two days to do that, so we knew it wouldn’t be perfect. There were some pleasing aspects from our point of view and there’s some stuff that we know we have to work on and get better at. If you look at the Euros this summer teams like Italy and Wales were playing that and we feel that in the Premier League this year some teams might adopt that style so we felt we needed to know that if we go to that shape that we know how to play it. It’s always good to be flexible in what you try to achieve, but whether we continue with it in the season it remains to be seen.”

Crystal Palace XI: Speroni, Kelly, Delaney (Croll 75), Dann, Mutch, Jedinak (Boateng 46), Puncheon (Kaikai 83), Lee (Bolasie 60), Fryers (Wickham 60), Townsend (Berkeley-Agyepong 83), Ladapo (Campbell 46).

Real Betis 2 Middlesbrough 1

Jordan Rhodes made it three goals in as many pre-season starts as Gaston Ramirez was afforded a late cameo ahead of his expected agreement to re-sign for Middlesbrough on a three-year deal.

Priced at 6.0 in FPL, Rhodes headed home from a Cristhian Stuani cross on a night when full-back Antonio Barragan was handed his Boro debut.

Coach Aikor Karanka tinkered with his midfield set-up in the first half, Adam Reach and Carlos de Pena playing either side of a central Stewart Downing in the default 4-2-3-1 set-up.

He then made ten changes after the break, with Adam Reach the only player to make it past the halfway mark.

Winger Albert Adomah travelled with the squad but did not play after picking up a knee injury that kept him out of the win over Doncaster. He is not expected to be on the sidelines for longer than ten days, however.

Middlesbrough XI: First half: Konstantopoulos; Barragan, McGinley, Morris, Gibson, De Roon, Reach, Clayton, Nugent, Downing, De Pena.

Middlesbrough XI: Second half: Mejias; Nsue, Baptiste, Jackson, Friend, Stuani, Reach (Ramirez 80), Forshaw, Fischer, De Sart, Rhodes.

Mansfield Town 0 Hull 1

Steve Bruce could be forgiven for viewing the England job as rather less impossible than the Hull one at the moment, as he lost yet another defender to injury.

Captain Michael Dawson was the latest to limp off, with suspected medial ligament damage, after just 29 minutes at Field Mill. With Allan McGregor, Alex Bruce and Moses Odubajo already unlikely to play again this year, things are bleak.

Tom Huddlestone, and later Andy Robertson, deputised at centre-half and Jarrod Bowen scored from a Shaun Maloney pass in a match that also involved trialist Peter Odemwingie, who hit the post during a 27-minute cameo.

Huddlestone then went off with a potential Achilles injury, and with Jake Livermore and Harry Maguire out with ankle injuries, Bruce could only call on 17 players at Mansfield.

With the season opener against Leicester just over three weeks away, the problems are already racking up for the KC outfit.

Hull XI: Kuciak (Jakupovic 46), Robertson, Davies, Huddlestone (Tymon 46), Snodgrass (Hernandez 75), Clucas, Maloney (Odemwingie 63), Diame (Olley 71), Dawson (Bowen 28), Luer, Elmohamady.

Wigan 0 Liverpool 2

Danny Ings and rising Academy star Ben Woodburn secured a third consecutive pre-season win for a dominant Liverpool on Sunday.

Lazar Markovic provided the assist for Ings with 20 minutes to go before Woodburn struck following good work by Ryan Kent.

Coach Jurgen Klopp made eight changes at half-time, with the most notable action from the first period involving Philippe Coutinho, given his first run-out since returning from Copa America duty.

The Brazilian, who hit the woodwork twice, started with compatriot Roberto Firmino and new signing Sadio Mane in a 4-3-3 formation in which Firmino played through the middle, with Mane to his right and Coutinho on the left.

Klopp had heaped praise on centre-half Joel Matip after the win at Fleetwood, only to see the Cameroon international limp off towards the end of the Wigan match.

A later scan revealed only minor bruising to his ankle – good news for a manager who is already without defenders Mamadou Sakho and Joe Gomez, who both have Achilles problems. Alberto Moreno (neck) and Brad Smith (groin) missed out with minor problems.

The proposed £4.2 million signing of Augsburg centre-half Ragnar Klavan, who was in Liverpool for a medical yesterday, will further ease Klopp’s defensive worries.

Liverpool XI: Karius, Randall, Lovren (Ilori 45), Matip, Flanagan (Wisdom 45), Stewart (Alexander-Arnold 45), Brannagan (Lucas 45), Ejaria (Kent 45), Coutinho (Woodburn 45), Firmino (Ings 45), Mane (Markovic 45).

Morecambe 1 Burnley 1

Striker Andre Gray continued his fine start to pre-season, scoring for a second consecutive match, as Burnley boss Sean Dyche gave 20 players a run-out.

The priciest of any promoted striker in FPL at a cost of 6.5, Gray finished from outside the area after being set up by a George Boyd pass in the second half.

Tom Heaton, just back in training, and new signings Nick Pope and Johann Berg Gudmundsson took no part in a match where all ten outfield players were replaced at the break as Dyche looked to build up his squad’s match fitness.

Burnley XI: First Half: Robinson, Lowton, Mee, Keane, Dummigan, Kightly, Ulvestad, Jones, Arfield, Hennings, Barnes.

Burnley XI: Second Half: Robinson, Darikwa, Tarkowski, K Long, Lafferty, Boyd, Marney, O’Neill, C Long, Gray, Jutkiewicz.