Scout Notes – Pre-Season Round-up

Burnley’s Andre Gray bags a fifth goal of the summer. Gerard Deulofeu and Ross Barkley net again for Everton, whilst Spurs hand a debut to both their pre-season signings in a 2-1 loss to Juventus.

Bolton 1 Burnley 2

Another day, another Andre Gray goal, as the striker netted for the fifth time in pre-season in Burnley’s narrow win over their Lancashire rivals.

Gray, priced at 6.5 in the Fantasy Premier League, is rapidly becoming a great example of the form v fixtures debate. He is currently in nearly 10% of FPL squads even though Liverpool, Chelsea and Leicester are among Burnley’s first five opponents.

The striker converted a penalty that he earned himself before Bolton hit back and continued to threaten, only for Josh Ginnelly to win it for the Clarets with a late strike.

Strikers Ashley Barnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz, who both suffered hamstring tweaks at the weekend, missed out, as did David Jones and Fredrik Ulvestad. As a result, Dan Agyei was handed a first senior start up front.

After the match, Clarets boss Sean Dyche issued some mixed news on Barnes and Jutkiewicz’ injuries:

“Ashley is unfortunately going to be a bit longer than we hoped. We are not sure exactly how long yet but he’s tweaked a hamstring muscle. The good news is it’s not in the belly of the hamstring, but we are hoping it will settle down quickly. He got off quickly (at Bradford), which is helpful, and Lukas’s is just common sense and a bit of tightness. His (injury) is very minor and he trained on grass on Tuesday and will be training the rest of the week.”

Burnley XI: Heaton (Robinson, 66); Lowton (Darikwa, 71), Keane (Mee, 45), Tarkowski (K. Long, 71), Ward (Lafferty, 66); Arfield (Jackson, 81), O’Neill, Marney (Boyd, 59), Kightly (Ginnelly, 81); Agyei (Hennings, 66), Gray (C. Long, 45).

MK Dons 1 Everton 3

Gerard Deulofeu scored one goal and set up another as Everton continued their Ronald Koeman learning curve.

With Romelu Lukaku only just back in training – and his Everton future still in doubt – the young Spaniard was again fielded as a “false nine” and seemed to take a real liking to Koeman’s desire for quick, early balls forward and a pressing game high up the pitch.

That pressure forced a defensive error that Deulofeu capitalised on for the first goal before he played in Ross Barkley for the second.

Muhamed Besic rounded off the Everton scoring late on from an Aiden McGeady assist.

Martin Stekelenburg was preferred to Joel Robles in goal and put in a performance that had the local media suggesting the number one jersey is the Dutchman’s to lose, while Koeman made a raft of changes as the match wore on, including his entire back four, with Leighton Baines and the fit-again John Stones given pitch time.

Despite the victory, Koeman conceded his side were very much a work in progress:

“The team, the players, we need to press better. The pitch in some stages of the game was too long. If you press up front, it means the midfielders they need to push up as well and it’s the same for the defenders. If one is pressing and the player behind is not following, you get problems. On that we need to improve.”

Everton XI: Stekelenburg, Coleman (Baines 61), Pennington (Holgate 61), Mori (Stones 61), Oviedo (Galloway 61), Tarashaj (McGeady 46), Cleverley (Besic 61), Davies (Gibson 61), Mirallas (Lennon 61), Barkley (Dowell 61), Deulofeu

Barnsley 2 Hull 2

A late equaliser from Jarrod Bowen kept Hull’s unbeaten pre-season record intact.

Bowen struck from a Peter Odemwingie assist as caretaker manager Mike Phelan was again forced to field a number of Academy players in light of the club’s many injury woes.

Adama Diomande had given the Tigers the lead early in the first half, finishing well from a Shaun Maloney pass, but Barnsley gave as good as they got throughout the match and came within four minutes of securing a comeback victory.

David Meyler made his first appearance of pre-season to boost Phelan’s midfield options, although the latter’s days in the role look numbered, with former Everton boss Roberto Martinez now the clear favourite to land the Hull job.

Hull XI: Kuciak, Elmohamady, Tymon, Davies, Clackstone (Barkworth 59), Diame, Clucas, Maloney (Meyler 78), Odemwingie (Olley 87), Diomande (Bowen 46), Luer (Hernandez 57).

Spurs 1 Juventus 2

Tottenham’s pre-season started with a loss to Juventus as coach Mauricio Pochettino fielded an inexperienced side that gifted the Italian giants two first half goals.

With a raft of international stars still recovering from their summer workload, Pochettino did at least manage to hand debuts to new signings Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen. Given that Kevin Wimmer (black eye) and Christian Eriksen (illness) missed out, asking such a young team to keep Juventus at bay was always going to be tricky.

Spurs improved considerably after the break and Erik Lamela, one of three half-time substitutes, cut the arrears after good work from Wanyama, who was one of only two outfield players to feature from start to finish.

Post-match, Pochettino was hopeful that Eriksen could recover in time for the upcoming clash against Atletico Madrid:

“[Eriksen] got a virus when we arrived in Australia on Saturday. It was impossible for him to be involved in the game [against Juventus]. We’ll see. We will see what happens on Friday and we hope he will be available to play 45 minutes.”

Spurs XI: Vorm; Trippier (Walkes 63), Ball (Amos 79), Carter-Vickers, Miller (Yedlin 46); Mason (Winks 46), Wanyama; Son (Lamela 46), Carroll (Edwards 63), Chadli (Onomah 46); Janssen (Harrison 63).