The Digest – Gameweek 1

We bring our Gameweek 1 retrospective to a close with the Digest, assessing the player, the team and the talking point that stood out when the dust settled on the first ten matches.

The Player

There’s no doubt that, at his best, Philippe Coutinho is a magician.

Yet the Brazilian has rarely been able to bewitch the majority of Fantasy Football managers.

Most of us are aware of his qualities but also that, for all those burgeoning goal attempt statistics, his threat is often from 25 yards or more.

That wasn’t a problem at the Emirates on Saturday. Coutinho almost defied physics to curl the ball at pace into the top corner of Petr Cech’s net, inches inside the post. It was a moment of pure brilliance.

His second goal was perhaps more significant.

This saw Coutinho steal into the Arsenal box to add the decisive glancing touch to a quite brilliant multi-pass move. It was the kind of goal we rarely associate with Coutinho – the type he will need to score more of if he is to genuinely threaten a shift into the heavy-hitter bracket.

There are still doubts that this is a possible transition. We’re expecting Coutinho to frustrate his army of eager investors and for both Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to surpass his output.

We could be wrong.

Coutinho’s talent is not in question and if Jurgen Klopp is able to drive the playmaker to raid the box and register goals to add to his long-range efforts, he could make that step up.

This week’s knee jerk transfer could be a masterstroke and his bandwagon may only pick up speed come the final whistle at Turf Moor.

The Team

While Liverpool’s performance and bewildering cast of options are deserving of our attention, Hull City’s display in beating Leicester City can’t be ignored.

Jurgen Klopp’s side will likely be our focus on numerous occasions this season – that may not be the case with the Tigers.

Even so, Mike Phelan’s side suggested that we’re already guilty of writing them off far too early.

As a source of Fantasy talent, they are unlikely to set the world alight and yet in Robert Snodgass they clearly have a key player who could yet push for inclusion in our squads.

A broken knee cap robbed the Scot of a full season with Hull in the Premier League last time out – his commitment in Saturday’s win over the Foxes was indicative of a player with something to prove.

Certainly his command of set-pieces will have few peers throughout the league.

Snodgrass appeared to take corners from both right and left and was undisputedly the player to seize the ball when in range of the opponents’ goal.

His second half winner demonstrated a talent to find the net and, at 5.5, Snodgrass demands further monitoring when Hull’s fixtures and squad depth improves.

Elsewhere in Phelan’s line-up, the options are scarce, although in Curtis Davies they have a defender who offers goal threat and who can dominate clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBI). Even at 5.0, he could factor in our thinking should the Tigers enter a period that resembles Watford’s mid-season in 2015/16, where grinding results to achieve survival becomes the overriding objective.

The Talking Point

While both Sergio Aguero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic warmed up for a season-long battle with a goal apiece, Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy were already left in their wake.

The England pair suffered troubling weekends as Fantasy assets.

Vardy missed several “big chances” and then surrendered spot-kick duties to Riyad Mahrez. In doing so, he sealed his fate for many FPL managers who immediately parted company.

The merits of that decision will be known in the coming weeks – maybe even on Saturday, as Leicester host a troubled Arsenal defence – the first of four home matches in the next six Gameweeks.

Kane’s weekend was less catastrophic but similarly concerning.

Having suffered an abject Euro 16 campaign, Kane’s touch and confidence showed little signs of revival as he struggled to make an impression.

Tottenham’s fortunes were improved with the introduction of new signing Vincent Jansssen and that saw Kane drop even deeper in a bid to influence play, taking him further away from the Everton goal.

We saw Kane draw blanks in the first six Gameweeks of last season before breaking free with a flurry of goals. He’s a striker who lives on confidence and who can transform overnight to an almost unstoppable force.

Saturday’s display indicated he was somewhat short of that level – the statistics showed he failed to register a single effort on goal.

The White Hart Lane meeting with Crystal Palace already looks vital to his early season prospects and the 19% who showed the faith with their initial squads.