Scout Notes – International Round Up

Sergio Aguero declares himself fit, Belgians make hay and two midfield heavyweights star for the French in Monday’s international matches.

AGUERO FIT – AND KEEN TO PLAY

Great news for Sergio Aguero (13.1) owners – he’s not injured after all. Bad news for Sergio Aguero owners – he wants to play against Paraguay in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The Manchester City striker is close to becoming the most popular Fantasy Premier League pick, with only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (11.5) owned by more than the Argentinian’s 43.3%. A brave/foolhardy 62,000+ managers have even drafted him in since GW7, despite Aguero’s previous form for getting injured on international duty.

Deja vu was certainly in the air when reports surfaced that a calf problem picked up in the 2-2 draw against Peru might be more serious than initially thought.

But now Aguero himself has played down the issue.

“You always want to play in the national team and try to do the best, and for now I feel good physically. We did tests, they were good and I’m trying to get as fresh as possible for Tuesday. Last season, for wanting to continue, I ended up injured against Ecuador. Sometimes you think ‘why didn’t I stop?’ Because then I’m out for a month and a half and I miss six or seven games for City. But when they call you for the national team, you want to play. That’s how it is.

With a home match versus Everton coming on Saturday, City coach Pep Guardiola and more than 1,660,000 FPL managers will have to endure Aguero’s admirable patriotism for another long 90 minutes.

No such luck for the 3.4% with Bacary Sagna (5.4) in their squads – the French full back limped out of the 4-1 win over Bulgaria on Friday with a hamstring problem and will be sidelined until at least early November.

BELGIAN BONANZA

It’s a good time to be a Christian Benteke (7.6) owner.

The Crystal Palace striker is in fine form, with three goals in his last four league outings, and he made history in Belgium’s 6-0 rout of Gibraltar last night by scoring after just seven seconds.

Having netted the fastest-ever World Cup goal, he then went on to bag a hat-trick.

Okay, so it was only Gibraltar, but when Benteke is in-form and confident, there aren’t many strikers better, so 6.9% of FPL managers will be rubbing their hands ahead of Palace’s home match against a struggling West Ham on Saturday – the Hammers have conceded nine goals in three away matches to date.

After that, the fixtures are a mixed bag for Palace all the way up to the final international break of the year in November, with Liverpool at home and Leicester City and Burnley away, but an on-song Benteke tends to be a handful for any defence.

He only started against Gibraltar as a thigh problem kept Romelu Lukaku (9.4) on the bench.

At 22.2%, the Everton striker is the fourth most-owned FPL forward in the game, so his post-match tweet that it was ‘time to go home and recover from this little thigh problem’ will have come as some relief to many – over his use of the word ‘little’.

Lukaku has five goals and an assist from his last four league outings and, if fit, would fancy his chances of adding to that against a Man City defence that’s kept just one clean sheet all season.

Two other Belgians enjoyed themselves against Gibraltar.

Eden Hazard (9.9) followed up his strike against Bosnia and Herzegovina with another goal and an assist yesterday.

The 19.7% of managers who have stuck by him will hope that he can end his barren spell for Chelsea, during which he’s done nothing of note for the last four league matches, when Leicester visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime.

And Burnley’s highest-scoring midfielder, Steven Defour (6.0), produced an assist. He has three of those, and a goal, in six starts for the Clarets.

Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld (6.5) also supplied an assist, adding to his goal against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday.

PAYET AND POGBA PERFORM

Reports of Dimitri Payet’s (9.4) demise seem rather premature.

The West Ham midfielder might not yet have scaled the Olympian heights he managed last season, but he has still served up four assists and a wonder goal in four league starts and provided the pass that led to France’s goal in the 1-0 win in Holland.

Palace and Everton away and home matches with Sunderland and Stoke await Payet.

France’ goal came from Paul Pogba (8.3). With 9.9% ownership figures, he remains Manchester United’s most popular midfielder by some margin, but a goal in the GW6 rout of Leicester is his only significant contribution thus far.

Even if his form is on the up, away matches against Liverpool and Chelsea suggest now is not yet the time to splash out on the world’s most expensive player.

Bellerin Boost for Gunners

Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin (6.5) shrugged off an ankle problem to play from start to finish in Spain Under 21s 5-0 win over Estonia.

The right-back was rated doubtful heading into last night’s match and his recovery will be music to the ears of a healthy 25% ownership – making him the third most popular defender in FPL.

Bellerin also sits third in the defender standings and with clashes against Swansea, Middlesbrough and Sunderland up next, looks well placed for further returns at both ends of the pitch.