Scout Notes – Pre-Season

Alex Iwobi catches the eye for Arsenal and Dominic Solanke does the same for Liverpool on a busy day of pre-season matches.

There are also wins for Leicester City and Swansea City, while Everton prepare for their entry into the Europa League fray next week with a strong win in Holland.

Here are the notes from yesterday’s matches…

Arsenal 1 Bayern Munich 1 (Arsenal win 3-2 on penalties)

July 19, 2017 – the day an English team beat a German one on penalties. And the day Arsenal beat Bayern Munich.

Shame it was only a pre-season friendly…

Alex Iwobi’s late, late equaliser, from an Aaron Ramsey cross, took the match to spot-kicks after Bayern had defended a lead for the best part of 85 minutes.

The Germans then failed to score from three of their five attempts, with Arsenal keeper Emiliano Martinez saving the decisive penalty from Juan Bernat.

Ramsey (7.0) now has a goal and an assist from three pre-season outings, which will please his 5.1% FPL ownership.

That’s of particular relevance to Fantasy managers keen to take advantage of Arsenal’s excellent schedule up to Gameweek 8 – aside from trips to Liverpool and Chelsea, they have six matches rated as a 2 in the Fixture Difficult Rankings.

But Iwobi – who is available for just 5.5 and currently owned by a mere 0.8% – has contributed in all three matches, notching a goal and two assists.

However, the main rider here remains the future of Alexis Sanchez. If the Chilean does stay at the club, there seems little doubt that Iwobi would have to form an orderly queue behind both Sanchez and Mesut Ozil for a place supporting the lone striker in Wenger’s 3-4-2-1 set-up.

New man Sead Kolasinac started the match but lasted only until just before half-time before going off due to a sickness bug. Both Per Mertesacker and Olivier Giroud failed to take part after also falling ill, with Mohamed Elneny again asked to fill in at the back, while Ramsey and Theo Walcott played on despite feeling unwell.

Arsenal XI: Cech (Martinez 71); Bielik (Bramall 46), Elneny, Monreal; Maitland-Niles, Coquelin (Walcott), Xhaka (Ramsey 61), Kolasinac (Nelson 43); Ozil (Iwobi 46), Welbeck (Nketiah 71); Lacazette (Willock 46).

Liverpool 2 Crystal Palace 0

A first Liverpool goal for Dominic Solanke helped the Reds overcome a stubborn Crystal Palace in Hong Kong.

Solanke fired home from a Divock Origi flick before the Belgian striker then sealed the victory from a Philippe Coutinho assist.

Liverpool’s riches in attack are already causing issues among Fantasy managers, with Coutinho (30.8%), Roberto Firmino (20.2%) and new man Mohamed Salah (12.4%) all already well-owned despite no clear indications as to who, if any, will enjoy undroppable status this season.

Solanke’s fine goal and all-round performance merely muddies the water further, with manager Jurgen Klopp confirming that rotation will be a definite factor as his team prepare for Champions League football.

“If it stays like this. I would say you should perform if you want to play. I cannot decide this. It’s the performance that decides it. Hopefully we have the opportunity to do things like this (rotate). The plan is in the end we have a squad that is big enough to cope with the intensity of all the tournaments. The first thing we have to do now, not just all the transfers, is to prepare for the Premier League and the Champions League qualifier. That’s my main target. Everything else is prepared. We know all about the players. The more important thing now is to get the players here now fit for the first games. That decides a lot and I really want to use a nice base.”

Klopp used his preferred 4-3-3 formation in a first half that saw youngster Ben Woodburn utilised in a deeper role before switching to a 4-4-1-1 system after the break that involved Coutinho playing off lone striker Solanke.

Klopp described the set-up as ‘nice to watch’.

Opposing coach Frank De Boer rolled out a 3-4-3 which included Andros Townsend playing at wing-back, with Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha starting in attack alongside Keshi Anderson.

Jason Puncheon captained the team for the first time since being handed the armband by De Boer, while new signing Ruben Loftus-Cheek who, priced at just 4.5, has already attracted 16.4% ownership figures, came on for the final few minutes.

The loan signing from Chelsea was uppermost in De Boer’s thoughts post-match.

“Ruben knows the system and he is a very young lad so he can improve and learn a lot still. I think it’s a quality injection for the squad, and the position he played today was a sitting midfielder but he can also play offensive midfield, so we can use him in a lot of situations. It’s a long season and he has to play himself into the team, but I think he has the quality to do that.”

Liverpool XI: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold (Flanagan 45), Matip (Lovren 45), Gomez (Klavan 45), Moreno (Milner 45); Henderson (Solanke 50), Lallana (Origi 48), Woodburn (Grujic 48); Salah (Kent 50), Firmino (Coutinho 48), Sturridge (Wijnaldum 48).

Crystal Palace XI: Hennessey, Ward, Dann (Kelly 77), Delaney, Townsend (Wan-Bissaka 59), Milivojevic (Loftus-Cheek 77), Puncheon (Kirby 77), Schlupp (Van Aanholt 59), Zaha (Phillips 77), Benteke (Ladapo 72), Anderson (Sako 65).
Sub not used: Speroni.

Leicester City 1 West Brom 1 (Leicester win 7-6 on penalties

Marc Albrighton scored the decisive spot-kick in Hong Kong after Ben Hamer had saved Sam Field’s strike to ensure Leicester City will battle Liverpool for the imaginatively-named Asia Trophy on Saturday evening.

Jay Rodriguez had hit a fine opener for West Brom, lashing home from a Jake Livermore pass, before Riyad Mahrez equalised with a superb solo effort.

Daniel Amartey was used as right-back alongside new signing Harry Maguire at centre-half in Leicester’s defence, while the Foxes’ other debutant, Vicente Iborra, was introduced later, along with captain Wes Morgan, midfielders Danny Drinkwater and Albrighton, and striker Jamie Vardy.

City boss Craig Shakespeare didn’t have new signing Eldin Jakupovic available for the Asia trip, but the goalkeeper is expected to join up with the squad soon, while reports suggest that Man City striker Kelechi Iheanacho has as good as signed for the Foxes as well.

Baggies boss Tony Pulis put Egypt defender Ahmed Hegazi in from the start following his arrival on a season-long loan.

West Brom will now face Crystal Palace at the weekend after losing a shoot-out that was run using the ABBA system of penalty takers.

Leicester City XI: Hamer; Amartey (Simpson 46), Maguire (Moore 46), Benalouane (Morgan 46), Elder (Fuchs 46); Riyad Mahrez (Iborra 48), Ndidi (King 44), James (Drinkwater 44), Lawrence (Albrighton 48); Slimani (Vardy 44), Okazaki (Ulloa 44).

West Brom XI: Foster; Nyom, Evans, Hegazi (Wilson 66), Dawson; Yacob (Chadli 56), Livermore (Harper 77), Phillips (Leko 57), Brunt (Field 52), Rodriguez (McClean 51); Rondon (Robson-Kanu 57).

FC Twente 0 Everton 3

Everton warmed up for next week’s first leg of their Europa League third round qualifying tie at Goodison with an emphatic win in Holland.

Goals from Kevin Mirallas, Aaron Lennon and Kieran Dowell saw off Enschede, with new signing Michael Keane coming in for his first start alongside Ashley Williams at centre-half and Dominic Calvert-Lewin given a run-out up front in place of Wayne Rooney.

Ronald Koeman has been busy in the transfer market, but deemed new men Jordan Pickford and Sandro Ramirez, along with youngster Mason Holgate, not fit enough to play yet.

Former Southampton full-back Cuco Martina did make his Everton debut, however, coming on for the last 30 minutes as Koeman made a host of changes.

Everton face Genk at the weekend before their competitive season begins next Thursday evening.

Everton XI: Stekelenburg, Baines (Connolly 46), Keane (Jagielka 46), Williams (Dowell 60), Kenny (Martina 60); McCarthy, Barry (Schneiderlin 60), Davies (Besic 60), Mirallas (Lennon 60), Lookman (Klaassen 60); Calvert-Lewin (Rooney 60).

Richmond Kickers 1 Swansea City 2

Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham scored his first goal for Swansea City as Paul Clements’s men left it late to win in America.

The 5.5-priced striker is attracting a certain amount of interest as a budget option should the ongoing injury to Fernando Llorente keep the Spaniard sidelined, and Abraham did his cause no harm when he headed home a Martin Olsson in the 80th minute.

Fellow striker Ollie McBurnie had earlier given the Swans the lead from the penalty spot after defender Kyle Bartley had been fouled in the Richmond box.

The 18.8%-owned defender Angel Rangel was given his first US pre-season start by Clement, with Mike van der Hoorn, Stephen Kingsley, Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes, Jefferson Montero and McBurnie all also in the side for the first half.

Grimes was handed set-piece duties until he was replaced by Tom Carroll with half an hour to go.

Swansea City XI: Nordfeldt (Mulder 45); Rangel (Naughton 67), Bartley (Fernandez 67), van der Hoorn (Mawson 67), Kingsley (Olsson 67); Mesa (Britton 67), Fulton (Fer 61), Grimes (Carroll 61), Narsingh (Routledge 61), Montero (Ayew 61); McBurnie (Abraham 60).