European Scout Notes – Tuesday

Manchester United and Chelsea sweep past Basel and FK Qarabag respectively to get their Champions League campaigns off to a fine start.

But while it’s plain sailing for the Blues, Jose Mourinho’s night is marred by an injury to star midfielder Paul Pogba.

Here are the notes from Tuesday’s European action.

The Pogba fallout

It took less than 20 minutes for Paul Pogba’s fine start to the season to come to an abrupt halt, taking the best-laid plans of many a Fantasy Premier League manager with it.

The midfielder, at 38.2% the second most popular player in the FPL game, sustained a muscular injury – thought to be a hamstring issue – that threatens to keep him sidelined possibly through to the second international break in early October.

Jose Mourinho’s initial reaction, while guarded, suggested as much.

“I don’t know. I just know from experience it’s a muscular injury. In my experience, muscular injury stops you from playing for a few weeks, I think.”

That could mean Pogba misses home matches with Everton and Crystal Palace and a trip to Southampton, as well as further Champions League and Carabao Cup duties.

The Fantasy fallout is intriguing.

The obvious solution for managers keen to maintain their United coverage is to move ownership to Henrikh Mkhitaryan (23.7%), and 21,000+ have already done just that.

Both players cost 8.3 and are separated by a mere three points, with the Frenchman edging it through his two goals and three assists to his team-mate’s five assists.

Mkhitaryan blanked for the first time this season in the 2-2 draw at Stoke City after Mourinho moved from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 to accommodate Ander Herrera in the centre of the park.

The Armenian is likely to be the creative fulcrum once again in Pogba’s absence, although we can perhaps question whether Mourinho’s attack will be as well served without the Frenchman’s pace and power.

The United manager has also gone out of his way to publicly praise the worth and impact of Marouane Fellaini in his squad, and the big Belgian not only replaced Pogba against Basel last night, but then opened the scoring with a header from an Ashley Young cross.

Priced at 4.9 and owned by just 0.5% of managers, Fellaini had been used as an impact sub thus far, scoring in a 16-minute cameo against Leicester City in Gameweek 3.

Should he be handed up to three league starts, Fellaini offers a cut-price route into an in-form unit.

Spare a thought, however, for the 27,589 managers who reacted swiftly to Sadio Mane’s red card at Man City by bringing in Pogba.

They are now left between a hit and a hard place.

A total of 496,000+ managers owned both Mane and Pogba after Gameweek 4 – some of those will now doubtless be pondering Wildcard action.

Lukaku keeps on scoring…

…and so does Marcus Rashford.

Romelu Lukaku made it six goals in as many matches for United when he headed home a Daley Blind cross before the young England international sealed the win against the Swiss from a Fellaini cut-back.

The Belgian’s huge 57.3% ownership makes him the most popular player in FPL, but it is a base that has been slowly dwindling over the past week.

While most Gameweek 5 transfer business has involved the shedding of Mane now that his three-match ban has been confirmed, a subtle shift from Lukaku to Spurs’ striker Harry Kane has also been ongoing, with just over 15,000 managers finding the extra 0.7 to tap into the 12.4-priced England man.

Kane is currently in the top 10 for transfers-in, with 83,000+ new managers this week, whereas Lukaku sits tenth for sales, having lost more than 46,000 backers so far.

It’s a close call, but Spurs’ immediate schedule – SWA whu hud BOU – looks rather more attractive than United’s.

Those making the switch also seem to be banking on Kane being the more explosive of the two.

But Lukaku’s consistency – he’s blanked in only one match in all competitions this season – and cheaper price make selling him fraught with risk.

Rashford has been almost as effective for United.

His goal from the bench against Basel sits alongside the two he’s managed, to go with an assist, in the league thus far.

He’s now scored in his last three matches and the fact that Anthony Martial was chosen ahead of him last night suggests that Mourinho is looking to start Rashford in Sunday’s home match against Everton.

He’s not a nailed-on starter like Lukaku, and his role out wide on the left also counts against him, but just 7.5 gets you a United attacker in excellent form – he has 20 points already.

Should the Lukaku to Kane exodus gather pace, Rashford could emerge as a mid-priced third striker for teams happy to ditch the Belgian, but less comfortable without some kind of United coverage at the business end of the pitch.

Competition at the back, calmer up front

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte made five changes from the side who beat Leicester City 2-1 at the weekend for the visit of Qarabag.

Most notable was a first start for defender Davide Zappacosta, the right wing-back marking his full debut by galloping the length of the pitch and scoring with an attempted cross.

The goal, which provided keeper Thibaut Courtois with (presumably) his one and only assist of the season, capped an all-action display from the Italian that will leave FPL managers keen to tap into Chelsea’s defensive resources with much to ponder.

Zappacosta, at 6.0, represents a (relatively) cheap way into the Blues’ wing-back resources. His direct competitor for the role, Victor Moses, costs 6.5, while 21.3% of FPL managers are currently prepared to fork out the premium price of 7.1 to own the proven performer that is Marcos Alonso.

For a club that apparently endured a terrible summer of transfer business, Chelsea seem to have plenty of options all over the pitch, allowing Conte to talk contentedly of his squad post-match.

“If we think like last season to play with only 13 players, we are crazy. We have to improve all these players to try to create a positive competition between them.”

That competition looks particularly intense, thanks to Zappacosta, at right wing-back, leaving risk-averse Fantasy managers to seek out to more nailed-on assets such as Cesar Azpilicueta for their Chelsea defensive coverage.

The Spaniard started his fifth straight match of the season last night, and followed up back-to-back assists in the league with a goal against the outclassed Azerbaijanis.

Up front, Conte opted to rest the 17.2%-owned Alvaro Morata, who currently sits stop the FPL strikers’ standings with 30 points.

Michy Batshuayi started his first match since Gameweek 1 and scored once, but he will surely be back on bench-warming duties again, with Morata expected to start Chelsea’s massive Gameweek 5 clash at home to Arsenal.

It would also upset many an FPL boss – the Spaniard is currently the most purchased forward of the Gameweek, with more than 103,000 new owners.

Midfield now a minefield

Competition is also hotting up in the middle of the park.

Eden Hazard was again given a run-out from the bench, with Conte urging caution with regards to the Belgian.

“We must have a bit of patience with him and to try to give the possibility for Eden to recover very well. We must be calm and to do the best for the player and for the team. Otherwise we risk a bad injury to delay the situation. This is the right way. This process is good for him.”

In his absence, many managers looked to Willian (16.7%) for their midfield points from Chelsea, but the Brazilian has been off the pace domestically, serving up just the one assist from three starts and a 27-minute cameo at Leicester last time out.

He produced another assist against Qarabag, however, while the 5.6%-owned Cesc Fabregas set up Azpilicueta’s goal and new signing Tiemoue Bakayoko was also on the scoresheet, emerging from the bench to supply a goal and assist.

As if to underline the riches available in midfield, Pedro was another to find the net last night, leaving Conte and us with all manner of in-form Chelsea options to choose from as the Blues embark on a league run that mixes tough home matches against Arsenal and Man City with rather more appealing fixtures involving Stoke City, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth away and a visit from Watford.

Including the Qarabag tie, Chelsea will play seven matches over the next 21 days.

Rotation looks inevitable, with their midfield a particularly fluid area at present.