Wolves’ wing-backs offer FPL value as Harry Maguire of old returns

Our penultimate set of Scout Notes from the weekend’s Premier League fixtures focuses on the goals, assists, injuries and Fantasy Premier League talking points from the matches at Wolves, Newcastle and Cardiff.

Wolves’ defence – and their two wing-backs in particular – continue to provide exceptional value for money, while Jamie Vardy, James Maddison and Harry Maguire all delivered attacking returns in the Foxes’ win on Tyneside.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson registered a goal and assist in South Wales, though there was a worrying injury to James Tarkowski that caused the Burnley defender’s early substitution.

We’ll return on Tuesday morning with a look back at Bournemouth v Crystal Palace.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 Southampton

• Goals: Ivan Cavaleiro (£5.3m), Jonny (£4.4m)
• Assists: Raul Jimenez (£5.6m), Matt Doherty (£4.5m)

There was further joy for those backing the defence of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who recorded their third clean sheet in four league matches with a 2-0 win over Southampton.

Once again it was Wolves’ two wing-backs who caught the eye in adding attacking returns and bonus to their shut-out points, while Rui Patricio (£4.5m) recorded his first double-digit haul of the campaign after making six saves.

Matt Doherty (£4.5m), Jonny (£4.4m) and Willy Boly (£4.6m) currently sit in the top five best value-for-money defenders in FPL, each returning over seven points per million spent.

Doherty and Jonny’s prominence in attacking positions marks them out as particular stand-out candidates.

That it took Jonny until Gameweek 7 to register an attacking return was a surprise given his underlying statistics, but the inevitable finally happened on Saturday afternoon when the left wing-back tucked home Doherty’s cut back on 86 minutes to put the gloss on Wolves’ win.

Only striker Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) had more penalty box touches than Jonny (six) and Doherty (five) at Molineux, with both wing-backs having two shots from inside the Southampton area. Jonny indeed could easily have scored earlier in the match, with his first-half effort being palmed away by Saints’ keeper Alex McCarthy (£4.5m).

No Wolves player made more key passes than Doherty, either, and only three FPL defenders have created more chances than the Irish international all season.

Wolves once again denied their opposition any “big chances” and no side have conceded fewer clear-cut opportunities than Nuno Espirito Santo’s troops this season.

That is not to say the West Midlands club had it all their own way: that Rui Patricio walked off with a bonus point illustrated how busy he was, saving six of the visitors’ shots en route to a clean sheet. In truth, though, none of the Saints’ efforts required anything other than a regulation stop from the Portuguese international.

Jimenez won the battle of the budget FPL forwards, meanwhile, claiming the assist for Ivan Cavaleiro‘s (£5.3m) opening goal and registering more penalty box touches, attempts on goal and shots on target than Danny Ings (£5.7m) in the Southampton attack.

Only two forwards have registered more attempts on goal than Jimenez this season, but his goal conversion rate of 9.1% is among the worst in his position. With two assists in as many games, at least, the Mexican striker is compensating for his relative profligacy in front of goal.

Cavaleiro’s goal on his return from injury further complicates the picture on the flanks, with Diogo Jota (£6.1m) and Helder Costa (£4.9m) fairly ineffectual either side of Jimenez. The Express and Star, meanwhile, reported that Costa’s substitution was because of a knock – though no word has come from the club since the match on that issue.

Adama Traore‘s (£5.5m) decision-making and end product in the final third still leaves much to be desired, so Cavaleiro – who scored nine Championship goals from the wing last season – might prove to be the bigger threat to Jota and Costa in the medium term.

After the match, Santo said of Cavaleiro:

A goal changes everything. It was Ivan today, another day it will be another one. The important thing is the team and the squad, what we want to build together.

I think he played a good 55 minutes on Tuesday. Today he came on from the bench and helped the team.

This is what we want. When a player comes in, either in the starting XI or from the bench, he must do his task and help the team. He did well today.

This is the spirit we want to build, everybody involved and everybody committed to what we want to achieve.

The Wolves head coach also acknowledged the importance he stresses on a solid defence:

The belief is there, most important is the clean sheet. You can always win a match when you’re defensively organised, that is the starting point.

Wolves were unchanged for the seventh league match running, while Mark Hughes made three alterations from the side that lost to Liverpool as he reverted to a 4-4-2: Mohamed Elyounoussi (£6.3m), Ings and Charlie Austin (£5.6m) replacing Matt Targett (£4.3m), Oriel Romeu (£4.4m) and the injured Shane Long (£4.8m).

Elyounoussi and fellow winger Nathan Redmond (£5.3m) were the Saints’ biggest threats, creating more chances and registering more shots on goal than any of their team-mates.

The two Saints wide-men have created 19 chances and racked up 25 goal attempts between this season without any success, though interest in these two midfield assets – and indeed most other Southampton players – is likely to be modest in the medium term with Mark Hughes’ side sitting bottom of our Season Ticker for the next eight matches and beyond.

Hughes was right to feel aggrieved about the scoreline though, with Mario Lemina (£5.0m) and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£4.5m) doing a decent job in stifling Ruben Neves (£5.2m) and Joao Moutinho (£5.5m) in the centre of the park.

Hughes said:

Newcastle United 0-2 Leicester City

• Goals: Jamie Vardy (£8.9m), Harry Maguire (£5.5m)
• Assists: James Maddison (£6.9m), Harry Maguire

Those Fantasy managers who invested heavily in Leicester City’s most-owned FPL assets ahead of their excellent run of fixtures reaped the rewards at St James’ Park on Saturday, with Jamie Vardy (£8.9m), Harry Maguire (£5.5m) and James Maddison (£6.9m) all delivering attacking returns and the Foxes’ defence registering their first clean sheet since Gameweek 2.

Maguire was the star of the show, doubling his total FPL score in one fell swoop with an 18-point haul.

After a so-so start to the season and claims from his manager that he needed a rest ahead of the Bournemouth match in Gameweek 5, Saturday afternoon saw the Maguire of old come to the fore.

Dominant in the air and a constant threat to the Magpies’ defence, Maguire registered twice as many attempts on goal as any other player on Tyneside and could easily have added another goal to his 72nd-minute headed strike that effectively killed the match as a contest.

Maguire had already had a header saved from Martin Dubravka (£5.0m) before his hooked shot was handled by DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m) in the Newcastle area – Vardy converting the subsequent penalty.

Maguire had recorded only one penalty box touch and shot (a long-distance strike that won the game for Leicester at Southampton) in the first four fixtures of the season, but from Gameweek 5 onwards no defender has had more efforts on goal than the England centre-back – all of them, it should be said, from inside the opposition area.

At £5.5m he remains an expensive proposition, but form and fixtures have come together at the right time for the Leicester stopper. With many of the premium defensive alternatives facing either tough fixtures or a threat of rotation, Maguire at least offers the security of starts (with the talk of a rest having subsided) and a run of fixtures in which Leicester play only one of the “big six” in the next eight Gameweeks.

Maguire’s return to form at set-piece situations is also good news for dead-ball specialist Maddison and his ever-growing number of FPL owners, with the 21-year-old midfielder registering the assist for Maguire’s headed goal.

Maddison recorded more crosses, corners and key passes than any player on show at St James’ Park and was on direct free-kick duties again in the north-east – without success, this time.

Maguire paid tribute to his team-mate after the match:

He’s definitely good enough to play for England. If he keeps improving he’ll get the call and he will take the challenge on.

It is something we have been working on this season. We have brought James in who is really good at set-plays and I should have really scored in the first half at the back post.

I headed it down and probably made it too easy for the keeper, but the deliveries have been good and it’s been a long time coming for Leicester, with my head especially.

I am happy to get that and hopefully it will continue. You’ve seen since the start of the season James has got real quality in everything he brings to the team. He is in great form at the minute and he is really good to play with.

Claude Puel urged caution on the talk of an international call-up, but was happy with the summer signing from Norwich City’s display:

James Maddison continues to give his best and improve. He has to continue that work and we will see in the future. He cannot have a mind on the future of his national team. We will see.

Vardy’s goal from the spot, however, was a reminder that Maddison remains very much second in line for penalty-taking duties at the club, following the latter’s converted effort from 12 yards in the 4-2 defeat to Bournemouth (Vardy being off the pitch at the time).

Penalty aside, Vardy wasn’t a huge goal threat on Tyneside and registered only one other attempt on goal, a difficult header from another Maddison corner that missed the target.

That being said, Harry Kane (£12.5m) is the only FPL forward to have scored more points than Vardy (19) over the last two Gameweeks.

Puel had made two changes to his starting XI from the side that beat Huddersfield, with Wes Morgan (£4.5m) replacing Jonny Evans (£4.9m) at centre-back and Ricardo Pereira (£5.1m) ousting Rachid Ghezzal (£5.3m) on the right wing.

Pereira’s stock had fallen somewhat last week after being dropped to the bench for that win over the Terriers but here he was back in the role that had made him an attractive FPL proposition in the first place, lining up “out of position” on the right of midfield.

Aside from an early effort that Dubravka was forced to turn behind, Pereira’s attacking threat was limited despite his advanced role, with that being his only shot and foray into the Newcastle box over the 90 minutes. Pereira also failed to create a single chance or register a successful cross.

With doubts over his defensive ability and indeed security of starts, Pereira remains something of a Fantasy risk despite this excellent run of fixtures the Foxes are embarking on.

Ben Chilwell‘s (£5.0m) starting berth looks as safe as ever on the opposite flank, though he too failed to register a penalty box touch, shot on goal or key pass in a fairly drab encounter in Newcastle.

The Magpies had been rocked by two late blows to their defence in the 24 hours leading up to kick-off, with Paul Dummett (£4.5m) and Federico Fernandez (£4.4m) sidelined with hamstring injuries.

Rafael Benitez confirmed after the match that the pair’s problems weren’t serious, however:

They are light injuries so not long [out], they are not very bad.

We had to make a decision and, in the last two games, we had a problem with Rondon and Lascelles and we had to make a substitution during the game. We preferred to go with players who were fully fit, that’s it.

Salomon Rondon (£5.8m) also missed out with a thigh injury, with Benitez saying this about the Venezuelan striker’s absence:

We have to assess him in the next weeks and see how he is going on. I think a couple of weeks [out], maybe. The idea is to see how he is going on after every week.

He is injured and now we need to manage with the rest of the players.

Ciaran Clark (£4.5m), Christian Atsu (£5.3m) and Joselu (£5.0m) came in for their stricken colleagues, with Kenedy (£4.9m) moving to left-back in Dummett’s absence.

The Magpies were toothless in attack, with Mohamed Diame‘s (£5.0m) header wide from an Atsu cross the closest the hosts came to breaching the Leicester defence.

That Jonjo Shelvey‘s (£5.4m) ambitious effort from inside his own half represented Newcastle’s only shot on target throughout the game said much about their offensive ability.

With players back from injury, the Magpies’ defence is worth exploring from a Fantasy perspective over the international break given the appealing fixtures ahead – but there is little to champion in midfield or attack.

Vardy’s penalty was the only “big chance” that Newcastle conceded in the game, but even their backline is not without its problems: both goals stemmed from set-piece situations and no side has allowed more attempts from set plays than the Magpies this season.

Newcastle United XI (4-4-1-1): Dubravka; Yedlin (Manquillo 80′), Lascelles, Clark, Kenedy; Ritchie (Murphy 65′), Shelvey, Diame, Atsu; Perez (Muto 69′); Joselu

Leicester City XI (4-4-1-1): Schmeichel; Amartey, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell; Pereira, Mendy, Ndidi, Maddison (Iborra 85′); Iheanacho; Vardy (Albrighton 73′)

Cardiff City 1-2 Burnley

• Goals: Josh Murphy (£4.8m) | Johann Berg Gudmundsson (£5.9m), Sam Vokes (£5.3m)
• Assists: Bruno Ecuele Manga (£4.5m) | Ashley Westwood (£4.5m), Johann Berg Gudmundsson

A fixture against the team who had conceded more attempts from set plays at home than any other Premier League side always looked like an appealing one for Johann Berg Gudmundsson – but in the end, both of the Icelandic midfielder’s attacking returns came from open play.

That Gudmundsson’s goal and assist came from something other than dead-ball situations only adds to his appeal, and just two FPL midfielders – premium picks Raheem Sterling (£11.0m) and Eden Hazard (£11.1m) – have been directly involved in more league goals than the Burnley winger (five) this season.

Not one midfielder has recorded as many assists in 2018/19 as Gudmundsson, who created more goals (nine) last season than any other FPL player in the sub-£6.0m bracket.

Another factor in Gudmundsson’s favour is that Huddersfield Town are next up for the Clarets, with no side having conceded more league goals than the Terriers (16) this season. A double-header against Manchester City and Chelsea thereafter might cool interest in the Iceland international, however, and it should be noted that Gudmundsson’s four assists this season have come from just seven key passes – surely an unsustainable assist conversion rate going forward.

Gudmundsson’s looping ball for Sam Vokes‘ (£5.3m) header at Cardiff on Sunday afternoon was indeed the only chance he created all game.

Ashley Westwood (£4.5m) provided the assist for Gudmundsson’s headed goal, meanwhile.

Burnley were somewhat fortunate to leave the Cardiff City Stadium with all three points, having scored with two of their three shots on goal.

The Clarets were once again indebted to a couple of fine stops from Joe Hart (£4.6m), who has registered at least one save point in every league fixture he has featured in this season and now sits joint-top among goalkeepers for FPL points.

Hart’s best two saves were low down from the recalled Kenneth Zohore (£4.8m) and a flying tip over after an effort from Josh Murphy (£4.8m), who grabbed Cardiff’s only goal of the match and who was a menace on the left flank all afternoon.

Neil Warnock paid tribute to Hart after the match:

It’s a cruel game, but I cannot fault the effort. I am disappointed again to only concede from the two efforts they got.

It epitomised the whole game that Joe Hart got the man of the match award. Even I was clapping his save from Murphy in the second half.

Murphy’s goal was a superbly taken first-time effort from a Bruno Ecuele Manga (£4.5m) cut-back, and the summer signing from Norwich City was Cardiff’s biggest goal threat throughout.

Murphy had also clipped the outside of Hart’s post and had a headed effort ruled out for a push by Sean Morrison (£4.9m) in the first half; no FPL midfielder has had more attempts on goal (six) than Murphy in Gameweek 7 so far.

Cardiff’s run of six matches from Gameweek 11 are the best in the division on our Season Ticker, though obvious concerns about the Bluebirds’ potency in front of goal would deter most FPL managers from going anywhere near a City midfielder or attacker even allowing for an easing in fixture difficulty. The Bluebirds’ goal conversion rate of 5.2% is, indeed, the joint-worst in the division.

Murphy is available at an attractive price, though concerns persist about Warnock’s frequent rotation on the flanks and up top. Murphy, indeed, might not have even started this game had it not been for Junior Hoilett‘s (£5.2m) unavailability, with Warnock revealing that the Canada international missed the match through illness:

He’s been a bit down this week. I don’t think it’s a virus but he’s not trained well and he’s been a little bit light-headed so we thought it wasn’t worth the risk.

It was all change up top for Cardiff, too, with two of Warnock’s four alterations to his starting XI coming in attack. Danny Ward (£4.5m) and Bobby Reid (£5.3m) made way for Zohore and Callum Paterson (£5.3m), with the Bluebirds’ boss explaining his selection after the match:

[Zohore] trained well this week and the way I wanted to play, I gave him an opportunity. He was poor when he came on at Chelsea last time, but I thought he did a lot better today.

I decided to go with him and Paterson. I thought it was the right decision, we created enough chances. Joe (Hart) pulled a good save off at his near post from Ken.

It’s nice to have options. Today I went with Ken, next week at Tottenham it might be different, I might not go with a striker, we might have 10 defenders.

Warnock had brought Sol Bamba (£4.5m) back into the side at the expense of the injured Lee Peltier (£3.9m), but was at a loss to explain why his side had shipped 14 goals in their last four matches – mostly tricky ones, it must be said – after a relatively solid start to the campaign:

I haven’t got a clue if I’m honest. We can’t work any harder than we do at defending. I can’t be on the pitch to tell them what to do.

It was a culmination of errors really. We could’ve passed it back to the keeper but we put it out of play, the midfield man could have picked their runner up, poor old Paterson had to come back and try, you can go through everything, at the end of the day they had two opportunities and took them both.

Burnley might have their own defensive problems going forward, meanwhile, with James Tarkowski (£5.0m) taking a blow to the shoulder and then being substituted with a groin strain after 27 minutes.

Speaking of his injured centre-back, Sean Dyche said:

We’ll wait and see. It’s around the groin area but I don’t know the exact diagnosis. He got a sore one on the shoulder but it’s around the groin area.

Kevin Long (£4.3m) was the beneficiary of Tarkowski’s injury with Ben Gibson (£4.8m) still unavailable after surgery, and will almost certainly fill in at centre-back in Gameweek 8 if Tarkowski fails to recover.

Cardiff City XI (4-4-1-1): Etheridge; Ecuele Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Cunningham; Camarasa, Arter, Ralls (Madine 79′), Murphy; Paterson; Zohore (Ward 71′)

Burnley XI (4-4-2): Hart; Lowton, Tarkowski (Long 27′), Mee, Taylor; Lennon, Cork, Westwood, Gudmundsson; Vydra (Wood 72′), Vokes

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