Everton and Leicester treated Fantasy Premier League managers to a rather dreary opening match of 2019.
The two sides were separated by just one goal in a game that was largely characterised by individual errors and sloppy play.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of how much attacking play took place is the fact that just two offside flags were raised in the entire 90 minutes, the first one not coming until just before the 80th minute.
Nevertheless, there were still a few Fantasy talking points for us to discuss in this Scout Notes article.
Everton 0-1 Leicester City
Goals: Jamie Vardy (£8.9m)
Assists: Ricardo Pereira (£5.2m)
Ricardo Pereira (£5.2m) reminded Fantasy managers the part he can play in our squads this season as he came out of Leicester’s win at Everton with a double-figure haul. The FPL defender provided the assist for Jamie Vardy‘s (£8.9m) second-half strike, taking his count to four for the season. Over his last four fixtures, Pereira has averaged 6.75 points per game.
It was another match in which the Portuguese international was deployed on the flanks of an attacking trio as Claude Puel went with a 4-3-3 formation. Typically a right-sided player, this time around Pereira was stationed on the left of Vardy, with Rachid Ghezzal (£5.1m) on the other flank. The fact that Danny Simpson (£4.2m) was trusted with his first start since Gameweek 15 shows that Puel believes he has options at right-back to free Pereira up further up the pitch, even with Daniel Amartey‘s (£4.3m) long-term injury.
Crucially, the trip to Goodison Park saw Leicester record their seventh clean sheet of the season. Only Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Spurs have more than that in 2018/19. The Foxes’ have actually been offering the potential for shutouts for some time now. They came into Gameweek 21 joint-fourth for big chances allowed in the four previous matches. At Goodison, they conceded just four shots in their penalty box all afternoon.
Southampton (home) and Wolves (away) are the next two matches for Leicester, which could provide more returns at both ends of the pitch for Pereira. However, it is Liverpool (away), Manchester United (home) and Tottenham (away) between Gameweeks 24 and 26, which may put off potential punters before their kinder stretch from Gameweek 27 onwards.
It is still worth noting that Pereira looks to be the only one to be providing any consistency in support of Vardy in attack. James Maddison (£6.8m) remained an unused substitute at Goodison Park having recorded just one offensive return since Gameweek 16. Marc Albrighton (£5.1m) featured only as a second-half replacement for Ghezzal, who had been comfortably one of the worst players in the opening 45 minutes. It was a shame for Algerian, who was making his first start since Gameweek 12 but based on his performance at Everton, he may find it hard to get back in again.
Meanwhile, Hamza Choudhury (£4.3m) made his third start in four matches. The 21-year-old did well in recent wins over Chelsea and Manchester City but was rested for the Gameweek 20 defeat to Cardiff. In defence, Wes Morgan (£4.5m) failed to recover from an illness which saw Jonny Evans (£4.8m) come back in alongside Harry Maguire (£5.4m).
In truth, Leicester’s back-line did not have a lot to deal with from an Everton side that struggled to find any rhythm in the lunch-time kick-off. Richarlison (£7.0m) was deployed on the left-wing, allowing Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.3m) to come back in and operate as the centre-forward. Unfortunately for the Toffees, Richarlison did not have his shooting boots on, in a performance reminiscent of his Watford days. Nobody had more shots in the penalty box than him at Goodison Park, but not a single one was on target.
“I felt our team were too nervous and anxious without reason. We are playing a lot of games in a row with no times to rest but that is not an excuse when you miss some simple things. When you play in this way with easy mistakes, the bad things come to you and that is what happened with the goal we conceded. We gave them the chance to do what they came to do.” – Marco Silva
As expected, the rusty Simpson did initially struggle with having to deal with Richarlison and Lucas Digne (£5.2m) on Everton’s left but neither one could record any attacking returns. The Frenchman continues to show amazing creative potential having launched 12 crosses into Leicester’s box, but without Cenk Tosun (£6.5m) or Richarlison at centre-forward, very few of them came to fruition on this occasion. One would expect more presence in the 18-yard-box the next time Everton take to the field, so now does not feel like the time to move away from Digne.
However, it must be noted that expecting clean sheets out of the diminutive left-back is increasingly becoming a tall order. Everton are now without one for eight consecutive Gameweeks. They were hardly attacked from angles by Leicester but were undone by a moment of weakness at the back. As previously mentioned, the game was characterised by sloppy play all over the pitch, and that continued well into the second half, Michael Keane (£5.0m) being punished for his poor control. He stepped out of the defence to gather a loose ball, his first touch letting him down and allowing Pereira able to feed the ball into the space behind the centre-back. That was all Vardy needed to chase it down and net a textbook strike.
“They came to play here with their midfielder line of five players and waiting for one mistake and one transition with Ricardo and Vardy. After that, if you were anxious or nervous, you will be more.” – Marco Silva
Named among the substitutes for Everton was the experienced Seamus Coleman (£5.2m), as Jonjoe Kenny (£4.2m) returned for his first start since Everton’s last meeting with Leicester in Gameweek 8. The right-back had the Toffees’ best chance of the game, hitting the cross-bar in the first half.
Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.3m) returned to the side, with Bernard (£5.9m) dropping to the bench, and created more chances than any other player at Goodison Park.
Everton XI (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Digne, Zouma, Keane, Kenny; Gomes (Bernard 62′), Gueye; Richarlison, Sigurdsson, Walcott (Tosun 69′); Calvert-Lewin.
Leicester XI (4-3-3): Schmeichel; Chilwell, Maguire, Evans, Simpson; Ndidi, Mendy, Choudhury; Ghezzal (Albrighton 45′), Vardy (D Gray 90+2′), R Pereira.
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