They might be tired – Gameweek 6

Greetings and let’s get to it.  I hope this helps you all make some close calls this week and since we have a Friday game tonight and your decisions have to be made quickly.  If you’ve read the previous weekly editions of this article you know the drill.  This is a short summary of the mid-week games – in particular, which popular FPL players (owned by 5% or more of fantasy managers) logged extra minutes or got attacking returns during European or international play only a few days before the next Premier League games.  Hence: “they might be tired!”  For even more details on the recent matches and everyone who played mid-week you can see the Scout Notes articles on the Fantasy Football Scout site.

Midweek headlines for this week… the Champions League and Europa League group stages have started, so last season’s Top 7 team were all playing either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday ahead of Saturday and Sunday PL games.  Does it make a difference for top caliber players?  Doing this column for the past month now, I’d say yes… anecdotally at least.  After playing twice and scoring loads over the international break before Gameweek 5, perhaps the fearsome fivesome of Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, Bernardo Silva, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Kevin De Bruyne were indeed tired.  Compared to some of their fully rested premium counterparts (Sergio Aguero, Heung-Min Son, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang), the former group tallied just two assists among them after returning from national team duty while the latter group rung up 8 goals after staying home.  Did I just cherry pick those players to make a point?  You bet I did – but you get the idea.  Some players will struggle more than others with multiple matches in a week, giving a bit of a boost to those who only had to practice.

And another word about Wolves, who I’ve written about a few times this season.  They continue to be the busiest team in England, having played in the qualifying and now group stage games of Europa League as well as having many quality players in action on international duty after Gameweek 4.  It’s a lot to ask of any team, and I’ve finally transferred out Diogo Jota after weeks of the team looking sluggish in its weekend Premier League games.  Let’s see if Jota’s replacement in my team, Tammy Abraham, can do better for my squad.  Onward to the data!

TUESDAY GAMES – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

CHELSEA

(Played at home, lost to Valencia 0-1, next play at home vs. Liverpool on Sunday)

·        Tammy Abraham (24% FPL ownership) – 90 minutes

·        Mason Mount (24%) – 16 minutes, went off with an ankle injury that might keep him out of this weekend’s action or longer

·        Cesar Azpilicueta (6%) – 90 minutes

·        Christian Pulisic (6%) – 0 minutes

·        Kepa Arrizabalaga (5%) – 90 minutes

LIVERPOOL

(Traveled to Italy, lost to Napoli 3-0, next play away at Chelsea on Sunday)

·        Virgil van Dijk (50%) – 90 minutes

·        Mohamed Salah (42%) – 90 minutes

·        Trent Alexander-Arnold (27%) – 90 minutes

·        Sadio Mane (22%) – 90 minutes

·        Andrew Robertson (20%) – 90 minutes

·        Roberto Firmino (12%) – 90 minutes

·        Adrian (6%) – 90 minutes

WEDNESDAY GAMES – CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

MANCHESTER CITY

(Traveled to Ukraine, beat Shaktar Donetsk 0-3, next play at home vs Watford on Saturday)

·        Raheem Sterling (45%) – 90 minutes, hit the post

·        Kevin De Bruyne (36%) – 77 minutes

·        Sergio Aguero (27%) – 0 minutes (Gabriel Jesus returned to play 90 minutes and scored 1 goal)

·        Ederson (22%) – 90 minutes

·        Kyle Walker (19%) – 81 minutes

·        Oleksandr Zinchenko (14%) – 90 minutes, moved to midfield when Benjamin Mendy came on as a sub for Rodri

·        Bernardo Silva (12%) – 13 minutes

·        David Silva (8%) – 0 minutes

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

(Traveled to Greece, drew with Olympiakos 2-2, next play away at Leicester on Saturday)

·        Harry Kane (21%) – 90 minutes1 goal (pen)

·        Hugo Lloris (9%) – 90 minutes

·        Toby Alderweireld (7%) – 90 minutes

·        Lucas Moura (6%) – 76 minutes, 1 goal

·        Heung-Min Son (6%) – 17 minutes

THURSDAY GAMES – EUROPA LEAGUE

ARSENAL

(Traveled to Germany, beat Eintracht Frankfurt 0-3, next play at home vs. Aston Villa on Sunday)

·        Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (23%) – 90 minutes, 1 goal

·        Dani Ceballos (13%) – 18 minutes

·        Matteo Guendouzi (9%) – 0 minutes

·        Ainsley Maitland-Niles (7%) – 10 minutes

·        Bernd Leno (6%) – 0 minutes

·        David Luiz (6%) – 90 minutes

MANCHESTER UNITED

(Played at home, beat FC Astana 1-0, next play away at West Ham on Sunday)

·        Aaron Wan-Bissaka (26%) – 0 minutes, not on bench

·        Marcus Rashford (19%) – 90 minutes

·        David de Gea (19%) – 0 minutes, not on bench

·        Harry Maguire (17%) – 0 minutes

·        Daniel James (15%) – did not play, currently flagged with minor injury

·        Mason Greenwood (14%) – 90 minutes, 1 goal

·        Anthony Martial (5%) – did not play, currently flagged with medium injury

·        Paul Pogba (5%) – did not play, currently flagged with medium injury

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

(Played at home, lost to Sporting Braga 0-1, next play away at Crystal Palace on Sunday)

·        Raul Jimenez (12%) – 90 minutes

·        Leander Dendoncker (12%) – 76 minutes

·        Rui Patricio (9%) – 90 minutes

·        Ruben Neves (8%) – 90 minutes

·        Willy Boly (5%) – 90 minutes

·        Joao Moutinho (5%) – 23 minutes

·        Diogo Jota (5%) – 14 minutes

Posted by FP Elephant