Vardy and Mbeumo injury latest as Tielemans keeps up fine FPL form

We continue our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 9 Scout Notes with analysis of Brentford v Leicester City.

For a briefer summary of Saturday’s Premier League action, click here, while you can read up on Arsenal v Aston Villa, Leeds United v Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur via the links below.

• READ MORE: Tierney injury latest as Smith Rowe and Aubameyang impress in Gameweek 9
• READ MORE: Raphinha and Marcal injury news as £4.5m FPL forward Gelhardt stars
• READ MORE: Antonio on target as Tottenham attack fails to impress

BRENTFORD 1-2 LEICESTER CITY

• Goals: Mathias Jorgensen (£4.5m) | Youri Tielemans (£6.4m), James Maddison (£6.7m)
• Assists: Mathias Jensen (£4.9m) | Patson Daka (£7.1m)
• Bonus: Tielemans x3, Jensen x2, Maddison x1, Christian Norgaard (£5.0m) x1

WHY WAS VARDY SUBSTITUTED AT HALF-TIME?

FPL’s joint-top scoring forward, Jamie Vardy (£10.8m), was substituted after 45 minutes in Gameweek 9.

Following the match, Brendan Rodgers revealed that the veteran striker had felt something in his knee during the warm-up, and was taken off after his manager felt he wasn’t moving right in the first-half.

“He felt something in the warm-up, something in his knee but he felt OK to give it a go.

You could see he wasn’t as dynamic or moving like he normally would be, so there was no point risking it further if he’s sore. So, we gave him a breather and brought Patson on.

We will have a look at that tomorrow (Monday).” – Brendan Rodgers

His replacement – Patson Daka (£7.1m) – followed up his Gameweek 8 goal and subsequent four against Spartak Moscow with an assist. When on the pitch, he generally delivers, and if we were to see a period on the side-lines for Vardy, Daka would surely see huge Fantasy interest ahead of Arsenal (h) and Leeds United (a).

CONSISTENT TIELEMANS

Today’s match also saw a wonderful strike by Youri Tielemans (£6.4m), who has now produced two goals and two assists in his last five appearances. Regardless of the system – Leicester have used a 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 in recent weeks – the Belgium midfielder is thriving, and after collecting maximum bonus, now sits joint-fifth amongst all midfielders for FPL points.

Statistically, amongst all sub-£7.0m midfielders, he ranks sixth for expected goal involvement (xGI), which is partly down to how many of his shots are coming from outside of the box. However, his creative numbers remain excellent.

Youri Tielemans xG shot map 2021/22

Sub £7.0m midfielders ranked by xGI 2021/22

Elsewhere, James Maddison (£6.7m) opened his 2021/22 account after a swift counter-attack, which Rodgers touched on after the game:

“He’s returning to the level, he’s been competitive when he hasn’t got the ball and that keeps the tempo. He showed some real moments of quality.

(The goal) will be really important for him. His job is to create and score goals. When you don’t have that, you do lose confident. We have been analysing his game, and what’s important for him to be at this level. 

You can see in his last few performances, he’s gradually got better. I’m delighted for him.”

MBEUMO INJURY NEWS

As for Brentford, it was another encouraging display by Thomas Frank’s troops on Sunday, who dominated for large periods and narrowly won the xG battle.

Up until Tielemans struck, they were comfortably the better team, with Ivan Toney (£6.5m) having a goal controversially ruled out for offside and Bryan Mbeumo (£5.6m) missing a good chance early on. However, the latter looked off the pace and was eventually hooked just before the hour mark. Frank later explained that the withdrawal of the ‘out of position’ midfielder was enforced.

“Bryan Mbeumo and Ethan Pinnock will be out for [the EFL Cup on] Wednesday. Hopefully, they are available for Saturday, it is too early to say yet.

“Bryan is a minor hamstring issue. It is not a big one because that would rule him out for the next couple of weeks. We took him off as it was the early stages so, hopefully, he can be available for Saturday.” – Thomas Frank

Despite today’s setback, the Bees’ are about to embark on an appealing run, as they rank top of our season ticker for ease of fixture between Gameweeks 10 and 16:

Toney and Mbeumo (if fit) are the standout attacking options, but the defence shouldn’t be overlooked. In fact, only Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea have a lower non-penalty xGC total so far this season:

“We deserved three points. We battered them for the first 45 minutes, there were only one team in the game.

I’m proud of the performance and the boys, and although we weren’t as dominant after half-time, and the only thing I can blame us for is the second goal. 

We have to do better in terms of recovery and getting back in, but if we can replicate this game again and again, we’d win it seven times out of 10.” – Thomas Frank

Brentford XI: Raya, Zanka, Jansson, Pinnock (Ajer 45), Canos, Onyeka (Ghoddos 77), Norgaard, Jensen, Henry, Toney, Mbeumo (Forss 57)

Leicester XI: Schmeichel, Amartey, Evans, Soyuncu (Vestergaard 68), Pereira, Tielemans, Soumare, Castagne, Maddison (Perez 78), Vardy (Daka 45), Iheanacho