Spurs players back on the FPL radar after Nuno sacking

Nuno Espirito Santo was dismissed by Tottenham Hotspur on Monday morning after just 10 league matches in charge in north London.

Saturday’s 3-0 pasting by a hitherto out-of-sorts Manchester United side that had lost 5-0 and 4-2 in their previous two Premier League outings proved to be the final straw for the Lilywhites’ board, who sacked the former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss and three of his coaching staff.

It’s that match that is the focus of our latest Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 10 notes, although attention now swiftly switches to what Nuno’s firing means for the likes of Son Heung-min (£10.2m) and Harry Kane (£12.1m).

For a briefer summary of Saturday’s Premier League action, click here, while Sunday’s matches saw Leeds beat Norwich and West Ham trounce 10-man Aston Villa.

Tottenham Hotspur 0-3 Manchester United

• Goals: Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.4m), Edinson Cavani (£8.4m) Marcus Rashford (£9.6m)
• Assists: Bruno Fernandes (£11.7m), Ronaldo, Nemanja Matic (£4.5m)
• Bonus: Ronaldo x3, Cavani x2, Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£5.3m)

NUNO OUT, CONTE IN?

At the time of writing, rumours are swirling that Antonio Conte is in London for talks with the Spurs top brass and about to succeed Nuno as the Lilywhites’ head coach.

Had the former Wolves man remained at the helm, FPL managers would have faced some tough questions about the likes of Son and Kane ahead of an appealing, ticker-topping run of fixtures from Gameweek 11/12 onwards:

It’s Gameweeks 11-15 that really appeal, with Leeds, Burnley and Norwich suspect defensively all season and even the otherwise solid backlines of Everton and Brentford without a clean sheet between them in the last four Gameweeks.

SPURS UNDER NUNO:

The defeat to United was the culmination of a ten-Gameweek stretch in which the Lilywhites’ attack had disappointed, which in hindsight, wasn’t a tremendous shock given what went before at Molineux.

Only Norwich have scored fewer goals than Spurs this season, while no side have had fewer goal attempts.

A potentially ‘out of position’ Son will be of great interest to FPL managers should Conte assume control and adopt his favoured 3-5-2, while Sergio Reguilon (£5.0m) and Emerson Royal (£4.9m) as wing-backs would be interesting prospects.

Kane is a bit more of a tricky one, as there is a sense that it’s more than just a managerial misstep that has caused his current malaise.

Denied a move to Manchester City in the summer, Kane has looked off the boil and borderline disinterested at times, blanking in eight of his nine appearances.

Conte is at least a fan, saying in the summer:

“Many praise Harry Kane for his ability to go get the ball and play with the team, such as with the equaliser against Denmark. But it’s in the box where he’s clinical and as a coach, I would always keep him in there because he’s devastating.” – Antonio Conte on Harry Kane

UNITED MUCH IMPROVED BUT CITY A BIGGER TEST

Most of the attention had been on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ahead of ‘El Sackico’, following Manchester United’s 5-0 thrashing by Liverpool a week earlier.

Chastened by that defeat, the United boss sent his side out in a more conservative 3-5-2, with Raphael Varane (£5.5m) alongside Victor Lindelof (£4.8m) and Harry Maguire (£5.4m) at the back and Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.4m) joined by Edinson Cavani (£8.4m) up top.

Above: Manchester United players’ average positions in Gameweek 10

The result was a much improved, more compact defensive display, while Ronaldo unsurprisingly looked far better for having a bona fide strike partner alongside him than when isolated in recent weeks.

“Both of them have been really, really good. I think Tuesday morning’s training session by Edinson Cavani is probably the best I’ve seen by an individual since I’ve come here and he led the line, he went as a good example for everyone how to go about changing the mood, changing the performance and the two of them, they were told early on they were going to play up front as a two and they’ve been like two peas in a pod. They’ve been really close, and it worked today. Two excellent goals by the two of them.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani

Solskjaer’s pairing of United’s Statler and Waldorf, coupled with the formation switch, meant that there was no room for wingers in the shape of Marcus Rashford (£9.4m), Mason Greenwood (£7.5m) and Jadon Sancho (£8.9m) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It’s a formation he will very likely turn to again when facing top-four opposition in Gameweeks 11 and 13 but from Gameweeks 15/16 onwards, we’d surely expect to see the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 return in earnest for the start of the Red Devils’ very favourable fixture run – if Solskjaer is still at the helm.

“We know when we have a clean sheet we have a chance to win any game because of the quality we have up front, but it’s about control. I thought we spread the game really well with the wing-backs. After the first six or seven minutes, when they had most of the ball, we settled down, we kept passing, we kept switching the ball, and you could see things opening up.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Phil Foden (£8.2m) and co will find it tougher than Liverpool to break down United based on Saturday’s evidence, although it’s again hard to understate just how abysmal Spurs were.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Solskjaer adopts the same formation against a much more potent Atalanta attack on Tuesday, as that might be a better barometer of how tough a game we can expect them to give City next weekend.

RASHFORD ON THE WATCHLIST

Ronaldo will soon come back into the thinking for those FPL managers who previously sold him but Rashford is certainly one for the watchlist from Gameweek 15/16 onwards, whether he’s alongside a central striker in a 3-5-2 or playing out on the flank in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3.

The England winger has scored two in as many substitute appearances since his return from injury, having plundered 47 attacking returns and 351 points over his two previous seasons.

MARCUS RASHFORD UNDER OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER:

Tottenham Hotspur XI: Lloris; Royal, Dier, Romero, Davies; Skipp (Ndombele 66), Hojbjerg, Lo Celso (Alli 73); Moura (Bergwijn 54), Kane, Son.

Manchester United XI: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire (c), Varane, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; Fernandes (Matic 76); Cavani (Lingard 86), Ronaldo (Rashford 71).