FPL pre-season: Martial, Rashford and Sancho on target

There were more pre-season friendlies contested on Tuesday and we’ve got all the goal, assist and line-up information you need in this latest Scout Notes article.

We’re also keeping tabs on the minutes played in all of these warm-up fixtures, with Premium Members of Fantasy Football Scout able to access this information at the bottom of this article.

READ MORE: Sunday and Monday friendlies: £4.5m midfielder Pereira on set plays?

MANCHESTER UNITED 3-1 CRYSTAL PALACE

• Goals: Martial, Rashford, Sancho | Ward
• Assists: Dalot, van de Beek, Martial | Milivojevic

Match highlights

Manchester United made it a clean sweep of pre-season victories so far by comfortably defeating Crystal Palace 3-1 in Melbourne.

Attacking trio Anthony Martial (£7.0m), Marcus Rashford (£6.5m) and Jadon Sancho (£7.5m) continue to impress and were all on the scoresheet, which Bruno Fernandes (£10.0m) discussed after the game.

“… the three guys up front have been much more aggressive in the way they press and they are strong too. They make the last line squeeze and it makes the midfielders come a little bit higher, it makes it so, when we recover the ball, we are being closer to the ball too. 

We all know that everyone wants to score goals, but the main ones have to be the strikers. They know that they have to be there to score goals and they are doing really well. We have to keep supporting them in making them happy because we know that they lead from the goals.” – Bruno Fernandes

Martial added to his strikes against Liverpool and Melbourne Victory with a composed finish from a lovely left-footed Diogo Dalot cross (£4.5m), while Sancho was electric on the right-wing and has arguably been United’s standout player of the tour so far.

As for Dalot, there was a moment in the first-half when he made another one of those infield runs, cutting inside Sancho and offering a passing option, and it’s that partnership that is already looking strong.

Tyrell Malacia (£4.5m), meanwhile, made his first United start, lasting 77 minutes.

“I think it’s pre-season and we are happy with the improvement we see but also you see a lot of work to do. We scored some wonderful goals and that is also true. I agree (that we are winning the ball higher up in the field in dangerous positions) and that is also the demand on the team. We press all day and, if we can, do that high up the pitch. But if we can’t, we get to do that in a lower block but we also have to press and do it together as a team.” – Erik ten Hag

As for Crystal Palace, Joel Ward (£4.5m) headed in a Luka Milivojevic (£4.5m) corner with 15 minutes remaining, while Jack Butland (£4.5m) was forced off after feeling pain following a fingertip save.

Manchester United XI (4-2-3-1): de Gea; Dalot (Wan-Bissaka 66), Maguire (Fish 65), Lindelof (Telles 66), Malacia (Laird 77); McTominay (van de Beek 46), Fred (Savage 66); Sancho (Amad 66), Fernandes (Iqbal 66), Rashford (Hannibal 66); Martial (Elanga 66)

Crystal Palace XI (4-3-3): Butland (Matthews 15); Clyne (Quick 65), Andersen (Siddik 77), Ward (O’Brien 77), Mitchell (Adaramola 65); Milivojevic (Boateng 77), Phillips (Ozoh 65), Rak-Sakyi (Raymond 65); Ebiowei (Banks 77), Ayew (Akinwale 77), Mateta (Ola-Adebomi 65)

GILLINGHAM 2-3 CRYSTAL PALACE

• Goals: Zaha x2, Benteke
• Assists: Benteke, Zaha

Match highlights

The second part of Crystal Palace’s friendly double-header on Tuesday took place at the Priestfield Stadium, where a Wilfried Zaha (£7.0m) brace and Christian Benteke (£5.5m) goal was enough to earn a 3-2 win.

The Eagles put out a strong XI consisting of players who didn’t travel to Singapore and Australia, with Zaha, Benteke, Marc Guehi (£4.5m), Eberechi Eze (£5.5m) and new-signing Cheick Doucoure (£5.0m) all featuring from the off.

Zaha, meanwhile, was in confident mood and heavily involved from the left-wing, while budget forward Luke Plange (£4.5m) followed up his hat-trick against Ipswich Town with another start.

Crystal Palace XI: Goodman, Boateng (Wells-Morrison 68), Sheridan, Guehi (Gordon 68), Riedewald (Addae 68), Doucoure (Bartley 68), Eze (MacArthur 68), Schlupp (Hughes 68), Plange (Cardogan 79), Zaha (Mooney 79), Benteke (Watson 68)

RANGERS 3-1 WEST HAM UNITED

• Goals: Soucek
• Assists: Zouma

Match highlights

West Ham United suffered a 3-1 defeat at Ibrox on Tuesday, their first loss of pre-season.

After a finely balanced first-half, Rangers stepped up a gear with three goals inside 15 minutes, before Tomas Soucek (£5.5m) pulled one back from a corner for David Moyes’ side.

Declan Rice (£5.0m) got some more pre-season minutes under his belt but new centre-back signing Nayef Aguerd (£5.0m) picked up an ankle injury, with Issa Diop (£4.5m) coming on in his place.

However, Moyes later revealed the Moroccan hadn’t suffered a break.

“We’ve already had Nayef x-rayed and there’s no break in his ankle, which is good news. It might be some ligaments, or he’s twisted his ankle – it blew up immediately so we have to hope it’s not a problem.” – David Moyes

Elsewhere, Jarrod Bowen (£8.5m) was probably West Ham’s best player but failed to get the goal his play deserved.

“They’re a good side, but I thought the goals showed the other side to us too. It’s not like us to defend the way we did, but that wasn’t the main reason. We didn’t show enough attacking purpose and when we had a couple of half-chances we didn’t take them. Look, it’s a pre-season game, so hopefully we can get it out of the way and move on. It was always going to be a difficult game, but I’m disappointed with a lot of elements of the game and things that we did.

I hope it comes as a good thing having a wake-up call, but I thought it was a good pre-season last year when we won all the games. You want to win the games and you want to go in (to the season) in good form. We certainly need to make a lot of changes and do something different, that’s for sure.” – David Moyes

West Ham United XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Johnson (Coufal 55), Zouma, Aguerd (Diop 24), Cresswell, Rice (Downes 55), Lanzini (Soucek 55); Bowen, Fornals (Coventry 75), Benrahma (Vlasic 55), Antonio (Mubama 75)

STRASBOURG 2-2 BRENTFORD

• Goals: Wissa, Lewis-Potter
• Assists: Janelt

Match highlights

Brentford’s pre-season tour of Germany ended with a 2-2 draw against Ligue 1 side Strasbourg.

Yoane Wissa (£5.5m) scored a superb first-half effort, blasting into the net after a decent first touch, while Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.5m) is off the mark following his 16m move from Hull City.

The pair may end up competing for minutes in 2022/23, although for those considering Wissa as a budget midfielder, Athletic journalist Jay Harris sounded upbeat on his chances of starting Gameweek 1 in a recent Q&A:

“If Brentford start the season playing 4-3-3, I expect Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo to play rather than Lewis-Potter. Wissa was the club’s second-leading goalscorer last season with 10. Mbeumo recorded the most assists (seven) and Frank also values his work out of possession. This will allow Lewis-Potter to be gradually integrated into the side, instead of being thrown in straight away as he steps up a division from the Championship. The England U21 international’s favourite position is on the left wing, which suggests he will mainly be competing against Wissa for game time, although he is versatile. Lewis-Potter’s arrival gives Frank more options up front.” – Jay Harris, Brentford reporter for The Athletic

Ivan Toney (£7.0m), meanwhile, hit the bar from 10 yards out, with Thomas Frank generally happy with his team’s efforts in the final-third:

“There were a lot of positives. It was a game against a good side and overall, we kept them quiet. I like the intention and intensity. We lacked a bit of quality sometimes. We’d like to play even quicker but the pitch was slow. In the game, we maybe created six chances, so we need to score one or two more goals. We also need to defend better in the box.” – Thomas Frank

Brentford XI (4-3-3): Raya (Cox 60); Hickey (Roerslev 60), Bech (Crama 60), Jansson (Oyegoke 60), Henry (Stevens 60); Jensen (Dasilva 60), Janelt (Trevitt 60), Onyeka (Baptiste 60); Mbeumo (Dervisoglu 60), Wissa (Ghoddos 60), Toney (Lewis-Potter 60)

BRAGA 2-1 BOURNEMOUTH

• Goals: Solanke
• Assists:

Match highlights

Bournemouth ended their Portugal training camp with defeat against a strong Braga outfit that finished fourth in the Primeira Liga last season.

However, Dominic Solanke (£6.0m) netted his second goal of pre-season and really should have added to it, going close on several occasions.

Ryan Christie (£5.5m) linked up particularly well with Solanke with some clever passes, while at the other end, ‘keeper Mark Travers (£4.5m) made two smart saves.

In the 70th minute Bournemouth made wholesale changes, with a number of academy prospects taking to the pitch.

Bournemouth XI: Travers (Lossl 70), Smith (Genesini 70), Mepham (Stacey 70), Hill (Greenwood 70), Zemura (Sadi 70), Billing (Lowe 70), Cook (Stanislas 70), Lerma (Marcondes 70), Rothwell (Anthony 70), Christie (Dembele 70), Solanke (Moore 70)

PRE-SEASON MINUTES TRACKER