FPL pre-season: Conte on Perisic and Doherty’s fitness

Roma beat Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on Saturday but Ivan Perisic (£5.5m) impressed in defeat, while Nottingham Forest handed Jesse Lingard (£6.0m) his first appearance in a 1-1 draw against Valencia.

We’ve got the goals, assists, line-ups and Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from these matches in our Scout Notes.

Reports on the day’s other games are linked below, with more to follow.

• READ MORE: FPL pre-season: Another goal for £5.0m midfielder Bailey
• READ MORE: Haaland, Darwin, Salah: How the big FPL names fared in the Community Shield
• READ MORE: FPL pre-season: Jesus hits hat-trick – and is Saka on pens?
• READ MORE: FPL pre-season: Chilwell left out of first XI as Mount excels

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.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 0-1 ROMA

Match highlights

Spurs concluded their pre-season preparations with a narrow friendly defeat against Jose Mourinho’s Roma on Saturday.

However, Antonio Conte will take positives from the loss, with new signing Ivan Perisic impressing in his first start for the club.

The Croatian went close to scoring on three occasions and was a real threat in the final-third, although Conte did stress that he still needs further time to become “…the Ivan Perisic I know”.

“He’s an important player because he’s really good. He moves forward, good in one v ones, and then he can use both feet and he was before a winger which us why he’s good in one v one. But he has to continue to work because at this moment he’s not the Ivan Perisic I know. That is normal though, but I’m happy because he reduced the time to recover from his injury.” – Antonio Conte on Ivan Perisic

Fellow wing-back Matt Doherty (£5.0m) didn’t feature against Rangers last time out but started here and had a header tipped onto the woodwork before he was flagged for offside.

He also took up some encouraging attacking positions, but like Perisic, still needs to build up his fitness having only recently returned from a knee injury.

Doherty lasted 67 minutes before he was replaced by Emerson Royal (£5.0m), with new-signing Djed Spence (£4.5m) an unused substitute.

“It was the same (as Perisic) for Matthew (Doherty). I hope to see him like last season and now he’s working and he’s struggling. We need to have patience. We need to give time for these players to be really fit. In this moment we have two players, Perisic and Doherty, they have to continue to work and reach the peak of fitness because after a long injury they are struggling a lot. We need to have patience, but today it was positive to give them a lot of time to play again for Matthew and Ivan.

It will be very important for us (to get Perisic and Doherty fit), but then we have Sessegnon, that is a guarantee, also Emerson is good. There is the new player Spence. He is a guy who has to work a lot, because to go into Tottenham it’s different in the Premier League with Tottenham but in the end I’m happy.” – Antonio Conte on his options at wing-back

In a game of few clear-cut chances, a Roger Ibanez header proved the difference for Roma, but Harry Kane (£11.5m) was perhaps a little unfortunate not to return.

The England forward had the ball in the net just before the break only for the goal to be ruled out for offside, missed a late headed chance, while he also should have been awarded a penalty in the second half.

Elsewhere, Richarlison (£8.5m) also made an impact after replacing Son Heung-min (£12.0m), while Ben Davies (£5.0m) was back on the bench after injury.

“Richarlison I liked a lot the way he impacted the game. We need this type of player. Richarlison to start the game or go into the game, he can have a big impact. For us it’s very important. We need him behind Sonny, also Kane and Kulusevski. He is an important player because we have a lot of games to play.” – Antonio Conte on Richarlison

Tottenham Hotspur XI (3-4-2-1): Lloris (Forster 67); Romero, Dier, Sanchez (Lenglet 46); Doherty (Royal 67), Bissouma (Bentancur 46), Hojbjerg, Perisic (Sessegnon 75); Kulusevski (Moura 67), Son (Richarlison 67); Kane

NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1-1 VALENCIA

• Goals: Johnson
• Assists: Awoniyi

Match highlights

Nottingham Forest rounded off their pre-season campaign with a 1-1 draw against Valencia, with Jesse Lingard impressing on his debut.

The summer signing – deployed in a no. 10 role behind Brennan Johnson (£6.0m) and Sam Surridge (£5.0m) – showed glimpses of what he has to offer, taking on several shots whilst also being central to much of Forest’s attacking play.

“Thank you to the fans for a warm reception. I really, really appreciate it. I’m going to do my best for Nottingham Forest, don’t worry about that – 110% each game.” – Jesse Lingard

Brennan Johnson’s goal on 83 minutes ensured it finished even at 1-1, with substitute and record signing Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.0m) grabbing the assist.

And the pair almost combined again a few minutes later, only for Valencia’s ‘keeper to deny the Welsh forward getting a second.

Elsewhere, Neco Williams (£4.0m) looked lively in the final-third, while Jack Colback (£4.5m) started in central midfield alongside Lewis O’Brien (£5.0m).

That’s because Ryan Yates (£5.0m) has suffered another injury and is set to be out for a couple of weeks.

Nottingham Forest XI (3-4-1-2): Henderson; Worrall, Cook, McKenna; Williams, Colback, O’Brien, Toffolo; Lingard (Cafu 77); Johnson, Surridge (Awoniyi 62)

PRE-SEASON MINUTES TRACKER