James Maddison (£8.0m), Marcus Rashford (£6.5m) and Pedro Neto (£5.5m) were amongst the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) names in action this weekend as the final batch of pre-season friendlies were staged.
We’ve got all the goal, assist and line-up information you need in this latest Scout Notes article.
We’ve also been 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 – Saturday scout notes: Bournemouth plight good news for Villa in Gameweek 1
- READ MORE – Saturday scout notes: Conte on Perisic and Doherty’s fitness
- READ MORE – Saturday scout notes: Another goal for £5.0m midfielder Bailey
- READ MORE – Community Shield notes: Haaland, Darwin, Salah: How the big FPL names fared
- READ MORE – Friday scout notes: Jesus hits hat-trick – and is Saka on pens?
LEICESTER CITY 1-0 SEVILLA
- Goal: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
- Assist: James Maddison
Another injury to right-back Ricardo Pereira (£4.5m) marred what would have been a positive end to Leicester City’s pre-season, defeating Sevilla 1-0 thanks to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
With other £5.0m midfielders like Leon Bailey and Miguel Almiron finding some pre-season form, Dewsbury-Hall has bagged two goals and three assists for himself. There could be some value at that price point, although the Leicester man seems to be more secure in the starting line-up.
It’s been a tough time for Ricardo, having barely played since his ACL tear in March 2020. He went down in the 35th minute with nobody near him, resulting in an ankle or Achilles problem that “doesn’t look good” according to Brendan Rodgers.
Harvey Barnes (£7.0m) went down holding his knee but his removal was more precautionary.
“We think it’s okay. He just felt it was unstable, so there was no need to take the risk. This is a time of the season you don’t need to force it. But sat on the bed there, he seems fine, and the medical team think he’s fine, but we’ll see how that is.” – Brendan Rodgers
Ricardo’s injury could both secure the place of James Justin (£4.5m) and end the experiment of playing defender Timothy Castagne (£4.5m) on the right wing. The latter could have been very intriguing for FPL managers.
With Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) rumoured to be departing, there was another start for the as-of-now unpriced Daniel Iversen. In such circumstances, he may, unfortunately, be priced at £4.5m rather than £4.0m but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on.
Leicester XI (4-2-3-1): Iversen (Schmeichel 46′); Ricardo (Tielemans 37′), Evans, Fofana (Amartey 46′), Justin; Castagne, Dewsbury-Hall (Mendy 84′), Ndidi (Soumare 68′), Maddison (Albrighton 84′); Barnes (Praet 67′); Vardy (Daka 68′)
LEEDS UNITED 6-2 CAGLIARI
- Goals: Rodrigo (x3), Patrick Bamford (x2), Robin Koch
- Assists: Patrick Bamford, Jack Harrison (x2), Brenden Aaronson (x3)
Jesse Marsch gave this team the whole 90 minutes, making this their likely Gameweek 1 line-up. Injury to Junior Firpo (£4.5m) meant that Pascal Struijk (£4.5m) was again used at left-back.
Meanwhile, the performances of midfielders Rodrigo (£6.0m), Jack Harrison (£6.0m) and Brenden Aaronson (£5.5m) could tempt managers into taking a punt for Leeds’ promising run of early fixtures – Wolves (H), Southampton (a), Everton (H) and Nottingham Forest (H) are amongst the first seven outings.
Aaronson’s glorious outside-of-the-boot pass put Patrick Bamford (£7.5m) through to score his first of two goals – nice to see after last season’s injury woes.
Rodrigo also hit a hat-trick, with Aaronson claiming a treble of assists.
“What I said to the team afterwards is that when you have good performances it’s not time to relax, it should feed us and give us hunger to keep improving and know that there’s some positive reinforcement that we’re moving in the right direction. In general I would say that performance showed we’re moving in the right direction.” – Jesse Marsch
Just don’t expect clean sheets to suddenly appear. Their high defensive line gave several big chances to Serie B side Cagliari, of which only two were converted.
Leeds XI (4-2-3-1): Meslier; Kristensen, Koch, Llorente, Struijk; Roca, Adams; Harrison, Aaronson, Rodrigo; Bamford
MANCHESTER UNITED 0-1 ATLETICO MADRID
MANCHESTER UNITED 1-1 RAYO VALLECANO
- Goal: Amad Diallo
- Assist: Alex Telles
Over their two weekend run-outs, Manchester United gave minutes to 29 players including debutant Christian Eriksen (£6.5m).
There was no Jadon Sancho (£7.5m) at all, due to illness, whilst new signing Lisandro Martinez (£4.5m) started in the weaker Sunday line-up that brought an eye-catching performance from Alejandro Garnacho. The 18-year-old is also without an FPL price.
The most newsworthy event was Cristiano Ronaldo (£10.5m) getting his first pre-season minutes, only to leave the ground soon after his half-time removal. Whether he ultimately leaves or stays at Old Trafford, Anthony Martial (£7.0m) is likely to start the first games as a forward.
Diogo Dalot (£4.5m) and Tyrell Malacia (£4.5m) faced Atletico, although the latter was initiated by a Luke Shaw (£5.0m) illness.
Man United XI (4-2-3-1) vs Atletico Madrid: de Gea; Dalot, Maguire, Lindelof, Malacia; McTominay (van de Beek 69′), Fred; Elanga (Pellistri 76′ (Garner 90′)), Fernandes, Rashford; Martial (Eriksen 69′)
Man United XI (4-2-3-1) vs Rayo Vallecano: Heaton; Laird, Varane, Martinez (Bailly 61′), Telles; Garner (Iqbal 74′), van de Beek; Chong (Hansen-Aaroen 85′), Eriksen (Mejbri 61′), Garnacho (Shoretire 73′); Ronaldo (Diallo 46′)
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1-1 SPORTING LISBON
- Goal: Ruben Neves
- Assist: Pedro Neto
FARENSE 1-1 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
- Goal: Hwang Hee-chan
- Assist: Chem Campbell
A pair of spot kicks for Ruben Neves (£5.5m) and Hwang Hee-chan (£6.0m) were all that Wolves could produce in their final friendlies.
Without main forward Raul Jimenez (£7.0m), they resorted to a fluid front three of usual midfielders Daniel Podence (£5.5m), Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.5m) and Pedro Neto.
The latter is nearing 20% ownership for Gameweek 1 and, by winning a penalty, will maintain such popularity for promising matches against Leeds (a) and Fulham (H).
Bruno Lage is committing to a back-four system where Jonny (£4.5m) and Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.5m) are starting full-backs. For the second successive weekend, Conor Coady (£5.0m) was left out of the stronger XI and placed into the other.
Wolves XI (4-3-3): Sa; Jonny, Collins, Kilman (Coady 83′), Ait-Nouri (Bueno 89′); Neves, Moutinho, Dendoncker; Gibbs-White (Campbell 82′), Podence, Neto (Hwang 66′)
Wolves XI (4-3-3): Smith; Mosquera (Tipton 69′), Coady, Boly, Toti (Griffiths 46′); Hodge (Hodnett 83′), Ronan, Cundle (Fraser 83′); Bueno, Campbell (Harkin 76′), Hwang (Birtwistle 69′)
FULHAM 1-1 VILLARREAL
- Goal: Aleksandar Mitrovic
- Assist: Kevin Mbabu
Alongside the 43 goals of Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.5m), the contributions of Harry Wilson (£6.0m) were a huge part of Fulham’s Championship-winning campaign. His ten goals and 19 assists were vital, so it’s concerning to hear of a knee injury that occurred in a behind-closed-doors friendly.
“Harry Wilson and Nathaniel Chalobah are both injured. We’re waiting on the medical staff but it doesn’t look good. Harry’s injury is in his knee but we’ll wait for the medical staff.” – Marco Silva
A lengthy absence could affect Mitrovic’s output, although it should push more set-piece duties onto Andreas Pereira (£4.5m).
New signing Kevin Mbabu (£4.5m) made a brief appearance but still found time to assist Mitrovic’s late equaliser with a dangerous cross.
Owners of Liverpool assets will be encouraged by the lack of summer upgrades on the unconvincing Marek Rodak (£4.5m) or Tim Ream (£4.5m), although the transfer of Bernd Leno (£4.5m) could still be pushed through ahead of Gameweek 1.
Fulham XI (4-2-3-1): Rodak; Tete (Mbabu 84′), Tosin, Ream, Robinson; Palhinha (Harris 70′), Reed; De Cordova-Reid, Andreas (Cairney 84′), Kebano (Stansfield 67′); Mitrovic
LIVERPOOL 0-3 STRASBOURG
With Jurgen Klopp’s main team defeating Manchester City to win Saturday’s Community Shield, this was very much a back-up side against Strasbourg.
A few known names started, such as James Milner (£4.5m), Harvey Elliott (£5.0m), Ibrahima Konate (£5.0m) and Joe Gomez (£4.5m), but the match will have little bearing on the Reds’ Gameweek 1 line-up.
Konate was substituted as a precaution and will be assessed ahead of Saturday.
“Naby [Keita] is ill and Curtis [Jones] felt a little bit and we couldn’t take any risks. All of a sudden the team was really young and we play [against] a really strong Strasbourg side.
“We don’t know exactly yet on Ibou, but it doesn’t look too concerning, so I hope we caught it in the right moment.” – Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool XI: Davies, Mabaya (Phillips 46′), Konate (Van den Berg 57′), Gomez, Chambers, Milner, Bajcetic (Clark 57′), Morton, Frauendorf (Musialowski 76′), Elliott, Carvalho
