FPL review: Maddison hauls, Ward keeps clean sheet

We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from Leicester City v Nottingham Forest in our Scout Notes summary.

The graphics below are taken from LiveFPL and our own Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data for every single Premier League fixture.

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It has been a rotten start to the season for Leicester City, but their campaign is finally up and running after beating rivals Nottingham Forest 4-0 on Monday.

In a much-needed win, James Maddison (£8.0m) was the star of the show, producing 18 points, courtesy of two goals, an assist and maximum bonus.

The playmaker had a lot of joy drifting into central areas from the right, where he was able to find space between the lines. Indeed, he racked up 42 final-third touches – at least 12 more than any player on the pitch – and was outstanding with his use of the ball, creating four chances for his teammates.

Above: James Maddison’s touch heatmap v Nottingham Forest in Gameweek 9

“My strength is being between the lines, so we worked a lot on me being able to pick up on those pockets. I think that’s something I’ve improved on massively tactically. But I can’t just run around wherever I want, the Gaffer allows me freedom but not that much! You can see on my face just how much it means. That first goal was crucial for us.” – James Maddison

Harvey Barnes (£6.9m) and Patson Daka (£5.7m) were also on the scoresheet, with the latter a second-half substitute for Jamie Vardy (£9.2m), who recorded a first-half assist, his first attacking return since Gameweek 4.

Danny Ward (£4.0m), meanwhile, retained his place in goal despite conceding 11 goals in his previous two outings, and repaid his manager’s faith by keeping his first clean sheet of 2022/23. He even managed save/bonus points!

“It’s been too long [since they last won] but I thought we were excellent tonight, with our intensity and pressing in the game. It was a great night for the players and brilliant for the fans. I said if we could get a result tonight then we could push on.

We’ve got a lot of technically gifted players but you can’t win football matches without the desire to win the game. In key moments in other games we haven’t defended well but we have tonight and we’ve kept a clean sheet, which is also very important.” – Brendan Rodgers

Prior to tonight, the Foxes had lost six league games in a row, although five of those were against sides currently in the top six – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Brighton and Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur.

Now, tonight’s win could be a turning point, with a favourable run of fixtures – Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers – coming up.

As for Nottingham Forest, the season started brightly for the Championship play-off winners, but they have now lost five matches in a row, conceding three or more in each of the last four.

They did hit the post through Taiwo Awoniyi (£5.8m) at the King Power, but then conceded three times in a crazy 10-minute period.

Steve Cooper is at least trying to find solutions, moving from his usual 3-4-2-1 formation to a 4-2-3-1 on Monday, but that switch did have implications for budget defender Neco Williams (£4.1m).

As an attacking wing-back, the youngster had produced 15 shots across his first seven appearances, more than any other FPL defender. However, tonight, he was restricted to just four final-third touches, before he was replaced by Serge Aurier (£4.5m) at half-time, having already been booked.

“We are going through difficult moments you normally look at in pre-season and we are having to go through that process in the most difficult league in the world. It’s tough at the moment, I won’t shy away from that.

I’ll believe in them until the end. I will never say they are not good enough as that will have a negative effect. But at the same time we need to be much better. 

This is a fresh challenge for us. Some of the guys have only met each other these last couple of weeks. That’s the realism of the situation and something we have to deal with. At the moment we are getting punished because of periods in games where we are not a team and key moments as well.” – Steve Cooper

Leicester City XI: Ward; Castagne, Evans, Faes, Justin; Ndidi (Soumare 45), Tielemans (Praet 80), Dewsbury-Hall; Maddison (Albrighton 85), Barnes, Vardy (Daka 62)

Nottingham Forest XI: Henderson; Williams (Aurier 45), Cook, McKenna, Lodi; Kouyate (Freuler 45), O’Brien (Yates 45); Johnson, Gibbs-White, Lingard (Mangala 69); Awoniyi (Dennis 62)

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