FPL friendlies round-up: Kulusevski, Benrahma and Bueno shine

With the FIFA World Cup three games away from its conclusion, we’ll soon be welcoming back Fantasy Premier League (FPL).

All Premier League clubs bar Bournemouth, Manchester City and Southampton have already contested mid-season friendlies since Gameweek 16 ended, so let’s have a look at how these 17 teams have got on over the last month.

We concentrate on Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers in this next round-up.

It’s less about ‘match reports’ when it comes to these Scout Notes on the glorified kickabouts, with more focus on tactical tweaks, injury news and key manager quotes.

More friendlies and Carabao Cup ties will follow before we reach Gameweek 17, so for a full rundown of when and where your Fantasy assets might be in action, check out our complete guide to the FPL restart.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

DEC 9: TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 4-0 MOTHERWELL

• Goals: Dejan Kulusevski, Matt Doherty (x2), Bryan Gil
• Assists: Bryan Gil, Dejan Kulusevski (x2)
• Starting XI: Austin (Whiteman 58); Tanganga (Dorrington 75), Sanchez (Fagan-Walcott 75), Sayers (Mundle 67); Spence (Paskotsi 75), Bissouma (John 75), Skipp (Devine 75), Doherty (Muir 75); Kulusevski (Lankshear 75), White (Donley 75), Bryan (Santiago 75).

No Premier League team has more representation in the World Cup semi-finals than Spurs, with Ivan Perisic (£5.5m), Cristian Romero (£4.9m) and Hugo Lloris (£5.5m) still in Qatar until the weekend.

Also without Harry Kane (£11.6m), Son Heung-min (£11.6m) and Eric Dier (£5.2m) for this behind-closed-doors runout against Motherwell, the superb performance of attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski (£8.0m) will both please Antonio Conte and impress FPL managers with an unlimited number of free transfers to use.

The Swede returned from injury to grab a couple of assists before the six-week break and provided two here, having already put his side 1-0 up when pouncing on a defensive mistake.

Conte was also missing non-World Cup options like Ryan Sessegnon (£4.5m) and Emerson Royal (£4.9m), allowing Djed Spence (£4.1m) to get some minutes at right wing-back. He played well, as did Matt Doherty (£4.6m) on the left.

The Irish international netted twice, laying down an early marker for Gameweek 17.

“We were only off for two weeks, so it’s not like we lost a lot of fitness or sharpness. We’ll do whatever they (coaching staff) tell us to do, we’ll work hard, try to get better because we know we’ve a game in two weeks (Boxing Day) against Brentford that we have to be ready for. We took the two weeks off, took our rest and now we’re back and taking training very seriously.” – Matt Doherty

News is emerging that Richarlison (£8.4m) hurt his hamstring in Brazil’s quarter-final defeat and could be out for a month, further enhancing the appeal of Kulusevski.

For those managers not willing to squeeze Kane in alongside other premium assets, the 22-year-old is a great alternative route into their attack.

WEST HAM UNITED

DEC 6: CAMBRIDGE UNITED 2-4 WEST HAM UNITED

• Goals: Jarrod Bowen, Lewis Simper own goal, Said Benrahma, Pierre Ekwah
• Assists: Flynn Downes, Emerson, Gianluca Scamacca, Freddie Potts
• Starting XI: Fabiański (Randolph 46); Johnson (Laing 60), Dawson (Coufal 46), Ogbonna (Forbes 60), Cresswell (Emerson 16); Downes (Potts 68), Coventry; Fornals (Ekwah 60), Lanzini (Scamacca 46), Bowen (Benrahma 46); Antonio (Swyer 68)

DEC 10: UDINESE 1-3 WEST HAM UNITED

• Goals: Said Benrahma, Manuel Lanzini, Michail Antonio
• Assists: Jarrod Bowen x2
• Starting XI: Fabiański; Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Emerson (Johnson 70); Downes (Lanzini 46), Souček; Fornals, Benrahma (Antonio 46), Bowen; Scamacca (Coventry 90)

Strong line-ups began both West Ham outings, firstly defeating Cambridge in a testimonial then flying to Italy to beat Udinese.

Said Benrahma (£5.6m) ended the first part of this season with two goals from four matches and continued that form here when netting both times. At a low price, the Algerian could be a great differential for the Hammers’ post-Arsenal fixture run.

Now out of the World Cup, midfielders Declan Rice (£4.8m) and Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m) have reportedly been given ten days off. Whilst missing Saturday’s final friendly against Fulham, their midweek return to training should see them available for Gameweek 17.

However, one concern is the hamstring injury suffered by Aaron Cresswell (£4.8m), which forced off the left-back after 16 minutes at Cambridge.

“Cressy [Cresswell] felt something at the back of his hamstring and we’re just making sure everything is OK.” – First-team coach Mark Warburton

The above update doesn’t sound too serious but any length of absence for Cresswell would open up a starting for yet another budget defender, Emerson Palmieri (£4.0m).

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

DEC 3: WOLVES 2-2 BIRMINGHAM

• Goals: Diego Costa, Daniel Podence penalty
• Assists: Nelson Semedo
• Starting XI: unknown

DEC 9: WOLVES 1-1 EMPOLI

• Goal: Hugo Bueno
• Assist: none
• Starting XI: Sarkic; Semedo (Lembikisa 65), Collins (Gomes 45), Kilman (Mosquera 65), Bueno (Ait Nouri 45); B.Traore (Tipton 72), Hodge (Griffiths 72), Moutinho (Ronan 60); A.Traore (Farmer 65) (Roberts 85), Costa (Raul 60), Guedes (Podence 60).

Information on Wolves’ behind-closed-doors meeting with Birmingham is scarce, although we know that Maximilian Kilman (£4.4m), Joe Hodge (£4.4m) and cheap defender Hugo Bueno (£3.9m) were involved in the opening goal, ending with Nelson Semedo‘s (£5.0m) cross being converted by Diego Costa (£5.5m).

Daniel Podence, in the absence of Raul Jimenez (£6.8m) and Ruben Neves (£5.5m), converted a penalty.

The subsequent trip to Marbella is allowing new manager Julen Lopetegui to further assess what he has at his disposal and FPL managers will be excited to see Bueno not only start again but score before his half-time removal.

It may be too early to count our chickens regarding Bueno, with positional rival Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.2m) handed the same number of minutes, but at least the former was part of a first-choice defence in the opening half.

Wednesday sees them face Cadiz, with Gameweek 17 also preceded by a Carabao Cup tie against Gillingham. Portugal trio Neves, Jose Sa (£5.0m) and Matheus Nunes (£4.8m) could be back in time, with Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan (£5.7m) already eliminated. Jimenez, indeed, featured for half an hour against Empoli as a substitute.