FPL friendlies round-up: Summerville injury, Zaha misses another penalty

Fantasy Premier League (FPL) will soon be back – and Premier League clubs’ preparations for Gameweek 17 are ramping up with some mid-season friendlies.

All Premier League clubs bar Bournemouth, Manchester City and Southampton have already contested kickabouts since Gameweek 16 ended, with our Scout Notes series reporting on the most noteworthy tactical tweaks, injury news and manager quotes.

Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United and Leicester City are the focus here.

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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.

CRYSTAL PALACE

DEC 3: CRYSTAL PALACE 0-0 BOTAFOGO

• Goals: None
• Assists: None
• Crystal Palace first-half XI: Guaita, Riedewald, Balmer, Tomkins, Clyne, Milivojević, Hughes, Olise, Zaha, Gordon, Edouard
• Crystal Palace second-half XI: Butland, Adaramola, Balmer (Phillips 76), Guéhi, Grehan, Doucouré, Gordon (Wells-Morrison 64), Schlupp, Eze, Ebiowei, Mateta

DEC 7: CRYSTAL PALACE 2-2 TRABZONSPOR

• Goals: Edouard, Mateta
• Assists: Olise
• Crystal Palace XI: Butland (Whitworth 62), Clyne (Riedewald 75), Tomkins (Balmer 62), Guéhi, Ward (Adaramola 75), Doucouré (Milivojevic 62), Schlupp (Hughes 62), Olise (Wells-Morrison 75), Ebiowei (Eze 62), Edouard (Mateta 62), Zaha (Gordon 75)

DEC 11: CRYSTAL PALACE 1-3 NAPOLI

• Goal: Zaha
• Assist: Olise
• Crystal Palace XI: Butland, Ward (Adaramola 66), Tomkins (Richards 56), Guéhi, Clyne, Milivojevic (Riedewald 66), Hughes (Gordon 81), Schlupp (Doucouré 46), Eze, Zaha (Edouard 81), Olise (Ebiowei 81)

Of the 20 Premier League clubs, Crystal Palace had the joint-fewest players – two – away at the World Cup.

So we’ve seen near full-strength Eagles sides take to the field in three friendlies at the beginning of December, with the exception of Denmark’s Joachim Andersen (£4.5m), Ghana’s Jordan Ayew (£5.3m) and a cluster of injured players. Both Ayew and Andersen’s nations were eliminated at the group stage, so even they’ll be back in training soon.

As for the injuries, Tyrick Mitchell (£4.5m) still hasn’t kicked a ball since limping out of the Nottingham Forest defeat a month ago. Nathan Ferguson (£3.9m) and James McArthur (£4.8m) also remain sidelined.

“We had a step back for Macca and Nathan. They will travel with the rest of the squad to Turkey. It’s taking a little bit more time, a step back. But both of them are coming to Turkey with the rest of the team and working with the physios in the gym and hopefully Nathan can maybe be the one who can start a little bit more early than Macca.” – Patrick Vieira, speaking on December 4 before the trip to Turkey to face Trabzonspor and Napoli

Vieira, as he so often does in competitive matches, tweaked his attacking set-up here and there, with Odsonne Edouard (£5.3m), Jean-Phillipe Mateta (£5.2m) and Wilfried Zaha (£7.5m) all getting their turns through the middle in the three friendlies.

All three scored, although Zaha’s woeful record from 12 yards continued against Botafogo. The Ivory Coast international had spurned four of his last seven Premier League penalties before his latest miss, so you do wonder how longer this atrocious conversion rate can continue before Vieira hands the responsibility to someone else.

“I was pleased because we doubled up the training. Physically we are in a good place. We can compete for 95 minutes. We put in hard work, hard sessions.

“Defensively we have a long way to go, but we are playing against a top Serie A team still involved in the Champions League. It was a really good test for us because that highlights the phases of the game that we have to improve and shows how we have to go more into details and be more solid defensively.

“The positive is that we defended well at times, but it is not consistent enough. We created situations, we had a couple of chances where we could have scored but we didn’t score.” – Patrick Vieira on the defeat to Napoli

There was no word on why Vicente Guaita (£4.5m) didn’t feature in the two most-recent friendlies but back-up ‘keeper Sam Johnstone (£4.4m) now reportedly faces a spell on the sidelines.

EVERTON

Nov 20: Everton 0-0 Celtic

• Goals: None
• Assists: None
• Everton XI: Begovic, Patterson, Tarkowski, Keane, Mina (Holgate 46), Mykolenko (Vinagre 66), Doucoure (McNeil 46), Price, Gray (Mills 75), Gordon, Maupay (Cannon 75)

Nov 23: Western Sydney Wanderers 1-5 Everton

• Goals: Maupay, Gordon x3, Cannon
• Assists: Patterson, Doucoure, Gray, Mills, McNeil
• Everton XI: Begovic (Lonergan 46), Patterson, Holgate (Welch 69), Tarkowski (Keane 46), Vinagre (Anderson 75), Doucoure (Quirk 75), Price, McNeil, Gordon, Gray (Mills 64), Maupay (Cannon 64)

Everton’s only two friendlies contested so far were oddities in that they followed almost straight after Gameweek 16.

The Toffees were over in Australia for matches against Celtic and Western Sydney Wanderers, the latter game seeing the hitherto out-of-form Anthony Gordon (£5.3m) bag a hat-trick.

“For me especially, this was a really good game to get a bit of momentum. I feel like I have been a bit out of form given my capabilities, so I think that was a big game for me. I’m not going to stop (over the break), I am not going to relax. I don’t think I’ve earned that.” – Anthony Gordon

With Everton at the bottom of the Season Ticker for fixture difficulty over the next seven Gameweeks, there’ll be few Fantasy managers considering many of their options in the short term.

The return to fitness of Nathan Patterson (£4.0m) just before the World Cup break was noteworthy, however, as he’s competing for the title of go-to budget defender/bench fodder ahead of the Gameweek 17 restart.

With Seamus Coleman (£4.5m) away on international duty with Ireland when his club were on the other side of the world, Patterson got a further chance to stake a claim for the right-back slot he won back in Gameweek 16.

The Scot was first deployed as a wing-back against Celtic and then an orthodox full-back against Wanderers, delivering an assist in the latter game and impressing going forward.

Despite the more advanced position as a wing-back against Celtic, he was called upon less in an attacking sense; Lampard also said after that stalemate that the young defender has to concentrate on improving the defensive side of his game.

“Pats was really good for us at the start of the season. Then he got an injury while playing with Scotland and since he has come back in, he has still been finding his feet to get back to those levels but as a young player that is normal. He needs to push on now. I thought he did well with bits today but there were a couple of bits that he could be cleaner on, but he is a really good player for us.

“I was always confident about the attacking side of his game but as a young player I wanted to see him defensively. At the start of the season it was spot-on and I think he really needs to continue focusing on that side of it. Today, the challenge that was put to him against a player who has got a lot of ability to go either way. I thought he defended pretty well.” – Frank Lampard on Nathan Patterson

Injuries have dogged Everton all season, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£7.9m) playing no part in Australia but at least sighted back in training in mid-December.

A trio of fresh concerns were reported down under but only James Garner (£4.5m) will definitely be missing come Gameweek 17.

“Tom [Davies] is three weeks-ish, which is a positive result as we were worried about him. Yerry [Mina] is similar, three to four weeks.

“Unfortunately, James Garner is going to be more than that. He’s probably going to be back at the back end of January or early February. It’s a disappointing injury.” – Frank Lampard, speaking on November 24

FULHAM

DEC 4: PORTIMONENSE 2-3 FULHAM

• Goals: McFarlane x2, Kurzawa
• Assists: Onomah, Andreas, Cairney
• Fulham first half XI: Leno, Mbabu, Tosin, Duffy, Bowat, Chalobah, Reed, De Cordova-Reid, Harris, Jasper, Vinicius
• Fulham second half XI: Wickens, Tete, Diop, McAvoy, Kurzawa, Dibley-Dias, Cairney, Onomah, Andreas, Willian, McFarlane

Fulham have a Double Gameweek on the horizon but it’s difficult to look beyond Andreas Pereira (£4.6m) and Aleksandar Mitrovic (£6.8m) for the Gameweek 19 double-header, with goals and chances being conceded at the other end of the field all season.

The early-December friendly win against Portimonense was classic Cottagers: good going forward, ropey at the rear.

Mitrovic was one of six players absent from this match because of World Cup duty, with the rest of the available first-teamers spread across two different XIs in each half in the Algarve.

Pereira immediately caught the eye upon his introduction at the break, twice going close with efforts of his own before his delivery from a corner-kick routine was nodded in by Layvin Kurzawa (£4.3m). Pereira then ‘assisted the assister’ for the Premier League side’s third goal, one of two scored by youngster Callum McFarlane.

Five of the club’s six World Cup participants – the exception being quarter-finalist Joao Palhinha (£5.0m) – have already rejoined or about to rejoin training, with Mitrovic’s exit from the group stage in Qatar probably of quiet satisfaction to the Cottagers.

Winger Manor Solomon (£4.9m) is also now back in training, having failed to kick a ball since Gameweek 1 because of a knee injury.

LEEDS UNITED

DEC 8: ELCHE 1-2 LEEDS UNITED

• Goals: Gelhardt, Klich
• Assists: Harrison, Gyabi
• Leeds United XI: Robles, Ayling, Cooper (Drameh 61), Struijk, Hjelde, Forshaw (Perkins 61), Roca (Gyabi 61), Summerville (Greenwood 11), Harrison (Gnonto 61), Rodrigo (Joseph 61), Gelhardt (Klich 61)

Three goals in as many games before the World Cup break really brought Crysencio Summerville (£4.4m) to the attention of FPL bosses, especially with a good run of fixtures coming up from Gameweeks 19-25.

But the young winger was the latest Leeds player to join the never-ending injury list, limping out of the Whites’ win over Elche last Thursday after failing to recover from an early challenge.

The player himself tried to ease fears over the severity of the issue, having later been seen with a protective boot on his foot.

“Unfortunately I picked up a little injury in Spain, not too bad.” – Crysencio Summerville

Patrick Bamford (£7.2m) and Luis Sinisterra (£6.5m) also weren’t involved against Elche with pre-existing issues.

While it was only a friendly, Leeds continued to look suspect at the back. The Whites conceded 13 goals in their final five Premier League games before the World Cup break and were on the back foot in Spain, with a tap-in from Joe Gelhardt (£5.1m) and a long-range stunner from Mateusz Klich (£4.6m) masking the overall direction of the game.

Diego Llorente (£4.4m) and Robin Koch (£4.5m) were, in mitigation, both absent for this game, the former after hand surgery and the latter because of a minor Achilles issue.

“Sometimes the opponent did a pretty good time of switching the ball and then pressing us in on our backline and and then sometimes we lose concentration to stay connected in the ways that we want to, so we’re still working through some of that.” – Jesse Marsch

Leeds have two more friendlies to come, so we should get further news on Summerville et al in advance of the Gameweek 17 deadline.

LEICESTER CITY

DEC 10: LEICESTER CITY 0-0 TROYES

• Goals: None
• Assists: None
• Leicester City XI (first 60 mins): Iversen; McAteer, Evans (Appiah 17), Vestergaard, Thomas; Soumare, Praet, Dewsbury-Hall; Perez, Daka, Barnes
• Leicester City XI (last 30 mins): Smithies; Wormleighton, Ndidi, Wilson-Brown, Hill; Albrighton, Braybrooke, Cartwright, Alves; Iheanacho, Vardy

Another day, another Jonny Evans (£4.4m) injury as Leicester’s veteran centre-half limped out of the Foxes’ behind-closed-doors friendly against Troyes.

Brendan Rodgers was without seven players because of World Cup involvement, along with long-term injury victims like James Justin (£4.3m) and Ricardo Pereira (£4.3m).

Relatively few first-teamers were involved against Troyes, then, with Evans, Harvey Barnes (£6.9m), Wilfred Ndidi (£4.8m) and positional rivals Jamie Vardy (£9.1m) and Patson Daka (£5.7m) the only real names of notes in action.

Rodgers set his troops up in a 4-3-3 for this clash, with Daka the central striker, switching to a 4-4-2 in the final half an hour as Vardy was partnered by Kelechi Iheanacho (£6.1m).