We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from the Tuesday night clash between Leicester City and Fulham in our Scout Notes summary.
The numbers you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data for every single Premier League fixture.
MITROVIC SCORES BUT PICKS UP COSTLY YELLOW CARD
In an eventful evening, Aleksandar Mitrovic (£7.1m) scored the game’s only goal, his 11th of the campaign so far, equalling his season’s best in the Premier League.
The striker chested down Willian’s (£5.5m) cross before firing home in the first half, which helped Fulham win their third successive match following the restart.
However, he later picked up his fifth yellow card of the season for a foul on Harvey Barnes (£6.8m), which rules him out of Fulham’s second fixture of Double Gameweek 19 next Thursday.
As a result, Mitrovic ends the round on just five points, a bitterly disappointing return for those who handed him the armband (30.43% of the top 10k), given that he was on course for maximum bonus and nine points prior to his booking.
“I want to highlight how we started the game. I thought that in the first half, especially the first 25 minutes, we were brilliant. In the first 10 minutes we created two or three clear chances to score. We started the game dominant, playing in the opposition half for most of the time. Then we scored a brilliant goal. It was a great assist from Willian and then a great finish from Mitro.” – Marco Silva
PEREIRA ON PENS V CHELSEA?
It was an equally disappointing night for owners of Andreas Pereira (£4.6m), with the budget midfielder failing to create much and hooked on 59 minutes.
However, unlike Mitrovic, he still has one match to play at Stamford Bridge in Double Gameweek 19, and ‘should’ be on penalties in the Serbs’ absence.
Elsewhere, differential Willian produced his second assist in three matches, but an unlikely clean sheet handed Bernd Leno (£4.5m) the highest Fulham score with 10 points, courtesy of his shut-out, six saves and maximum bonus.
“He’s been impressive all season and we did everything to have him with us because we knew his quality and we knew what he could add to this football club and this group of players. He’s a top, top goalkeeper and he’s performing at a very high level in my opinion, which is not a surprise. All the fans should enjoy having a goalkeeper like him in their team.” – Marco Silva on Bernd Leno
THREE DEFEATS IN A ROW FOR LEICESTER
As for Leicester, they have now lost three straight top-flight home matches without scoring.
In fact, they have netted just two goals at the King Power in their last five, with some tricky-looking home clashes still to come, including Brighton and Hove Albion, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Chelsea before April.
On the night, they had to make two enforced changes which according to Brendan Rodgers affected their rhythm. First, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£4.9m) limped out of the warm-up and had to be replaced, before fellow midfielder Boubakary Soumare (£4.4m) hobbled off after just seven minutes.
Another absentee, Patson Daka (£5.7m), was replaced by Jamie Vardy (£9.1m) up front, yet the veteran forward touched the ball just 15 times all night, the fewest of any starting player.
“You have to be consistent in how you start the game. The injuries in the warm-up and the first few minutes rocked us a little bit and played a little part. We had to make quick changes and obviously that disrupted the balance of the team right before kick-off and then early on within the game. Still, we have to be better. It’s from us giving the ball away in the middle of the field. We conceded from a disappointing position where we had control of the ball and we give it away and then didn’t defend the cross, so that was a bad start for us. It becomes a different pressing game for different players in different positions and it took us five or 10 minutes within the game to adjust to that because your planning and working is based around a different pressing structure.
I think the performance, after the first 20 minutes, was good. We create opportunities and we looked very dangerous. We had clear opportunities to score and unfortunately didn’t take them. The reaction of the players was very good. They stayed committed, they fought, they kept their patience and their ‘keeper has made a couple of great saves. Ayo [Ayoze Perez] had an opportunity in the first half, it was a really good chance. And then we got Barnesy [Barnes] in one-on-one. We had opportunities to take something from the game. What was better was that at least we created opportunities. I’ve been a bit critical of our last pass because we get into good areas and then we don’t make the pass that creates the chance when we’re in a good area, so that was a little bit better tonight.” – Brendan Rodgers
Leicester City XI: Ward, Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Thomas (Iheanacho 72), Ndidi (Mendy 72), Soumare (Albrighton 8), Perez, Tielemans, Barnes, Vardy
Fulham XI: Leno, Tete, Tosin, Ream, Robinson, Reed, Palhinha, De Cordova-Reid (Wilson 66), Pereira (Cairney 59), Willian (Diop 82), Mitrovic
