The key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) notes, quotes and statistics from two of Saturday’s Premier League game are covered in our Scout Notes.
Manchester City v Leeds United and Liverpool v Brentford come under the spotlight here.
As ever, all the Opta player and team numbers you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area – and you can access them yourself for free with a seven-day free trial.
PEP ON PENALTIES
Erling Haaland (£12.4m) had a rare off-day in front of goal against Leeds United, spurning six chances – the highest shot count of any Premier League player on Saturday – and even hitting the woodwork from close range in an attack that was ultimately brought back for offside.
It looked like he would be given the chance to salvage an attacking return from the brink of a blank when Phil Foden (£8.0m) was upended in the Leeds box, seven minutes from time.
But stepping up for the spot-kick was Ilkay Gundogan (£7.3m), perhaps giddy at the prospect of a rare hat-trick after two tidy first-half finishes from Riyad Mahrez (£7.3m) cut-backs.
The German saw his penalty strike the visitors’ upright; a minute later, a match that should have been done and dusted at 3-0 was nervy and uncomfortable following Rodrigo Moreno‘s (£6.3m) consolation.
Is Haaland now off penalties, then? Not if Pep Guardiola has anything to do with it.
“First he [Guardiola] showed to Erling that he was quite mad about that and then also he had a go at me. It is what it is in the end.
“The moment Erling grabbed the ball, I was sure he was going to take it but he looked out for me. I checked with him a few times to make sure he was sure. He was certain to hand the ball to me. I was confident to score.” – Ilkay Gundgan
“Who knows if Erling takes the penalty and misses? What happens if Riyad takes the penalty and misses? What happens if Ilkay Gundogan takes the penalty and scores? The question is if it’s 2-0, who is the taker? The taker is Erling or Riyad, they have to take it.
“Second point is that is shows how is Erling as a person. He wants to score goals, but at the same time the team, the mates are so important. He had chances to score, he didn’t convert but at the same time, he was outstanding. But at 2-0 especially in England, the game never is over. I wanted the taker to take it, they have more routine and specialist. That means if Erling or Riyad take a penalty, he is going to score? Maybe not. Who knows.
“He is ruthless, but at the same time if Ilkay has never scored a hat-trick, he’s so generous, so nice. Who knows it, the feeling is he has more confidence right now because he’s taken ten or 11 penalties and has the feeling, Gundo doesn’t have the feeling. I understand both sides. The game could be over for the chances.
“At 2-0 you have to close it. You don’t have to give anything. If you can control you have to control. Saying that, Gundo could have scored, other ones could have missed. It’s not about that. I admire that Gundo wanted to take the responsibility to take the penalty. That is the best value as a player. Normally the taker is the taker, Erling has to take it, because he’s our specialist.” – Pep Guardiola
TIREDNESS PROMPTS ROTATION
Above: Ilkay Gundogan’s brace ironically came from a more defensive role as one of the two holding midfielders. Julian Alvarez, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland all started a league match together for the first time, the first two of those playing as the advanced number 8s behind Haaland up top.
Pep Guardiola made seven changes for this match, the likes of Jack Grealish (£7.3m), Ruben Dias (£6.0m) and John Stones (£5.6m) making way and remaining unused substitutes.
The City boss did signpost the rotation, citing tiredness in his pre-match presser after weeks of downplaying any suggestion of fatigue, and repeated the sentiment after full-time.
“You cannot forget that we had three games in six days after a demanding game against Arsenal. They are human beings. That’s why I had to rotate with seven players.
“Right after Fulham, I didn’t have the feeling that I needed to rotate. The day after when I saw the game against West Ham, I had the feeling they were tired and I said we have to change it.
“All the guys that came in after not playing for a long time, like [Aymeric] Laporte, he was exceptional. All of them, Rico [Lewis] played exceptional.” – Pep Guardiola
Everton away in Gameweek 36 is the middle fixture in a Tuesday-Sunday-Wednesday turnaround, so there is a fair bit of respite after the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final in Madrid.
We won’t, however, benefit from any early team news leaks as we did this week, so Guardiola’s pre-match presser will be all we have to go off.
Nathan Ake (£5.0m) escaped the rotation but Guardiola will likely wish he had rested the Dutchman, who limped off with a hamstring strain.
“I didn’t speak with the doctor but probably, if he asked to [come off]… we will see, next few days.” – Pep Guardiola on Nathan Ake
ALLARDYCE’S FIRST GAME
The 2-1 scoreline gave the impression that the game was closer than it was – but for Haaland’s uncharacteristic profligacy and Gundogan’s penalty miss, City would have been out of sight.
The more solid-looking Leeds performance in the second half also has to be placed in context; was it not more City taking their foot off the pedal and preserving energy ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Spain?
Still, there was enough encouragement for Sam Allardyce to take into the Gameweek 36 clash with Newcastle, who many of us will be lumping on for their ‘double’.
“I’m not upbeat because I’ve got no points like but I am pleased with what they’ve done in the second half and not embarrass themselves and showed some fighting spirit. So we can build the confidence next week again, and we can build the confidence on the second half performance and we can play a lot better for 90 minutes next week, not just 45.” – Sam Allardyce
Joel Robles (£4.0m) became the latest bargain-bin FPL goalkeeper to get first-team minutes, having ousted the out-of-form Illan Meslier (£4.5m) between the sticks.
LIVERPOOL: OUT OF THE ‘RED ZONE’?
This was the third match in a week for Liverpool and a second successive edgy 1-0, a lively Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) again the difference. This may still end up being his worst-ever FPL season since joining the Reds in 2017 but when your ‘worst’ is 27 attacking returns and counting, you must be half-decent.
The good news for owners of Liverpool players, who may have been fearing some fatigue-led rotation this week, is that the busy schedule is now over and a nine-day breather awaits ahead of the trip to a Leicester City side that still hasn’t kept a clean sheet since the World Cup.
“Great news, absolutely. Imagine we would have played now on Tuesday again, we would be completely knackered. It’s really fine. You could see that today, there was one team who had a full week and one team who played only three days ago a super-intense game as well, and before that three days ago a super-intense game as well.” – Jurgen Klopp on the prospect of a nine-day breather
Klopp opted for all four of Salah, Cody Gakpo (£7.7m), Darwin Nunez (£8.6m) and Diogo Jota (£8.9m) in his line-up but there was no system change, only Gakpo playing in central midfield.
Salah’s tap-in and Darwin’s glaring miss from a Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.6m) pass made up a big chunk of Liverpool’s expected goals (xG) tally of 2.24, with a bitty match closer than the Opta bods make it sound.
The Reds have, remarkably, now kept as many clean sheets (13) as Newcastle United this season, despite having conceded over twice as many ‘big chances’ as the Magpies. This was one of their more competent defensive displays, with Brentford’s set-piece threat dealt with admirably.
“With a bit more quality we could have played players in for bigger chances. That’s the only thing that we probably missed, aside from the fantastic goal by Bryan [Mbeumo], which was just offside, was the final cross or the final slide ball.” – Thomas Frank
