There were more pre-season friendlies being contested on Sunday, three of which are dissected here.
In these Scout Notes articles, we pick out the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from each warm-up match.
Manchester City v Atletico Madrid, Liverpool v Leicester City and Brentford v Aston Villa get the once-over first.
MANCHESTER CITY 1-2 ATLETICO MADRID
- Goal: Dias
- Assist: Gomez
NEW SHAPE
New season, new shape? The David Bowie of the beautiful game, Pep Guardiola has been fond of reinventing himself – or rather, his team’s tactics – just as we’re ready to pin him down to one identity.
Against Atletico, Manchester City were sent out in the go-to Championship Manager 01/02 system: 4-1-3-2.
But there were nuances aplenty, the most obvious being Phil Foden (£7.5m) tucking in centrally from the right flank when City were in possession.
Above: Man City’s average position map on Sunday, via Sofascore. Kyle Walker is 2, Phil Foden is 47.
This summer has all been about Foden operating in the middle, whether as a no. 8/10 in the 3-2-5 or drifting infield from a winger role.
Prospective owners will be encouraged by the England international getting into pockets of space around the penalty box, even if the goals haven’t flowed yet. The best of his chances against Atletico saw him whistle a shot narrowly wide from 20 yards.
This may have just been a pre-season experiment, of course, with the inverted full-back/3-2-5 set-up to return in Gameweek 1 and beyond. Next weekend’s Community Shield may be more of a gauge.
The lopsided 4-1-3-2 certainly requires a right-back with more attacking flair than Kyle Walker (£5.0m). Joao Cancelo (£6.0m), anyone?
DE BRUYNE/AKE UNUSED SUBS
Kevin De Bruyne (£10.5m) was once again an unused substitute and has yet to kick a ball in pre-season, having injured his hamstring in the UEFA Champions League final.
Nathan Ake (£5.0m), who limped out of the defeat to Bayern Munich, also wasn’t risked.
The final result showed a 2-1 defeat but, just to underscore how a pre-season scoreline is one of the least relevant details, all of the game’s goals arrived in 25 minutes. By that point, Guardiola had replaced nine of his starting XI.
Ruben Dias (£5.5m) nodded in City’s consolation from a corner after the Premier League champions’ glorified reserve team fell 2-0 behind.
The regulars had outshot their defensive-minded opponents 8-2 in the first half before a raft of changes were made just after the break.
City were swiftly on a flight back home to the UK after full-time – so no beguiling quotes from their manager this time, with post-match media duties cancelled.
Manchester City XI: Ederson (Ortega Moreno 45), Walker (Cancelo 54), Stones (Akanji 54), Dias, Laporte (Gomez 54), Rodrigo (Phillips 54), Bernardo (Kovacic 54), Foden (Lewis 54), Grealish (McAtee 54), Alvarez, Haaland (Bobb 54)
LIVERPOOL 4-0 LEICESTER CITY
- Goals: Darwin, Clark, Jota, Doak
- Assists: Jota, Salah x2, Matip
DARWIN SCORES AGAIN
Another strike from Darwin Nunez (£7.5m) sent Liverpool on their way to a comfortable victory in Singapore.
The Uruguayan forward, who had earlier seen a goal chalked off for offside, tapped in a rebound after Diogo Jota‘s (£8.0m) shot was saved.
That was Darwin’s fourth goal in three outings this summer; no-one who scores in pre-season can be a bad FPL buy.
We Fantasy managers love such goalscoring exploits but they’re not the be-all and end-all for Jurgen Klopp, who once again reiterated his desire to see his attackers perform the defensive side of the game.
“I don’t think I have to tell our fans, it’s pretty much traditionally – or historically – for us that usually players for us, especially offensive players, [need time]. Sometimes you need more time, that’s how it is. I think the signs Darwin showed already last season were really good. Injuries and the red card were not helpful in the start directly and these things, but it’s all good.
“They all are a threat, they all are good footballers – the ticket into the team will be the readiness for defence because you never hear about a team being really successful with sloppy defending, it just will not happen. For Darwin [it’s] the same, like for all the other strikers as well, because I know about the quality they have and they need to do both, like our other players have to do both as well – defend and being influential in all the offensive situations.
“It’s good, you can see he is a handful, the speed and the goal was a typical goalscorer’s goal. Being there, smelling it and finishing it off. In training he looks really good. He is fit, that helps, and now two more games and Chelsea.” – Jurgen Klopp
They were sentiments Klopp made towards the end of 2022/23, in a thinly veiled critique of Darwin’s game.
And the Liverpool boss again hinted that he wasn’t happy with the first-half pressing display against Leicester; Darwin was leading the line, in case you hadn’t guessed.
“Obviously, we scored wonderful goals, that was good, created great other chances, that was good. First half, the high press didn’t work pretty well. In moments it got better and then we won the ball high up the pitch, which is so important. But that’s why we had these situations where Leicester could go through with the speed.
“Second half [was] much better. I think we realised that immediately, looked better. I said it’s really important for us to see that because we spend a lot of time on that.” – Jurgen Klopp
So no guarantees of a Gameweek 1 start for Darwin, then, despite the goals flowing.
SALAH ASSISTS, MAC ALLISTER IMPRESSES
Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) has set up five Liverpool goals this summer, his latest brace of assists coming against Leicester as he supplied the telling passes to first Bobby Clark and then Jota.
FPL pundits have been queueing to write Salah off for the best part of five years. The latest narrative is that he’s wider than before and more like to assist than score, ergo not worth the £12.5m outlay. While there were moments of him sticking to the touchline against Leicester, there were still numerous instances in which he ghosted into his usual territory on the left-hand side of the Foxes’ box. Even his first assist, for Clark, came from a position in which he usually chances his arm with a left-footed curler.
A reminder that Salah had the highest expected goal involvement (xGI) figure of any FPL asset from the point of the Liverpool formation change to 3-2-5 in Gameweek 30…
Elsewhere, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) was back in his usual inverted full-back role, Andrew Robertson (£6.5m) got forward plenty and Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m) returned as a second-half substitute after his recent injury lay-off.
Star of the show was Alexis Mac Allister (£6.0m). While all of his movement, passing, pressing, probing and string-pulling amounted to naught in terms of attacking returns, he did supply Jota with two clear openings. An assist could have arrived on another day, although ‘pre-assists’ are arguably just as likely to occur based on what we’ve seen so far.
Liverpool first-half XI: Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Jones, Clark, Mac Allister, Jota, Salah, Nunez.
Liverpool second-half XI: Kelleher (Alisson 60), Gomez, Matip, Quansah (Frauendorf 86), Tsimikas, McConnell, Elliott, Szoboszlai (Scanlon 80), Doak, Diaz, Gakpo.
BRENTFORD 3-3 ASTON VILLA
- Goals: Mbeumo pen, Dasilva, Baptiste | Konsa, Diaby, Cash
- Assists: Schade, Mee, Wissa | Luiz, McGinn
MBEUMO SCORES FROM THE SPOT
Bryan Mbeumo (£6.5m) scored from the spot against Aston Villa on Sunday, further cementing his position as second in line for Brentford penalties behind the suspended Ivan Toney (£8.0m).
It was Kevin Schade (£5.5m) who won the spot-kick for the Bees, with Mbeumo coolly despatching the effort from 12 yards.
Schade started the game up top for Thomas Frank’s side, with Josh Dasilva (£5.0m) joining the German and Mbeumo (on the left) in an unusual-looking front three. While the pacy Schade did help his side take a lead in this game and Dasilva added a stunning second, the Bees did look better once Yoane Wissa (£6.0m) and Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) were brought on and Mbeumo moved back over to his normal right-wing spot.
Wissa later claimed a ‘Fantasy assist’ when his blocked close-range effort was followed up by fellow substitute Shandon Baptiste (£4.5m).
While his distribution was excellent, Mark Flekken (£4.5m) again didn’t wholly convince with his arms – there was part culpability there for Villa’s second strike.
It’d be folly to write the Dutchman off after some ultimately meaningless warm-up games, with the lack of Christian Norgaard (£5.5m) a big factor as to why Brentford are allowing their opposition plenty of chances this summer. Flekken certainly isn’t making a convincing case of his own to FPL managers yet, however.
DIABY DELIVERS AGAIN
Moussa Diaby (£6.5m) made it two goals from as many appearances as he scored Villa’s second goal of the night.
Playing up top, just off Ollie Watkins (£8.0m), there are serious ‘out of position’ hopes for the French attacker given what we’ve seen in the Bundesliga in recent seasons.
“With Diaby the most important thing now is where is his best position on the pitch. Trying to understand when we have to find him going in behind and when he can drop to try to help us building up and stealing the ball. Both things, going in behind and dropping to get on the ball and help us keep possession is very positive because today he did both.
“Then, it’s how can we use him around other players. How can we find combinations and the positioning with the players. For example, playing with John McGinn, they both understood perfectly between them.” – Unai Emery
The selection quandary at the back remains tough to call. In the previous friendly against Fulham, Ezri Konsa (£4.5m) was stationed at right-back with Lucas Digne (£4.5m) pushing up the left flank. Here, Pau Torres (£4.5m) began the game at left-back and Matty Cash (£5.0m) was given license to roam – and score – up the opposite wing. Clearly, Unai Emery is open to fielding a lopsided back four, but the personnel within it are rotation risks.
Konsa’s fine impression of Said Al Owairan is worth a watch, incidentally.
Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Cash (Chambers 71), Konsa (Diego Carlos 46), Mings, Torres (Digne 60); Kamara (Buendia 60), Douglas Luiz, McGinn (Tielemans 60); Diaby (Coutinho 71), Watkins (Archer 71), Philogene (Bailey 60)
Brentford XI: Flekken (Strakosha 61); Roerslev, Pinnock, Mee, Hickey (Henry 46); Jensen (Yarmolyuk 77), Onyeka (Janelt 61), Damsgaard (Baptiste 61); Dasilva (Wissa 46), Schade (Lewis-Potter 46), Mbeumo (Olakigbe 77)
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