FPL pre-season: Spurs and Liverpool round off friendlies

Almost seven weeks of pre-season friendlies came to a conclusion in the last two days as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur rounded off their summer campaigns.

Any outstanding Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points are discussed below.

Every goal, assist, result and match report can be found on our pre-season page.

And all the game-time for each FPL asset has been logged via our minutes tracker.

LIVERPOOL 3-1 DARMSTADT

• Goals: Salah, Jota, Diaz
• Assists: Van Dijk, Salah, Szoboszlai

View match highlights here

THE NEW CHALLENGER AT SET PLAYS

Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m) continues to eat into the Liverpool set plays once dominated by their full-backs.

Two of Liverpool’s goals in the win over Darmstadt stemmed from the Hungary international’s corners.

Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) poked home after Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) touched on a fifth-minute Szoboszlai delivery before the midfielder claimed the assist for Luis Diaz‘s (£7.5m) superb flicked effort on the hour.

A reminder that a third of the chances that Trent Alexander-Arnold (£8.0m) created in 2022/23 came from dead-ball deliveries – so his assist potential is partly tied in with a role at set pieces.

MAC ALLISTER IN THE SIX ROLE

Also noteworthy at Deepdale on Monday night was the deployment of Alexis Mac Allister (£6.0m) in the number six role vacated by the Saudi-bound Fabinho.

We’ve seen both Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones (£5.0m) used in that position this summer, with a minor injury to the latter being the catalyst for the Mac Allister experiment.

 “Macca on six tonight. Curtis has a slight, nothing really he’s on the bench and can come on. Yesterday, he felt a little bit but the plan anyway was to have a look at Macca in the position.” – Jurgen Klopp speaking ahead of the Darmstadt game

“He’s a top-class player; on the ball [and] without the ball. We had our moments where we were a bit too open, that’s clear, but we are not used to it. That’s why I said we had to work on it. We will do that. We have to try it and test a couple of different things. Yes, in a compact formation, Alexis can play there, definitely. If he’s there alone, should he play there? No. But now he showed just how good a footballer he is and how good he understands the game because he played here now [for] the first time for us at least and he did really well.” – Jurgen Klopp speaking after full-time

Continued use of Mac Allister in this role, coupled with a loss of penalties, would render him even more unappealing as an FPL asset. But the reality is that the Reds are in the market for a new defensive midfielder.

The new ‘six’ has his work cut out, whoever it may be – Liverpool continue to look defensively suspect heading into the new campaign, their high line once again causing jitters. A botched play-them-offside attempt led to Darmstadt’s goal, indeed.

DARWIN BENCHED AGAIN

This may well have been the line-up for Gameweek 1, albeit with one or two places up for grabs. Jones could come back into the ‘six’ role, while Diaz and Diogo Jota (£8.0m) are locked in a battle for the left-wing spot.

Jota was up front for this match, as Cody Gakpo‘s (£7.5m) services were required in midfield. The Portugal international grabbed his fourth goal of pre-season after good work from Salah, who has now bagged more assists this summer than any other Premier League player. The new De Bruyne?

It all doesn’t spell good news for Darwin Nunez (£7.5m), benched for the second successive game, who couldn’t find his way into the starting XI despite Klopp managing to squeeze in four attackers. There’ll be games where he does start, for sure, but implied reservations about his pressing suggest that he’s not part of a first-choice line-up.

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold (Scanlon, 74), Konate (Matip, 60), Van Dijk (Gomez, 60), Robertson (Tsimikas, 60), Mac Allister (Jones, 74), Szoboszlai (Elliott, 60), Gakpo (Quansah, 74), Diaz (McConnell, 74), Salah (Doak, 60), Jota (Nunez, 60).

BARCELONA 4-2 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

• Goals: Skipp x2
• Assists: Lo Celso, Perisic

View match highlights here

We’ll keep this one brief as this was effectively a second-string Tottenham Hotspur XI sent out by Ange Postecoglou in Barcelona.

The first XI had been in action 48 hours earlier, thumping Shakhtar 5-1.

It looks like we’re going to get goals galore in this Postecoglou-led side, at either end of the pitch. The unlikely figure of Oliver Skipp (£5.0m) notched a brace in this game.

The Spurs B team performed admirably in Catalonia, leading 2-1 until the final 10 minutes. Even more peripheral figures like Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett were on the pitch at that point, to give some context to the late capitulation.

Richarlison (£7.0m) toiled as he led the line, with Harry Kane (£12.5m) not in the squad at all.

But he wasn’t alone in that regard, with many of the first-teamers left back in England.

“No [there’s nothing to be read into Kane’s absence] but I’m sure you will. It wasn’t about giving the guys a rest. It was that I wasn’t going to give them game time so there’s no point in them travelling here. They’ll train tomorrow and they’ll train hard tomorrow. It was just that I wanted to use these two games… to get as many minutes into the guys as possible.” – Ange Postecoglou

Tottenham Hotspur XI: Vicario, Pedro Porro, Dier, Sanchez, Reguilon, Skipp (Devine 72), Bissouma (Sarr 88), Lo Celso, Solomon, Richarlison (Scarlett 76), Perisic (Spence 72).