With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2023/24, we’re welcoming back our team of Hall of Famers and guest writers for the new campaign. Here, two-time Indian FPL champion Lateriser picks out two talking points from pre-season and reveals his Gameweek 1 team.
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And just like that, we’re here again. Another season full of hope, another rollercoaster ride, another season with highs that make you feel like Pep Guardiola’s second incarnation and lows where you realize you just have the bear the pain like poor old Frank Lampard. It is what it is and let’s face it, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
This time next week, we’ll be sitting with our Gameweek 1 scores and frankly, I cannot wait.
I’ve had a keen eye on pre-season and there are one or two things that caught my attention that I want to cite in this article.
ATTACKING SPURS
Tottenham Hotspur have been looking incredibly attacking under Ange Postecoglou.
They have had 100+ shots in three pre-season games and while there is the possibility that this could all fail against tougher opposition in the Premier League, there is also the chance that this team scores a ton of goals (without Europe to worry about) in the league. Suddenly, we’re all looking at ways to bring in their assets into our team by the time Gameweek 3 comes around.
Spurs have a very good front three and when you add the creativity of James Maddison (£7.5m) into that set-up, you have a team who at least has the capability of a huge output. Maddison’s position in the last pre-season friendly was really promising as he almost played like a nine-and-a-half, pressing alongside Harry Kane (£12.5m). He was constantly in and around the box and if Spurs do click as a team, I expect the former Leicester City man to be in the points.
In the last two seasons, Maddison has been a ten-goal, ten-assist player. Playing in an objectively better team, under an objectively better manager and hopefully alongside a creative forward like Harry Kane (reports on Thursday cast this last one into doubt!), does raise his points ceiling.
Below is his positioning in the last friendly, via Sofascore.
JOAO PEDRO: ADJUSTING EXPECTATIONS
Moving away from Spurs, I want to talk about Joao Pedro (£5.5m). In case you’re living under a rock, he took a penalty for Brighton in the last pre-season friendly – and this was while Pascal Gross (£6.5m) was on the pitch.
So this does give us the possibility that Pedro could be on penalties but I’m not writing this article to blindly talk up Brighton and Hove Albion. I want to urge some caution when it comes to expectations from Pedro because it is worth noting that the Seagulls will possibly start 2023/24 without their first-choice midfield from last season, namely Alexis Mac Allister (£6.0m) and Moises Caicedo (£5.0m). I do think that this might affect their attacking output slightly, so there is that adjustment you need to make in your head. The fixtures at the start of the season obviously make it worth a shot.
One thing about Pedro that I noticed while watching the game against Rayo Vallecano is that he’s a hard-working #10 that likes to drop deep and help the team out a lot. So, when it comes to your expectations from Pedro, know that he might not be a very high-output player despite his expected minutes looking promising at the start of the season. Despite the hope of a penalty-taking Brighton and Hove Albion number ten, I am not fully confident about his output. I just wanted to adjust your expectations here, is all!
I will say, though, that despite him dropping deep (think Cody Gakpo (£7.5m)), he was involved in a fair amount of chances in that game. But I could visibly see that Brighton weren’t as good and gung-ho as they appeared last season. This could be down to just pre-season rustiness or it could be down to them playing without their midfield from last season. I rate Roberto De Zerbi massively and I think I’ll be going in with at least one attacker to assess the field while Brighton have that run of good three fixtures at the start.
I just wanted to mention these two takeaways from watching the last batch of pre-season games. I am really excited going into this season because I get the feeling whatever our team is, there are so many other ‘good’ picks that only make the game a lot more interesting (definitely more interesting than the straight-jacketed second half of last season).
LATERISER’S CURRENT GAMEWEEK 1 TEAM
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