FPL new signings: Reguilon to feed Toney

Soon after Manchester United activated a clause to break the loan spell of Sergio Reguilon (£4.4m), Brentford decided the left-back would be a good way to cover the long-term ACL injury of Rico Henry (£4.3m).

It’s the latest in a string of temporary moves for the Spanish international, with parent club Tottenham Hotspur previously sending him towards a disappointing 2022/23 season at Atletico Madrid.

So can the 27-year-old get his career back on track and what impact will he have in FPL?

We’ll take a look during this Moving Target piece, including data and images from our Premium Members Area.

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THE HISTORY

Coming up through Real Madrid’s academy, loan deals soon became the norm for Reguilon. His second stint at UD Logrones was often spent as a winger, remarkably scoring four goals in one league match against Bilbao Athletic – the B team of Basque giants Athletic Club.

He’d done enough to impress temporary head coach Santiago Solari back at Real, who handed him fairly frequent starts during the 2018/19 campaign.

But the returning Zinedine Zidane sent him to serial Europa League winners Sevilla for 2019/20 and, sure enough, they soon won yet another one with Reguilon.

It was enough to tempt Spurs into spending an initial £27m on him that summer, arriving on the same day that Real Madrid team-mate Gareth Bale stole all the headlines with his return to north London.

FPL RECORD

Reguilon’s first season wasn’t notable in FPL, although one of his six assists came in a double-digit score against Burnley. It was at the start of 2021/22 when he began to be of interest to managers. Spurs kept a clean sheet in each of their first three outings, with four bonuses taking him to 22 points and some price rises.

A Gameweek 12 goal versus Leeds United preceded a 12-point haul at home to new club Brentford but the later months were halted by a mix of Covid and groin problems. He still found time to score within 40 seconds of a half-time introduction against Everton, mind.

He was among the leading FPL defenders for expected goal involvement (xGI) in that campaign, too:

But after signing Ivan Perisic (£4.7m), Antonio Conte decided to dispatch Reguilon to Atletico Madrid. Only two league games were started and things barely improved at Old Trafford, where he was brought in as emergency cover for injured pair Luke Shaw (£5.2m) and Tyrell Malacia (£4.3m).

WHERE REGUILON FITS IN AT BRENTFORD

Reguilon is an attack-minded full-back/wing-back, fond of a foray upfield and a cross from out wide.

That could be handy with Ivan Toney (£7.9m) back after eight months, ready to make up for lost time.

Reguilon likely goes straight into the left-back and left-wing-back slots, with manager Thomas Frank known to fluidly switch between the two systems depending on their opponent.

Henry had already created two big chances in his four pre-injury appearances, a number bettered by only Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m). With a knee issue ruling him out until next season and Aaron Hickey (£4.4m) still nursing his hamstring, Reguilon allows stop-gaps Vitaly Janelt (£5.3m) and Saman Ghoddos (£4.5m) to resume midfield duties.

“Sergio is a perfect fit for us. We’ve been talking for a while about how we need a good left-back and we managed to get a very good left-back. He’s very offensive, has a very good cross and a very good left foot. He’s got the experience we need to complement the rest of the squad and he’s a good character.

“We need him, but I also think he needs us to show how good a footballer he is. I’m convinced that this will be a positive partnership.” – Thomas Frank

Meanwhile, one thing we explored in our recent ‘Most Disappointing XI’ article is that Brentford’s underlying defensive stats are far better than their low clean sheet total (three) suggests.

Last season, the Bees had strangely conceded the second-most attempts on target (197) whilst also allowing the fourth-fewest big chances (67). Lots of goalkeeper saves from non-threatening shots, totalling 12 clean sheets.

However, this campaign has stronger data underneath a worse output. Only three teams have a lower expected goals conceded (xGC) tally than their 25.61 and Brentford rank joint third-best for preventing big chances (40).

IS HE WORTH BUYING IN FPL?

Then again, while the west Londoners are due a couple of successful shut-outs, their upcoming fixtures look very tough.

Despite last week’s Double Gameweek 25 announcement meaning they’re one of two sides to feature nine times over the next eight Gameweeks, such difficulty counteracts this and drags them down to 13th in our Season Ticker.

On the other hand, Tuesday’s FA Cup elimination ensures they’re in the only guaranteed match of Gameweek 29 so far. It’s likely a big blank round for the FPL scene but we know their trip to Burnley is taking place.

Therefore Brentford play on six occasions between Gameweeks 25 and 29. A period where several sides will only be seen four or even three times.

When adding this to the decrease in Premier League clean sheets placing more importance on attacking FPL defenders, the prospect of Reguilon regularly feeding Toney while other assets barely play could soon become appealing.

At such an affordable price, there’s not a great deal of risk involved.