Manchester City kept the pressure on leaders Liverpool with a victory in one of two evening kick-offs on Saturday.
And it’s with the title challengers that we begin our Gameweek 26 Scout Notes.
“WORLD-CLASS” FODEN
“Forget about the goals – of course they are important – but do you know how he played? How he controlled and accelerated. He has become already a top-class football player. Before a little boy, now he has become already Phil, a world-class, top player.
“He’s so good. He can play everywhere, especially in the central position, and is really, really good.” – Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden, in his post-match press conference
Attacking returns are the most important thing to Fantasy managers, so Phil Foden‘s (£8.1m) strike on the south coast made a good 3.5 million of us happy.
But even more crucial for game-time, especially at Manchester City, is keeping the manager happy. Many’s a time when Riyad Mahrez has hauled, only to be warming the bench in the next match.
Pep Guardiola couldn’t have been more effusive in his praise of Foden after full-time.
The England international starred in a central position against Bournemouth. Given that the Cherries are one of the division’s best pressing sides, his selection as an ‘eight/ten’ was a big vote of confidence given the reservations that his manager had previously had about his off-the-ball qualities in the role.
Compare the comments above to the lukewarm praise Guardiola offered earlier in the season.
The City boss even turned a reporter’s question about John Stones (£5.3m) into more praise for Foden:
“Phil is playing the best football I’ve ever seen of him. The quality that he’s producing in everything is unbelievable.” – Pep Guardiola on Phil Foden, to Match of the Day
Foden now has more FPL points, and more Premier League minutes, to his name than in any other season. He still has a dozen games to go, too.
Erling Haaland (£14.4m) grabbed the assist for Foden’s goal, having taken the saved shot that Foden followed up on. That was one of three big chances that the Norwegian missed.
The clinical finishing touch just isn’t there right now (we’ve just witnessed a City-career-low when it comes to xG underachievement) but he’ll no doubt be back in the goals soon.
HAALAND’S ROLLING SIX-GAME XG DELTA THIS SEASON
ALVAREZ JOINS DE BRUYNE ON THE BENCH
Foden’s deployment in a central role was bad news for Julian Alvarez (£6.7m), who suffered his first league benching of the season.
There’ll still be games in which Alvarez comes into the side, particularly in matches in which City need an extra forward against a deep block, but there are not many of those in the short term:
Accompanying Alvarez on the bench was Kevin De Bruyne (£10.8m), whose midweek hamstring niggle restricted him to a late cameo here. One appearance point became zero when he was booked for kicking the ball away.
He’s the most-sold player of Gameweek 27 by some distance. As a man for the big occasions, you’d usually expect him to start most, if not all, of the above run of matches. Whether his 32-year-old legs or his manager allow it is another question.
Keeping us on our toes as usual, Guardiola sprung a few teamsheet surprises – the most notable of which was Matheus Nunes (£4.8m) as a left-winger.
The City manager’s words below underlined the limited usefulness of looking at previous tactics against the same opposition, when trying to second-guess his XI.
“We knew it, that they were man to man. We wanted a lot of players in the middle with a lot of quality; don’t lose the ball. In these games, [against] a transition team, they are so aggressive in the frontal balls and we expect that.
“We try to put for the quality, Matheus into the space in behind, did it really well in the first half, and Erling. So, that was the plan but next time they will know it, so I will change!” – Pep Guardiola
WITH/WITHOUT STONES
Stones was excellent in the hybrid defender/midfielder role, even joining the attack on occasion. The reigning champions look so much more solid with him and Rodri (£5.6m) in the engine room.
City’s record with and without the centre-half is stark this season:
| with Stones in the starting XI | without Stones in the starting XI | |
| Games | 9 | 17 |
| Clean sheets | 5 | 3 |
| Goals conceded | 4 | 22 |
KERKEZ CATCHES THE EYE
Bournemouth are now firmly on the Fantasy transfer radar, with a ‘double’ in Gameweek 28 and some excellent fixtures around it.
Dominic Solanke (£7.0m) is being snapped up at a furious rate, having already been transferred in by 100,000 managers in under 24 hours.
He looked in some discomfort after a knock in the first half but not only emerged after the interval, he also finished the game. The Cherries are in midweek cup action, so it’ll soon become apparent if there are any lingering concerns over his fitness.
Andoni Iraola’s side were outclassed in the first half but gave their visitors a real test after the break, with budget forward Antoine Semenyo (£4.5m) a real threat down the right flank.
A slight word of warning about Marcos Senesi (£4.5m), the second most bought Bournemouth asset of Gameweek 27: he’s now on eight bookings, so two more in as many league games would see him miss the second fixture of Double Gameweek 28.
Lloyd Kelly (£4.5m) missed this match with a hip injury that will require a scan this week.
Any length of absence for the defender would raise some modest interest in Milos Kerkez (£4.4m), the attack-minded left-back who really caught the eye on Saturday night.
He even matched Solanke for shots (three), getting forward into the City box on a number of occasions.
“I think like the team, he had very difficult duels. Sometimes Bernardo Silva went very low and he had to go far from his position there. He had to come back very quickly to defend, I think he dealt quite well, especially in the second half when he had more chances to attack.
“I think he overlapped really well with Tav and then Dango, probably he wasn’t the best in the finishing – he had also one very good chance from a set piece in the second phase – but I think he dealt quite well with the game.” – Andoni Iraola on Milos Kerkez
