Brighton and Hove Albion began the Fabian Hurzeler era in style with a 3-0 win at Everton – but for the owners of Valentin Barco (£4.0m), there weren’t even appearance points let alone a clean sheet.
Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers who owned Newcastle United players may be feeling shortchanged, too. The Magpies won to nil, and Alexander Isak (£8.5m) assisted, but any prospect of huge hauls was effectively dashed by Fabian Schar‘s (£5.5m) 28th-minute red card.
We dissect the matches on Merseyside and Tyneside in our latest Gameweek 1 Scout Notes.
MINTEH INJURY UPDATE
Yankuba Minteh (£5.5m) banked an assist on his proper Brighton debut, following up his five attacking returns in pre-season.
A bright showing was ended after 45 minutes after a blow to the head but Hurzeler suggested that he should be back for Gameweek 2 after serving the six-day concussion protocol.
“He was disappointed but in the end, we are responsible for the player and we can’t take any risk. That’s why we made this decision because the health of the player is always more important than any win or any game. It was a decision for the health of the player and we were responsible for that.
“That’s why we have to keep looking at him, how he reacts now, but I’m quite confident that he will be back next week.” – Fabian Hurzeler
There were strong performances across the pitch from Brighton. Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5m) looked back to his 2022/23 best, although how much of that was due to the opposition defender (see below) is another question.
The ‘wrong’ £5.5m forward hauled: while the 18.5%-owned Joao Pedro blanked after striking the post from distance, the 1%-owned Danny Welbeck bagged a goal and an assist. You do worry about Welbeck’s minutes longer term, however, especially with Braja Gruda (£5.5m) and Georginio Rutter arriving. Evan Ferguson (£5.5m) is also back in training.
While the Seagulls’ attacking threat is evident, there are quiet hopes for their defence, too. Firstly, Mats Wieffer (£5.0m) could be the Moises Caicedo replacement Brighton have needed for a while. But secondly, the off-the-ball work rate has been impressive in pre-season and in Gameweek 1. Hurzeler, whose St Pauli side had the lowest goals conceded record in Bundesliga II last season, made repeated mention of defensive contributions in his post-match presser.
“I judge my offensive players by their work against the ball, they did it quite good today. Like I said before they all have the quality to go to score in possession.” – Fabian Hurzeler
BARCO BENCHED
Not benefitting from the clean sheet points was Barco.
We knew about the medium-term risk from the nearly-fit Pervis Estupinan (£5.0m). There was also concern about a potential move for Ferdi Kadioglu. What we didn’t count on was Hurzeler handing an opening-day start to Jack Hinshelwood (£5.0m), who didn’t last more than 28 minutes in a single pre-season game and who hadn’t featured at left-back under his new boss.
Did Everton’s aerial threat spook Hurzeler into playing someone more physical? Was there a fitness issue (he didn’t even come on as a substitute)? Sadly, the post-match interviews and presser failed to elicit any answers. The Gameweek 2 teamsheet will give us another clue – but some of his owners (15,000 already) aren’t hanging around to find out.
PRAISE FOR £4.5M MIDFIELDER
For Everton, this was a bit of a hark back to Gameweek 1 of last season in which they spurned chances at Goodison and were punished. Putting the ball in the net was a problem in 2023/24 and looks like it will be again.
Their defence is better than this showing. The passiveness for Albion’s second and third goals, in which Everton backed off Welbeck and Simon Adingra (£5.5m), was un-Dyche-like.
They will get regulars like Seamus Coleman (£4.5m), Jarrad Branthwaite (£5.0m) and James Garner (£5.0m) back in the not-too-distant-future to aid the defensive effort. Ashley Young (£4.5m) and Michael Keane (£4.0m) really shouldn’t be starting at this level now.
The knowledge that Young would be on Saturday prompted us to pick Mitoma our Scout Picks, the Japan international scoring, registering a game-high four shots and ultimately getting Young sent off when the veteran hauled him down in a goalscoring position.
The right-back crisis may see the equally suspect Mason Holgate (£4.0m) start there next week – so Son Heung-min (£10.0m) could have a field day.
One bright spark was Tim Iroegbunam, one of the few £4.5m midfielders who looks good for starts.
“I must say I thought Tim was terrific again today. He’s had such a strong pre-season and it’s been really impressive to watch him enjoy his football, work hard, break the play, and he can play, as well. So, I must give him a special mention. He’s done really really well – and he’s kept going as well today.” – Sean Dyche
SCHAR BAN
Schar’s moment of madness didn’t cost Newcastle the game but will deprive them of his services in the next three matches.
One of the games he’ll be banned for will be the Carabao Cup second-round tie against Nottingham Forest, however.
In FPL terms, the Swiss stopper will sit out Gameweeks 2 and 3. The last of those fixtures is against Tottenham Hotspur, and owners of Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) et al won’t be sorry that he’s suspended. If Newcastle are unsuccessful in their pursuit of Marc Guehi (£4.5m), and don’t recruit an alternative, then it’ll likely be Emil Krafth (£4.5m) deputising for the next two league matches. As much as he contributed to the last-ditch heroics on Saturday, Bournemouth and Spurs will be happier encountering Krafth and Dan Burn (£4.5m) than Schar and Sven Botman (£4.5m).
Elsewhere in the defence, Lewis Hall (£4.5m) and Tino Livramento (£4.5m) got the nod over Kieran Trippier (£6.0m) at full-back. A temporary pairing thanks to Trippier’s late return to pre-season training or the new norm? Time will tell but their inexperience did show at times, both of them skinned in the early stages and Hall booked for trying to make amends. Schar’s red card did mean that we didn’t get to see much of them offensively, with Southampton enjoying 84% possession in the second half.
MURPHY UNLUCKY
The circumstances of the match meant that there were few real meaningful takeaways. It was, for much of the final hour, attack v 10-man defence. Who knows what sort of fixture would have panned out at 11v11.
Isak owners would have been glad just for the assist, which arrived after Schar’s dismissal. The widely-owned forward teed up the imperious Joelinton (£6.0m) for the match’s only goal. Don’t underestimate the Brazilian’s importance to the Newcastle defensive cause: you’d be much more confident of clean sheets arriving with the midfield mopper-upper fit.
The same goes for Nick Pope (£5.0m) between the sticks.
Poor Jacob Murphy (£5.5m) owners can write off this blank to sheer bad luck. It was he who was sacrificed for Krafth on the half-hour. If there is one ‘lesson’, it’s that he’s more dispensible than Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) in Eddie Howe’s eyes.
Again, we couldn’t really judge Gordon or Isak much given that they were part of a rearguard effort and not swarming the Saints defence as we had envisioned before kick-off.
SAINTS SHOW PROMISE – AND LACK OF KILLER TOUCH
What you would say about the game is that Southampton were arguably the better team even before the red card.
As we thought, Russell Martin’s troops aren’t going to be a backs-to-the-wall team. While their possession figure in this match was distorted by the numerical advantage, they hogged the ball more than any other team in the Championship last season.
What was feared was that putting the ball in the net would be an issue. The jury is still very much out on Adam Armstrong (£5.5m), who has previously failed to get past two goals in a Premier League season. Ben Brereton Diaz (£5.5m) is someone who looked quite clinical at the top level in 2023/24 but even his radar was off here. Both players missed good chances but were also unlucky, some off-the-line clearances and smart Pope stops keeping them at bay.
Maybe Cameron Archer (£5.0m), on as a substitute here, can help with that – although he himself only scored four goals last season.
Yet to be really tested defensively, the Nottingham Forest match in Gameweek 2 will be more of an examination of a backline that shipped 63 goals last season.
Yukinari Sugawara (£4.5m), who looks handy at wing-back and took corners in pre-season, was, like, Murphy, the unlucky man as Saints threw on an extra winger at half-time to chase the game.
“Yuki just paid the price for the game situation. It wasn’t his performance at all. I think he’s going to be a really top player for us.” – Russell Martin
