Owners of Yoane Wissa (£6.1m) were dealt a hammer blow on Monday when the Brentford striker was ruled out for around two months.
Wissa was injured in Brentford’s 2-1 loss to Manchester City on Saturday, hobbling off just before the interval.
In this article, we look at the potential impact of Wissa’s absence in Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
WISSA INJURY LATEST: WHAT WAS SAID
Thomas Frank delivered the bad news when facing the media ahead of Tuesday’s EFL Cup clash with Leyton Orient.
“Wissa is, unfortunately, not good news: it looks like an injury that will be a couple of months.
“It’s very frustrating. We talked about our many injuries last year, I hope I don’t have to talk too much about it this year, I maybe already have.
“We were unlucky with Igor [Thiago], unlucky with [Aaron] Hickey; we’ve then had two contact injuries with Mathias Jensen and Yoane Wissa, so that’s very frustrating.
“But that’s part of football, we move on, and we will find solutions.” – Thomas Frank
WHICH MATCHES WILL WISSA MISS?
“A couple of months” takes us to the November international break.
If the timeline is accurate, Wissa will miss the next seven league matches for the Bees.
That encompasses the majority of Brentford’s favourable run of games, with Wissa perhaps returning in time for the clashes with Everton and Leicester City in Gameweeks 12 and 13.
The fixtures stiffen considerably after that.
HOW MANY FPL MANAGERS OWN WISSA?
A not insignificant 7.9% of FPL bosses own the DR Congo international.
That equated to just under 770,000 managers as of Gameweek 4, his ownership trebling in the first month.
WHO REPLACES WISSA FOR BRENTFORD?
With Ivan Toney (£7.3m) gone and Igor Thiago (£5.9m) sidelined for even longer, Brentford are fresh out of FPL forwards.
“It will leave a big hole. Everybody was saying we bought Igor Thiago to replace Ivan [Toney] – but we still had Wissa; we bought Igor Thiago to build the squad and provide competition in the squad.
“Wissa had a very good season last year and I thought he has started the season very well this year, with three goals in four games, that’s a very good number.
“He’s just been very important for us and that’s going to leave a hole. But, again, I will find a solution.” – Thomas Frank
So, who steps in for Wissa?
The first thing to discuss is formation. Frank tends to go with a two-man strikeforce against the so-called bigger teams (3-5-2 or 4-4-2), typically opting for a 4-3-3 against the rest. We have seen variations of the latter in pre-season and in the EFL Cup, ie a 4-2-3-1.
POTENTIAL LINE-UPS
Don’t draw any conclusions from Sepp van den Berg (£4.0m) at right-back: the other positions are more for illustrative purposes. Mads Roerslev (£4.5m) or Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) could play there, with Vitaly Janelt (£4.9m) an alternative left-back until Rico Henry (£4.4m) is fit – which may not be too long.
It’s more the frontline we’re focusing on here.
3-5-2
Kevin Schade (£5.5m) replaced the injured Wissa on Saturday, joining Bryan Mbeumo (£7.1m) in the two-man attack.
Form and fitness permitting, we’d expect this to be the front two if and when Frank opts for a 3-5-2/4-4-2 – which he probably will in Gameweek 5.
4-3-3
The favourable fixtures start from Gameweek 6, so we should see a back four in operation for most of that good run (if the past is any precedent). Gameweek 8 at Old Trafford might be the exception.
We only need to look back three weeks for an example of Frank using Schade as a lone-ish striker: he did so in the EFL Cup win over Colchester United.
With Schade potentially needed through the middle and new boy Gustavo Nunes (£5.0m) – a young winger – also sidelined, it’ll probably be a tussle between Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m) and Fabio Carvalho (£4.9m) on the left flank. Carvalho is arguably more at home centrally but he featured on the left for Liverpool a lot in pre-season and has popped up there in the past.
KEVIN SCHADE: IN FOCUS
So, potentially a £5.5m midfielder leading the line for a side about to embark on a good run of fixtures.
We say ‘potentially’ as Frank may have something else up his sleeve. A ‘false nine’ like Carvalho, for example? Or could even Mbeumo go up front by himself? That’s nothing something we’ve really seen before.
For now, though, we’re operating under the assumption that Schade gets the nod.
“He can play anywhere across our front three positions. He could play for us on either wing or as the central striker. He has great pace and is very promising in the way he runs behind defences.
“He is very good aerially, in both boxes, and can develop even more to be a real threat as an offensive option with his head.” – Thomas Frank, upon Kevin Schade’s signing
The problem with the German striker is that we’ve got such little recent data to go off, as injuries have disrupted his Brentford career.
In his first season, in 2022/23, he failed to scored from seven starts and 11 substitute appearances.
In 2023/24, he managed two goals and two assists from only 327 minutes of pitch-time.
He was obviously well reflected in the below squad analysis as a result but we’re talking small samples here:
BRENTFORD IN 2023/24
Above: The Brentford squad’s shooting % (shots on target) and xG over/underperformance per 90 minutes in 2023/24
This season, from two starts and as many substitute appearances, he’s yet to find the net from three shots.
Even at former club Freiburg, we only really have one season to go off: four goals from seven Bundesliga starts and 14 substitute appearances in 2021/22. Now aged 23, he’s not reached double figures for starts in a single top-flight season.
So, an attacker who is not used to stringing together successive starts, playing in a position he hasn’t operated much in. Added to the unknowns is his ruthlessness in front of goal: xG overperformance in 2023/24 and 2021/22, underperformance in 2022/23.
There’s massive potential for an ‘out of position’ £5.5m midfielder with great fixtures – but the unknowns are perhaps more of an advert for the tried-and-tested Mbeumo.
What impact on him, you wonder? Will Schade (or whoever gets the nod) prove an effective foil as Wissa and Toney?
Interestingly, all nine of the chances that Wissa created for Mbeumo last season (twice as many as he carved out for anyone else) were from his feet – so he himself was no flick-on merchant.
Above: Yoane Wissa’s key passes to Bryan Mbuemo in 2023/24
BEST WISSA REPLACEMENTS
We’re dedicating a separate article to budget forwards, given the game-time/fitness concerns about Rodrigo Muniz (£6.1m) and Joao Pedro (£5.7m).
Stay tuned for that in the coming hours.
6 months, 19 days agoWissa > DCL and stick to that price range (Vardy/Nketiah/Duran) to play alongside Haaland and Havertz?
Or Wissa > Watkins + Palmer > Mbeumo for free?
Does Wissa out affect Mbeumo or he is still a solid pick?