Our Gameweek 24 Scout Notes continue with the two ‘doublers’ from Merseyside.
Everton and Liverpool both had wins to nil, although one club had to work harder than the other.
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 24 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 24 round-up: Sunday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Flekken injury latest, Wissa + marvellous Mateta
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Ruthless Arsenal, Ederson injury, Haaland x Savinho
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD INJURY LATEST
You will all know by now that Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m) is flagged as an injury concern.
The right-back requested to be taken off after 70 minutes of Liverpool’s win over Bournemouth, having needed treatment on what seemed to be a thigh issue.
Speaking after the game, Arne Slot was downbeat on his chances of making Thursday’s EFL Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
“The situation was that he said to me, ‘You have to take me off’ and he sat on the floor and we took him off.
“He felt something, I can’t tell you exactly what and how bad it is of course because we are one hour after the game, but it is never a good sign if a player is asking for a substitution.
“This is not a fact but I would be surprised if he plays on Thursday, but let’s hope he is back with us as soon as possible.” – Arne Slot on Trent Alexander-Arnold
However, since then, the noises have been fairly positive.
The Athletic’s James Pearce said there was “hope” it was just a niggle, while the Liverpool Echo went a bit further in saying that “there is confidence that the England international won’t be subjected to a lengthy lay-off”.
Trent Alexander-Arnold to undergo scan after limping out of win over Bournemouth.
Felt some discomfort in his thigh. After initial assessment, hope is that it’s just a niggle and no serious damage. #LFC https://t.co/X3CyJ4UVSw— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) February 1, 2025
Alexander-Arnold will have a scan on Monday to determine the extent of the damage, if any.
We’ll hear from Slot again on Wednesday morning when he faces the media ahead of that aforementioned EFL Cup tie.
LIVERPOOL MADE TO WORK HARD
“We needed a bit of luck to win this game.” – Arne Slot
Alexander-Arnold and the rest of the Liverpool backline banked clean sheet points but, my word, it was a close-run thing.
The Cherries hit the woodwork twice, through Antoine Semenyo (£5.6m) and substitute Marcus Tavernier (£5.4m). On the rebound from Tavernier’s effort, Justin Kluivert (£5.9m) blazed over with the goal gaping. Aside from that, Alisson (£5.5m) made four very good saves – the best of them preventing an Ibrahima Konate (£5.2m) own-goal. Semenyo also fired inches wide, while Dango Ouattara (£5.0m) nodded over when well placed.
Above: Justin Kluivert’s open-goal miss
That’s not to say it was one-way traffic. Aside from Mohamed Salah’s (£13.7m) first-half penalty and superb curling second, Liverpool had chances of their own. Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones (£5.3m) had good headed opportunities, while Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.3m) should have finished after being played in by Cody Gakpo (£7.6m). It may not have felt like it, but the visitors actually outshot Bournemouth and outdid them on the xG front, too.
This was just two very, very good teams engaging in a very, very good match. Owners of Liverpool assets, be it defenders or Slot as Assistant Manager, lucked out somewhat – but that is likely the stiffest test of Double Gameweek 24/possible Double Gameweek 25 out of the way now.
Salah, incidentally, is now on 34 attacking returns for 2024/25. In only two of his previous seven seasons has he bettered that – and we’re only 23 games in. A new FPL record beckons.
HUGE ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BOURNEMOUTH PICKS
As for the Cherries, they now embark on this massively appealing ticker-topping run:
A different Bournemouth midfielder catches the eye every week. We’ve had the hat-tricks of Kluivert and Ouattara in the last fortnight, and here it was Semenyo making an impression.
Slot even adjusted his tactics accordingly, moving Ryan Gravenberch (£5.0m) slightly to the right to help fight against the dual threats of Semenyo and Milos Kerkez (£4.9m).
“It’s clear that if you leave Trent [Alexander-Arnold] constantly with [Antoine] Semenyo and [Milos] Kerkez constantly in a two-v-one, that is not the best idea that I can come up with.” – Arne Slot
Long the king of the underlying numbers (if not putting the ball in the net), Semenyo has now had more shots than any other FPL midfielder – including Salah – this season.
Ouattara’s out-of-position tag has been championed of late but this was another match in which Kluivert was just as advanced. The Cherries’ set-up has almost resembled a 4-4-2 at times. Kluivert had three shots to Ouattara’s one – and even that solitary headed chance from Ouattara saw Kluivert tussling with his teammate to get to the same cross!
BETO PRAISE
The Everton renaissance under David Moyes continued as the Toffees made it three wins out of three.
This was the easiest victory of the lot, with Leicester utterly abject. While James Garner‘s (£4.9m) sumptuous pass for the Toffees’ third goal is well worth a watch, all of Everton’s first three goals were effectively long/direct balls straight through the heart of the Foxes’ shambolic defence. You couldn’t get much more long ball than the opener – the quickest home goal in Premier League history – given that Jordan Pickford (£5.1m) picked up the assist.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.1m) netted that one, going on to finish the game with more shots (three) and penalty box touches (seven) than any other player involved.
While Iliman Ndiaye (£5.5m) pounced on more kamikaze Leicester defending to ensure his 700,000 new owners went home satisfied, Beto (£4.9m) grabbed the headlines with two cool finishes. This was only his second start of the season, with Moyes alluding to his lack of chances under Sean Dyche after full-time.
“He’s a great kid. He’s he works hard in training. He tries to improve himself. Sometimes in life you need an opportunity, don’t you? And today you get an opportunity. Probably his reception coming off the pitch was as good as we’ve heard here for a long time. So good credit to him that he stuck at it and he took his two goals well.” – David Moyes on Beto
All eyes on the remaining hours of the transfer market, then, to see if Everton swoop for another forward – or if Beto’s stint as a starting striker will continue for quite a bit longer. There isn’t, as things stand, a cheaper starting forward in FPL.
“We need to add additions, we need to try and bring other players in if we can do so.” – David Moyes
MYKOLENKO GETTING FORWARD, O’BRIEN GETTING MINUTES
There was more joy for owners of Pickford/Everton defenders. The Toffees collected their ninth clean sheet of 2024/25, a total that is only one behind Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They’ll seldom have it easier: Leicester’s xG was 0.33 here, two-thirds of which came from set plays.
Moyes has wisely opted not to stray too far from Dyche’s well-worn path but he has made a couple of tweaks since his arrival: the introduction of Jake O’Brien (£4.5m) for Ashley Young (£4.6m) and a slight formation change to a hybrid wing-back system, which you can see below.
It means that Vitallii Mykolenko (£4.4m) is getting into some quite advanced positions, with the Ukraine international whipping in two fabulous crosses that Doucoure spurned on Saturday (one flagged for offside, incorrectly it looked like, hence why it doesn’t appear in the stats columns).
As for O’Brien, he now looks to be a regular fixture in the Everton backline as the right-back/right-sided centre-half. A beast of a man who scored four league goals for Lyon last season, he had the ball in the net here – but was flagged for offside.
“I don’t want to take many of the good habits were already in this team and there are a lot of really good habits in the team but I want to try and add a little bit of composure. We thought Jake coming into the team two or three weeks ago might do that for us a little bit as well.” – David Moyes
