We’ve seen 16 Premier League teams in FA Cup fourth-round action over the last few days, 12 of which we’ve already written about in our Scout Notes.
Now, it’s the turn of the remaining four: both Manchester clubs, Leicester City and Crystal Palace.
As ever, we’ll attempt to pick out any key lessons for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers in these write-ups.
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FA CUP RESULTS
| Goals | Assists | |
|---|---|---|
| Manchester United 2-1 Leicester City | Zirkzee, Maguire | De Cordova-Reid | Hojlund, Fernandes | Ndidi |
| Leyton Orient 1-2 Manchester City | Khusanov, De Bruyne | Lewis, Grealish |
| Doncaster Rovers 0-2 Crystal Palace | Munoz, Devenny | Hughes |
TEAM SELECTION/ROTATION
| Starting XI changes from Gameweek 24 | Players who kept their place (mins) | Other mins for selected players | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester United | 2 | Onana (90), Mazraoui (90), Maguire (90), Yoro (90), Dalot (90), Ugarte (90), Fernandes (90), Diallo (90), Mainoo (64) | Hojlund (90), Dorgu (45), Garnacho (45), Zirkzee (26) |
| Leicester City | 4 | Hermansen (90), Justin (90), Faes (90), Soumare (90), El Khannouss (90), Ayew (90), De Cordova-Reid (73) | Okoli (90), Daka (81), Thomas (58), Ndidi (58), Winks (32), Coulibaly (32), McAteer (17), Buonanotte (9) |
| Manchester City | 8 | Ortega (90), Savinho (90), Marmoush (90) | Lewis (90), Gundogan (90), Grealish (90), O’Reilly (72), McAtee (72), Bernardo (68), Reis (45), Dias (45), Stones (45), Khusanov (45), Gonzalez (22), Foden (18), De Bruyne (18) |
| Crystal Palace | 3 | Richards (90), Lacroix (90), Guehi (90), Munoz (90), Hughes (90), Kamada, Mateta (90), Mitchell (45) | Turner (90), Wharton (62), Devenny (62), Chilwell (45), Esse (28) |
DIAS RETURNS, CITY FITNESS BOOST
There’s light at the end of the tunnel for Manchester City on the injury front.
The Cityzens first welcomed back Ruben Dias (£5.4m) from injury for Saturday’s win over Leyton Orient. The defender got through 45 minutes as planned.
Now, more good news. The knock that forced Nico Gonzalez (£6.0m) off early at Brisbane Road turned out to be just that: a mere knock. The new £50m signing is already back on the grass.
In a further boost, recent absentees Nathan Ake (£5.3m) and Jeremy Doku (£6.2m) have rejoined training.
That leaves only Rodri (£6.2m) and Oscar Bobb (£4.7m) on the sidelines ahead of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League tie against Real Madrid.
HAALAND RESTED
The big guns were clearly being rested for that clash with Real Madrid.
Erling Haaland (£14.7m) was afforded the afternoon off altogether, with only two outfielders from Gameweek 24 keeping their places.
One of them was Omar Marmoush (£7.0m). Here we got a glimpse of City’s ‘Plan B’ for whenever Haaland is unavailable, with Marmoush up top. The Egyptian registered five shots in all, spurning one great headed chance.
The presence of Rico Lewis (£4.4m) in this second-string XI underscored his fall from prominence: we have to go back to January 4 for his last Premier League start. Lewis did help restore parity here, seeing his shot deflect in off new signing and half-time substitute Abdoukodir Khusanov (£5.0m).
Another sub, Kevin De Bruyne (£9.4m), neatly finished a Jack Grealish (£6.4m) through-ball to secure the win.
All of a sudden, with new acquisitions and returns to fitness, Guardiola has at least 10 – before we’ve even considered redeployed right-back Matheus Nunes (£4.9m) or Oscar Bobb (£4.7m) – midfielders and forwards competing for six spots.
DORGU DEBUT, UNITED STRUGGLE AGAIN
Another game in which Manchester United failed to sparkle. The Red Devils owed a debt to an absent VAR for Friday’s win over Leicester City, with Harry Maguire‘s (£4.9m) late winner clearly offside.
“Today is just the feeling of the win, and the fans will go home with that feeling of when they perform really well, they help us a lot to change the game. The rest is hard to point to something to give them a little bit [of] confidence. Just the spirit in the second half, more energy, more second balls, small things. But the rest, we have a lot to improve. So we already knew that. But yeah, we need to do better.” – Ruben Amorim
This was pretty much a full-strength United team, too, with the addition of new signing Patrick Dorgu (£4.5m). He interestingly was used at right wing-back, despite outside opinion being that he was signed to play on the opposite flank.
“If you’re going to see the history of Dorgu in the last team, he played a lot of games also on the right. And we have to have wingers that can play both sides, like [Diogo] Dalot. So I think it’s a really good, important thing, because sometimes you need a left-footer on the right side to come inside and to connect in the different way. And sometimes you need the right-footed [player] to connect and to cross more balls, so it’s like that.” – Ruben Amorim on Patrick Dorgu
Dorgu was hooked at the break, with Amad Diallo (£5.6m) moving to right wing-back. Both semi-popular United midfielders were in deeper roles again, then, with Bruno Fernandes (£8.3m) alongside Manuel Ugarte (£4.9m).
Alejandro Garnacho (£5.9m) caught the eye more than anyone. Thrown on at half-time for Dorgu, he was a threat from the left-sided 10 role. The Argentina international had more shots (four) than anyone on show and it was from his cross that fellow sub Joshua Zirkzee (£6.5m) eventually prodded the ball in.
As for Leicester, a decent response to the 4-0 thrashing by Everton with much the same team. Jamie Vardy (£5.4m), Victor Kristiansen (£4.5m) and Jannik Vestergaard (£3.9m) missed out with minor issues.
Wilfred Ndidi (£4.9m) returned from a two-month absence, claiming an assist when his blocked shot rebounded in off Bobby De Cordova-Reid (£5.2m).
EZE-LESS PALACE PROGRESS, CHILWELL DEBUT
Palace eased into the FA Cup fifth round and a home tie with Millwall, which almost puts the rubber stamp on them blanking in Gameweek 29.
Eberechi Eze (£6.7m) missed the win over Doncaster Rovers as planned; he was resting up his niggly foot injury. Eddie Nketiah (£5.9m) also sat this game out with a twisted ankle and Ismaila Sarr (£5.7m) was ill.
That saw Daichi Kamada (£5.1m) and Justin Devenny (£4.5m) given starts in the ’10’ roles, with new signing Romain Esse (£5.0m) again only a substitute. Devenny grabbed Palace’s second goal.
Other than Eze and Sarr missing out, and Matt Turner (£3.9m) getting a cup run-out, the Eagles were effectively at full strength.
What we did see was a first Palace appearance for Ben Chilwell (£4.6m). On as a half-time substitute for Tyrick Mitchell (£4.8m), the Chelsea loanee didn’t look out of place at left wing-back on a first start of 2024/25. It’ll be interesting to see how Oliver Glasner handles those two players’ minutes going forward.
Chilwell is certainly more in the Daniel Munoz (£4.8m) mould in terms of attacking threat. We’ve seen the sort of numbers that Munoz churns out; he’s second among defenders for xG. The Colombian was at it again on Monday, albeit from a set play, turning in the rebound after Jean-Philippe Mateta‘s (£7.3m) shot had hit the woodwork.
