Liverpool and Crystal Palace got there in the end – but the whipping boys of Southampton and Ipswich Town made these two home ‘bankers’ more of a nervy watch than expected.
Our next Gameweek 28 Scout Notes come from the matches at Anfield and Selhurst Park.
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Marmoush Gameweek 29 hope, Asensio injury update
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 28 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
- READ MORE: Salah breaks the FPL points record – again!
SLOT DOESN’T ROTATE MUCH – BUT MAYBE WISHES HE DID
Southampton were much better than we thought they’d be. Liverpool were much more lethargic, especially in the first half. Yet in the end, normal service resumed: a Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) haul, another home win and a huge 16-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
It was almost 4-0 on the xG but it didn’t really tell a fair story of the game.
The Reds were limp in attack before the interval, while a mix-up between two usually reliable stalwarts – Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) and Alisson (£5.6m) – allowed Saints to steal the unlikeliest of half-time leads.
Arne Slot had threatened rotation in his pre-match presser but in the end only made three changes, the sort of game-to-game alterations he might have made regardless of the opposition.
Even he admitted after the match that more energy was needed, hooking the usually indefatigable Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.4m) at half-time.
“I don’t think I was wrong this time if I said at half-time that energy levels were far, far, far too low. That is what had to change and that’s why we made three substitutions just to, apart from bringing in quality, also create something. Because nine out of 10 times when you take three out, the other eight are like, ‘Ooh, something else should happen.’ That’s the only thing I could come up with at half-time to create something different for the second half.” – Arne Slot
“You didn’t select the right game, because every time I’m sitting here and talking about Dominik, I’m talking about, ‘He’s a machine. He can just keep on going, running, running, running.’ But it was maybe the first time this season that I saw a different energy from him, which is maybe normal. Maybe I made a mistake by playing him because he gives so much every single game. Now the good thing is he only played 45 [minutes], so he’s more rested for the upcoming week now than he is if I would have played him for 90.” – Arne Slot on Dominik Szoboszlai, who was taken off at half-time
ALEXANDER-ARNOLD A RARE BRIGHT SPARK
The second half was more one-way traffic. An otherwise quiet Salah bagged a couple of penalties; a third of his 27 goals in 2024/25 have come from the spot. Darwin Nunez (£7.0m) also took his chance on a rare start, surviving a brush with VAR to convert Luis Diaz‘s (£7.5m) cut-back and then winning Salah’s first spot-kick.
“I think today, especially in the second half, you also saw the work-rate he can bring to the team. But the main thing that happened was in the second half we started to play in a different tempo – not only without the ball but also with the ball.” – Arne Slot on Darwin Nunez
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.5m) blanked but he matched Salah for shots (five), with one first-half effort from close range smothered by Aaron Ramsdale (£4.4m). He was one of the few who really impressed.
So, what did we learn? Not a great deal. We know Liverpool are capable of much, much more than this. We know Darwin, for all his contributions here, isn’t the long-term answer up top and will probably be back among the substitutes in Gameweek 30. We also won’t stop targeting Southampton in FPL – for all their improvement on Saturday (Ivan Juric trialled an interesting 4-2-3-1 here, with Albert Gronbaek (£4.9m) and Mateus Fernandes (£5.0m) taking their turns up top), they still allowed Liverpool a whopping eight big chances.
Probably the main takeaway from this, as mentioned in the Salah article, is that Liverpool are disappearing over the horizon. What Slot does with his starting XI if/when the league is wrapped up, especially if the Reds’ focus turns to the UEFA Champions League, will be intriguing from a Fantasy perspective.
GAKPO INJURY LATEST
Darwin partly got his chance because there was again no Cody Gakpo (£7.5m).
After aggravating an ankle issue before the Paris Saint-Germain game and missing out in midweek, Gakpo was absent.
“No [he wasn’t close], otherwise I would have taken him because this was the most important game of the week, like I told you – and the first of three finals. So, if he would have been able then I would have definitely had him on the bench, but unfortunately he wasn’t.” – Arne Slot on Cody Gakpo
GLASNER ON MUNOZ
Palace made it six clean sheets in 11 matches with a shut-out against Ipswich.
This was hard-earned, with Dean Henderson (£4.6m) forced into six saves, Palace surviving one incident of penalty-box pinball – the ball cleared off the line – and Ben Johnson (£3.9m) heading a good chance over.
“It was at least even in terms of the opportunities that both teams had. We certainly feel we were good value for a goal today and were really close on a couple of occasions to getting the first goal.” – Kieran McKenna
Having ridden the luck en route to a clean sheet, Daniel Munoz (£5.0m) nearly put the icing on the cake with a fifth attacking return in six matches. However, the gung-ho wing-back couldn’t stick his one-on-one chance past Alex Palmer (£4.5m). It seems like there’s a good opportunity for Munoz every game; in fact, he’s had at least one shot in 16 of his last 19 starts.
Above: Daniel Munoz’s big chance against Ipswich, one of three shots he had
Thanks to the Blank Gameweek 29 and an international break, there’s no competitive match now for Palace for three weeks.
It’s off to Marbella for the Eagles, who will contest a friendly when they’re over there.
Oliver Glasner namechecked Munoz as a player who he will give limited minutes to in said kickabout, as the Colombia international will then be off to South America for two World Cup qualifiers.
A busy schedule awaits Munoz when he returns, too:
The good news: Glasner has yet to bench Munoz even once since his arrival, even after past international breaks.
“We have to wait for the final call-ups for the national teams because we have to manage these players. For example, Dani Muñoz, I expect him playing two games for Colombia and he plays almost every single minute with us. Marc Guéhi will play maybe both games for England. He played almost every minute with us, and so we have to be a bit careful.
“But of course, we’re working on our game. We’re working on creating chances. We’re working on our finishing. We’re working on our rest defence. We’re working on our defensive shape. And then we have a friendly game there and of course, we want everybody to get some minutes.
“But of course, those players who played many minutes, they will play maybe 30 minutes and some others 60, so that everybody, again, is in the best shape when we face Fulham in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.” – Oliver Glasner on the trip to, and friendly in, Marbella
MATETA MISSED, SARR SCORES AGAIN
Having scored in successive matches before this game, Eddie Nketiah (£5.9m) couldn’t build on it in a rare Premier League start. The budget striker spurned a couple of big chances and was quiet, unable to feed off direct balls like Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m) normally would.
It seems strange to say after Opta clocked up Palace’s xG at 3.26 but the hosts’ attack didn’t really click without the Frenchman.
Mateta is expected to return by Gameweek 30, and he will be straight back in the starting XI if fit.
Ismaila Sarr (£5.6m) scored for the second successive league match, nodding one glorious chance wide before chipping in a fine winner.
He’s a bit streaky, is Sarr. He’s had seven shots in the last two league matches but had only four attempts in the seven Gameweeks before that.
At least he found the net. Sarr has scored more in two Gameweeks than Eberechi Eze (£6.7m) has all season. Eze had a couple of presentable chances blocked against the Tractor Boys, extending his drought.
7 days, 22 hours agoDango benching was coming. Nothing surprising about it