We finish off the Scout Notes from Saturday’s Gameweek 29 fixtures with the matches at the Amex and Molineux.
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MUNETSI FINALLY DELIVERS ON THREAT
If you’ve read our Scout Notes on Wolverhampton Wanderers in recent weeks, you’ll have probably seen a few mentions of Marshall Munetsi (£5.0m).
The box-to-box midfielder, signed on deadline day last month, has a knack of taking up some excellent goalscoring positions.
Having been deployed as a false nine recently, here Munetsi was used in one of the ’10’ roles supporting the fit-again Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.2m).
After going close with a header from a corner, he opened his account when despatching Jeanricner Bellegarde‘s (£4.9m) pass.
Munetsi has had nine shots in just 270 minutes as a Wolves player. Since he made his Premier League debut, he’s third among FPL midfielders for non-penalty xG (NPxG):
Above: Premier League midfielders sorted by NPxG in the last four Gameweeks
It’s sorry Southampton up next but Munetsi first has to prove his fitness. The Zimbabwe international was taken off at half-time as a precaution, with Vitor Pereira saying after full-time that he didn’t think the midfielder’s injury was “serious”.
Elsewhere, Strand Larsen had one shot well saved but was quiet, deprived of much meaningful service.
Emmanuel Agbadou (£4.0m) was back fit – and what a difference he makes to the Wolves defence. While Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) is the more appealing FPL target thanks to his attacking contributions, you’d still want Agbadou to be fit and firing in order to give Wanderers the best chance of keeping a clean sheet.
BETO KEEPS GETTING CHANCES
The barely owned Jesper Lindstrom (£5.0m) and Jack Harrison (£5.2m) combined for Everton’s deflected opener.
A more popular pick from the Toffees, Beto (£5.1m), blanked but again posed a threat. A tiny bit more contact on an early set piece would have seen him get on the scoresheet, while a late one-on-one chance was excellently saved by Jose Sa (£4.3m).
This was Beto’s sixth successive start since breaking into David Moyes’ starting XI. He’s had at least one big chance in all six fixtures.
Above: Forwards sorted by big chances in their last six matches
Moyes admitted Everton were second-best when interviewed after the game but while Wolves dominated possession, the hosts’ xG of 0.74 was modest. A solid enough display at the back from the visitors, despite them being below-par overall.
This was an eighth league match unbeaten for the Toffees. There’s one more decent-ish fixture to come, in Blank Gameweek 29, before the schedule screams ‘hop off’.
PEDRO PEN EDGES TIGHT GAME
Two of the season’s big overachievers were short of their best on Saturday. Whoever won this game would have ended the weekend in sixth, but for much of the match a draw looked inevitable.
Raul Jimenez (£5.5m), restored to the starting XI, finished off a fine counter-attack to put Fulham in front 35 minutes in. That was their only shot on target of the game. Jan Paul van Hecke (£4.5m) powered in a Maguire-esque header to restore parity shortly after.
A forgettable fixture short on clear chances was 0.64-0.44 on StatsBomb xG heading into the 98th minute, the score tied at 1-1.
To the delight of Joao Pedro (£5.5m) owners, there was still time for one more twist. The Brazilian was felled in the Fulham box, despatching the subsequent spot-kick.
Pedro still has only one non-penalty goal (against a desperate Southampton side) in 16 Gameweeks – but of course, spot-kick duties are part of his appeal.
He was the likeliest source of a goal before that, too, skewing off-target after a brilliant one-two with Georginio Rutter (£5.1m) before superbly teeing up substitute Danny Welbeck (£5.5m) for a woefully mistimed header.
The Seagulls have now won six in a row in all competitions. Manchester City’s Gameweek 29 fixture is not as favourable as it looked a month ago.
ROBINSON FURTHER UP THE FLANK
Without Sasa Lukic (£4.8m) and Adama Traore (£4.6m), Marco Silva opted to go with the back five/4-3-3 hybrid system he previously turned to in December – again when Fulham were short on a first-choice central midfielder.
It’s a formation that sees Antonee Robinson (£5.1m) operate as a left wing-back/winger rather than full-back. It looks great on paper, with the American even more advanced than usual.
It’s not a tactic that has convinced, however, and it strangely doesn’t seem to get the best out of Robinson. Odd as it sounds, he looks better in a back four.
Fulham’s forthcoming fixture run looks bad but they’ve often saved their best for the big games. In fact, in the reverse fixtures of their Gameweek 29-33 matches, they weren’t beaten once.
