Bar the clean sheet points for Ruben Dias (£5.4m) and Josko Gvardiol (£6.2m), Manchester City’s Double Gameweek 33 started with a whimper rather than a hoped-for bang.
Of the four players who delivered attacking returns at Goodison Park on Saturday, the highest-owned in the top 10k was the 0.12%-selected Ilkay Gundogan (£6.3m)…
City’s 2-0 win over Everton is the next Gameweek 33 match to get the Scout Notes treatment.
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Glasner on Eze sub + midweek team selection
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 33 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
JOSKO’S MODERN LIFE
Gvardiol owners would have wistfully reflected on what might have been when Nico O’Reilly (£4.9m) popped up in the six-yard box to break Saturday’s stalemate on Merseyside.
O’Reilly converted a cross from fellow midfielder-turned-full-back Matheus Nunes (£4.9m), with substitute Mateo Kovacic (£5.4m) sealing the win in injury time.
These are the types of positions that Gvardiol has frequently taken up over the years. Lately, however, he’s been forced to play at centre-back due to injuries elsewhere.
O’Reilly has instead assumed the mantle of attack-minded left-back, scoring in successive Gameweeks.
“When Josko played the left-back he scored a lot of goals, now when Nico is left-back he scores a lot of goals. So in that position, we’re fortunate to have these guys.” – Pep Guardiola
GAMEWEEKS 31-33
| Gvardiol | O’Reilly | |
| Final-third touches | 6 | 65 |
| Penalty-box touches | 1 | 10 |
| Shots | 0 | 3 |
| Chances created | 0 | 2 |
The hope for Gvardiol owners is that he’ll assume the O’Reilly role again soon. The return to fitness of Manuel Akanji (£5.3m), a substitute on Saturday, could be the catalyst for that.
The problem is that O’Reilly has been in fine form in that position, while Guardiola called his back four “brilliant” on Saturday. More centre-half run-outs may await for now, then.
MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS IN ATTACK
Guardiola does like to keep us guessing with his teamsheets. Despite seeing his side score five goals against Crystal Palace last weekend, he changed up his attack on Saturday.
In Gameweek 32, Kevin De Bruyne (£9.3m) was effectively a false nine with Omar Marmoush (£7.7m) and James McAtee (£4.6m) taking up narrow winger roles.
This weekend, Marmoush was the nominal forward, Savinho (£6.2m) and Bernardo Silva (£6.1m) were used out wide, and De Bruyne underlapped Bernardo on the right.
While Everton deserve credit for their stubborn display, it really didn’t work on Saturday. De Bruyne, so effective against Palace, was all misplaced passes and loose first touches. Bernardo’s downward spiral from vital cog to ‘what does he offer?’ continues. Savinho doesn’t look as effective on the left.
Marmoush didn’t have his best game either but he seems to always get a golden opportunity, which is what we FPL managers desire from our attackers. That big chance on Saturday was an 81st-minute one-on-one, saved by Jordan Pickford (£5.1m).
It was all a bit Manchester derby, with Guardiola’s post-match comments hinting that the slow ‘death by a thousand passes’ approach was by design. Perhaps he’s taking fewer risks on the road after the defensive struggles of earlier in the season.
“We didn’t create much but we didn’t want transitions or fouls.” – Pep Guardiola
As for what happens on Tuesday, you wouldn’t be surprised to see further attacking changes. Jeremy Doku‘s (£6.2m) cameo was hailed as “really good” by Guardiola, while Phil Foden (£9.2m) was back on the bench after injury.
TARKOWSKI INJURY LATEST AS £3.8M REPLACEMENT RETURNS
City were limited to 0.44 xG before the final flourish in the last 10 minutes.
As much as we can bemoan the Cityzens’ slowly-slowly approach, more praise needs to go Everton’s way. They really are a tough side to break down, with their only defeats in the last 13 fixtures coming against Liverpool and City. Even those two losses were close-run things.
Had James Tarkowski (£4.9m) not come off injured on Saturday, you wonder if the game would have finished 0-0.
“It looks like his hamstring, obviously. So, we’ve not heard any more than that, and we’ll get him assessed during the week.” – David Moyes on James Tarkowski
Enter Michael Keane (£3.8m). On the surface, a sub-£4.0m defender with some good fixtures coming up seems appealing. But Everton were worse for his arrival, with Moyes barely concealing his disappointment after full-time.
“I think Tarky coming off was a big change in the game, it really did. I think it changed a lot of things and it shouldn’t have, but it did.” – David Moyes
It’s also possible that Jake O’Brien (£4.5m) moves over to centre-half from his current hybrid right-back role.
“We could have done it today but we felt we’d be changing two positions instead of one at the time, so we stuck with what we thought would have been the right decision.” – David Moyes on potentially switching Jake O’Brien to centre-half
Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite (£4.8m) both had excellent chances from set pieces on Saturday, the former hitting the post.
Dwight McNeil (£5.1m) meanwhile continued to build his match fitness with a third straight substitute appearance.
29 days, 18 hours agoWith 10 points and Rashford + Lacroix still to come in the second game, this is my best BB in the last few years, beating 9 points a couple seasons ago. #cursedchip