The closing match of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) Gameweek 9 saw Tottenham Hotspur beat Everton and move up to third place, helped by a huge haul from defender Micky van de Ven (£4.7m).
Here are our Scout Notes from the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
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HE’S TAKING THE MICKY
FPL’s third-most owned defender is still in millions of squads, but 868,412 benched him for this weekend.
They had to watch in horror as he scored the opening goal, escaped a Jake O’Brien (£5.0m) equaliser because of offside interference, netted again on the verge of half-time, and successfully held onto a clean sheet.
“At the beginning of the season, I said, “It’s okay you score with your left foot and your right foot, but you need to score more goals with your head. You’re centre-back”. And then we have worked with it and that’s a big praise to Micky, but especially to Andreas [Georgson, set-piece coach] and the way he, how can you say, attack the ball, also get in there where it hurts, I think is key. Now, yeah, hopefully it will continue.” – Thomas Frank on Micky van de Ven
Additionally, he reached 10 defensive contribution (DefCon) actions, meaning he accumulated a phenomenal 23 points. It’s one of the highest single-match defender scores in FPL history.
Yet, for a lot of managers, it was Halloween coming five nights early.
ANOTHER NAIL IN RICHARLISON’S FPL COFFIN
He’d seen Mathys Tel (£6.3m) start over him in the previous two Gameweeks, and now Richarlison (£6.6m) has another positional rival to contend with – and that’s without Dominic Solanke (£7.2m) being fit.
Randal Kolo Muani (£6.9m) started his first Spurs game on Sunday, and performed fairly well up top.
While Richarlison did come off the bench to assist, his FPL number is clearly now up – if it wasn’t already.
“I think it was pleasing to see his first 60 minutes. He’s still building his physicality and sharpness. I’m pleased with what I saw, but it’s the first steps, so there’s more to come. I think in times I like some of the movement, the interactions with the front four, but that is an ongoing project or process.” – Thomas Frank on Randal Kolo Muani
THE MID-PRICED MIDS
Back from suspension, Jack Grealish (£6.9m) was Everton’s only change to the starting XI.
Looking bright, he created several chances for teammates and missed a big one himself when Pedro Porro (£5.6m) blocked a close-range effort.
The Spanish defender’s superb corner helped make it 2-0, after Mohammed Kudus (£6.8m) took the set-piece for van de Ven’s first. But it wasn’t the Ghanaian’s assist because Rodrigo Bentancur (£5.3m) touched the ball in between.
Perhaps the best mid-priced midfielder from these two teams is the Toffees’ Iliman Ndiaye (£6.5m). He somehow blanked at Manchester City last time, despite forcing a good save and setting up multiple Beto (£5.3m) attempts.
Another busy performance here resulted in shots, plus moments of creativity that a better centre-forward would have converted.
Like Bruno Fernandes (£8.9m), Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m) and Lucas Paqueta (£5.9m), Ndiaye is an all-rounder. He takes penalties, is beaten only by Kudus for take-ons, ranks number one throughout the league for expected assists (xA), likes to shoot, and has delivered DefCon rewards on three occasions.
