FPL notes: Wirtz superb, Gakpo returns + new £4.5m forward

Price Change Predictions

Risers

Fallers

Player	Team	Price	Progress	Tonight
Cunha	MUN	8.1m	47.5%	Likely
Calvert-Lewin	LEE	5.8m	94.6%	Likely
Rice	ARS	7.2m	94.8%	Likely
Verbruggen	BHA	4.4m	98.9%	Likely
Hall	NEW	5.2m	78.2%	Maybe
Mukiele	SUN	4.2m	98.0%	Maybe
Alderete	SUN	4.0m	93.1%	Unlikely
Guéhi	CRY	5.3m	89.9%	Unlikely
Gvardiol	MCI	6.0m	82.1%	Unlikely
O'Reilly	MCI	5.3m	82.7%	Unlikely
Truffert	BOU	4.5m	80.9%	Unlikely
Virgil	LIV	5.9m	78.1%	Unlikely
Tarkowski	EVE	5.5m	69.5%	Unlikely
Saliba	ARS	5.9m	73.4%	Unlikely
Heaven	MUN	3.8m	68.4%	Unlikely
Roefs	SUN	4.8m	70.4%	Unlikely
Tete	FUL	4.5m	69.7%	Unlikely
Dalot	MUN	4.5m	31.8%	Unlikely
Pickford	EVE	5.5m	63.8%	Unlikely
Watkins	AVL	8.5m	64.3%	Unlikely
Andersen	FUL	4.6m	66.6%	Unlikely
Cherki	MCI	6.7m	19.5%	Unlikely
Mitchell	CRY	5.0m	61.8%	Unlikely
Dorgu	MUN	4.2m	0.7%	Unlikely
Dúbravka	BUR	4.0m	55.9%	Unlikely
Mount	MUN	5.9m	61.1%	Unlikely
Ekitiké	LIV	9.1m	24.7%	Unlikely
Konaté	LIV	5.4m	54.3%	Unlikely
Schade	BRE	7.0m	47.1%	Unlikely
E.Le Fée	SUN	4.9m	53.1%	Unlikely
Keane	EVE	4.8m	17.2%	Unlikely
Igor Jesus	NFO	5.8m	49.8%	Unlikely
Trossard	ARS	6.9m	52.8%	Unlikely
Rúben	MCI	5.7m	50.6%	Unlikely
Palmer	CHE	10.4m	44.5%	Unlikely
De Cuyper	BHA	4.3m	46.1%	Unlikely
Van den Berg	BRE	4.5m	50.1%	Unlikely
A.Becker	LIV	5.4m	46.2%	Unlikely
Thiaw	NEW	5.0m	39.2%	Unlikely
Smith Rowe	FUL	5.6m	45.9%	Unlikely

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Player	Team	Price	Progress	Tonight
Cucurella	CHE	6.2m	101.8%	Very Likely
Barnes	BUR	4.3m	100.5%	Very Likely
Nwaneri	ARS	5.1m	100.3%	Very Likely
Yoro	MUN	4.3m	100.1%	Very Likely
Trafford	MCI	4.6m	100.1%	Very Likely
Adams	BOU	5.0m	97.7%	Likely
Tasker	BHA	3.9m	99.4%	Likely
Bevan	BOU	3.9m	99.5%	Likely
James	LEE	5.3m	100.0%	Very Likely
Mosquera	ARS	5.4m	97.9%	Maybe
Colwill	CHE	4.8m	98.0%	Maybe
Fitzgerald	MUN	4.4m	93.0%	Maybe
Fer López	WOL	5.2m	96.5%	Maybe
Mateta	CRY	7.7m	85.3%	Maybe
Anthony	BUR	5.2m	88.5%	Maybe
Johnson	SUN	3.9m	93.5%	Unlikely
Jair Cunha	NFO	4.3m	96.5%	Unlikely
Hermansen	WHU	4.3m	93.7%	Unlikely
Broggio	AVL	4.5m	90.1%	Unlikely
O.Dango	BRE	5.9m	77.8%	Unlikely
Robertson	LIV	5.8m	90.2%	Unlikely
March	BHA	5.8m	82.4%	Unlikely
Aké	MCI	5.3m	89.6%	Unlikely
Seung soo	NEW	4.4m	87.1%	Unlikely
Benitez	CRY	4.0m	88.8%	Unlikely
L.Guilherme	WHU	4.9m	97.0%	Unlikely
Bellegarde	WOL	5.2m	88.4%	Unlikely
Saka	ARS	10.3m	77.5%	Unlikely
Morgan	BRE	4.4m	84.9%	Unlikely
Reinildo	SUN	3.9m	84.4%	Unlikely
Bruno G.	NEW	7.0m	90.0%	Unlikely
Gibbs-White	NFO	7.3m	90.6%	Unlikely
Bayindir	MUN	4.8m	86.5%	Unlikely
Agbadou	WOL	4.3m	81.6%	Unlikely
R.Gomes	WOL	4.4m	83.0%	Unlikely
Raúl	FUL	6.3m	77.0%	Unlikely
Anderson	SUN	3.9m	81.9%	Unlikely
Sousa	AVL	3.9m	79.4%	Unlikely
Wan-Bissaka	WHU	4.2m	79.3%	Unlikely
Bettinelli	MCI	3.9m	72.5%	Unlikely

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FPL Fixture Ticker

Watchlists

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Raya Martin	ARS	B
Up	Pickford	EVE	B, Vs
Down	Alisson	LIV	C, Vs
Down	Donnarumma	MCI	B, Vs, Sus
No Change	Kelleher	BRE	B, Vs
No Change	Dubravka	BUR	C, £

Last updated: 26 Dec, 2025 1:46pm

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	van Dijk	LIV	C, Vs
No Change	Jurriën Timber	ARS	C
Up	Keane	EVE	Vs
No Change	O’Reilly	MCI	B, Vs
No Change	Marc Guehi	CRY	A
No Change	van den Berg	BRE	C, Vs
No Change	Thiaw	NEW	C
Down	Andersen	FUL	C
No Change	Milenkovic	NFO	C, Sus
No Change	van Hecke	BHA	A
No Change	Mukiele	SUN	C, £

Last updated: 26 Dec, 2025 1:50pm

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Saka	ARS	A
No Change	Foden	MCI	A, Vs
Up	Matheus Cunha	MUN	A
No Change	Semenyo	BOU	A
Up	Wirtz	LIV	B, Vs
Up	Grealish	EVE	B, Vs
No Change	Bruno Guimarães	NEW	B, Sus
No Change	Schade	BRE	C, Vs
Down	Minteh	BHA	C
No Change	Anderson	NFO	C, £

Last updated: 26 Dec, 2025 1:54pm

	Player	Club	Factors
No Change	Haaland	MCI	A, Vs
Up	Ekitiké	LIV	A, Vs
Up	Bowen	WHU	B, Vs
Down	Thiago	BRE	C, Vs, Inj
No Change	Mateta	CRY	C
No Change	Woltemade	NEW	B, Rest

Last updated: 26 Dec, 2025 1:56pm

The Gameweek 18 Scout Notes finish with Liverpool 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley 0-0 Everton.

READ MORE: Scout Notes: Why Thiago didn’t get a second assist + van den Berg “knock”
READ MORE: Scout Notes: Cherki stars, Dyche on Jesus + £4.0m ‘keeper starts again
READ MORE: Scout Notes: Dorgu ‘out of position’ + £3.8m Heaven praise
READ MORE: Scout Notes: Timber + Calafiori injury latest, Gabriel returns
READ MORE: Scout Notes: Cash ban, Cucurella injury + Palmer fumes
READ MORE: Scout Notes: Ballard, Rodon + Richards injury latest, DCL again

NEW SIGNINGS MAKING STRIDES

After a tricky first half of the season, Liverpool’s new signings are beginning to hit their stride.

Hugo Ekitike (£9.1m) has been grabbing the headlines with his goals but Florian Wirtz‘s (£8.1m) recent performances had been getting better and better by the week, too. It culminated in his first Premier League goal on Saturday, with Ekitike turning provider.

Wiirtz was arguably the Man of the Match at Anfield, his touch and footwork a joy to watch. More assister than goalscorer, the two chances he created were sublime: one threaded through-ball for Ekitike to hit the post from, and one bit of fleet-footed wizardry to teed up Ryan Gravenberch (£5.7m).

“I think he’s had multiple good games for us but I also feel he gets better and better every single game he is playing for us. He gets fitter and fitter and was getting closer and closer to his first goal. Then it was not a surprise to me that he scored one today, but he would probably be the first one to understand that one goal is not enough. He will score many more goals for us than only this one, but I also liked his performance during large parts of the game today. I think he was special in a lot of moments.” – Arne Slot on Florian Wirtz

Ekitike didn’t find the net this time (he was inches out with shot that hit the woodwork) but he was positive again.

A third new arrival also belatedly impressed. Jeremie Frimpong (£5.7m) caught the eye with his pace from right-back, assisting Gravenberch – who has now got four goals from an xG of 0.97! – with one fine run and cut-back.

Facing Wolves at home is one thing, of course, and you wonder how much Arne Slot will trust him in sterner tests. Remember Spurs away last week, when Frimpong was brought on on the right wing and Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.6m) stayed at right-back.

Indeed, for the final half hour on Saturday, as Wolves threatened a comeback, Conor Bradley (£5.0m) was introduced at right-back, with Frimpong pushed up the right wing.

GAKPO RETURNS

The only downside to Ekitike and Wirtz at present is their physicality. Both look knackered in the latter stages of games, with cramp kicking in.

Slot would probably like to take them off sooner, but he hasn’t had much waiting in reserve these last few weeks.

Is that about to change, however? Frimpong is an option on the flanks with Bradley back, while Mr Utility Man, Szoboszlai, returns from a ban now. On top of that, Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) is now fit. He replaced Ekitike in the closing minutes on Saturday, and he’s also relief on the left flank – where Wirtz has been stationed recently – going forward.

With a Thursday-Sunday turnaround coming up, there may be a lowering of the xMins for Liverpool’s in-demand twosome.

£4.5m FORWARD MANE IMPRESSES

We won’t waste too much time on Wolves, who are Fantasy afterthoughts for a reason.

But they’ve shown pluck in recent away matches at Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool to show they’re not total hopeless cases. Beware, those expecting a Manchester United bloodbath in Gameweek 19.

Their star turn on Saturday was a £4.5m forward who has impressed in cameos this season. Finally, Rob Edwards gave him a chance on Merseyside, and did he take it. Causing Liverpool problems with his drives from an attacking midfield berth, Mateus Mane (£4.5m) registered a joint-game-high four shots.

One to monitor in the budget forward pool.

Another cheap forward, Tolu Arokodare (£5.4m), was a handful up top. He claimed an assist when his saved header was prodded in by Santiago Bueno (£4.4m).

GREALISH ILL AS BURNLEY INJURIES MOUNT

Everton’s attack was further depleted on Saturday, so little surprise that they drew a blank at Turf Moor.

Already without Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5.0m) due to injury and Iliman Ndiaye (£6.2m) thanks to international duty, this particular ‘perfect hat-trick’ was complete when Jack Grealish (£6.5m) missed out due to illness.

“Hopefully, Jack will be fine and we’ll get him back this week sometime.” – David Moyes on Jack Grealish

As for Burnley, Scott Parker fears they’ve lost Josh Cullen (£5.0m), their top FPL points scorer, to a knee injury after he limped off.

“Yeah, it looks like… he doesn’t look good at this present moment in time. Obviously, suddenly someone like a player like Josh who goes down and instantly signals over to the benchsuggests that something is not good and it looks that way.” – Scott Parker on Josh Cullen

Joe Worrall (£3.8m), meanwhile, missed out with a late injury, while Maxime Esteve (£3.9m) failed to recover.

“Yeah, picked up a little niggle and obviously Joe’s been out for a little bit of time weeks previous to this and picked up an injury after coming back in and was a late call.” – Scott Parker on Joe Worrall

Those two defensive absences saw Bashir Humphreys (£3.9m) make his first-ever Premier League start. Very well he did, too, collecting defensive contribution (DefCon) points along with his clean sheet.

DUBRAVKA + DEFENDERS HAUL AGAINST TOOTHLESS ATTACKS

“You wouldn’t want to watch too much of that”, said David Moyes after this game. Few would disagree with him.

Everton did have six shots on target but didn’t even get to 1.0 xG, with a hauling Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) only twice seriously extended, making fine stops from Beto (£5.0m) and Thierno Barry (£5.7m).

It’s now three games without a goal for the Toffees; without their attacking midfield trident, you’d want your FPL defenders to be facing them at present.

Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye and Grealish have combined for 10 goals and nine assists in 2025/26 – and bear in mind that Everton have scored only 18 goals in total all season.

Everton at least are a competent bunch at the other end. Seven clean sheets is a total that only four clubs can better.

Michael Keane (£4.8m) and James Tarkowski (£5.5m) both lapped up the DefCon points. Keane’s 21 defensive contributions at Turf Moor, a tally only twice beaten by a defender in 2025/26, were significant: he now averages more defensive actions per 90 minutes than the more expensive Tarkowski (10.91 v 10.44, below):

Jacob Bruun Larsen (£5.3m) should have scored for Burnley when lobbing over. Parker declared himself pleased with the display but, as one Clarets fan put it, ‘Our best performance of the season is still not good enough for the Premier League’.

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