Final preparations for Gameweek 1 were being made on Saturday as many Premier League clubs contested their final pre-season friendlies.
Two of them, Manchester United and Fulham, feature in these Scout Notes.
FPL 2026/27 Pre-season Minutes, Goals + Assists Tracker
MANCHESTER UNITED 2-4 AC Milan
- Goals: Dorgu, Maguire
- Assist: Fernandes
Manchester United XI: Lammens, Mazraoui (Dalot 61), Maguire, Heaven (Martinez 61), Shaw, Santos (Mainoo 61), Tielemans, Amad (Lacey 61), Fernandes, Dorgu (Rashford 61), Cunha (Mbeumo 61).
- United’s pre-season ended with a whimper in Poland, with the Red Devils serving up a lacklustre display. Milan hogged 61% of the ball, also coming out 6-3 on big chances. Some smart stops from Senne Lammens (£5.0m) prevented the margin of defeat from being greater.
- The good thing: this is an ultimately meaningless pre-season friendly. While it’s not ideal to deliver this type of performance in your final warm-up game, this was as much an exercise in fitness-building as anything else. Youri Tielemans (£6.0m), Matheus Cunha (£8.0m) and Bruno Fernandes (£12.0m) were making their first pre-season starts, with all of them looking slightly off the pace.
“Some of the boys playing some of their first minutes, there are different reasons, [but] no excuses. We just we didn’t play very well today.
“But on the whole, we’re ready for next week. I think a lot of the boys will be better for the minutes.” – Michael Carrick
- Bruno was poor, yet as he so often does in FPL, he delivered an attacking return regardless. His second-minute corner was headed in by Harry Maguire (£5.0m), while he went on to have more shots (five) than anyone else. One of those was a first-half penalty – but for the second time in a few days, he missed from the spot. We’ve been here before; last autumn he twice failed from 12 yards. He was allowed to retain penalty-taking duties after those successive misses, of course, and there’s nothing yet to suggest that won’t remain the case this time.
- His teammates weren’t much better. Arguably the biggest winner out of all of this was Bryan Mbeumo (£8.0m), who dropped to the bench after a productive pre-season. Carrick was perhaps just giving minutes to those who needed it most (Mbeumo had already started twice in the last week), but Cunha failed to stake much of a claim for the centre-forward role.
- Patrick Dorgu (£6.0m) grabbed United’s second goal, pouncing on a loose header to finish. Now an FPL midfielder, he was starting on the left flank for the fifth successive friendly.
- United’s press did occasionally yield results (Dorgu’s goal, United’s penalty) but was too often bypassed, and the central midfield doesn’t look set yet. How to overcome Casemiro’s exit is a conundrum Carrick has to solve, as the engine room was lacking much steel.
- At the back, a wobbly display was characterised by a horror show from Luke Shaw (£4.5m). Maguire and co weren’t much better, with Lisandro Martinez (£5.0m) another one to look rusty on his first post-World Cup appearance. He and fellow late arrivals Marcus Rashford (£7.0m) and Kobbie Mainoo (£5.5m) got the final half an hour.
- Plenty of cobwebs still to blow off as we approach Gameweek 1, then, but United may not need to be at top speed to win their first two matches anyway.
FULHAM 1-0 Stuttgart
- Goal: Castagne
- Assist: Iwobi
Fulham XI: Leno, Castagne, Bassey, Cuenca, Robinson, Berge, Iwobi, King (Charles 78), Bobb, Gonzalo (Nwoko 88), Palacios.
SCOUT NOTES
- Fulham’s full-backs are enjoying life under Alvaro Arbeloa. Timothy Castagne (£4.5m), Antonee Robinson (£4.5m) and Ryan Sessegnon (£4.5m) now have seven pre-season attacking returns between them, with the former on target here. While this goal came from a set play, Castagne outlined the attacking freedom the Cottagers’ full-backs now have under their new boss.
“Obviously you need to know your responsibilities – we cannot go every time, you need to pick your moments – but when we go, we have license to kill. We can go full, and both full-backs at the same time. That’s why Sess scored Wednesday from my cross, because we can both go in the box at the same time. It will be fun this season.” – Timothy Castagne
“Full-backs are very important for me in our style, in our game. They are doing a great job.” – Alvaro Arbeloa
- Over on the other flank, Robinson had a good chance of scoring himself when sent clear, but couldn’t steer his effort in.
- Iwobi, now seemingly very much seen as a central midfielder by Arbeloa, caused problems with his corners. He assisted Castagne’s goals and set up two huge chances for Sander Berge (£5.0m) from set pieces, with the Norwegian’s second effort looking suspicously like it had crossed the line. No goalline technology here.
- Fulham look like they could be fun to watch this season. Their attacking play was quick and intricate, although their promising frontline – Gonzalo Garcia (£6.0m), Oscar Bobb (£5.5m), Cesar Palacios (£5.5m) – still looks raw. Bobb epitomised that, failing to shoot when he had the chance and then shooting when he should have squared to Garcia for a tap-in. Garcia himself was lively, seeing a shot deflect just wide and then a cross-shot toed away by the Stuttgart ‘keeper.
- It’s also worth mentioning that Fulham’s high line looks dicey. It wasn’t punished here, but a better side like Chelsea – who provide the Gameweek 1 opposition – may take advantage of it. Berno Leno (£4.5m) was forced into two excellent saves to preserve the clean sheet.
- You may have noticed an absence of other key players, such as Joachim Andersen (£5.0m), Kevin (£5.5m) and Rodrigo Muniz (£5.5m). They almost certainly featured in a second friendly earlier in the day, which Stuttgart revealed details of.
ℹ️ A behind-closed-doors friendly was played at Fulham FC’s training ground this morning.
The following players featured: Funk – Al-Dakhil, Hendriks, Vagnoman, El Khannouss, Karazor, Pejčinović, Stergiou, Undav, Chema, Jovanović
VfB won the game 2-0, with Dzenan Pejčinović and…
— VfB Stuttgart_int (@VfB_int) August 15, 2026
- Alas, there wasn’t much disclosed from the Fulham side.
“The earlier game was very good. We lost 0-2 but I really loved what I saw, the attitude of the players.
“We have many chances to score.” – Alvaro Arbeloa on the day’s earlier game behind closed doors
