It’s all about the budget Fantasy Premier League (FPL) picks as we look back on the final pre-season friendlies involving Hull City and Ipswich Town.
From starting £4.0m defenders to an assist-making £4.5m forward, here are the main talking points.
FPL 2026/27 Pre-season Minutes, Goals + Assists Tracker
Union Berlin 2-4 IPSWICH TOWN
- Goals: J Clarke, Emersonn, O’Shea, McAteer
- Assists: Davis, Walle Egeli x2, Mehmeti
Ipswich Town XI: Scherpen, O’Shea (Johnson 83), Diop (Kipre 73), Greaves, Davis (Furlong 66), Lukic (Humphreys 66), Nunez, Walle Egeli (McAteer 73), Clarke (Mehmeti 73), Maeda (Philogene 46), Emersonn (Akpom 66).
SCOUT NOTES
- While uncertainty rages at Hull City (below), the £4.0m defender picture at Ipswich Town is beginning to look a lot clearer. Gary O’Neil stuck with the same back four he named in the Tractor Boys’ penultimate friendly, and line-ups this close to the start of the season are worth paying attention to. Forget the fitness building and tactical experimentation of July; we’re now in the ‘gelling the first XI’ stage of pre-season.
- It’s seemingly no longer ‘two from three’ with centre-halves Dara O’Shea, Issa Diop and Jacob Greaves (all £4.0m). O’Shea is now operating at right-back, although given how advanced Leif Davis (£4.0m) is on the left flank, it’s almost a back three anyway. A full-back role may increase the potential for open-play attacking returns – O’Shea scored with a curling effort here! – but really, it’s the more reliable DefCons a lot of us are after with £4.0m defenders, as they’re going to arrive with more regularity than the odd goal and assist. In that sense, Diop is the go-to over O’Shea.
- Davis, of course, is a different beast. He finished pre-season with more attacking returns (four) than any other Ipswich player. His second assist of the summer came on Saturday, when he crossed for Jack Clarke (£5.5m) to score. Davis was more advanced than Daizen Maeda (£5.5m) a lot of the time, the Japanese attacker often filling in on the left when Davis drove beyond him. Can the Ipswich left-back finally deliver on his undoubted attacking promise in 2026/27, two seasons after disappointing? Given that some newly promoted centre-halves in 2025/26 ended up racking up DefCons in c.50% of their starts (eg Esteve, Ballard), he’ll have to pull out all the stops for many FPL managers to consider him over a £4.0m centre-back.
- A clean sheet or two from our £4.0m defenders would be nice, too. We’ve liked what we’ve seen from the new Hull and Coventry goalkeepers but it’s perhaps fair to say the jury is still out on Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m). Union’s two goals weren’t horrendous errors per se, just efforts that the goalkeeper may be disappointed with. Still, it’s very early days.
- Further forward, there was a start and two assists from a £4.5m forward! Sindre Walle Egeli teed up goals for Emersonn (£5.5m) and O’Shea, finishing pre-season with the fifth-highest number of minutes among the Ipswich squad. The long-term game-time still looks a bit suspect, of course. Walle Egeli started on the right flank here after playing as a ’10’ last week, and in both positions, we have Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m) to come back from a knock and the imminent arrival of Julio Enciso. Enjoy him while you can.
- One other line of note is that Jaden Philogene (£5.5m), last year’s 12-goal winger, made his first appearance of pre-season. He’s been linked with a move away this summer, and it could still be that he’s elsewhere by September.
EYE TEST Highlights
HULL CITY 0-0 Nice
Hull City XI: Tzolakis, Coyle (McNair 78), Ajayi (Herrington 61), Egan (Mendy 61), Giles (Targett 61), Slater (McCarthy 86), Crooks (Dowell 78), Hjertø-Dahl (Gourna-Douath 61), Belloumi (Ömür 78), McBurnie (Sellars-Fleming 86), Stroud (Millar 61).
SCOUT NOTES
- Elliot Stroud (£5.0m) made his debut and was thrust straight into the starting XI on the left wing. Three other summer signings also featured for the first time off the bench: central midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath (price TBA) and centre-halves Lucas Herrington (£4.0m) and Nobel Mendy (£4.0m). Another recent capture, Joe Gelhardt (£5.0m), wasn’t involved due to injury.
“Because he had an injury. He has an injury from Leeds, three weeks already gone. I expect in two weeks he will be on the pitch with the team. Right ankle.” – Sergej Jakirovic on why Joe Gelhardt didn’t feature
- While Hull have a long injury list already, they did at least recover four players who gave them scares last weekend: John Egan (£4.0m), Jens Hjerto-Dahl (£5.0m), Paddy McNair (£4.0m) and Liam Millar (£5.0m). The first two started.
- Hull’s XI still had a Championship feel on Saturday; eight of the 11 starters came up with them in 2025/26. But it does look like there’s a slow changing of the guard. At centre-half, for instance, Egan and Semi Ajayi (£4.0m) got the nod to start this final pre-season friendly. But will they still possess the shirts in Gameweek 1, let alone in Gameweek 2 when they’re more playable/boostable? Herrington and Mendy got gentle introductions off the bench against Nice, and the latter especially, as the club record signing, surely threatens the starting XI imminently. Ipswich and Coventry’s £4.0m defenders are, fixture-wise, more appealing for early Bench Boosts anyway, but the rotation risk around many of Hull’s squad is further reason to avoid in the early weeks.
- The uncertainty over minutes extends further forward, too. Oli McBurnie (£5.5m), who is devoid of much competition up front at present, may soon get some.
“I hope also we will bring, in a few days, another option for the striker position”. – Sergej Jakirovic
- Two £4.5m midfielders, Regan Slater and Matt Crooks, are just about clinging on to their spots, helped by a handful of potential positional rivals being out injured. Gourna-Douath, meanwhile, might be likelier to replace Hjerto-Dahl based on Saturday’s evidence; the latter still looks like he’s getting up to speed. Hull continue to be linked with other options in the engine room, however.
- As for the game itself, it was pretty low on drama. Much of Hull’s threat came from set plays, with the corners of Slater and winger Mohamed Belloumi (£5.0m) causing Nice issues. Egan, Hjerto-Dahl and Mendy all had half-chances from set plays.
- Belloumi was the pick of Hull’s attackers, and the one who looked capable of producing some magic. He engineered the Tigers’ best open-play chance for himself but saw his shot repelled. Otherwise, Jakirovic’s side struggled to create much.
- One Hull player who almost certainly starts in Gameweek 1 is Konstantinos Tzolakis (£4.5m). The goalkeeper was impressive on Saturday, with one excellent double save at the end of the first half being the pick of his work. He’ll be busy this season…
EYE TEST Highlights
