Our round-up of the international matches played on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning concludes with this latest Scout Notes article.
As usual, we’ll be concentrating exclusively on the Fantasy Premier League players, looking at the minutes, goals and assists of each asset and discussing any injury news and talking points to have emerged from the fixtures played over the last 24 hours or so.
You can read our observations on England’s victory over Switzerland and Seamus Coleman’s injury worries here.
Brazil 5-0 El Salvador
- Fred (£5.8m) – 45 minutes
- Richarlison (£6.6m) – 54 minutes
- Willian (£7.4m) – 36 minutes
Richarlison marked his first start for the national side with two goals and a Fantasy assist as Brazil ran riot in a friendly against El Salvador in the early hours of this morning.
The Everton winger, who will serve the final match of his suspension on Saturday in the fixture against West Ham United, was brought down in the box in the fourth minute of the match, with Neymar stepping up to convert the spot-kick.
Richarlison then opened his Brazil account with a curling shot in the 15th minute, before adding to his tally just after the break.
The former Watford star, who has three Premier League goals from just five attempts on goal this season, defied the underlying statistics again by scoring from his only two chances in the rout of El Salvador.
Richarlison has a goal conversion rate of 71.4% in all competitions this season and has scored from all five of his shots on target – unsustainable numbers, but indicative of the form he is in and why over 14% of his FPL owners have retained his services during this domestic ban.
Owners of one or more of Liverpool’s Brazilian trio would have been delighted to see Fabinho (£5.7m), Alisson (£5.6m) and Roberto Firmino (£9.5m) remain as unused substitutes, though they and the rest of the Premier League contingent now face a long-haul flight from the United States as they race back to England to play a part in Gameweek 5.
That is of particular concern for the Liverpool threesome (Firmino especially), who are in action on Saturday lunch-time against Spurs – we will keep you posted on Jurgen Klopp’s press conference comments in the coming 48 hours as to any news on their availability, with the trio due back to training on Thursday.
That Willian has featured twice as a substitute in the last four days and also has to make the slog across the Atlantic will likely bode well for Pedro‘s (£6.8m) chances of a start against Cardiff City on Saturday: he was not involved in the Spain set-up for their international break fixtures this week.
Fred was given 45 minutes in Maryland earlier today, though club colleague Andreas Pereira (£4.8m) sat the victory out on the bench.
Colombia 0-0 Argentina
- Davinson Sanchez (£5.9m) – 90 minutes
The 2.1% of FPL managers who own Davinson Sanchez will also have concerns about the Spurs centre-back’s availability in Gameweek 5, particularly given that the Lilywhites are in action at 12:30 BST on Saturday.
Davinson played the full 90 minutes of Colombia’s encounter with Argentina earlier today, recording a clean sheet as the match petered out into a 0-0 draw.
It could be, of course, that Davinson will be dropped to the bench anyway. Mauricio Pochettino has to decide whether to ditch the 3-5-2 set-up that was rolled out in the defeat to Watford, with the Colombian centre-back the possible makeweight – as he was in the 3-0 win at Manchester United in Gameweek 3 – should his manager revert to a back four.
Manchester United’s back-up goalkeeper Sergio Romero (£5.0m) was an unused substitute for Argentina, meanwhile.
Iceland 0-3 Belgium
- Jan Vertonghen (£6.0m) – 90 minutes
- Toby Alderweireld (£5.9m) – 90 minutes
- Vincent Kompany (£5.4m) – 90 minutes
- Mousa Dembélé (£4.9m) – 10 minutes
- Eden Hazard (£10.7m) – 89 minutes
- Romelu Lukaku (£11.0m) – 90 minutes
- Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.4m) – 90 minutes
Having both scored in the 4-0 win over Scotland at the weekend, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku‘s purple patch in front of goal continued in Reykjavik last night.
Hazard notched from the spot after Lukaku had been brought down, before the Manchester United striker scored a brace with a goal in each half.
Hazard has now delivered an attacking return in all six of his appearances for club and country this season and has scored in every match in which he has started.
Lukaku’s opening strike came after Vincent Kompany‘s headed attempt had been saved, the Manchester City centre-half thus collecting the “Fantasy assist” for Belgium’s second goal of the match.
Lukaku backed up his goals at Turf Moor in Gameweek 4 with another brace in this UEFA Nations League encounter, his second a neat flick from a Dries Mertens cross.
Kompany, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld all played 90 minutes at centre-back in Roberto Martinez’s familiar 3-4-3 system, with the Spurs pair likely to be favourites to start against Liverpool this Saturday given what we have discussed about Davinson Sanchez above. Vertonghen was the only one of Belgium’s Premier League contingent to play all 180 minutes of their two fixtures contested on Friday and Tuesday, however.
Their club colleague Mousa Dembele only featured off the bench in the final ten minutes, while Leander Dendoncker (£4.4m) – still yet to play for Wolves in the league this season – was once again an unused substitute.
Simon Mignolet (£4.9m), Christian Benteke (£6.5m) and Marouane Fellaini (£5.0m) all returned to their clubs late last week, having picked up minor knocks – the severity of which we will hopefully discover in the coming two days during their managers’ respective pre-match press conferences.
Gylfi Sigurdsson played the full match as Iceland failed to really trouble the Belgian goal, though at least came through the match unscathed and would appear a certain starter at Goodison Park this weekend given the dearth of midfield alternatives available to Marco Silva for the visit of West Ham.
Spain 6-0 Croatia
- David de Gea (£5.9m) – 90 minutes
- Cesar Azpilicueta (£6.5m) – 15 minutes
David de Gea was the only Premier League-based player to start Spain’s humiliation of World Cup runners-up Croatia, though Cesar Azpilicueta did appear as a 75th-minute substitute for the hosts.
The Manchester United goalkeeper was forced into only one save as the Spanish swept aside their visitors and made it two wins from two in their UEFA Nations League group after Saturday’s victory over England.
The Chelsea trio of Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m), Marcos Alonso (£6.8m) and Alvaro Morata (£9.0m) were all unused substitutes – excellent news for their FPL owners, with the Blues facing a plum-looking home match with Cardiff City this weekend.
Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 Austria
- Sebastian Prodl (£4.3m) – 90 minutes
- Marko Arnautovic (£7.0m) – 90 minutes
Marko Arnautovic tasted defeat for the fifth time this season as his country went down to a 1-0 defeat in their opening UEFA Nations League match in Zenica.
The West Ham striker, along with Watford centre-back Sebastian Prodl, played the full 90 minutes and had Austria’s only shot on target of the match.
Arnautovic, as he has done for his club this season, played as a recognised striker, though this time in a 3-5-2.
The mid-priced FPL forward at least appears to have come through 155 minutes of international action unscathed, to the relief of the 940,000 or so Fantasy bosses who own him.
Hungary 2-1 Greece
- Sokratis Papastathopoulous (£5.3m) – 90 minutes
Part of an Arsenal defence that has been breached on eight occasions in the league and is yet to keep a clean sheet, Sokratis played 90 minutes at centre-back for his national side last night and conceded another two goals as Greece fell to a 2-1 defeat to Hungary.
The Arsenal stopper showed his threat from set-pieces though, nodding wide a free-kick delivery late in the match.
USA 1-0 Mexico
- DeAndre Yedlin (£4.5m) – 5 minutes
There was little to report from the meeting between the two old CONCACAF foes, with Newcastle United’s DeAndre Yedlin only appearing as an 85th-minute substitute for the USA and picking up a yellow card during his brief time on the pitch.
Raul Jimenez (£5.5m) played no part in the match having returned to Wolves with a slight muscle injury – though that his departure from the Mexico camp was at the request of his club perhaps suggests the withdrawal was a precautionary measure.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-match press conference will hopefully tell us more, with Leo Bonatini (£4.9m) or an “out of position” Diogo Jota (£6.2m) the alternatives to lead the line should Jimenez’s problem be anything other than minor.
Panama 0-2 Venezuela
- Salomon Rondon (£5.9m) – 44 minutes
Newcastle United’s Salomon Rondon scored both of his country’s goals after coming on as a 56th-minute substitute in the friendly win over Panama.
Both of the former West Brom target-man’s strikes were fairly routine, with the Magpies’ forward having been left unmarked to guide home two low balls from the right flank.
Whether Rondon or Yedlin will be available to start in Gameweek 5 remains to be seen, however, with both players having played in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time and having to jet across the Atlantic before joining up with their club colleagues later this week.
Their manager, Rafael Benitez, said:
This period is quite difficult. Atsu is back now and was training on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we have a couple more problems but DeAndre and Rondon will come late. It will be difficult for us because sometimes they come to us and they say ‘I’m fine’. But they can be tired. Rondon played in Miami.
In the end it’s a difficult decision. I remember when I was at Valencia and four players were called for international duty and they came back. We had a difficult game and I was asking them before the game: “Are you fine?” They said yes but if I could make four substitutions after two minutes I would!
We lost the game, they did not have the energy to make an impact and they were key players for us.
Korea Republic 0-0 Chile
- Ki Sung-yeung (£4.9m) – 90 minutes
- Son Heung-min (£8.3m) – 90 minutes
There were 90 minutes apiece for Newcastle and Spurs’ Korean internationals as Chile were held to a 0-0 draw in Suwon.
Ki played in the double-pivot, with Son lining up on the left flank and captaining his national side in the friendly match contested at Tuesday lunchtime UK time.
Son had more penalty box touches than any Korea player, though could only muster one shot on goal. Ki, meanwhile, had two attempts on goal without setting foot in the opposition area.
Son will now return to Spurs and be available for selection for the first time since Gameweek 1, adding to the medium-term rotation worries for owners of Lucas Moura (£7.3m) and even perhaps Dele Alli (£9.1m).
Uzbekistan 0-1 Iran
- Alireza Jahanbakhsh (£6.8m) – 45 minutes
Brighton’s record signing played the first half of Iran’s 1-0 win over Uzbekistan before being withdrawn at the interval.
The Seagulls are not in action until Monday night, affording Jahanbakhsh plenty of time to recuperate from his exploits over the international break.
Other Business
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (£10.9m) and Mario Lemina (£5.0m) were given permission to miss Gabon’s friendly against Zambia on Tuesday, allowing an early return to England in plenty of time for Gameweek 5.
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