Our latest Scout Notes article focuses on the events at the John Smith’s Stadium on Sunday, as Manchester City made it 22 goals without reply over their last four competitive fixtures.
Raheem Sterling registered his first double-digit Fantasy Premier League haul since Gameweek 13 as Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero also rewarded their FPL owners with attacking returns in a comfortable victory for Pep Guardiola’s title-chasing team.
We recap all the relevant Fantasy talking points, manager quotes and injury updates from the penultimate fixture of Gameweek 23.
Huddersfield Town 0-3 Manchester City
- Goals: Danilo (£5.1m), Raheem Sterling (£11.3m), Leroy Sane (£9.6m)
- Assists: Kyle Walker (£6.4m), Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero (£11.3m)
A second successive 3-0 win for Manchester City and another energy-preserving stroll in the park for Pep Guardiola’s side.
This was a victory reminiscent of last Monday’s success over Wolverhampton Wanderers and not just because of the scoreline.
City struggled to carve out too many clear-cut opportunities against opponents whose primary objective was to deny the reigning champions space and, despite an improved second-half display, Guardiola’s troops never broke out of second gear as they sauntered to a fourth straight Premier League victory.
Fantasy managers who own the likes of Sergio Aguero (£11.3m), Raheem Sterling (£11.3m) and/or Leroy Sane (£9.6m) would have been mildly concerned about City’s performance in the opening 45 minutes, with the visitors in control but only having mustered a single shot on target – that being a deflected effort from Danilo (£5.1m) that broke the deadlock on 17 minutes.
Sterling and Sane particularly struggled to get going, with Huddersfield often doubling up on City’s dangerous wide players and repeatedly hustling the two wingers out of possession.
Sterling could easily have had a “Fantasy assist” to his name before the break, however: the City and England winger ought to have been awarded a penalty when he was clattered into by Terence Kongolo (£4.3m) shortly before Danilo opened the scoring.
City briefly stepped up the tempo after the interval and two goals in three minutes early in the second half killed the game as a contest, though much like in the victory over Nuno Espirito Santo’s outfit, there was little suggestion that City would subsequently cut loose and inflict the sort of crushing defeat that they dealt out to Rotherham United and Burton Albion in the two recent cup games.
Guardiola himself admitted his side weren’t playing at full throttle:
The way we played we didn’t deserve more than three goals.
We will improve in the future. We have to demand more from ourselves in every game and do our best, but sometimes it’s difficult. They defended deep and man to man.
In the second half, we were better, especially the first 15. Our rhythm was not quick enough in the first, but we would take that result.
We have to try and find the reason why we didn’t play quicker or better. After what these guys have done in 16, 17 months, it can’t be lack of intensity or not wanting to run.
We didn’t make passes in a row, we had to move it quicker. We spoke about what we should do in the second half. We have to demand from ourselves to do our best every game.
It says much about City and their players’ Fantasy appeal that they have hit six goals in two matches without breaking a sweat and arguably playing below their usual sky-high levels.
Therein lies the difference between Guardiola’s charges and, for instance, a team like Chelsea at the moment: City assets can easily rack up the FPL points even when the Sky Blues are below par, which is something Eden Hazard (£11.0m) is struggling to do in Maurizio Sarri’s misfiring side.
Sterling and Sane’s double-digit returns defied their underlying statistics, with both wide players scoring from their only attempts on goal.
The Germany international looked marginally offside when he crossed for Sterling to head in from point-blank range before Sane got on the scoresheet himself after a headed lay-off from Aguero.
The Argentinean forward was another City asset to register just one shot on goal, which came early in the first half after a neat one-two with Sterling.
City’s front three also only recorded one key pass each, underscoring the lack of fluency (or perhaps, urgency) for much of this victory.
Sterling was as active as ever in the Huddersfield area, registering more penalty box touches than any player on show at the John Smith’s Stadium.
The former Liverpool midfielder has indeed recorded the joint-highest number of penalty box touches over the last six Gameweeks (a record he shares with Mohamed Salah (£13.5m)) but it is interesting to note how he is not translating those touches into shots: 54 players have had more attempts on goal than Sterling over the last half-dozen Gameweeks.
Sane was, not for the first time in recent months, perhaps the pick of the front three, though the imminent return of Benjamin Mendy (£6.1m) is something to monitor for existing and prospective owners: in the nine Premier League matches that Mendy has started this season, Sane has only lined up from the start in two of them.
The French left-back wasn’t considered for selection this weekend but is back on the training ground.
Gabriel Jesus (£10.2m) was handed the afternoon off as Aguero played the full 90 minutes, while Kevin De Bruyne (£9.7m) also lasted the course for the first time in the Premier League this season.
Speaking of his team selection and the rotation ahead, Guardiola said:
Kevin played 90 minutes, that is good news. When you are a long time injured you need the rhythm.
Sergio was sick and he needs time, too. You need players, they are incredible, but they need rhythm. When we don’t play Sergio we can play Gabriel and when we don’t play Gabriel we can play Sergio.
When we play every three days and after three days another one and after three days another one and after on Tuesday against Newcastle. Everyone is going to play.
It’s the same with John Stones today who doesn’t play and Bernardo Silva, he’s played a lot of games. Everybody has to play. If you don’t it’s impossible to sustain this amount of games. We need everybody.
De Bruyne showed glimpses of his old self going forward, producing a handful of curling through-balls for his team-mates, but understandably still looked a little short of his best after such a long period on the sidelines.
Guardiola added that his decision to omit Riyad Mahrez (£8.3m) from the match-day squad was down to “rotation, [a] tactical decision” and explained his substitution of Fernandinho (£5.3m) before the hour mark:
It was a yellow card and then we won’t take a risk. I thought the same about Kyle [Walker] and that is why.
The Brazilian veteran – who had two decent opportunities before the break – was another player to be below his usual standard but his importance to the team was emphasised late in the match when De Bruyne was asked to perform a defensive midfield role in Fernandinho’s absence.
Huddersfield and lively substitute Steve Mounie (£5.8m) had a flurry of late opportunities, with Guardiola saying of De Bruyne’s moonlighting as the midfield anchor:
We concede two shots on target, one in the last minute and when holding midfielder was Kevin, he is not solid enough to defend this situation.
Huddersfield produced a battling performance but other than Mounie’s late impact and a half-volley from Kongolo that was comfortably saved by Ederson (£5.6m) in the first half, City’s goal was untroubled.
This display summed up their struggles of 2018/19 in a nutshell, with the Terriers giving everything to the cause but ultimately lacking any kind of potency in attack.
No side has scored fewer home goals than Huddersfield (five) this season and it is now just one point from a possible 30 in the top flight.
Philip Billing (£4.5m) missed this game with a “slight knee issue”, with interim boss Mark Hudson making six changes to his starting XI and opting for the pace of Adama Diakhaby (£4.5m) up front in a 4-4-1-1/4-5-1.
Hudson said of his side’s efforts:
I think we were growing into the game. We were a bit nervous early on and then we started to creep towards the ball and cause them a few problems.
The deflected goal deflated the team a bit, which you could sense, but we stayed in the game.
They stayed fighting until the last seconds of the game.
Asked about Town’s search for a new manager, Hudson said:
I was asked to take it this week and oversee it all heading into the game and take the game. And that’s where we are. So I’m sure when I come out of here I will have a few conversations and see where we go.
Huddersfield Town XI (4-5-1): Lossl; Smith, Schindler, Kongolo, Lowe; Kachunga, Puncheon, Hogg, Bacuna (Pritchard 63′), Mbenza; Diakhaby (Mounie 58′).
Manchester City XI (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Danilo; Fernandinho (D Silva’), De Bruyne, Gundogan (Delph 79′); Sterling, Sane (B Silva 71′), Aguero.
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A: Doherty (H) vs West Ham
B: WB (A) vs Southampton