A selection of Fantasy Premier League assets will be involved in the UEFA Nations League this week.
The semi-finals are on Wednesday and Thursday evenings before the third-place play-off on Saturday and final on Sunday.
While the proximity to the Champions League final has proved problematic for some, Fantasy managers can be quite satisfied with its dates.
It means that European players will have their summer international duty over before the half-way point of June.
The only other commitment for international sides under UEFA’s jurisdiction this summer are two rounds of Euro 2020 qualifying matches.
Therefore, the effects of the next few days on FPL 2019/10 should be relatively minimal, providing there are not too many serious injuries.
With just over two months to go until the start of the new campaign, there is plenty of time for some potential knocks to abate.
Here are the total number of FPL 2019/20 assets that have been named in UEFA Nations League squads.
Arsenal
- Granit Xhaka (Switzerland)
Aston Villa
- None
Bournemouth
- Nathan Aké (Netherlands)
- Callum Wilson (England)
Brighton
- Davy Pröpper (Netherlands)
Burnley
- Tom Heaton (England)
Chelsea
- Ross Barkley (England)
Crystal Palace
- Patrick van Aanholt (Netherlands)
Everton
- Jordan Pickford (England)
- Micheal Keane (England)
Leicester City
- Ben Chilwell (England)
- Harry Maguire (England)
Liverpool
- Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)
- Joe Gomez (England)
- Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands)
- Jordan Henderson (England)
- Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland)
- Georginio Wijnaldum (Netherlands)
Manchester City
- John Stones (England)
- Kyle Walker (England)
- Fabian Delph (England)
- Bernardo Silva (Portugal)
- Raheem Sterling (England)
Manchester United
- Jesse Lingard (England)
- Marcus Rashford (England)
Norwich City
- None
Newcastle United
- Fabian Schär (Switzerland)
Sheffield United
- None
Southampton
- None
Tottenham Hotspur
- Danny Rose (England)
- Eric Dier (England)
- Dele Alli (England)
- Harry Kane (England)
Watford
- None
West Ham United
- Declan Rice (England)
Wolves
- Rui Patrício (Portugal)
- João Moutinho (Portugal)
- Rúben Neves (Portugal)
- Diogo Jota (Portugal)
As mentioned, England’s first Nations League game is being played just five days after Liverpool and Spurs’ involvement in the Champions League final.
That might mean that some of their players are not so heavily involved for the Three Lions on Thursday night.
Harry Kane made his first start since early April against Liverpool on Saturday and looked fairly rusty after such a long time out.
The national media are reporting that he is still considered fit for England duty so he might actually be one of the most likely to feature for the Three Lions.
Meanwhile, it is understood that Gareth Southgate is making judgement calls on each Liverpool and Spurs player in his squad as to whether they are in the right physical and mental state for the Nations League semi-final.
Netherlands centre-back Virgil van Dijk and midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum are also among the list of players who played Champions League football and could get a game on Thursday.
Perhaps the Premier League team most likely to be a little concerned by the Nations League is Wolves.
They have four players involved in the tournament over the coming days.
They are Rui Patrício, João Moutinho, Rúben Neves and Diogo Jota.
Matt Doherty and Romain Saïss have also been included in squads for the Republic of Ireland and Morocco as the two countries compete in Euro 2020 qualifiers and the African Cup of Nations 2019 respectively.
Meanwhile, Raúl Jiménez has been named in the provisional Mexico squad for the CONCACAF Gold Cup between June 15 and July 7.
Losing seven players to relatively short international duty over the summer doesn’t look too disruptive on the surface, although Wolves are a special case for 2019/20.
As they finished seventh in the Premier League, and Watford were defeated in the FA Cup final, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men will enter the Europa League at the second qualifying stage.
That means their first competitive match of 2019/20 will take place on July 25, just over a month after the upcoming internationals – not a huge turnaround time for those playing for their countries.
4 years, 10 months ago
Ronaldo hattie....wowzers!!