Fantasy Premier League managers have confirmation of the latest starting £4.0m defender as Pascal Struijk (£4.0m) features in midfield for Leeds United tonight.
In his pre-match press conference, Marcelo Bielsa promised the budget option would be the replacement for Kalvin Phillips (£5.0m), who is out for up to six weeks with a shoulder injury.
While most of the FPL attention will be on Jack Grealish (£7.2m) and Emiliano Martínez (£4.8m) tonight, each owned by roughly 25% of managers, it will be worth assessing Struijk’s credentials, especially with Max Kilman (£4.1m) turning heads at Wolves.
The omens initially look relatively strong for Grealish and his differential team-mates Ollie Watkins (£6.0m), Ross Barkley (£6.0m) and John McGinn (£5.5m) though.
Not only are Leeds without their key defensive midfield Phillips, club captain and first-choice centre-back Liam Cooper (£4.4m) could not overcome his groin injury.
That has forced Marcelo Bielsa to put together something of a makeshift back-four, especially with back-up centre-back Struijk playing in midfield.
The tweak sees right-back Luke Ayling (£4.5m) join Robin Koch (£4.5m) in the middle, Stuart Dallas (£4.5m) switching flanks to fill the gap there and Ezgjan Alioski (£4.4m) comes in at left-back.
The Aston Villa defence, which has kept three clean sheets from a possible four so far, remains unchanged.
That means another start for Emiliano Martínez (£4.8m), Matt Targett (£4.5m), Ezri Konsa (£4.6m), Tyrone Mings (£5.2m) and Matty Cash (£5.0m).
After five Gameweeks this season, Villa’s two centre-backs are in the top three for most points per million spent among defenders.
Aston Villa XI (4-3-3): Martínez; Targett, Mings, Konsa, Cash; Barkley, D Luiz, McGinn; Grealish, Watkins, Trézéguet.
Leeds United XI (4-1-4-1): Meslier; Alioski, Koch, Ayling, Dallas; Struijk; Harrison, Rodrigo, Klich, Costa; Bamford.
3 years, 6 months ago
Dear Mr Grealish
As a relatively new owner of your services, it would be appreciated if you could consider scoring a goal or assisting a goal for one your team mates. In doing so, you would be give me some degree of confidence in retaining your services going forward. Just to let know, each and every playing position in my team is precious and there is no room for players that are surplus to requirements. Now stop reading this and go and score a goal will you!
Regards
Vazza