Scout Notes

How Barkley’s injury impacted Grealish and Watkins against Brighton

Aston Villa 1-2 Brighton

  • Goals: Ezri Konsa (£4.7m) | Danny Welbeck (£5.5m), Solly March (£5.0m)
  • Assists: Bertrand Traoré (£5.9m) | Adam Lallana (£6.2m), Pascal Groß (£5.8m)
  • Bonus points: Welbeck x3, March x2, Konsa x1

BARKLEY UP THE WRONG TREE

A second-minute muscle injury to Ross Barkley (£6.0m) proved a massive spanner in the works as Aston Villa’s key Fantasy Premier League assets blanked in Gameweek 9.

The former Everton man has enjoyed some excellent link-up play with Jack Grealish (£7.6m) this season and has arguably been a factor in his impressive form.

Removing Barkley from the picture so soon into Saturday’s meeting with Brighton restricted Grealish’s Fantasy potential and, like Dean Smith, his 40.3% ownership will be hoping for positive news in the next press conference.

“(Barkley) felt his hamstring just two minutes into the game. We’ll have to get it scanned first to see how bad it is. He seems fairly hopeful he won’t be too long but we’ll have to wait and see after this game.” – Dean Smith

Puzzlingly, right-winger Bertrand Traoré (£5.9m) was chosen as a straight-swap replacement for Barkley in the number 10 position, a role he could not quite fulfil as well as his predecessor.

The resultant effect was that Grealish eventually, swapped with Traoré, tucking into a more central station, somewhere he is less dangerous than on the left, where he can terrorise full-backs and centre-backs alike with driving, direct runs from the flanks.

Grealish also moved onto the right-hand side a lot in the second half. This shifting around of positions and lack of Barkley’s spark were never going to provide the perfect conditions for a Grealish haul, unfortunately.

Furthermore, in completely unforeseen circumstances, it turns out Traoré is above Grealish in the set-piece pecking order, despite not being a nailed-on starter at the club.

He took a large number of Villa’s corners and provided the assist for Ezri Konsa‘s (£4.7m) second-half goal from a free-kick.

It goes without saying that no Fantasy manager could have seen these events coming ahead of Gameweek 9, so the clutch who captained Grealish should not beat themselves up about that decision.

Moving forward, his owners will be hoping for one of two things. Either that Barkley will not be a long-term absentee or that Smith can find a way of consistently getting the best out of Grealish without him in the team.

DANNY BOY

Danny Welbeck in action for Brighton

Still operating firmly under the Fantasy radar, Danny Welbeck (£5.5m) is slowly becoming Brighton’s chief goal threat.

He may have only started two matches for the Seagulls, but his performances have been promising indeed.

After coming closest to scoring in the Gameweek 8 goalless draw against Burnley, Welbeck was back to lead the Brighton line for the second outing in a row, relegating Neal Maupay (£6.4m) to an attacking midfield support role alongside Adam Lallana (£6.2m).

The former Manchester United and Arsenal forward fulfilled the promise of his full debut for Brighton at Villa Park, using his exceptional pace to get in behind the defence and score the opening goal on Saturday.

Unlikely to lose his starting berth after two energetic performances, at £5.5m Welbeck could prove decent value when Brighton’s turn more appealing with a trip to Fulham in Gameweek 13.

Aston Villa XI (4-2-3-1): Martínez; Targett, Mings, Konsa, Cash; McGinn, D Luiz (Hourihane 75′); Grealish, Barkley (B Traoré 5′ | El Ghazi 74′), Trézéguet; Watkins.

Brighton and Hove Albion XI (3-4-2-1): Ryan; Webster, Dunk, White; March, Groß (Molumby 90+6′), Bissouma, Lamptey; Maupay (Burn 80′), Lallana (Veltman 46′); Welbeck.

Lessons Learned from FPL Gameweek 9

414 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Pukkipartyy
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    DCL owner but not C.
    Do i want him to score or not? 😀

    1. R.C
      • 6 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Yep EO less than 100

  2. Paul Psychic Octopus
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 13 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Are ALL PL games still due to be played on Saturday 5 December at 3.00pm? (showing on the FPL schedule). Would have thought they would be dispersed over the whole weekend and at different times.

    1. how now brown cow
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      No. Just not been announced yet.

      1. Paul Psychic Octopus
        • Fantasy Football Scout Member
        • 13 Years
        3 years, 4 months ago

        Leaving it a bit late? It's important for scheduling and transfers in the Sky game.

  3. Hazz
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Ah awesome, this games live on the BBC.

    1. Big boy Bowen
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Everton?

  4. S.Kuqi
    • 11 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    They should bring back daily hot topic. Lots of good topics to discuss.

    🙁

  5. My heart goes Salalalalah
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    New article

  6. davies
    • 9 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Which combo lads?

    A) Bamford Coufal/4.5

    B) Brewster Cancelo/James

  7. Firminooooo
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 8 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Anguissa benched. Season over........

  8. jimmy.floyd
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Bamford or Watkins? Don't have Grealish

  9. Parsnips
    • 3 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Got a few problems regarding my team with the bench (no one on my bench starts anymore) and Barkley injured...

    Martinez
    Robo Coufal Chilwell
    Barkley* Zaha Bruno De Bruyne
    Watkins DCL Werner

    Ryan Anguissa* Dunne* Mitchell

    Any opinions on what I should do for now?

  10. Pep Roulette
    • 6 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Podence & Lamptey to Barnes & Justin for -4?

    Provided that Barnes starts tonight and looks good.

  11. thegaffer82
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    After some pretty sh**y luck this year (coupled with some bad decisions) - it's really nice to get a massive slice of luck this week.

    I was all set on selling Son until Salah got covid. That worked out very well.
    Then, WBA get a penalty overturned and Utd go up the other end and get a questionable penalty themselves. Bruno misses it, and it turns out the keeper was off his line.

    On another week I could easily have sold Son for a Bruno captain blank and missed penalty.

    Still got a pi$$ poor OR anyway, but if I can continue with this vein of luck, who knows, top 10k might be reachable eventually...

    1. fusen
      • 12 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Did you do Salah to Bruno, so ended with 10+22?

    2. 272MK
      • 10 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Holy sh*t we are on the same board. High five brother

    3. Pep bites Kun
      • 7 Years
      3 years, 4 months ago

      Same lucky break here. Was all set to do Son to Bruno, but swapped for Salah instead and capped.

  12. Hutchiniho
    • 5 Years
    3 years, 4 months ago

    Drop one of these for Vardy.
    (Money in the bank)
    Grealish, Ziyech or DCL?

    Was going to be DCL but thinking one of the others