We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points of the day in FPL Daily, a weekday series that serves non-Premier League matchdays and days when we don’t bring you a team news/press conference round-up.
HODGSON IN THE HORNETS HOTSEAT
Around 24 hours after Claudio Ranieri was dismissed, relegation-threatened Watford appointed Roy Hodgson as head coach.
The 74-year-old former England, Fulham and Liverpool manager returns to the Premier League after ending a four-year stint in charge of Crystal Palace last season.
Hodgson’s first game will be away to bottom-of-the-table Burnley on February 5, which is the second instalment of Watford’s Gameweek 23 double-header.
Ben Foster (£4.1m) and Tom Cleverley (£4.8m) will be reuniting with the manager they worked under at West Bromwich Albion and England respectively, so it’ll be interesting to see if their first-team prospects are given a boost from their ‘previous’ with the nomadic veteran.
Tactically, Hodgson flitted between a 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 with the Eagles, systems that Watford played with during Ranieri’s tenure (mostly the latter).
The man noted for uttering “When we are attacking, that’s when we start to defend” will attempt to succeed where five successive predecessors have failed and steer the Hornets to a Premier League clean sheet, so perhaps we can expect a bit more of a defence-first mentality from the struggling Hertfordshire side going forward. That’ll maybe be something to consider when weighing up the captaincy credentials of our West Ham assets in Gameweek 24 and the ongoing appeal of Emmanuel Dennis (£6.2m) but at least we’ll get a look at the new-look Watford side at Turf Moor before assessing whether Hodgson has had any impact at all on the division’s least convincing backline.
Palace were in the top half of the table for fewest goals conceded in each of Hodgson’s first three seasons in charge (the wheels coming off in this farewell campaign), hitting double figures for clean sheets in both 2018/19 and 2019/20.
They were, however, towards the wrong end of the table for goals scored in his last three years at Selhurst Park.
We’ll have a proper Scout Report on Hodgson in the coming days.
MANE CONCUSSED BUT PROGRESSES IN AFCON
The main draw at the Africa Cup of Nations from an FPL perspective will be Mohamed Salah (£12.7m) on Wednesday evening, with defeat for his Egypt side meaning a return to the UK two weeks before Liverpool are in Gameweek 24 action.
Teammate Sadio Mane (£11.7m) and Senegal progressed deeper into the competition on Tuesday, however, after seeing off Cape Verde 2-0.
Mane scored but was immediately taken off with a concussion, being whisked off to hospital for precautionary tests.
“He felt faint, his head was spinning and he had to go [to hospital]” – Aliou Cisse, Senegal head coach
Mane later posted a picture from his hospital bed on social media, stating that all was OK.
Senegal will next play Mali or Equatorial Guinea in the quarter-finals on Sunday, with Mane presumably missing out on that game if there is a concussion protocol.
It’s worth monitoring Senegal and Egypt’s progress throughout the tournament, as any appearance in the third-place play-off or final for either player on Sunday 6 February would, concussion allowing, be their seventh in four weeks – something Jurgen Klopp might factor into his thinking for team selection in Gameweek 24.
2 years, 3 months ago
Been making some weird and wonderful wildcard teams (mostly similar), but which is your favourite? (*Note: I'm not on WC currently)
My team right now:
DDG, Steele
Trent, Robbo, Cancelo, Keane, Johnson
KDB, Jota, Bernardo, Bowen, Gray
Antonio, Dennis, Gelhardt
Team 2 (-12 to get this):
DDG, Steele
Trent, Robbo, Cancelo, Laporte, Digne
Salah, KDB, Bowen, Gallagher, Gray
Antonio, Dennis, Gelhardt
Team 3 (0.7M ITB - Coutinho to Mount in GW28):
Sa, Foster
Trent, Robbo, Cancelo, Laporte, Digne
Salah, KDB, Coutinho, Bowen, Gallagher
ASM, Idah, Gelhardt
Team 4 (1.2M ITB - Upgrade a forward if there's a stand out one?):
Ederson, Foster
Trent, Robbo, Cancelo, Digne, Ait Nouri
Salah, KDB, Coutinho, Bowen, Gallagher
Edouard, Broja, Gelhardt