We begin our analysis of the Gameweek 30 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) action in our Scout Notes series.
The focus here is on Manchester United v Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea.
Any numbers you see in this article are taken from our Premium Members Area, where you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
TEN HAG ON RASHFORD’S INJURY
Marcus Rashford (£7.3m) is an injury concern for legions of Fantasy managers after he limped out of Manchester United’s win over Everton.
It was an apparent groin issue that forced him off after 80 minutes, with further assessment needed – although Erik ten Hag’s kneejerk prognosis (“it doesn’t look well”) is a worry.
“We have to wait and see what it is and how bad it is. It doesn’t look well.
“We have to protect our players – everyone wants the best players on the pitch, everyone wants to see great, entertaining football like you see today, but then you need your best players.” – Erik ten Hag to BT Sport
“It’s too much. Especially when you play last Sunday night and then the first game on the Saturday. In the week, you have to make the game against Brentford, the game instead of the Carabao Cup. So you get punished for reaching the final, so it is not right.
“I don’t know [about Marcus]. It is like this when you have to play so many games in short notice, especially when the schedule is this tight. Players can’t recover and you run the risk that players can get injured. You have to be aware of that.
“You can’t say [exactly what has happened], even when you speak to him. We have to wait until tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, then we will see what is the diagnosis.” – Erik ten Hag to the BBC
Rashford at least managed to bank an attacking return before his late withdrawal, teeing up substitute Anthony Martial (£6.3m) for United’s second goal after Fantasy non-entity Scott McTominay (£4.9m) had put the Red Devils ahead.
It could and should have been more, though, with three of those Opta-defined ‘big chances’ going begging for Rashford, including an early miss when he was clean through on goal.
Profligacy was a running theme throughout this game, with 44 shots attempted by the two sides in total. United had the bulk of the clearer opportunities, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka‘s (£4.3m) open-goal miss the worst of the lot, although budget striker Ellis Simms (£4.5m) had a glorious chance of ruining what was the hosts’ ninth home clean sheet of the season. No Premier League side has more of those, or has conceded as few goals as United (eight), on their own soil.
Everton, by contrast, are looking more and more like ‘homers’: they’ve conceded at least two goals in each of their last six away games and haven’t tasted success on the road since Gameweek 9.
NO MORE ‘DEEP BRUNO’?
There’s been plenty of analysis of Bruno Fernandes‘ (£9.6m) deeper positions over the last few weeks and the Portuguese was again in his quarterback role on Saturday, dictacting play from the base of the midfield.
He still managed to create a game-high six chances (two of them ‘big’ ones) and waste a very good headed opportunity of his own but his owners in FPL of course want to see him pushed higher up the park, especially in time for Double Gameweeks 34/37.
There’s more chance of that happening now, with Casemiro (£4.9m) free from suspension and the injury-free Christian Eriksen (£6.2m) back as a substitute against Everton. The concern for Fantasy managers who own Fernandes is that he’s actually been very good in this deep role, impressing ten Hag sufficiently enough that the United head coach might consider it a viable tactic going forward. The fact that Marcel Sabitzer (£4.7m) is thriving in Fernandes’ usual more advanced position is also worthy of note.
“I think he was brilliant but he was already playing brilliantly over many games in a deeper role. Not everyone is recognising – even last week, against Newcastle, he played very well. This week, against Brentford, he played really well and today, a brilliant game. He was definitely one of, or maybe, the best player on the pitch but we had more who were at quite a high level.” – Erik ten Hag on Bruno Fernandes
CHILWELL’S BENCHING EXPLAINED
Frank Lampard’s second reign as Chelsea boss got off to a limp start as the Blues fell to a 1-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Lampard predictably ditched Graham Potter’s wing-back system and reverted to his trusty 4-3-3 set-up, while Kepa Arrizabalaga (£4.7m) – for all the pre-match talk about past bad blood between player and manager – kept his place between the posts.
The big team news for Fantasy managers was the benching of Ben Chilwell (£6.0m), who compounded his owners’ misery by coming on as a late substitute and getting booked.
There was always a chance that a body or two could be spared for next week’s clash with Real Madrid, and there was no surprise to see a newly fit-again N’Golo Kante (£4.8m) preserved for the midweek Champions League action.
Chilwell was also a casualty, however, with Lampard saying ahead of kick-off that he had to “protect” some players:
“One of the challenging parts of coming in so quickly is to get up to speed with the medical and sport science and obviously with the amount of games we have got coming up over the next two weeks.
“There are no worries with N’Golo. We’re fine with him, we’re managing him through. He’s been out for a long time so it’s a way of managing him, that was the way when I was at the club before.
“There a couple of other selection issues, slight, small concerns. So we have to protect a couple of the players in the squad.” – Frank Lampard
Mason Mount (£7.2m), a known favourite of Lampard’s was unavailable.
“Mason, had a feeling in his pelvic area. Injury that he’s been carrying the last two days. He trained in those two days but was struggling a little bit. Bettinelli has got a small problem, no big deal. They’re the injured ones.”
Chelsea failed to score for the third game running and only one of their 13 efforts at Molineux was on target, with the hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of talent on show failing to translate into a coherent team display. ‘Plus ca change’ would have been the pretentious writer’s take on this first game of the new (temporary) Lampard era; same old sh*te would have been another angle.
Wolves meanwhile produced one of their big-game performances out of nowhere, following on from wins over Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur earlier this year. This is a side that has failed to beat Bournemouth, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest of late, with their displays as inconsisent as Julen Lopetegui’s selection policy in attack.
Matheus Nunes (£4.8m) was the match-winner here, although he promptly got injured and now faces further assessment.
Toti Gomes (£3.8m) kept his place at left-back and produced an excellent display, so it’ll be interesting to monitor whether he can keep the newly fit-again Hugo Bueno (£3.8m) out of the side going forward.
