We run the rule over Manchester City v Liverpool in the first Scout Notes article of Gameweek 13.
HAALAND HALF-CENTURY
It was a milestone day for Erling Haaland (£14.0m) as he made it to 50 Premier League goals in just 48 appearances, smashing the previous best for the quickest to this landmark.
Probably unbeknownst to him, he also joined Mohamed Salah (£13.0m) in reaching a century of FPL points in 2023/24 in the process.
The Egyptian, who teed up Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.9m) for Liverpool’s equaliser on Saturday lunchtime, has now blanked in just three of his last 20 league appearances.
While these two Fantasy A-listers continue to deliver the goods regardless of the opposition, there were some subplots involving the supporting cast.
SAINT-MAXIMUM BONUS
Jeremy Doku‘s (£6.7m) performance on the left flank divided opinion.
He saw almost twice as much of the ball in the final third (64 touches; the next best was 33) than any other player on show.
Some observers said Doku’s fleet-footed display was Saint-Maximinian in its shortage of meaningful end product. Others pointed to the fact that he created four chances, including two very decent ones for Haaland and Julian Alvarez (£7.1m).
Whatever the opinion, his game was well rewarded on the Bonus Points System.
Despite not contributing an attacking return, those key passes (KP in the below image), a dozen successful dribbles (Dri) and some off-the-ball contributions helped him to maximum bonus points:
Above: Players involved in Man City v Liverpool sorted by Bonus Points System score (BPS)
Doku may not have even started had Jack Grealish (£7.2m) not taken ill overnight (opinion is equally divided on that…), and there will be ongoing week-to-week uncertainty of who will line up on the left flank depending on the fixture. To that end, he’s still in explosive short-term punt territory and nothing more.
Doku’s rate of chances created (one every 34 minutes), baseline bonus points (one every 5.5 minutes) and take-ons (one every 8.6 minutes) are among the very best in the division. When you can be pretty confident of a start, such as in Gameweek 16 against Luton Town, expect things to happen – even if they don’t always come off.
SOUTH AMERICANS STRUGGLE
We could have been describing Darwin Nunez (£7.6m) there, too. Balls were miscontrolled in good positions, offside traps were too easily fallen into. But the chances continue to arrive at a furious rate thanks to his movement, regardless of the fixture. There were clear openings even against the might of City’s defence, and he’s now had 16 shots – albeit without success – in the last three Gameweeks alone.
‘You’d be more worried if he wasn’t getting into those positions’, is one school of thinking. Well he’ll need to keep up the chance volume, if he’s insistent on missing with nine in ten of his attempts: his shot-to-goal conversion rate is 10.3% this season, which is almost exactly what it was in 2022/23.
In the end, four of the five players who were representing their country in South America in the early hours of Wednesday morning made the starting XIs at the Etihad.
Alisson (£5.6m) had a real off-day with his distribution, although he’s so often been excellent and Liverpool’s saviour at the back that we can forgive him this aberration.
“It’s a super-difficult week, how can you judge that? Ten days away, coming back, one training [session] and the most difficult game. It’s really tricky. So, I’m not here to tell now, ‘We should have done that better.’ I take what I get and work from here, and that’s what we do.” – Jurgen Klopp
Of more concern is Alvarez, whose performance levels have definitely dipped of late. Quality goalscoring opportunities aren’t really arriving (one big chance in nine Gameweeks), although he was unfortunate not to pick up an assist against Liverpool. His hogging of set plays is probably the main thing going for him as an FPL asset at present.
“Our left side was a litle bit better than our right side, maybe we miss a little bit. The contact with Bernie [Silva] and Julian [needed to be] a little bit more productive. For example, Kevin and Gundo had the ability to contact with Erling or the wingers in thatposition. In the transitions, we didn’t have Kevin for example – against Liverpool, it’s always happened.” – Pep Guardiola
ALISSON + JOTA INJURY UPDATES
Alisson is actually a minor injury concern following Saturday’s game, although initially, it did look as if his hamstring tweak may have been theatrics to disguise another wayward pass.
Diogo Jota (£7.7m) may be more of a worry, as he exited not long after half-time. An absence for the Portugal international would only help the game-time prospects of Messrs Nunez and (especially) Diaz.
“The shadow on this game is obviously that Ali felt something and Diogo felt something – something we have to assess and then we will see.
“I hope [Alisson’s injury is] not that serious, but I don’t have the answer – no clue in the moment what it is.
“I spoke to him and he said he only felt [it] a little bit, but we have to wait for the scan.” – Jurgen Klopp on Alisson and Diogo Jota
City welcomed back the fit-again John Stones (£5.3m) on the bench, meanwhile.
TSIMIKAS STARTS AGAIN
Alexander-Arnold’s goal capped a fine on-the-ball display; Doku tormented him off it. This was his first shot in the box since Gameweek 2, although the right-back has never really been about penalty area prominence and more about the long-range howitzers anyway.
Above: Trent Alexander-Arnold’s chance creation map in 2023/24 (left) and 2022/23 (right)
That signature whipped cross from the right flank is obviously lacking more now, given his inverted full-back role. Fewer of his chances created are emanating from here, with a greater percentage coming from deep.
£7.9m is probably still too big an outlay for what he’s offering but the good news is that he’s now dominating again at set plays, leading Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.1m) 12-3 for corners taken in the last four Gameweeks.
More widely owned is Kostas Tsimikas (£4.7m), who was again encouragingly given the nod at left-back. He didn’t really have that much defending to do, with much of City’s play going down their own left flank, but what he did have to do he did well enough.
Tsimikas will get much more of a chance to get forward against Fulham at home next weekend; his owners will be praying to see Joe Gomez (£4.5m) or Luke Chambers (£4.0m) at left-back against LASK on Thursday, with the Greek full-back given the night off.
