Continuing the Gameweek 27 Scout Notes is a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) round-up of Liverpool v Newcastle United.
- READ MORE: FPL notes – Why Spurs rested key players, Wissa + Haaland joy
- READ MORE: FPL notes – Mateta again, Rogers goal + why Robinson was benched
- READ MORE: FPL notes – Palmer’s misses, ‘OOP’ Neto + Evanilson’s first minutes
- READ MORE: Round-up of Wednesday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
- READ MORE: Round-up of Tuesday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
The numbers and graphics you see in this article come from our Premium Members Area. Here, you can access Opta player and team data from every single Premier League fixture.
CAREFULLY MANAGING ISAK
When team sheets arrived, the big shock was not seeing Alexander Isak (£9.5m) there. The star Newcastle forward appears in 57.6% of overall FPL squads and is owned by 88.5% of the top million, forcing a variety of autosubs to come in. Some good, some bad.
There was no inkling of this groin problem beforehand. In fact, it was a call made so late that he still arrived at Anfield with team-mates. Yet Eddie Howe’s words suggest it was a precautionary decision.
“It was a late decision, around midday today. He just didn’t feel right with his groin, so we didn’t want to take the risk – we’ve got too many big games to come. I had a chat with him around lunchtime to see how he felt. We knew he was feeling something yesterday. We hoped that it would improve overnight, but it didn’t improve enough. We don’t envisage it being a big problem for him.” – Eddie Howe
The Magpies have an FA Cup fifth-round clash and a trip to West Ham United between now and the big rematch with Liverpool in the EFL Cup final. No need to take an unnecessary risk with the Swedish international.
However, without him, Newcastle were of little threat to their hosts and failed to register a shot on target. Liverpool didn’t need to get out of second gear, providing a comfortable clean sheet for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.4m), Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m), Alisson Becker (£5.5m) and Ibrahima Konate (£5.2m).
Don’t expect Alexander-Arnold’s bonus point to stick, however…
The Isak situation forced Callum Wilson‘s (£6.9m) first league start since last May and the veteran received a couple of interesting one-on-one opportunities that led nowhere. If the Swede had the same chances, perhaps we’d have seen a competitive match.
RELIEF FOR PALMER CAPTAINERS
Instead, Liverpool extended their unbeaten run versus Newcastle to 17 matches, stretching back nearly 10 years. They’ll be quite confident at Wembley.
It therefore meant that both their opponents and captainers of Cole Palmer (£11.1m) were fairly satisfied with a 2-0 scoreline. Having witnessed the Chelsea attacker spurn seven chances, two big chances and 1.40 expected goals (xG) on Tuesday night, seeing Mohamed Salah (£13.8m) rack up ‘only’ six points will have been a relief.
Things could’ve been different had the Egyptian been awarded an early penalty but his claim was dismissed. And while full-back Lewis Hall (£5.0m) did fairly well against him, there were still 12 box touches, three close-range shots and one on target.
ABOVE: Salah had the most penalty area touches of Gameweek 27
Creatively, a couple of Salah’s devastating passes should’ve led to more but a one-two with Alexis Mac Allister (£6.2m) did eventually bring an assist.
Millions of managers can now safely emerge from behind their sofas. Salah didn’t get near the 18 and 16-point scores of previous Magpies meetings, instead delivering his lowest FPL tally in seven games.
Meanwhile, for those still with Cody Gakpo (£7.5m), his second-half cameo was enough time to record the highest xG (0.52).
SZOBOSZLAI’S GOOD FORM
The next-best belonged to Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.3m). He opened proceedings with a soft shot that should really have been saved by Nick Pope (£4.9m), assisted by Luis Diaz (£7.5m) from the left flank.
It continues the Hungarian midfielder’s good form, securing consecutive double-digit hauls. He has four of them throughout his last 10 starts, a period containing four goals, five assists, 34 efforts and 23 attempts on target. Since Gameweek 22, only Matheus Cunha (£7.0m) has taken more shots than his 25.
“For him to be on the scoresheet now for a player that is as humble as he is when he gets a chance, but especially because of his unbelievable work-rate and what does for the team, he definitely deserves [it]. I think he was Man of the Match today, or at least he came in with the trophy so I assume he was.
“He deserves the credit he is getting at the moment. He already got my credit every single time he played for us, but probably he gets it now even more from the people who are judging players not only on work-rate but also goals and assists.” – Arne Slot
He’s a good third Liverpool asset for their hosting of Southampton and makes our Scout Picks Gameweek 28 bus team. But it’s likely too late for investment, as the Reds’ Double Gameweeks are over and Blank Gameweek 29 is imminent.
