From Niclas Fullkrug‘s (£6.0m) form to bargain-bin starters in defence and midfield, we run the rule over the final pre-season friendlies contested by West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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WEST HAM UNITED 1-1 LILLE
- Goal: Fullkrug
- Assist: Soucek
THREE IN THREE FOR FULLKRUG
Jarrod Bowen (£8.0m) might be too rich, or too forward-y, for some FPL managers’ blood – but how about a cut-price alternative from the same attack?
Niclas Fullkrug (£6.0m) is making a case for himself in the budget/mid-price forward pool, especially with Thierno Barry (£6.0m) not guaranteed to start for Everton and Igor Thiago (£6.0m) yet to truly convince for Brentford in pre-season.
The 32-year-old German striker made it three goals in as many friendlies with a late equaliser against Lille on Saturday.
He’d come close to scoring before then, too, drawing a superb stop from Arnaud Bodart with a header and lashing narrowly over from a well-worked set piece.
Fullkrug would eventually prod in substitute Tomas Soucek’s (£6.0m) cut-back, following some fine harrying from Bowen.
The Bowen-Fullkrug partnership has looked really promising this summer. It’s not all one way, either, with the German sending Bowen clean through on goal on Saturday for a spurned big chance.
“I love him. I love him. I think you can see the link-up is very good. I try to bring the ball to him in his strength situation, where he can go one v one or go in behind. You could see also today, I think three or four situations where we linked up very well and um he tried to do the same for me.” – Niclas Fullkrug on Jarrod Bowen
As TV interviews hinted at last year, it’s his mentality as much as anything else that appeals. This is no shrinking violet, and strength of character is an underrated commodity for a striker, especially if a couple of chances go begging.
“If you see all my seasons where I scored a lot of goals, I think nearly half of the goals were after the 75th minute because then I start to get new energy, then I start to get sometimes also a little bit angry if it not goes like I want or like we wanted as a team.” – Niclas Fullkrug
The next question: can he stay fit after an injury-affected 2024/25? He’s certainly ahead of Callum Wilson (£6.0m) at present; the new signing wasn’t even in the squad here.
AREOLA PREPARES FOR HERMANSEN COMPETITION
Alphonse Areola (£4.5m) is one of eight sub-£5.0m goalkeepers in FPL who we think will start in Gameweek 1.
But the Frenchman, who hasn’t always convinced West Ham fans or the wider watching world, now has added competition. It always looked likely to arrive after Lukasz Fabianski’s exit. And now it has, in the form of Mads Hermansen.
Areola had a quiet-ish 90 minutes on Saturday, unable to do much about Olivier Giroud’s superbly taken opener. But two saves in the penalty shootout were a bit of a timely gauntlet throw to Hermansen, who was a solid pair of hands for Leicester City.
“I think he’s a young goalkeeper who has already had some good experience in the Premier League and has got the best years ahead of him as well. He’ll come into that group with Alphonse and Wes [Foderingham] and add real competition, which I think is what we need as well.” – Graham Potter on Mads Hermansen
Elsewhere in defence, the two wing-backs again caught the eye. Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.5m) set up two good chances, one for Fullkrug and the other for fellow wide-man El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.5m). The latter has impressed going forward in pre-season and he himself whizzed over a couple of inviting balls in this contest, having assisted last week.
“I thought Malick was a real plus for us in terms of, you can see what his quality is and what he brings the energy down that side of the pitch.” – Graham Potter on El Hadji Malick Diouf
£4.5m MIDFIELDER STARTS AGAIN
Bowen, Fullkrug, Wan-Bissaka and Diouf are probably the main FPL assets from West Ham currently. Lucas Paqueta (£6.0m) likely still has penalties, of course, but he was poor against Lille.
Freddie Potts (£4.5m) is a bit of a wildcard name to throw in here.
If you’re a 3-4-3 type of Fantasy manager and are looking for a dirt-cheap fifth midfielder to park on the bench, then Potts is, potentially, the best bet for minutes at present.
He’s started the last three West Ham friendlies, in fact.
You do wonder how long Potts will stay in the side if there is a bad performance or two. Soucek, Edson Alvarez (£5.0m) and Guido Rodriguez (£5.0m) were all on the bench on Saturday and will have designs on a central midfield slot.
For now, though, Potter is showing faith in youth.
West Ham United XI: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Todibo (Walker-Peters 75), Kilman, Aguerd, Diouf, Potts (Rodríguez 75), Ward-Prowse, Paquetá (Souček 75), Bowen, Füllkrug.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 0-1 CELTA VIGO
WOLVES WOE
Pre-season might not be worth much when the proper action kicks off – and it’s a good job for Wolves, who didn’t win any of their six friendlies.
Even though the results of warm-up games are to be taken with a pinch of salt, you’re still looking for encouragement from the performances. There again wasn’t much of that on Saturday.
The attack looked short of inspiration, and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.5m) starved of service. There’s much resting on his and Jhon Arias’ (£5.5m) shoulders this season. Arias, while fairly quiet, was very close to bagging his second goal in two Wolves appearances when his first-half big chance was repelled.
As commented on last week, Wolves have lost a lot of inspiration down the flanks with Rayan Ait-Nouri (£6.0m) and Nelson Semedo exiting.
New signing David Moller Wolfe got through 45 minutes as planned at left wing-back and was solid without being spectacular. The history suggested he’s not going to be an Ait-Nouri type for attacking returns – and this display backed it up.
Over on the other wing, Ki-Jana Hoever (£4.0m) is edging closer to a Gameweek 1 start. But the drop-off from Semedo to him has been stark, and Wolves will surely recruit further in the transfer window. If Hoever is still starting from Gameweek 4 onwards, something will have gone badly wrong.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI: Sa, Hoever (R Gomes 66), Doherty (Mosquera 79), Agbadou (S Bueno 79), Toti, Wolfe (H Bueno 45), Andre (Hwang 79), J Gomes, Lopez (Munetsi 66), Arias (Bellegarde 66), Strand Larsen (Kalajdzic 79).
