FPL pre-season: Slot on Liverpool’s formation, Wood absent + Thiago injury

Another day, another round of pre-season friendlies to recap.

From injury updates to tactical observations, here are the standout Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from the kickabouts over the last few days.

This set of Scout Notes takes in the matches on Thursday, Friday and early Saturday morning.

There’ll be more round-ups to come this weekend.

• READ MORE: FPL 2024/25 pre-season minutes tracker: Every player, every game
• READ MORE: FPL 2024/25: Premier League clubs’ pre-season friendlies by date

Liverpool 1-0 Real Betis

• Goal: Dominik Szoboszlai
• Assist: Mohamed Salah

Liverpool were in a sort-of-strikerless, 4-2-4 for Arne Slot’s first match in charge in front of fans.

Cody Gakpo (£7.5m), Diogo Jota (£7.5m) and Darwin Nunez (£7.5m) were again absent after their summer international commitments, so it was Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m) and Harvey Elliott (£5.5m) who were the two “number 10s” in the centre of the four-man attack. Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) and Fabio Carvalho (£5.0m) flanked them.

Above: Liverpool’s average positions via Sofascore, with Szoboszlai (8) and Elliott (19) through the middle

The unavailability of that attacking trio was the reason for the unusual formation. As the Reds boss explained afterwards, the 4-2-4 is not a system we can expect to see much of in 2024/25.

“I think during the season, you will see us play with a real striker. But at this moment we have no one available and then with Dom and Harvey [Elliott] we’ve got two No.10s, so we put them in the position they will play during the season as well. So that was one of the reasons why we played with a double 10 instead of with a striker. That is maybe out of necessity.

“But for the rest of the style of play, with trying to build up from the back, that is our style – to control the game, to not concede constant counter-attacks. That will hopefully be our style during the season. There are also, of course, many things we can improve but that’s normal after two weeks.” – Arne Slot

That’s not to say there couldn’t be more goals from someone like Szoboszlai next season. The Hungary international exchanged passes with Salah to lash in the only goal of the game here.

We didn’t see many attacking returns stem from central midfield under Jurgen Klopp. But Calvin Stengs was key to Slot’s Feyenoord team last year, delivering 20 Eredivisie goals and assists combined, so there may be some added threat from someone like Szoboszlai this time around.

“Last year it didn’t happen so often so I just always let [Salah] know I’m always ready to [make] these runs. Hopefully, you’re going to see me [do that] in the season a couple of times.” – Dominik Szoboszlai

Elsewhere, the full-backs were again an interesting watch. Conor Bradley (£5.0m) was very advanced at times, frequently popping up in the area. He had one shot from close range smothered. Kostas Tsimikas (£5.0m) tucked more infield but still overlapped on occasion. One to watch when Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) and Andrew Robertson (£6.0m) are available.

Above: Conor Bradley’s heatmap v Real Betis, via Sofascore

Salah still looked to get in behind Szoboszlai, Elliott and indeed the Betis defence, something he excelled at under Klopp. There was only one shot registered by the Egyptian but a couple of nearly moments, too, when he failed to control through-balls.

Curtis Jones (£5.5m) limped off early, with the severity of his injury to be determined.

Liverpool XI: Kelleher (Jaros 46), Bradley (Stephenson 63), Van den Berg (Chambers 63), Quansah (Phillips 63), Tsimikas (Beck 63), Endo (Morton 46), Jones (Nyoni 30 (Koumas 73)), Salah (Blair 63), Szoboszlai (Bajcetic 63), Elliott (Doak 63), Carvalho (Gordon 63).

Benfica 1-1 Brentford

• Goal: Mbeumo
• Assist: None

In the hours after we ran a Scout Report on Igor Thiago (£6.0m), Brentford revealed that the striker has suffered a meniscus injury. Further scans will determine the extent of the issue but “several weeks or even months” is the early gloomy guesstimate.

Brentford headed to Portugal without their new signing or Ivan Toney (£7.5m), so Yoane Wissa (£6.0m) again got his chance down the middle.

It was Bryan Mbeumo (£7.0m) who grabbed the Bees’ only goal of the match, however. Pouncing on a loose backpass, the attacking midfielder coolly finished. Mbeumo later hit the woodwork, too, albeit from an intended cross.

The Bees looked like they were operating in a 4-3-3 at times, 3-5-2 at others. Kevin Schade (£5.5m), roaming down the left, was the catalyst for the shape-shifting.

Again there was no Aaron Hickey (£4.5m) or Rico Henry (£4.5m), so Brentford look to be short in the full-back department with Sergio Reguilon (£4.5m) back at Spurs.

Brentford XI: Valdimarsson (Cox 45); Roerslev (McManus 66), Collins (Crama 66), Pinnock (Ji-soo 66), Ajer (Fredrick 66); Yarmoliuk (Onyeka HT, Booth 85), Janelt (Owen 80), Peart-Harris; Mbeumo (Morgan 66), Wissa (Konak 66), Schade (Yogane 66).

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Elche 

Chris Wood (£6.0m) failed to feature as Forest lost to Elche on Friday night.

We’ve not heard any official word from the Tricky Trees but the suggestion from the media is that this was merely workload management for the Kiwi.

Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m), Anthony Elanga (£5.5m) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.5m) made up the front three instead. The latter two started off as ‘split strikers’, with Gibbs-White more central and deeper.

As he had been for much of the tail-end of last season, Hudson-Odoi looked the most dangerous of Forest’s midfielders. Cutting in from the left and always looking to shoot, he also supplied a good chance for Neco Williams (£4.5m).

The presence of Wood, though, was very much missed.

Elanga – rather than Gibbs-White – continued on the bulk of set plays, meanwhile.

The first-half XI was very similar to what we would expect Forest to look like in Gameweek 1. Wood, of course, would come into that team.

Elliot Anderson (£5.0m) again impressed in midfield, as did a resurgent Ibrahim Sangare (£4.5m) after half-time. With the addition of new centre-half Nikola Milenkovic (£4.5m), there’ll be hope that Forest’s strong underlying defensive numbers under Nuno could finally translate into clean sheets.

They’ll have to address the Achilles heel of set pieces, however, as they conceded to Elche from a corner. They were the worst team in the division for conceding set-play goals in 2023/24.

Nottingham Forest XI (first half): Sels, Murillo, Boly, Milenkovic, Aina, Yates, Anderson, Williams, Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White, Elanga.

Nottingham Forest XI (second half): Miguel, Moreira, Omobamidele, Worrall, Toffolo, Richards, Sangare, Dominguez, Dennis, Hwang, Bowler.

Southampton 3-1 Montpellier

• Goals: Kamaldeen, Dibling, Harwood-Bellis
• Assists: Edwards, Sugawara

Southampton missed two penalties as they claimed a 3-1 win over Montpelier.

Regular taker Adam Armstrong (£5.5m) wasn’t responsible for either miss, having sat out this game through illness.

Kamaldeen Sulemana (£5.0m) and Sekou Mara (£5.0m) were the culprits, although the former was at least able to tuck away the rebound.

No footage of this behind-closed-doors game has yet emerged, so we can’t shed too much light on the fixture.

We do know that budget defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£4.0m) was on the end of a set piece to round off the scoring. Another member of the Saints backline, Sugawara Yukinari (£4.5m), had supplied the cross.

The unpriced Tyler Dibling – leading the line in the first half – scored Southampton’s second, his fifth attacking return of pre-season. Saints conceded to a direct free-kick in between.

Another cheapo at the back, Jan Bednarek (£4.0m), got his first minutes of pre-season.

Southampton XI: McCarthy, Sugawara (Bree 63), Edwards (Harwood-Bellis 45), Bednarek (Wood 45), Taylor (Manning 63), Downes (Charles 63), Smallbone (O’Brien-Whitmarsh 63), Aribo (Alcaraz 63), Kamaldeen (Amo-Ameyaw 45), Dibling (Mara 45), Edozie (Robinson 63).

Leicester City 0-1 Palermo

Jamie Vardy (£5.5m) was again absent through injury as Leicester City fell to defeat in Chesterfield.

The veteran striker isn’t thought to be seriously injured, however, returning in the next week or two.

Most of Leicester’s threat came from wingers Stephy Mavididi (£5.5m) and Abdul Fatawu (£5.5m), the former getting clear sights of goal in either half but unable to convert.

Wilfred Ndidi (£5.0m) was playing as an advanced midfielder, supporting striker Patson Daka (£5.0m). It seems to be a temporary fix, however – Steve Cooper confirmed after full-time that the Foxes were after a more natural attacking midfielder to replace the goals and assists lost when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£6.0m) was sold to Chelsea.

James Justin (£4.5m) was the more attacking of the two full-backs who started the game. The other, Ricardo Pereira (£4.5m), erred to give Palermo an undeserved lead.

“We were miles better than we were on Tuesday in terms of our general play. But of course, with the ball, you want to play in a way in which you can get up the pitch and your attacking players can go and make a difference.

“I thought Abdul [Fatawu] looked really dangerous. We talked about narrowing up the pitch and getting him the ball quicker and it’s a pity that we had to bring him off because he started to become a bigger threat.” – Steve Cooper

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