Scout Notes – Pre-Season

Nemanja Matic makes his Manchester United debut, but it is Henrikh Mkhitaryan, not Paul Pogba, who shines the brightest against Sampdoria.

Meanwhile, Newcastle United budget assets come to the fore in a thumping win over Wolfsburg, while it takes a penalty shoot-out to finally end Liverpool’s unbeaten pre-season.

Elsewhere, a heavy defeat for Southampton sounds the Fantasy alarms and Bournemouth ease to a low-key win.

Here are Wednesday’s notes.

Man United 2 Sampdoria 1

Nemanja Matic made his Man United debut and slotted straight into a midfield that provided both goals in a solid win for Jose Mourinho’s men.

The received wisdom is that the Serbian international will free up the popular Paul Pogba – a 21.8%-owned asset in Fantasy Premier League – to maraud forward on a more regular basis.

The Frenchman, about to become the second most expensive player of all time should Neymar’s obscenely pricey move to Paris take place, was certainly stationed in a more advanced position towards the left of the midfield.

But it was the rather more overlooked Henrikh Mkhitaryan (5.3%) who again delivered the pre-season goods, notching his third goal of the summer (he also has two assists) as he opened the scoring from a Matteo Darmian cross.

The Armenian, who was lively throughout the first-half and had two further chances to score, has had a good summer. He’s priced identically to Pogba in FPL – 8.0 – and is utilised in a more directly attacking role than the Frenchman.

That hasn’t persuaded the majority of managers to back him, however, which could mark him out as a decent differential as United prepare for a fine opening schedule involving no obvious tough test until a Gameweek 8 trip to Liverpool.

The winner came after the break from Juan Mata, who finished smartly from an Anthony Martial pass.

Mourinho again went with three at the back. Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling and Daley Blind were the chosen trio and look highly likely to start again in next week’s UEFA Super Cup clash with Real Madrid as both Eric Bailly and Phil Jones will be suspended.

Darmian and Antonio Valencia were the wing-backs, while Andreas Pereira was played alongside Mkhitaryan as the primary support for lone striker Romelu Lukaku.

Jesse Lingard didn’t travel with the squad to Dublin as he continues to struggle with a muscle problem which he picked up following the loss to Barcelona a week ago.

Post-match, Mourinho was keen to talk of his squad rather more than individuals.

“Everybody is in the plan – the plan is not to have a good team, but a good squad, with options. We need options. Lukaku, Martial, Rashford – all of them are different players. We need everyone. It’s going to be good, it’s going to be fun to choose the team for every match according to the plan, the opponent, our game-plan.”

That more than hints at consistent rotation – not what we want to hear – but based on Mourinho’s summer selections, both Pogba and Mkhitaryan look like the safe bets for the time being.

Man United XI: De Gea (J. Pereira 77); Lindelof (Bailly 77), Smalling (Tuanzebe 77), Blind (Martial 60); Valencia, Darmian (Jones 77), Matic (Carrick 47), Pogba (Mata 47), A. Pereira (Herrera 47), Mkhitaryan (Fellaini 47); Lukaku (Rashford 60).

Wolfsburg 1 Newcastle United 3

Another pre-season goal for Aleksandar Mitrovic, a trademark free-kick for Matt Ritchie and a blistering performance from Christian Atsu – Newcastle United put in a more than solid shift in Germany.

Mitrovic opened the scoring from an Atsu cross to register his third goal of the summer. The combative forward, available for just 5.0 in FPL and 8.7m in the Sky game, has done his prospects no harm over pre-season.

Fellow forward Dwight Gayle (6.5 in FPL and 9.5m in Sky) also has three goals from Newcastle’s warm-up matches, but played no part against Wolfsburg.

Handed just 11 starts in last season’s Championship, Mitrovic is still believed to be up for sale at the right price, while Benitez is also thought to be stepping up his search for a new striker solution, with Arsenal’s Lucas Perez – 7.5 in FPL, 9.8m in Sky – a definite target.

“We are working on that, but it’s not an easy transfer window. We have to wait and see if we can do something.”

Even so, with Gameweek 1 looming, Mitrovic’s form has cast doubt on the likely starter for Spurs’ visit.

Ritchie (3.7%) now looks to be the most assured route for those interested in the Magpies’ attack.

He is the team’s most popular midfield pick in FPL, with his set-piece ability a major reason behind that. He demonstrated that prowess with some aplomb in Germany, curling home a free-kick after Atsu had been fouled.

The Ghanaian winger then capped a fine individual display by scoring the third, from a Jonjo Shelvey assist. Like Mitrovic, Atsu has built a strong case for a start in Gameweek 1, with new signing Jacob Murphy perhaps set to start life on the bench as a result.

Elsewhere, Rob Elliot returned in goal having been rested for the weekend friendly with FSV Mainz. He remains on track to start in goal in Gameweek 1 to offer us the only active 4.0 keeper option in FPL.

The final score didn’t flatter Newcastle, who round off their pre-season campaign at St. James’ Park against Hellas Verona on Sunday.

Their early schedule involves a top four sandwich of Spurs for an opener and Liverpool in Gameweek 7, with a tasty filling of five matches they should view as eminently winnable in between.

On this form, it might be wise not to overlook their assets.

Full-back DeAndre Yedlin will not be one of them, however. A hamstring injury has scuppered his chances of being fit for the opening weeks as coach Rafa Benitez confirmed post-match.

“We think it’s two or three weeks that he will be out.”

Javier Manquillo (4.5) is now set to get the nod at right-back for the Spurs clash.

Newcastle XI: Elliot (Darlow 70); Manquillo (Gámez 70), Lejeune (Lascelles 70), Clark, Dummett (Mbemba 70); Ritchie (Murphy 70), Shelvey, Hayden (Merino 70), Atsu (De Jong 70), Pérez (Aarons 70); Mitrović (Diame 46).

Liverpool 1 Atletico Madrid 1 (Atletico win 5-4 on penalties)

It took penalties and a typically resolute Atletico Madrid to finally inflict a pre-season defeat on Liverpool.

The unfortunate Jordan Henderson was the only player to miss in the shoot-out after Liverpool had come from 1-0 down to force the Audi Cup final to spot-kicks.

Roberto Firmino scored his first goal of the summer to level matters in normal time. Divock Origi was fouled in Atletico’s area and with James Milner off the field, the Brazilian forward dispatched the penalty with minimum fuss.

Jurgen Klopp had made nine changes to the side that, swept past Bayern Munich 24 hours before, with Sadio Mane and Emre Can the only survivors.

The German instead gave youth a chance, Jon Flanagan, Joe Gomez, Ben Woodburn and Dominic Solanke all starting, while Danny Ward was preferred to Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius in goal and put in an excellent performance.

Milner returned at left-back, with Andrew Robertson replacing him at the break.

Klopp experimented with Gomez at centre-half, although the youngster is one of three candidates to start the season at right-back while Nathaniel Clyne continues to recover from a muscle injury.

“Joe can play both positions, so it makes absolute sense that we try both positions, especially in our situation with Clyne injured. He’s on the way back but he’s had no pre-season so far so, for him, it will not only be tight for Watford, it’s pretty much impossible. So we have, in the moment, three options for this position: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe and Jon Flanagan. All of them played the position and now we have to bring them through the next one-and-a-half weeks and hopefully Clyney can come back after this.”

Whoever deputises for Clyne – and Alexander-Arnold seems to be the favourite – will offer a cheap way into a Liverpool defence that has kept three clean sheets over an impressive, although no longer unbeaten, summer.

Liverpool XI: Ward; Flanagan (Matip 46), Gomez (Alexander-Arnold 63), Klavan, Milner (Robertson 46); Can (Grujic 46), Wijnaldum (Ejaria , Lallana (Henderson 46); Woodburn (Kent 46), Mane (Firmino 46), Solanke (Origi 63).

Southampton 0 FC Augsburg 4

Just when you thought it was safe to tap into Southampton assets…

Some 14.6% of FPL managers were very keen for Cedric to get pitch-time after finally returning to training following his Confederations Cup exertions. Ninety minutes, four goals and no sign of Cedric later, 14.6% of FPL managers were happy to know their man at least took no part in the debacle.

Manager Mauricio Pellegrino did the best he could, with limited material, to be positive post-match.

“It wasn’t our best game, for sure. The only positive thing is that it was a friendly game. We can make a lot of conclusions. We tried to move all the players – some of them were playing just their first game, like Nathan or Ward-Prowse. But the best thing is that it was a friendly game.”

But the result was sufficiently poor to sow some serious seeds of doubt in sizeable blocks of managers with Saints defenders in their squads. Along with Cedric, there are 12.2% on Ryan Bertrand and 6.7% owning goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

A chastening pre-season defeat doesn’t alter the fact that Southampton have an excellent opening schedule (SWA, WHA, hud, WAT, pal), but before a ball is kicked in anger, confidence and some pre-season evidence of good form are two of the few things Fantasy managers can rely on when picking their squads.

Losing 4-0 at home to mid-table German opposition produced neither.

Pellegrino made six changes to the side that started the 3-0 friendly win over Saint-Étienne last weekend, with Fraser Forster, Maya Yoshida, Jérémy Pied, Oriol Romeu and Charlie Austin retaining their places.

As mentioned, Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse made their first starts of pre-season after their involvement in the U21 European Championships, while defender Jan Bednarek played his first match at St Mary’s.

Redmond (10.0%), the third and final Saints player to enjoy double-figure FPL ownership, hit the bar with a first-half shot – one of the few highlights as Southampton shipped two goals either side of the break.

The team’s final match of pre-season, at home to Sevilla on Saturday, will now be watched with a mix of minor eagerness and major trepidation.

Southampton XI: Forster; Pied, Bednarek, Yoshida (Stephens 46), Targett (Bertrand 72); Hojbjerg, Romeu (Clasie 46); Ward-Prowse (Boufal 72), Redmond (McQueen 46), Long (Tadic 64); Austin (Gabbiadini 64).

Yeovil Town 1 Bournemouth 3

Bournemouth eased to a regulation win, but not before going behind to their lower league opponents.

First-half goals from Lys Mousset and Benik Afobe restored a more natural order to proceedings before Afobe scored again after the break.

Ryan Fraser, Nathan Ake and Marc Pugh provided the assists.

Fraser continued to be a factor on set-pieces for Bournemouth and, with two assists over the summer, is picking up momentum as a budget midfield option.

Given that this match came just three days after the friendly with Valencia, we can’t read too much into Eddie Howe’s selection.

They will now face Napoli on Sunday to round off their pre-season preparations, and that is likely to offer more clues as to the line-up for the Gameweek 1 trip to West Brom.

Bournemouth XI: Federici (Ramsdale 72), A Smith (Butcher 72), Cargill (Simpson 46), Ake, B Smith (Worthington 72), Fraser, Arter, Surman, Pugh, Mousset, Afobe.

Remember to keep on top of all the summer movers and shakers with our Pre-Season Guide.