Uncertainty remains over Bournemouth defensive set-up

The pre-season picture continued to build over the weekend as nearly every Premier League team was in action.

The summer friendlies have really started to ramp up now and we’ve got all the key talking points from the latest batch of games.

We’ve also updated our pre-season minutes spreadsheets so Fantasy managers have an accurate picture of which players are getting more game-time.

Girona 2-1 Bournemouth

Goals: Ryan Fraser (£7.5m)

Assists: Jordon Ibe (£5.0m)

Uncertainty continues to reign over Eddie Howe’s first-choice defensive set-up.

The Bournemouth manager is still very much in the early stages of pre-season preparation, considering that a large number of youngsters were mixed with senior players against Girona on Saturday.

He went with two starting XIs for the 2-1 defeat, which means Fantasy managers must keep guessing on certain issues before we have more data to work with.

The goalkeeper situation is especially unclear still as Mark Travers (£4.5m) played the first 45 while Artur Boruc (£4.5m) came on for him at half-time.

The former was impressive towards the back-end of last season but nearly caused a calamitous own-goal on Saturday.

His clearance cannoned into Nathan Aké‘s (£5.0m) torso before only just sailing wide of his empty goal.

Against Girona, there was no involvement for Asmir Begovic (£4.5m) against the Italian side but he did get 45 minutes in the first pre-season match.

There is also plenty of interest in the left-back position with Fantasy managers hoping Diego Rico (£4.0m) will emerge as the favoured candidate.

After two matches, both he and new signing Lloyd Kelly (£4.5m) have played a total of 90 minutes there, made up of two 45-minute outings, while Charlie Daniels (£4.5m) is yet to be involved.

Also in the £4.0m department is Jack Simpson, who featured in the second-half XI.

However, he lasted just 22 minutes before giving away a penalty and earning a red card after a VAR review.

In the first-half, Howe deployed Callum Wilson (£8.0m) and Dominic Solanke (£5.5m) as the centre-forward and number 10 respectively in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

The pair linked up nicely on occasion but could not find a breakthrough.

There was mild concern among the Fantasy community on Saturday as Josh King (£6.5m) was absent from the matchday squad, with little information explaining this thus far.

Instead, the second-half saw Sam Surridge (£4.5m) lead the line, with David Brooks (£6.5m) tucked in behind him.

Crucially, Ryan Fraser (£7.5m) scored his second goal in as many pre-season matches, after an impressive run from Jordon Ibe (£5.0m) in midfield.

First-half Bournemouth XI (4-4-1-1): Travers; Rico, Aké, Mepham, A Smith; Kilkenny, Ofoborh, Gosling, Dobre; Solanke; Wilson.

Second-half Bournemouth XI (4-4-1-1): Boruc; L Kelly, Simpson, Ofoborh, Stacey; Fraser, Butcher, Surman, Ibe; Brooks; Surridge.

Fulham 2-1 Brighton and Hove Albion

Goals: Pascal Groß (£6.5m)

Assists: None

While it was a defeat for Brighton against Fulham, there continue to be more encouraging signs under new manager Graham Potter.

The former Swansea boss deployed his troops in a 4-2-3-1 formation and instilled a more attractive approach, especially in the first half.

Dale Stephens (£4.5m) and Davy Pröpper (£5.0m) were credited by the local press for their ability to initiate offensive moves.

The attacking midfield trio of Jurgen Locadia (£5.5m), Pascal Groß (£6.5m) and Solly March (£5.0m) also showed some promise, with the system unlocking Groß’s potential as a number 10 once more.

The three attacking midfielders were quite fluid going forward too, with March occasionally moving into a central role and Groß drifting to the right, while Locadia was particularly lively down the left.

It was Groß who scored Brighton’s only goal of the game in the first half. It was an unorthodox one as his free-kick, whipped in from left, saw Glenn Murray (£6.0m) duck underneath it to wrong-foot the goalkeeper and allow the ball to sail into the back of the net.

We may only be a few matches into the pre-season campaign but it does appear at this early stage that Murray remains the first-choice at centre-forward ahead of Florin Andone (£5.0m).

The former has 106 minutes to his name so far, while Andone has just 74.

The Romanian international came on just after the hour-mark against Fulham and displayed more of that fiery attitude.

He was drawn into a heated debate with the referee concerning a throw-in decision.

New signing Leandro Trossard (£6.0m) came on for Locadia at half-time although this far into pre-season, it is hard to be sure who he will displace if he claims a regular starting spot.

There was no Anthony Knockaert (£5.5m) involved for Brighton on Saturday as he was completing a season-long loan to opponents Fulham.

“The move is a good one for the club and Anthony. The wide positions are areas in which we have a lot of competition within the squad.” – Graham Potter

Meanwhile, Mat Ryan (£4.5m) got his first minutes of pre-season, playing the first half before being replaced by Jason Steele.

Brighton XI (4-2-3-1): Ryan (Steele 45′); Bernardo (Suttner 75′), Dunk, Duffy (Burn 61′), Montoya (A Davies 87′); Stephens (Dreyer 85′), Pröpper (Kayal 61′); Locadia (Trossard 45′), Groß, March (Jahanbakhsh 61′); Murray (Andone 61′).

Crewe Alexandra 1-0 Burnley
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Port Vale 1-3 Burnley

Goals: Chris Wood (£6.5m), Matej Vydra (£5.5m), Robbie Brady (£5.5m)

Assists: Brady, Wood, Aaron Lennon (£5.0m)

There was another double set of pre-season fixtures for Burnley on Saturday as they split their squad across matches against Crewe and Port Vale.

For that reason, we have treated the two matches as one entry on the pre-season minutes spreadsheet as it was impossible for players to have been involved in both.

The side that faced Port Vale had better luck, with Chris Wood (£6.5m) in particular going from strength-to-strength this summer.

Having netted a hat-trick against Accrington Stanley, he grabbed a goal and an assist on Saturday, taking his total attacking returns for pre-season to five.

Robbie Brady (£5.5m) also did well against Port Vale contributing a goal and assist.

After 90 minutes against the Valiants, Ben Gibson (£4.0m) currently has more pre-season minutes to his name than any other defender in his price point.

That may cause some excitement among Fantasy managers but it is still early days.

It is important to point out that Ben Mee (£5.0m) missed out on Saturday’s matches, but Dyche has insisted it is nothing serious, and he is naturally more likely to start alongside James Tarkowski (£5.0m) in Gameweek 1.

“Ben Mee’s nothing serious. We’re just monitoring people. At this stage, you can’t take any risks at all. Even today, we explained before the game that if anyone feels anything at all that’s not the norm then they’ve got to come straight off. I’m pleased they didn’t because I want to get the minutes into them.” – Sean Dyche

Amid Fantasy interest, Charlie Taylor (£4.5m) was absent again with a groin problem.

As things stand, Dyche is hoping that the former Leeds left-back will be able to face Fleetwood on Tuesday.

“Charlie worked hard yesterday and did some more work today. We’re hoping he’ll join in training from Monday onwards and we’ll have to make a decision for the game on Tuesday.” – Sean Dyche

Steven Defour (£5.5m) continues to be a serious doubt for the start of the season as he recovers from calf surgery.

“Steven Defour’s not right at the minute and we’ve got to make sure with him. I don’t know (if he’ll be right for the start of the season). There’s no pressure on him because he’s been through a serious injury and it’s important he has time to get over that.” – Sean Dyche

Burnley XI vs Crewe (4-4-2): Pope; Pieters, Dunne, Long, Lowton; McNeil, Westwood, Benson, Gudmundsson; Rodriguez, Barnes.

Burnley XI vs Port Vale (4-4-2): Heaton (Hart 45); Koiki, Tarkowski, Gibson, Bardsley; Brady, Hendrick, Cork, Lennon; Vydra, Wood.

Cheltenham Town 1-2 Leicester City

Goals: Jamie Vardy (£9.0m), Marc Albrighton (£5.5m)

Assists: Youri Tielemans (£6.5m), Nampalys Mendy (£4.5m)

Jamie Vardy (£9.0m) got his first goal of pre-season on Saturday as Leicester beat Cheltenham 2-1.

As was often the case towards the back-end of last season, the forward scored after latching onto a through-ball from Youri Tielemans (£6.5m).

Even though it’s just pre-season at this stage, and the level of opposition is not particularly high, Fantasy managers can certainly take encouragement from the two players continuing their understanding over the summer.

After picking up an injury in Leicester’s first pre-season friendly, new signing Ayoze Pérez (£6.5m) missed the Cheltenham match. Brendan Rodgers seemed confident that the player would be involved this week though.

“He should be fine next week. He just picked up a knock in training and his ankle was swollen up so he will be back next week.” – Brendan Rodgers

Pérez’s absence meant that Rodgers was a little short of options in attacking positions, so Ricardo Pereira (£6.0m) was used on the right flank of midfield in the second half.

While this was an out-of-position deployment for the defender, all accounts of his performance weren’t particularly positive, and Rodgers generally avoided playing Pereira in advanced positions last season after taking over from Claude Puel.

There were a few names who remain absent from pre-season matches so far, including Ben Chilwell (£5.5m), Kasper Schmeichel (£5.0m) and Matty James (£4.5m), but Rodgers has put them down to relatively minor injuries.

“Ben (Chilwell) had a slight issue with his groin but he is fine now, so he should be okay for Tuesday, he is back in training. Kasper (Schmeichel) is just a bit of time, sort of building him up, so he will feature over the course of the next week. And Matty (James) unfortunately just had a little occurrence of an injury but it should only be 10 days to 2 weeks before he is back, which is a shame because he’s worked ever so hard over pre-season.” – Brendan Rodgers

By contrast, Marc Albrighton (£5.5m) who struggled with injuries last season, has looked particularly sharp in both pre-season games so far.

The local press have been admiring the winger’s physical condition and work rate claiming that he appears as if “he has already completed weeks of pre-season”.

Albrighton rounded off his recent displays by scoring the second goal against Cheltenham.

Finally, Rachid Ghezzal (£5.5m) was also absent on Saturday, although the Algerian was not injured. Rodgers revealed that he gave the player some personal time off.

“I gave him time off, he became a father yesterday. He trained up until Thursday. It was already planned, which you can do nowadays. “So, he said his wife was going to give birth on the Friday, so I said ‘Yep, okay. Train Thursday and fly back for Friday’. His wife had a baby boy, which is great, so he has the weekend there, he will fly back tomorrow (Sunday) and get back to work on Monday.” – Brendan Rodgers

First-half Leicester XI (4-1-4-1): Ward; Elder (Fuchs, 43’), Maguire, Morgan, Daley-Campbell; Amartey; Muskwe, Thomas, King, Wright; Iheanacho.

Second half Leicester XI (4-1-4-1): Ward; Fuchs, Evans, Soyuncu, Justin; Mendy; Albrighton, Tielemans, Ndukwu (Fitzhugh, 81’), R Pereira; Vardy.

Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Liverpool

Goals: Harry Wilson, Rhian Brewster

Assists: Fabinho (£5.5m), Ben Woodburn

Liverpool’s key players are slowly dripping back into the first-team picture as the pre-season picture continues to build.

It was mostly a second-string side named to start against Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, but more important personnel featured in the second half.

Andrew Robertson (£7.0m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) and Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m) all made their first appearance for the Reds this summer as they emerged in the 60th minute.

However, Saturday’s match took us no closer to understanding which of Joe Gomez (£5.5m), Joel Matip (£5.5m) or Dejan Lovren (£5.5m) will partner van Dijk at centre-back this season.

Gomez and Matip both played an hour against Dortmund, while Lovren joined van Dijk as a 60th-minute substitute.

Also returning to playing duties were central midfielders Jordan Henderson (£5.5m) and Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m).

Divock Origi (£5.5m) continues to get plenty of minutes under his belt as he hopes to be involved in the early part of the season for Liverpool, with Sadio Mané (£11.5m) and Roberto Firmino (£9.5m) still on extended leave.

He played 60 minutes at the apex of the Reds’ front-three.

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Mignolet; Larouci (Robertson 60′); Gomez (Lovren 60′), Matip (van Dijk 60′), Clyne (Alexander-Arnold 60′); Fabinho (Wijnaldum 60′), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Henderson 60′), Milner (Lewis 60′); Kent (Woodburn 60′), Origi (Brewster 60′), Wilson (Jones 60′).