FPL notes: Barnes’ form, Haaland v Newcastle + why Rashford was benched

The stalemate at Selhurst Park and Newcastle United’s first defeat of the season are the focus of our next Scout Notes.

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CAPTAIN HAALAND V NEWCASTLE?

The Gameweek 6 captaincy poll will be an interesting watch, with Arsenal hosting Leicester City and Liverpool facing Wolverhampton Wanderers.

On paper, and club reputation, Erling Haaland (£15.3m) and Manchester City have a tougher test, away at Newcastle United.

But this is not the impenetrable Magpies backline of 2022/23 any more. The cracks that opened up last season haven’t been repaired.

Saturday’s result at Craven Cottage had been coming. Newcastle – who would have gone top with a win – were arguably lucky to get the results they had in all four preceding Gameweeks. The good fortune ran out in west London, where Fulham were deserved winners.

The Cottagers had more shots (22) than everyone bar Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. Raul Jimenez (£5.4m) and Emile Smith Rowe (£5.7m) notched early but other goals could/should have been scored, too, with Jimenez firing over, Smith Rowe hitting the bar and Alex Iwobi (£5.5m) somehow failing to hit the net from six yards.

Eddie Howe doesn’t seem to know his best combination of defenders. Seven of them have started at least one match this season, the latest being Kieran Trippier (£5.8m).

Newcastle were second on the fixture ticker in the first five Gameweeks – but they sit 15th for expected goals conceded (xGC) after that run:

On the evidence of the first month, there’s little for Haaland to worry about next week.

BARNES SHINES – BUT AT THE EXPENSE OF GORDON?

Alexander Isak (£8.4m) turned out to be fit, then, but might have wished he hadn’t bothered to recover, with little service to feed off.

Harvey Barnes (£6.3m) is carrying the goalscoring can at present. He really is an excellent finisher, here stroking in his third goal in as many matches to briefly give Newcastle hope.

The problem Howe has is that Barnes and Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) both seem to be more accomplished on the left. Gordon’s body language wasn’t great when he was asked to play on the opposite flank, while the second half saw him operate as a sort of 8/10 as Newcastle chased the game. Gordon did have one clear opening in the 70th minute but that was about it.

Above: Harvey Barnes has been hogging the shots this season, leading the way for minutes per chance (M/C)

All credit to Fulham, who got the three points they should have bagged last weekend.

Adama Traore‘s (£5.0m) unexpected renaissance continues, with the winger back to his Wolves best in the opening month and finally delivering an end product. His third attacking return in five matches was made in the West Midlands, with Jimenez finishing it off.

The ‘Jimenez v Rodrigo Muniz‘ (£6.0m) debate looks emphatically settled right now, with Raul scoring in successive weeks and looking a lot more confident than the young Brazilian. Muniz at least bagged an assist here, deflecting an errant Newcastle pass off his backside into the path of fellow substitute Reiss Nelson (£5.0m).

Cameron Archer (£5.0m) is the only forward cheaper than Jimenez who has started a Premier League game this season, so the Mexican striker is a short-term punt to consider in the third forward slot.

Smith Rowe meanwhile now sits in eighth among midfielders for points, just two off Newcastle’s Barnes.

EZE CHANCES

The points dodging continued from Eberechi Eze (£6.9m) and Bruno Fernandes (£8.3m) on Saturday night.

This pair are now the bottom two players for non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI) underachievement this season:

Eze missed two glorious chances on Saturday, both of them from cut-backs to him near the penalty spot.

The Palace talisman has overachieved on the xG front in each of his previous four seasons, so history would suggest this is a mere blip.

Fernandes had his own hard-luck story at Selhurst Park, with both him and Alejandro Garnacho (£6.4m) hitting the woodwork within seconds of one another.

An outside-of-the-boot effort also went narrowly wide from Fernandes.

Dean Henderson (£4.5m) and co celebrated their first clean sheet of 2024/25 but make no mistake about it, this wasn’t Palace tightening up. Goalkeeping heroics and poor finishing were to thank, with Garnacho twice testing Henderson and Matthijs de Ligt (£5.0m) posing a massive threat at set plays with three efforts.

“In the first half, we ate them alive. I would say the second half was more of a balance. But in the first half, we should have scored one or two goals.” – Erik ten Hag

“He kept us in the game, he kept us alive, because the first half was 100 per cent how we don’t want to play, and we needed clear words at half-time.” – Oliver Glasner on Dean Henderson

There’s definitely something missing with the Eagles at present. Open at the back, they’re also lacking the attacking swagger they exhibited late last season. Such was the shortage of threat posed that Glasner took the drastic measure of taking Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.4m) off at half-time and replacing him with Ismaila Sarr (£5.9m).

“Ismaïla Sarr was [brought on] because we needed more runs in behind, more directness to the goal, and he did great.” – Oliver Glasner

Eze’s two chances and Andre Onana‘s (£5.0m) fantastic 64th-minute double save were excellent openings for the Eagles. Other than that, there wasn’t much of an attacking threat mustered.

WHY RASHFORD WAS BENCHED

As good as Garnacho and Amad Diallo (£5.0m) have been of late, it was a surprise to see Marcus Rashford (£6.9m) benched at Selhurst Park after his three goals in the last week.

The winger had to make do with a 61st-minute introduction.

Ten Hag insisted it was just rotation.

“It is not a difficult decision, we have to rotate. We have so many games. We also have to give [Alejandro] Garnacho games. He has so many goals and assists off the bench, but only has one start this season.

“Already there is speculation [about the reason for Rashford’s omission from the starting XI]. Pundits. As a person you are not OK if you bring such speculation when you don’t know [the situation].

“This had nothing to do with [what ten Hag said about having a disciplined off-the-field life in the pre-match press conference]. I am very happy with Marcus. His defending and his offensive duties. He’s scoring at the moment.

“It was just about rotation.” – Erik ten Hag

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