Finishing off Saturday’s Scout Notes while the EFL Cup final is playing out, we run the rule over Ipswich Town 2-4 Nottingham Forest and Southampton 1-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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ELANGA’S TWEAKED ROLE
Anthony Elanga (£5.2m) ended a 10-match goal drought with two strikes on Saturday, his first ever brace in senior club football.
The first goal was vintage Forest: a winger cutting in off the flank and curling home.
The Swede’s second strike, however, betrayed a slightly newer role for him in Nuno Espirito Santo’s set-up.
We saw a bit of it in Gameweek 28, with Nicolas Dominguez (£4.8m) shifting over to the right and Elanga taking up a freer, more central role. Rather than it just being a horses-for-courses selection to suffocate Manchester City, however, Nuno stuck with it on Saturday.
Elanga was bang central and running beyond Chris Wood (£7.3m) when he latched onto Nikola Milenkovic‘s (£4.9m) long pass, finishing well to secure a 16-point haul.
A brace for Anthony.
pic.twitter.com/xAHnHryMfn
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) March 15, 2025
“He’s versatile enough to occupy, I think, the three frontal positions: left, central and right. It’s trying to find the balance and trying to exploit the best of each one of our players.” – Nuno Espirito Santo on Anthony Elanga
Reservations about Elanga’s goalscoring ability remain – he’d scored just three all season before Saturday and he had been an xG underperformer in 20 months at Forest until that point.
But the tactics are ones to monitor, particularly if he continues to get more ‘big chances’. It’s also worth keeping an eye on its effect on Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.6m), as he’s deeper in this system. It hasn’t affected his numbers so far but Saturday’s assist, which meant it’s now just four blanks in 15 starts, did come after a barrage of changes and when he was pushed upfield.
Wood meanwhile made it four games without a goal, his longest such drought in 2024/25. This was the first real favourable opposition he’s faced in that time, however, and you would normally expect him to finish his 54th-minute chance at Portman Road.
NO CLEAN SHEET JOY THIS WEEK
Also coming after the wave of substitutions was Forest’s clean sheet loss.
It was almost inevitable that after shutting out Arsenal and Manchester City, they would concede to sorry Ipswich. We’ll let them off: 3-0 up and resting some key bodies, Forest conceded to a brilliant low-xG effort from Jens Cajuste (£4.5m). George Hirst (£5.4m) added another in injury time.
Not one of the Tractor Boys’ efforts even made it to 0.10 xG, so the Tricky Trees were mostly solid yet again.
Milenkovic at least compensated with two attacking returns. No FPL defender has more goals from set plays (four) this season.
Neco Williams (£4.4m) had a couple of efforts of his own, remaining in the top five Fantasy defenders for shots in 2024/25.
STRAND, HAND, DELIVER
Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.3m) became the latest beneficiary of Southampton’s sheer awfulness when scoring his first goals of 2025.
The big Norwegian is playing through a broken hand at present but was given a metaphorical one by Championship-bound Saints, whose relaxed attitude to marking has allowed much-maligned attackers Darwin Nunez (£7.0m) and Christopher Nkunku (£5.7m) to haul in recent weeks. Strand Larsen followed suit with a brace, both of them set up by the born-again Jeanricner Bellegarde (£4.9m).
In truth, this wasn’t a good advert for Wolves either.
Vitor Pereira’s troops had just five shots all game, including Strand Larsen’s two. Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) predictably had a couple of ambitious efforts, to no avail this time.
Such was Wolves’ mediocrity that even the watching Southampton press, who know a thing or two about dire performances, weren’t impressed by the opposition.
Dibling heads over a good chance from a corner. This Wolves team are so bad, how are they 2-0 down.#SaintsFC
— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) March 15, 2025
Strand Larsen and Ait-Nouri were both struggling before being substituted late on but it was reported to be cramp in the latter’s case.
Wolves’ clean sheet was busted when Tyler Dibling (£4.4m) hit the post and Paul Onuachu (£4.9m) tapped in the rebound.
West Ham United, who look more solid under Graham Potter these days, will be much more of a test of Wolves’ attacking prowess in Gameweek 30.
IPSWICH AND SAINTS SINKING WITHOUT A TRACE
Southampton have registered impressively high on the cackometer all season. Even in their better performances, away at Liverpool and Manchester United, they still conceded three goals.
Ipswich have been more of a recent disappointment, however.
They were pretty combative before New Year. That new-league bounce saw them run Liverpool close in Gameweek 1 and take points off the likes of Aston Villa, Fulham, Brighton, Man Utd, Chelsea and Spurs in the first half of 2024/25.
They have nosedived since. Results on Saturday saw them fall nine points behind Wolves in 17th, and it’s difficult to see a way back.
Few, if any, of their players appeal in FPL. Liam Delap (£5.6m) is occasionally good for a goal but is on nine bookings, so that’s a headache waiting to happen. The likes of Omari Hutchinson (£5.2m) and Leif Davis (£4.3m) haven’t been able to make the step up to budget cult heroes, either. Now, even their bench fodder options are diminishing in appeal: Jacob Greaves (£3.9m), whose form has been patchy for a while, was hooked at half-time on Saturday after a stinker of a first half.
10 hours, 57 mins agoEddie Howe had so many doubters when he was given this job initially. Happy for him really