Over the next few days, we’ll be bringing you the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points from the final pre-season friendlies.

Be it players getting minutes or any tactical clues, there will be much to dissect.

Newcastle United‘s double-header at St James’ Park is the headline act in this first article.

The first two sides to play on Saturday, Ipswich Town and Southampton, are also featured.

And we’ll cover Nottingham Forest and Brentford, who were in action on Thursday and Friday.

NEWCASTLE UNITED 4-0 GIRONA
NEWCASTLE UNITED 1-0 BREST

• Goals: Longstaff x2, Murphy, Gordon | Barnes
• Assists: Hall, Livramento, Isak | Kelly

Eddie Howe, as he traditionally does, split his squad in half for Newcastle’s final two pre-season friendlies.

There wasn’t a complete ‘first XI’ and ‘reserve XI’ distinction, either. Possibly in an attempt to confound team news predictors and more likely Gameweek 1 opponents Southampton, the regulars were split across matches on Friday and Saturday. That being said, anywhere from 7-9 of the Girona team will likely start against Saints.

Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) and Kieran Trippier (£6.0m) got their first pre-season minutes on different days. Both were handed starts, with Howe explaining that Gordon’s half-time withdrawal was planned.

“It was the plan, play 45 minutes. He looked good, of course, he’s behind the other players.

“He’s had to have a mental break after the Euros and a very long season for him. But today was important, it was great to see him score and I thought he played very well. We’ll build his training load up this coming week.”

“No doubt, he feels good. He wanted to play longer tonight. He is a professional and has looked after himself. I am confident he will be ready for next week.

“I thought he would come back fit. He is young. It is easier when you are a younger player. We need to see how he trains this week and make an assessment.” – Eddie Howe on Anthony Gordon

The front three that faced Girona is probably the one that gets the nod in Gameweek 1.

Jacob Murphy (£5.5m) has had a very fine pre-season for the Magpies. Here he bagged his eighth attacking return in five matches, slamming in Lewis Hall‘s (£4.5m) headed pass. Another one should have followed when Joelinton (£6.0m) missed a sitter from Murphy’s cross.

Gordon and Alexander Isak (£8.5m) joined Murphy in attack, the two combining for the former’s goal. Isak missed a first-half penalty, too: that’s twice in a row he’s failed from 12 yards after missing against Burnley in May.

Both full-backs got returns, with Tino Livramento (£4.5m) setting up the first of Sean Longstaff’s (£5.0m) two strikes. It’s not a definite but the local consensus is that Livramento and Hall will start in Gameweek 1, with Trippier a late returnee and not even certain to be at the club come September.

Saturday’s match was less eventful. Harvey Barnes (£6.5m) bagged the only goal but William Osula (£5.0m) was bright, only being denied a debut goal by a marginal offside call. No VAR here.

Newcastle’s energy and pressing were good on Friday in particular. There’ll be hopes that they can regain their 2022/23 form, something that owed a lot to high-intensity performances, with no midweek European distractions.

Newcastle United XI v Girona: Pope (Ruddy 76), Livramento, Burn (Stanton 89), Krafth, Hall, Longstaff, J Miley (Parkinson 63), Joelinton, Gordon (Sanusi 46), Isak (Hernes 89), J Murphy.

Newcastle United XI v Brest: Dubravka (Vlachodimos 46), Trippier (Ashby 68), Schar (Stanton 82), Kelly, Lewis, Harrison (Sanusi 46), Guimaraes, Willock (Munda 88), Almiron, Osula (Hernes 68), Barnes.

BRENTFORD 4-4 WOLFSBURG

• Goals: Mbeumo, Wissa, Jensen, Schade
• Assists: Ajer, Janelt, Mbeumo

The eight-goal thriller in west London pretty much reaffirmed our judgement of Brentford from the rest of pre-season: in fine fettle going forward, suspect at the back.

The absence of first-choice full-backs Rico Henry (£4.5m) and Aaron Hickey (£4.5m) doesn’t help. There was much space behind Kristoffer Ajer (£4.5m) at left-back, which will interest Daniel Munoz (£5.0m). Palace, so positive since Oliver Glasner took over, will be licking their lips for Gameweek 1.

Brentford, surprisingly, had a terrible record for conceding open-play headed goals last season. This has continued into the summer – and extended to set pieces against Wolfsburg. Three of the Bundesliga outfit’s goals came from dead-ball situations, with Mark Flekken‘s (£4.5m) command of his box again in question.

“We were very positive going forward, very exciting going forward – that’s a big plus.  

“Obviously we can also see what we need to work on for the next nine days before we face Crystal Palace: defensive set-pieces, that is clear, it’s normally we’re normally very good at.  

“But it’s nice that the red flag came today and we’ve got the opportunity to sort it out before Sunday.” – Thomas Frank 

The positive were goals from Brentford’s starting front three, Bryan Mbeumo (£7.0m), Kevin Schade (£5.5m) and Yoane Wissa (£6.0m). Mbeumo, true to form, later hit the woodwork, the rebound tucked away by Mathias Jensen (£5.5m).

Ivan Toney (£7.5m) made his first appearance since the Euros, too, looking bright as a half-time substitute. It’s not completely out of the question that he starts in Gameweek 1.

“It was very good to have him back, very good. I thought he looked sharp, seeing as he was out for three weeks. He looked good.” – Thomas Frank on Ivan Toney

Ben Mee (£4.5m) and Keane Lewis-Potter (£5.0m), absent in pre-season, both got minutes in a training ground game on Saturday.

Brentford XI: Flekken; Roerslev (Trevitt 79), Collins, Pinnock (Ji-soo 79), Ajer; Nørgaard (Onyeka 79), Janelt (Yarmoliuk 79), Jensen (Damsgaard 79); Mbeumo, Schade (Peart-Harris 83), Wissa (Toney 46)

OLYMPIAKOS 3-4 NOTTINGHAM FOREST

• Goals: Yates x2, Wood, Elanga
• Assists: Wood x2, Hudson-Odoi

Nuno Espirito Santo threw a bit of a curveball by naming Callum Hudson-Odoi (£5.5m) and Anthony Elanga (£5.5m) on the bench in Greece, although managed minutes for regulars elsewhere means there’s not too much panic setting in.

This was, perhaps, Nuno trying out a more defensive system that could be used in Gameweek 4 at Anfield.

Ibrahim Sangare (£4.5m) continued his fine pre-season and looks very likely to start on the opening weekend. He’s one of the few £4.5m FPL midfielders who we can be confident of doing so.

Morgan Gibbs-White (£6.5m) will be on the teamsheet against Bournemouth, too – although be warned that he was again ousted on set plays. Having seen Elanga prominent on set pieces this summer, here Elliot Anderson (£5.0m) was given a chance.

Forest scored, in fact, from three of Anderson’s deliveries. Two of them were helped on to Ryan Yates (£5.0m) by Chris Wood (£6.0m). The Kiwi then bagged a goal of his own after the hosts’ goalkeeper failed to punch Anderson’s free-kick clear.

The two benched wingers had the final say. Hudson-Odoi pinged a pass out to Elanga, who ran the length of the Olympiacos half before finishing.

Forest were 4-1 up at that point, two soft late goal concessions reducing the arrears.

Nottingham Forest XI: Sels, Williams (Moreira 83), Murillo (Milenkovic 83), Boly (Omobamidele 75), Aina (Toffolo 83), Sangare (Elanga 57), Dominguez (Danilo 57), Yates (Abbott 90), Anderson (Awoniyi 73), Gibbs-White (Hudson-Odoi 57), Wood (Silva 73).

IPSWICH TOWN 1-0 NICE

• Goal: Tuanzebe
• Assist: None

There were more questions raised than answered at Portman Road, too.

Kieran McKenna used a 3-4-2-1 against Nice, having previously operated in a back four this summer.

Leif Davis (£4.5m) was effectively a wing-back in all but name in the original 4-2-3-1 set-up anyway but what this formation change did was hand more attacking license to Ben Johnson (£4.0m), who had Axel Tuanzebe (£4.0m) behind him. Johnson had, up to this point, tucked infield from right-back to become a third centre-half.

The extra threat from Johnson was noticeable. Twice he was desperately close to picking out teammates with low crosses.

Davis, of course, has set pieces in his locker. It was from his corner that Tuanzebe prodded in after some penalty-box pinball.

There are still some question marks over personnel, too. In the battle of the £4.0m centre-halves, George Edmundson and Cameron Burgess started over Luke Woolfenden and Jacob Greaves. The plot was further thickened by the players who ended the friendly proper – including Woolfenden and Greaves – staying on for an unofficial 30-minute kickabout.

£4.5m midfielder Massimo Luongo was back in the side, too, having been benched last weekend.

One player we can be pretty sure of starting is Liam Delap (£5.5m). His positional rival, George Hirst (£5.5m), has now been ruled out for two months with a knee injury.

“He’s had surgery on his knee. It’s not as bad as it could have been thankfully. It was a keyhole surgery. There’s a possibility of recovery of around eight weeks from the surgery.” – Kieran McKenna on George Hirst

Fantasy cheapos Freddie Ladapo (£4.5m) and the fit-again Ali Al-Hamadi (£5.0m) look set to play back-up to Delap for now but the Tractor Boys will surely recruit further in the transfer market.

A clean sheet was banked but the Ipswich goal led a charmed life. Nice missed a first-half penalty, while another shot was cleared off the line after the interval.

Ipswich Town XI: Muric, Tuanzebe (Burns 63), Edmundson (Woolfenden 63), Burgess (Greaves 63), Johnson, Morsy, Luongo (Taylor 63), Davis (Townsend 63), Harness (Al-Hamadi 77), Hutchinson (Chaplin 63), Delap (Ladapo 63).

SOUTHAMPTON 0-0 GETAFE

While Kieran McKenna left us with a few head-scratchers, Russell Martin named what looked very much like a first-choice XI.

His Southampton team included Kyle Walker-Peters (£4.5m), making his first appearance of pre-season.

Saints set up in a wing-back system, with Jack Stephens (£4.0m) occasionally stepping up from defence into midfield.

Adam Armstrong (£5.5m) and new boy Ben Brereton Diaz (£5.5m) were tasked with line-leading duties – and the former had a shocker. A succession of chances went begging for the budget FPL forward, who is still to answer the question of whether he’s ruthless enough for the top flight.

Brereton Diaz looked bright, at least, here lasting an hour as he builds up fitness following his post-Copa America break.

Wing-back Yukinari Sugawara (£4.5m) was again on a share of set plays and looks like he’ll contribute some attacking returns this season. FPL managers may baulk at the £4.5m price tag, however, with cheaper Saints defenders available.

Stephens, Jan Bednarek (£4.0m) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£4.0m) are three of those and were all part of the starting XI here.

Southampton XI: McCarthy (Lumley 73), Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek (Onuachu 73), Stephens, Walker-Peters (Taylor 60), Downes, Smallbone, Aribo, Armstrong (Dibling 80), Brereton Díaz (Edozie 60).

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