With the FIFA World Cup over, attention quickly turns back to Fantasy Premier League (FPL).
All Premier League clubs bar Bournemouth and Southampton have already contested kickabouts since Gameweek 16 ended, with our Scout Notes reporting on the most noteworthy tactical tweaks, injury news and manager quotes.
We concentrate on Crystal Palace, Leeds United, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in this next round-up, who all played on Friday.
READ MORE: FPL friendlies round-up: De Bruyne and Haaland on target
More friendlies and Carabao Cup ties will follow before we reach Gameweek 17, so for a full rundown of when and where your Fantasy assets might be in action, check out our complete guide to the FPL restart.
LIVERPOOL 4-1 AC MILAN
- Goals: Salah, Thiago, Darwin x2
- Assists: Matip, Clark, Doak
- Starting XI: Kelleher (Adrian 59); Milner (Frauendorf 59), Matip (Phillips 66), Gomez (Quansah 83), Robertson (Tsimikas 59); Elliott (Clark 79), Bajcetic (Corness 79), Thiago (Keita 59); Salah (Doak 83), Firmino (Darwin 59), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Carvalho 59)
As if FPL managers needed any more tempting to purchase Darwin Nunez (£9.0m), the Uruguayan returned from World Cup duty with a two-goal cameo against AC Milan.
Jurgen Klopp named none of the Qatar crew in his starting line-up and will be delighted with a 4-1 win, although this Dubai Super Cup encounter also required a post-game penalty shoot-out that the Italians bettered.
Darwin is the third most-bought player during this period of unlimited free transfers, with the injured Luis Diaz (£7.8m) and Diogo Jota (£8.8m) missing at least the first month of resumed action.
He is difficult to resist, as managers see the forward costing £3.8m less than Mohamed Salah (£12.8m) – who also netted here – and notice his underlying stats.
616 league minutes is exactly half of Salah’s 1,232 but he is only marginally behind on big chances and shots on target. For those wanting just one Liverpool attacker, it’s a genuinely tough call to make.
The starting XI had no Virgil van Dijk (£6.5m), Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.2m), Jordan Henderson (£5.3m) or Alisson (£5.5m) but Klopp may use them for Thursday’s Carabao Cup tie against Manchester City.
“Yeah, there’s a chance, of course. Hendo [Henderson] is already training here. Virg [van Dijk] is training here but I don’t think we will try that. Hendo we will see, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] we will see.
I hope we all get through it and we all know in England, and in Europe in general, there’s kind of a virus going around, so we hope we can stay out of that. Then we will make the decision obviously on Wednesday who can play on Thursday.” – Jurgen Klopp on whether World Cup returnees will play in the Carabao Cup match
11 substitutions were made, which youngsters Bobby Clark (£4.5m) and Ben Doak (£4.5m) made the most of by assisting Nunez’s brace.
LEEDS UNITED 2-1 REAL SOCIEDAD
- Goals: Struijk, Rodrigo
- Assists: Roca, Gelhardt
- Starting XI: Robles (Klaesson 46); Kristensen (Drameh 46), Ayling, Cooper (Hjelde 46), Struijk; Klich, Forshaw (Greenwood 46), Roca (Gyabi 64); Aaronson (Gelhardt 46), Rodrigo (Joseph 64), Gnonto (Perkins 77)
Two of Leeds’ three World Cup competitors played some minutes in their 2-1 win over La Liga’s third-placed side. Rasmus Kristensen (£4.8m) and Brenden Aaronson (£5.5m) both had a half, with Tyler Adams (£4.9m) suspended for Gameweek 17 after his red card at Spurs.
Goals from Pascal Struijk (£4.5m) and Rodrigo (£6.3m) completed a comeback victory, in preparation for tough meetings with Manchester City (h) and Newcastle United (a).
Many FPL managers will be tempted by Rodrigo, currently the game’s joint fifth-best midfielder. Both he and Crysencio Summerville (£4.4m) have netted in four successive league games.
The latter missed out because of a knock but the Spanish international is having a wonderful season in the absence of often-injured Patrick Bamford (£7.2m).
Leeds were also without Luis Sinisterra (£6.5m) and goalkeeper Illan Meslier (£4.5m) due to foot and glandular fever problems.
Whilst there was a worry over Jack Harrison (£5.8m) pulling out during the warm-up, assistant head coach Rene Maric quickly labelled it as a precautionary withdrawal.
“Jack is not injured. And I think he could have pushed to play but why should we risk it 12 days before Manchester City, when you can take him out today and train him properly the next day. So that’s the reasoning behind some of these decisions.”
Leeds do not have midweek Carabao Cup action but will host Monaco instead.
CRYSTAL PALACE 2-1 REAL VALLADOLID
- Goals: Zaha x2 (including pen)
- Assists: Doucoure, Olise
- Starting XI: Guaita; Clyne (Ward 61), Guehi (Richards 71), Tomkins (Ozoh 80), Mitchell (Riedewald 71); Hughes (Schlupp 61), Doucoure (Milivojevic 71), Eze (Balmer 80); Olise (Ebiowei 80), Edouard (Gordon 80), Zaha
Another team to overcome a 1-0 deficit and defeat a Spanish opponent was Crystal Palace. A frustrating FPL asset to own, Wilfried Zaha (£7.5m) scored twice at Selhurst Park ahead of fixtures against Fulham (h) and Bournemouth (a).
Despite totalling six goals so far, Zaha blanked against Nottingham Forest, Southampton and Everton whilst missing both penalties. Another spot-kick failed in the recent Botafogo friendly but he was successful here.
Speaking afterwards, Zaha has no intention of handing penalties to someone else.
“That’s not me, man. I couldn’t do that. What kind of chicken am I? No, man. I’ll miss [at times] but at the end of the day I’m man enough to stand up and take it again and I just have to make sure I score. Today I’m happy I did, so the gaffer has a decision now – either he keeps me on or he doesn’t! I think he should.”
Meanwhile, it was almost a full-strength line-up from Patrick Vieira. Only two players were at the World Cup – Joachim Andersen (£4.5m) and Jordan Ayew (£5.3m) – and both were eliminated early on, although neither took part here.
There are no more warm-up matches for the Eagles, whilst owners of centre-back Marc Guehi (£4.4m) need to know that he is suspended for Gameweek 17.
VALENCIA 1-2 NOTTINGHAM FOREST
- Goals: Awoniyi, Dennis
- Starting XI: Henderson; Toffolo, Cook (Boly 46), Worrall (McKenna 46), Renan Lodi; Mangala (Surridge 76), Yates (Bade 76), O’Brien; Gibbs-White (Johnson 37); Awoniyi (Dennis 62), Lingard (Scarpa 62)
Friday’s third 2-1 win versus La Liga brought goals from Taiwo Awoniyi (£5.7m) and Emmanuel Dennis (£5.8m). Both were from defensive mistakes, with the second probably denying an assist for new signing Gustavo Scarpa.
Two left-backs started at the Mestalla, as Neco Williams (£4.0m) and Serge Aurier (£4.5m) were unable to appear. All five World Cup participants were eliminated by the round of 16, although forward Brennan Johnson (£5.6m) played here once Morgan Gibbs-White (£5.5m) limped off in the 37th minute.
“He [Gibbs-White] took a kick. I don’t even know whether he could have stayed on or not but we just said, ‘bring him off’. Hopefully it’s not too bad.
Neco [Williams] and Remo [Freuler] didn’t play for personal reasons; not because we didn’t want to play them, they had some personal things going on which were more important than playing the game tonight. But they will be back in when we return to training.” – Steve Cooper
Unfortunately, Cheikhou Kouyate (£4.5m) was stretched off in Senegal’s opening match and will miss the next two months of action.
A Carabao Cup clash with Blackburn Rovers precedes tricky league games against Manchester United (a) and Chelsea (h).
