In this blog, Stevie @eyetestfpl be assessing three players who caught his eyes during the pre-season. Check out his very first FPL Eye Test blog, Assessing The Eye Test Of Spurs FPL Attacking Options During Preseason.
Before going further check out our FPL Individual Team Analysis series including 1) Norwich City FPL Options for the 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League Season,2) Man City FPL Preview | Fixture Analysis, Pep Rotation, and Key FPL Assets, 3) Team to Target for Initial Few GW’s – Everton | FPL 21/22 Season, 4) Crystal Palace FPL Preview – New Era, New Optimism, 5) Leicester City FPL Preview | Fixture Analysis | Key FPL Players, 6) Liverpool FPL Preview | Fixture Analysis And Key FPL Assets, 7) Best FPL Assets to Consider From Promoted Teams for 21/22 FPL Season
SAID BENRAHMA (6.0M)
Moyes at West Ham is a completely different beast to the one we saw previously at Everton or even Man United.
He generally sets the team up in a very attacking 4-2-3-1 formation with the four attackers very fluid in their positioning.
At the center of it all, Benrahma has shown excellent form during pre-season, scoring 2 goals and assisting 3 further.
The absence of Lingard plays a huge role in the rise of Benrahma’s stock as he takes up the new mantle as the talisman of the team.
Benrahma generally started out on the left-wing and from this position, he tends to cut inside into his favorite right foot and let fly.
His playing style resembles that of a certain Riyad Mahrez at Man City. Although they operate from different sides of the pitch, there is no reason why he can’t have a similar impact for West Ham as Mahrez does for City.
His positioning out wide shouldn’t dampen his FPL appeal at all. Due to the fluidity of the front line, he was given the freedom to drift inside into the no 10 position.
Against Atalanta, a Champions League-level team, Moyes even experimented with playing Benrahma in the no 10 position just behind Michail Antonio, and the effect was simply devastating.
In this sort of area, he was smart in his movement, always looking to position himself in between two defenders through which the passer could find him.
Once he receives the ball near the edge of the box, he’s also not shy to shoot.
The small caveat to owning him though is, that Benrahma is a flair player who craves space like water to fish in order to be at his most effective.
As evident here, Bowen would be the one drifting into the 6-yard area while Benrahma would stay in the area just outside the box where he could find more room. So, don’t expect him to get too many easy tap-ins.
There’s no doubt Moyes will use the same counter-attacking strategy which proved useful to them last season, getting them as high as 6th in the league.
Usually, it was Lingard who became the main outlet of such a counter-attacking style mainly due to his pace. So, Benrahma also with the same blistering pace, could slot into this role seamlessly.
Moyes’ intention to use Benrahma as his main counter weapon is clear from his positioning here during defensive phase which was even more advanced than Antonio.
In Lingard’s absence, I fully expect him to take on the mantle as the new go-to player in this team and as almost every play seems to go through him, he will be highly involved in both goals and assists.
He is currently brimming with confidence as evident from the way he managed to wriggle free from 3 Atalanta players in the middle of the pitch.
Also, not forgetting the audacity to blast this curler into the top right corner against Brentford. He appears ready for the new season.
HARVEY BARNES (7.0M)
Brendan Rodgers appears to have settled on 4-2-3-1 as his favored formation ahead of the 3-4-1-2 he used regularly after the injuries of Harvey Barnes and James Maddison in the late stages of last season.
Apparently, the 3-4-1-2 was only a contingency plan to deal with the absence of the two aforementioned players but now that they’re back in the starting line-up, 4-2-3-1 has been making reappearances in recent friendly matches.
The reason why I think Rodgers will stick with the 4-2-3-1 is that the additional midfielder allows them to play the possession-based football Rodgers likes to play.
Obviously, this means that Kelechi Iheanacho might potentially miss out in favor of Harvey Barnes who has shown promising signs against Manchester City in the Community Shield.
Against the last season’s Premier League champions, the midfield trio of Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Wilfried Ndidi was key to progressing the ball to the forward line with their vertical passing.
The creativity in midfield is obviously important to Harvey Barnes’ FPL appeal as that means more chances will be created for him. Often last season, Leicester found it difficult to break down stubborn low-blocks due to the lack of such creativity.
What I like about Barnes is his direct style of play. He appears to be focused in making the right runs into the box at the right time and once he receives the ball, he does not take unnecessary touches.
After a one-touch lay-off from Maddison, he took only one touch to set himself up for a shot inside the box.
The support from the left full-back, Ryan Bertrand, can be a key factor in Barnes’ FPL appeal as well.
Bertrand’s underlapping run into the box pulled Cancelo along with him, creating space for Barnes.
Given the space, Barnes had the eyes to pick out an excellent cross to Vardy who only managed to hit the post.
Although Bertrand played well in this game, once Timothy Castagne returns from injury, I expect him to slot straight back into the starting XI and provide even better support for Barnes.
Based on the eye test, Barnes tends to move into the area just inside the box and always attempts to put a shot away whenever he has a clear sight on goal.
In this instance, Maddison’s call for the ball was completely ignored as Barnes had only one thing in his mind which was to score goals. Selfishness is nice in regards to FPL and Barnes appears to have an abundance of it.
In GW1, Leicester will come up against Wolves which is still a work-in-progress kind of team as they try to transition into more of a high-pressing team with a high-line defence under the new head coach Bruno Lage.
Barnes loves using his pace against high-line defences and considering he will also play against Nelson Semedo who’s more known for his forward-mindedness than his defensive solidity, I expect Barnes’ movement to create a significant amount of troubles for Wolves down that side.
As of right now, I even have Barnes in my FPL team to target this Wolves fixture.
DANNY INGS (8.0M)
There is a small sample of only one preseason-friendly match where we can analyze Danny Ings’ game at Aston Villa.
In the game against Salernitana, Dean Smith set up in an unfamiliar formation 4-4-2 formation perhaps in order to experiment with fitting in both Ings and Watkins upfront as well as to deal with the temporary absence of Emiliano Buendia.
In the front-two system, being the more technical player, Ings was often the one dropping deeper into midfield to receive the ball while Watkins was the player making runs in behind.
Even if the Villa head coach reverts back into 4-3-3 and plays Watkins out wide, it still shows perfectly the kind of dynamic that we will probably see with Ings and Watkins.
I always have high regards for Ings and I expect him to play a similar role to Kane’s at Spurs during past couple of seasons.
Ings dropping deeper should not cause any concerns regarding his FPL potential as he’s still very much involved in and around the box once the ball entered the final third.
As I like to say, you can take Ings out of the box but you can’t take the ‘box’ out of him. Much like Kane, I doubt Ings dropping deeper dampens his poacher’s instinct at all.
On the contrary, I fully believe his all-around playing style will allow him to have a higher involvement in goals and assist as more passages of play come through him.
An equally important facet of his move to Villa is the fact that he’s no longer required to play in a stamina-depleting high-pressing system like Ralph Hassenhuttl’s Southampton. This should reduce the likelihood of him getting an injury and allow him to focus solely on what he does best – score goals.
Ings is an excellent punt for the first 3 gameweeks of the season, playing against WAT (A), NEW (H) and BRE (H) and it’s difficult to find a better opening set of fixtures than Villa.
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Stevie Eye Test FPL
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