PRE-SEASON HUB 2020/21
Introduction
Gone are the days of Premier League teams jetting off to China, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia for their pre-season preparations – at least for this pre-season. Here’s hoping things in the world are again on the right side of normal this time next season and I for one will never again take the Premier League Asia Trophy for granted.
In this shortened period between the 2019-20 season ending and the 2020-21 season beginning (consider that Manchester United & Manchester City players will not even be through passport control with their families as they head on holiday whilst Everton, Liverpool and Tottenham commence a stretch of their legs with their first pre-season matches), I will again document the ins and outs and ups and downs of all 20 Premier League teams pre-season on this article as we hurtle towards the new season.
Below is a guide to the matches CONFIRMED so far – there will be more. For instance, as you’ll see, there are clubs who have not yet announced any matches. Seeing as all games will be behind closed doors anyway, I would expect the clubs to be transparent about their matches, not least to let their own supporters know what’s going on and I’ll be there to take advantage.
As is the norm – if you feel comfortable in doing so – please record any and all pre-season news here under the relevant team comment. I’ll round up each day with anything missed relating to line-ups, goals, assists, injuries, playing positions etc.
You’ll find a comment relating to each of the 20 teams below.
25th August
MK Dons 1-4 Arsenal
29th August
Arsenal 1-1 (5-4 pens) Liverpool (Community Shield)
5th September
Arsenal 2-3 Aston Villa
5th September
Arsenal 2-3 Aston Villa
29th August
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Chelsea
5th September
Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
29th August
Burnley 1-2 Shrewsbury Town
Burnley 3-0 Tranmere Rovers
1st September
Burnley 0-0 Preston North End
5th September
Burnley 4-1 Heart of Midlothian
Burnley 4-2 Mansfield Town
29th August
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Chelsea
25th August
Crystal Palace 2-1 Oxford United
29th August
Crystal Palace 3-0 Charlton Athletic
1st September
Millwall 0-1 Crystal Palace
5th September
Crystal Palace 1-1 Brondby
22nd August
Blackpool 3-3 Everton
5th September
Everton 2-0 Preston North End
29th August
Fulham 2-2 MK Dons
1st September
Stoke City 3-0 Leeds United
5th September
Leeds United 3-1 Pacos de Ferreira
26th August
Leicester City 2-0 Birmingham City
29th August
Leicester City 0-0 Sheffield Wednesday
5th September
Leicester City 1-1 Blackburn Rovers
22nd August
Liverpool 3-0 Stuttgart
25th August
Red Bull Salzburg 2-2 Liverpool
29th August
Arsenal 1-1 (5-4 pens) Liverpool (Community Shield)
5th September
Liverpool 7-2 Blackpool
25th August
Newcastle United 3-0 Crewe Alexandra
29th August
Barnsley 1-2 Newcastle United
1st September
Middlesbrough 5-1 Newcastle United
5th September
Newcastle United 0-1 Stoke City
25th August
Dundee United 0-1 Sheffield United (abandoned at half time)
28th August
Heart of Midlothian 0-1 Sheffield United
1st September
Sheffield United 2-0 Derby County
4th September
Sheffield United 2-2 Preston North End
Southampton 7-1 Swansea City
22nd August
Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Ipswich Town
28th August
Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Reading
29th August
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Birmingham City
5th September
Watford 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
28th August
West Bromwich Albion 0-1 Nottingham Forest
5th September
Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 West Bromwich Albion
25th August
Ipswich Town 1-4 West Ham United
Wycombe Wanderers 1-5 West Ham United
29th August
West Ham United 2-1 Brentford
5th September
West Ham United 3-5 Bournemouth
Thanks for reading FANTASY FOOTBALL PRE-SEASON HUB 2020/21
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Is he really that good? Like “Maguire” kind of good?
Is this for Havertz?
Oh yes. It’s Havertz.
Yeah, just looked on twitter. Always hard to judge on a couple of games, but he looks the part. Guessing the price has to do a lot with his age also.
Madrid was linked with him and I wasn’t sold on buying him but it was mostly due to spending funds that Madrid will need to try and get Mbappe a year from now.
He can play several positions from what I have seen. Very good in the air, think he would fit in great with Werner. Also have experience with him in fantasy, which is the only experience that matters. 😉
Mito, this sounds like very good insight. But damn. Who knew you’ll get a scouting edge in FPL through FBL. So I guess playing FBL was not a total waste of time. :laugh2:
TAA and Robertson are nailed in my team this season. Is TAA captainable? If so can I ignore Salah and mane? Transfer in KDB/Sterling – Auba – Fernandez and captain for favourable fixtures?
Hi dennisim and welcome along.
I have Trent, Robertson and Salah in my latest draft.
I’ve seen the theory that if you aren’t going to captain Salah then it’s not worth having him and I totally disagree with that. I would still rather have a hat trick from him whether he’s my captain or not.
You don’t have to have him or Mane but the next best thing is surely the full backs.
The strategy is transfer in whichever premium mid has the best upcoming fixtures and captain them. Cycle them around based on captaincy. If TAA is a viable alternative to Salah for captaincy it narrows the pool of premiums and will need less transfers.
Then no, I wouldn’t exclude Salah in that just because you have Trent.
It’s always gonna be way more risky (c)ing a defender than a mf or fwd, but if there was a doo that delivers more than your average defender, it would Trent. But would I be comfy (c)ing him week in and week out, no.
I’d be looking to Captain TAA when Liverpool have a plum fixture and the other teams (man city, man utd, Arsenal, Chelsea) don’t. So only a few gameweeks in theory.
There are games where I think you can captain TAA it paid off for me when I did it last season. Basically low block teams that will just park the bus and are unlikely to score. Games when set pieces become important
Be careful with TAA, Jurgen has stated that he will rest him more this season, thus giving Neco Williams more game time.
You going without?
Of course he’s not.
He’s just scaremongering.
(FWIW I agree with Elle but you don’t not have him because he may miss 1 or 2 across 38).
No Smash, more about cappo choice. If its an easier game he could well be rested so your vc comes into play. Hes actually got an injury at the moment, he never went to Austria.
Surely neco Williams is backup. TAA is likely to play 30+ games
Guys. Please choose 4 from the lot. Kane, Kun, Bruno, KDB, Salah, Mane and Auba..
For me it would be Bruno, KDB, Salah and Auba.
+1
You are one lazy…
+2 :smoke:
+3
+1
Yep, the midfielders. One out of salah and Mané that is. And no matter who you pick out of those two you’ll probably have picked the wrong one 75% of the time. Atleast it’ll feel like that…
Salah, Bruno, Auba and KDB for me. Aguero mins are too inconsistent and we ain’t sure how he is after that injury. Kane is fine I’ll have him after though and he takes a while to get going it seems
Not alot of teams with ManU and ManC players in them. Those of you who hasn’t, got any of them, what’s your plan? Early wc? Take hits? Or just bring them in eventually with ft’s?
I think I’ll bench one. Likely Greenwood or Bruno. I don’t like the early wildcard because we don’t know for sure what will happen with the corona virus and random games getting called off. I don’t have a problem with a hit in week one as that can pay off long term
A this moment i have kdb and Bruno benched. Usually i wish that had 3ft’s after gw1 so i dont want any ft’s tied up in advance. But not sure if this is right way to go.
And they might go up in price after gw1….
Still, auba or someone that could take their place could score big…
Tough one…..
Which way are you leaning between Greenwood and Bruno or are you planning on having both?
Yeah ideally I want both. Problem is I don’t see many alternatives to Greenwood at lower than 7.5. Ziyech is 8 but ideally I need lower
Greenwood is at the price where it’s more ok to bench.
That’s exactly where I’m hitting a snag as well. The next possibly decent ones are 5.5 or Pereira but I want to give him the ‘eye’ test before bringing him in.
I keep hitting the brick wall of taking out Auba and Son for Bruno and KDB week one (-4) But obviously Auba has West Ham
I’m keeping Auba for the first two. KDB can wait another week. Right now I’ve actually got 2 drafts one with nothing itb which could hurt me in price rises the other has 0.5 itb so I can be more relaxed about it.
Yeah that’s the thing I want Auba for the first two but also want Greenwood. That’s where I’m hitting problems and would prefer a 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 with three 4.5s
I’ve been thinking about maybe take a punt on barnes at 7.0
Yeah Barnes ain’t a bad shout
Right now I have Bruno on the bench and plan to do Auba to KDB in GW3
I can’t see myself leaving anything near 10M on the bench for any player GW1. I may have a placeholder for a single spot and then work my way up to capacity on the Manchester teams, but completely closing up shop during GW1 with no subs and lost money…I just can’t do it.
For me it will be bench Greenwood and likely take -4 for KDB and Bruno
That’s what I keep coming back to
Do you think we might start the season with a Friday night match? Could be some panic if we did? Bruno and KDB going up and Salah and PEA going down before they even play?
That would be brilliant. And yes my guess is there probably will be a Friday night game.
I hope it’s the WHU v NEW game. Just a giant hole of a game with low ownership % that locks everybody into a decision on big assets before they see the first Saturday team sheets. I would expect nothing less from 2020.
Yep probably. Is it impossible for United and City not to play too. You might also get people taking KDB and Bruno our though as they did not play is another thought
Or may be some shamlessly chasing the money with an early WC?
I shudder to see the rest of that team!!
A lot of promoted players…
6 players at 55.5 there
2 keepers at 8.5
1 defender at 4.0
3 defenders at 4.5
1 defender at 7.5
1 forward at 4.5
1 mid at 12.0
Unless I did the math wrong, it should still be a decent side. Think there is 3.5 left to improve the side.
I did do the math wrong, but you can still end up with something like this with .5 in the bank.
Yeah looks fine to me. No Salah remember
Playing a 1-5-1-0 for week one? Why not just start at GW2 ?
Hey,
I don’t follow the reasoning for this? Can someone enlighten me?
It may be a wrong assumption, but as both Manchester clubs look to be blanking GW1, you would assume ownership of their players would be very low. Given the number of transfers in likely in the early weeks a WC to the side above before GW2 would gain significant TV early on and would be a differential of sorts. It’s probably not recommended to be fair, but it’s one possible tactic.
I think if anyone had this plan, would they be better off not registering a team till gw1 has started and not using their wc so early?
But WC does not increase TV value. If more number of managers activate the WC in Gw2, there may not be price increase as expected.
Valid tactic Stone Frog. I’ll probably bench Greenwood and bring in KDB and Bruno after GW1. But the TV gain may not be what you expect. Many teams will opt to bench one or the other GW1 so less transfers in. And many will pick Auba or Kane/Son and keep them for at least GW2 before changing
I don’t think the early – e.g. GW2 – wildcard is the worst tactic and it allows you to relax a bit and pile the side up with the best GW1 players.
Numerous disadvantages to playing an early wildcard, of course.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bit of it going on.
Loads will be on it. There’ll be the usual people who panic and play it, idiots like me last season who do it drunk, and then throw in those who plan for it. Not to mention the people who don’t even look at the fixtures so have no idea that United and City blank (I know at least 3 people personally who this applies to). So all in all, at least if you plan for it you’re going to have a free hit in GW1, no big players on your bench, no money stashed down the back of the sofa and potentially ahead of the curve! However, the talk is that with potential blanks and doubles in 18/19 it may be better saved for a rainy (GW16) day :good:
Plus the 26% of people who have Pope even though he also blanks! Could mean price rises won’t be a factor until GW3