Here’s our brief summary of 5 FPL new players to the Premier League in Wesley Moraes, Moussa Djenepo, Daniel James, Pablo Fornals and Leandro Trossard. There’s stats and their prospects
FPL new players – Moraes, Djenepo, James, Fornals and Trossard
You can also see our article on new Chelsea transfer Christian Pulisic
Wesley Moraes (not on FPL yet)
Aston Villa sign 22 yo 6′ 4″ Brazilian CF Wesley Moraes for £22m from Club Brugge. 27 starts + 1 as sub in the Belgian League for 10 Goals & 9 assists. G/A every 118 minutes . No Intnl or age Group Brazilian caps
Seems likely to start given that Abraham is very likely to stay at Chelsea with the transfer ban in place and the competition only coming from Jonathan Kodja. Although Kodja started 22 games he was a sub for 19. Kodja scored 9 goals and 2 assists at a fairly unimpressive goal or assist every 185 minutes.
As far as style is concerned he is a target man but able to bring others into play which is why you see a high number of assists. This is different than Abraham who is more of a penalty box poacher who tends to look to score and offer little else. Moraes will drop deep and get involved in the play. Transfermarkt listed Calvert Lewin as a similar player.
It’s hard to know how successful he will be. Belgium isn’t one of the big 5 leagues and there is a difference in quality between this and the Premier League.
Here’s a link to a good article on him of which I got some of the above from.
Here’s his first 6 fixtures. See our attacking players fixture ease schedule
Their opening fixtures are reasonable though apart from GW1
GW1 TOT (A)
GW2 BOU (H)
GW3 EVE (H)
GW4 CRY (A)
GW5 WHU (H)
GW6 ARS (A)
Moussa Djenepo (not on FPL yet)
Southampton sign 20 yo Mali LW from Standard Liege for £14m. 19 starts +6 as sub in the Belgian League. G/A every 164 mins. 8 games for Mali who he is with at AFCON.
His stats are ok at best but again translation from the Belgian League is difficult to assess. He did score in both Europa League games against Sevilla which does give some hope.
His starting prospects are also difficult to assess given that Redmond plays as the left sided attacking midfielder in Hasenhuttl’s various formations.
This is one that pre-season will be an assessment for. AFCON finishes on the 19th of July but Mali are very much an outsider.
Here’s a reasonable article on him
Apart from Liverpool this looks a decent set of fixtures for Southampton unless Man Utd drastically improve their defence.
GW1 BUR (A)
GW2 LIV (H)
GW3 BHA (A)
GW4 MUN (H)
GW5 SHU (A)
GW6 BOU (H)
Daniel James (Mid £6.0m)
Man Utd have signed a 21 yo Welsh LW. 28 starts + 5 as sub for Swansea in 18/19. Scored 4 goals + 9 assists. G/A every 193 mins. He’s played 4 times for the Wales national team.
In 18/19 in all competitions he played 25 times on the left 6 times on the right and 5 as a CF.
If you just focus on his stats then it’s a pretty disappointing return for a player in the Championship.
This Sky Sports graphic though was more positive and apparently there was alot more improvement to the end of the season.
His pace appears to be his main asset and that is a big attraction in stretching teams so they can just defend high up the pitch and squeeze the space teams can play in.
Gametime is the interesting angle and not made easier by Solskjaer’s tinkering with formation and personnel. In his 21 PL games Solskjaer played 4-3-3 five times, 4-2-3-1 three times and 4-3-1-2 nine times including in all of the last 3 ill fated games. In 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 he would primarily fit in on the left of the attacking slots. The fact that I am even writing this as a possibility shows how far Sanchez’s and Martial’s stock has fallen. James can play on the right but you’re are asking a player with little experience to take a big jump up and also play in his non favoured position. In Solskjaer’s most used formation he presumably would play as the striker or the number 10. Again hardly an ideal way to start him.
Another for preseason monitoring.
Here’s a link to the Sky Sports article on him
GW1 CHE (H)
GW2 WOL (A)
GW3 CRY (H)
GW4 SOU (A)
GW5 LEI (H)
GW6 WHU (A)
Pablo Fornals (Mid £6.5m)
West Ham have signed a 23 yo 5’10” Spanish AM Pablo Fornals from Villarreal for £24m. 2 goals & 3 assists, 4 YCs in 29 starts + 6 as sub in La Liga 18/19. G/A every 496 mins. 2 games for Spain.
It’s not really fair to judge players solely on stats but his are absolutely terrible. Our Spanish expert Sergio Torija made a good point about him in the FFGeek Podcast in that he played for a pretty awful Villareal team. If you look at his 17/18 stats they were much better with 3 goals and 12 assists in 29 starts plus 6 sub appearances at a goal or assist every 175 minutes so that’s far more positive.
As for game time West Ham mainly played 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1 although in reality they weren’t particularly different as Noble would play in the 4 instead of the double pivot with Rice.
If you assume Arnautovic starts as a striker (not guaranteed he could return as an AM) then I expect Anderson and Lanzini to start whatever in the midfield and then it’s between Antonio, Snodgrass and Fornals for the other spot. There has been some talk earlier of Lanzini leaving which would make things far easier for Fornals to start.
Otherwise again it’s a preseason monitor
Here’s a link to an article on him:
GW1 MCI (H)
GW2 BHA (A)
GW3 WAT (A)
GW4 NOR (H)
GW5 AVL (A)
GW6 MUN (H)
Leandro Trossard (£6.0m)
Brighton have signed Belgian Trossard from Genk. He’s a 24 yo LW who made 23 starts in 18/19 for 11 goals and 4 assists with a goal or assist every 131 minutes. He played once for the Belgian U21 team
Great stats although as I’ve said above the Belgian League and the Premier League are a big transition.
In terms of style he seems a pacy dribbling winger who obviously can also score goals.
The transfer was only £15m and for a young player it comes with little downside for Brighton I imagine. With Izquierdo and March already there for the LW position and Jhanbakhsh and Knockaert who can also play there it does seem to be a low priority transfer give the need for a striker. If he’s successful though he should add goals to the team.
The gametime question is further confused by a new manager in place so last seasons all out defence by Hughton will help us little as we think about GW1 this season.
Another pre-season monitor
Here’s a link to an article on him
GW1 WAT (A)
GW2 WHU (H)
GW3 SOU (H)
GW4 MCI (A)
GW5 BUR (H)
GW6 NEW (A)
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