Gameday Squad EPL Matchday 1 Preview

The English Premier League is finally back and with it the start of GameDay Squad’s Football platform. We’re here to examine the first round, tell you who the key players are and offer up a smokey or two to, potentially, win you some competitions.

Firstly, we’ll take a look at the key matchups, which we’ll further breakdown to each position.

Kicking things off with the goalkeepers. Logically you’d assume punches and high claims (two scoring metrics for goalkeepers) would be performed at a higher rate from corners, so let’s take a look at corners- specifically teams that finished outside of the top few spots on the overall table who took high amounts of corners. Tottenham (4th for corners), Bournemouth (7th) and Fulham (9th) all meet this criteria. While for clean sheets Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Newcastle and Forest were the top five last season.

Therefore, the key matchups for goalkeepers are:

●     Liverpool v Bournemouth: the clean sheet leaders from last year come up against the corner merchants, who haven’t lost any of their attacking line at this stage. Alisson appears a likely pick.

●     Tottenham v Burnley: a corner heavy and attacking team in Spurs meet the newly promoted defensive juggernauts, Burnley. Known for their clean sheets, before losing their goalkeeper to Man City, can their replacement still keep one? It could be Weiss or it could be Dubravka. Given the uncertainty on the starter it is probably best to avoid.

●     Brighton v Fulham: an even matchup on paper could result in either or both keepers conceding a number of shots… while still maintaining a clean sheet. Verbruggen could be the pick if Fulham find their corner mojo.

●     Man City v Wolves: a classic story of David v Goliath. Man City, despite a poor season (to their high standards), still managed to be third for clean sheets last season and are likely to continue on their way this season, particularly after Wolves lost their star man in Cunha. The question is does new signing Trafford start? Or will Ederson maintain his place despite transfer rumours?

●     Man Utd v Arsenal: a redemption arc on the back of key attacking signings could eventuate here as United match up with clean sheet kings in Arsenal. If Arsenal do hold the clean sheet here it is likely going to be off the back of some saves from Raya.

Onto the defenders, and with attacking returns, from defenders, hard to determine we’ll mainly focus on potential clean sheet returns here.

●     Liverpool v Bournemouth: while Bournemouth haven’t yet lost any of their attacking talent, they have lost three of their four starting defenders from last season. This is likely to cause some sort of problem with the team cohesion, which could result in an already strong Liverpool defence keeping things clean at the back. Due to the strength of the Bournemouth attack it is likely players such as Van Dijk and Konate will accumulate some sort of combination of blocks, interceptions, tackles and aerial duels. Liverpool fullbacks (Kerkez and Frimpong) are always relevant picks outside of games versus top 6 teams, due to the style Liverpool play.

●     Man City v Wolves: a matchup that SHOULD result in a clean sheet for the City defenders and potential attacking returns with how high up the field their fullbacks play. The only catch is who will actually play, given Pep loves to rotate. Ait-Nouri appears to be the best bet here, as well as the versatile Gvardiol, however be cautious as he did miss their last friendly due to not being fully fit.

●     Leeds v Everton: the ever strong defense of Everton takes on newly promoted Leeds. While Leeds did lead the Championship for goals scored last season, they could find it hard to score here. The defensive beast in Tarkowski is likely to score well in GDS.

●     Nottingham Forest v Brentford: a likely close affair shouldn’t feature too many goals, as while Forest have been dominant defensively, in pre-season, they’ve struggled offensively. Brentford do still have the attacking quality to draw some defensive contributions out of Murillo and/or Milenkovic.

●     Man Utd v Arsenal: as previously mentioned, Arsenal may be forced into some defensive work from the likes of Cunha and Mbeumo in this one, which could result in good scores from Saliba, Gabriel and/or Timber.

Now we move to the midfielders. The scoring system benefits all types of midfielders, attacking midfielders are the priority given the sheer amount of points on offer for actions such as goals, assists, key passes and shots on target. Of the top 25 players last season for key passes nine were attacking midfielders, six were deeper lying midfielders, five were wide midfielders/wingers, while the remaining were fullbacks or strikers. For shots on target, six of the top 25 were attacking midfielders, seven were wide midfielders/wingers and the rest were strikers. Due to the two points on offer for these two stats, we can see that the attacking minded or wide midfielders are still preferable to pick, however deeper lying midfielders get the advantage of being more likely to accumulate defensive contributions (interceptions, successful tackles etc.). For the matchups we’ll look at attacking midfielders with easier fixtures, while also looking at dominant central midfielders in 50/50 games.

●     Wolves v Man City: a game where selection is crucial. There’s a lot of uncertainty around who’ll start in the City midfield, particularly the attacking positions. Foden would be an obvious choice, if there wasn’t an injury cloud over him. This leaves Cherki and Reijnders. Will both start?

●     Aston Villa v Newcastle: as close to an even contest as we’ll likely see this round. Key midfielders in Tielemans and Guimaraes could help sway the result in their team’s favour as they both performed well in key GDS scoring areas.

●     Nottingham Forest v Brentford: as already mentioned, a fairly even contest is expected in this one. Elliot Anderson is a defensive contribution beast, who could do the dirty work and rack up points in a close affair here.

●     Manchester United v Arsenal: Given the quality, now, in the United attack the Arsenal midfield can also expect to put in a shift for this one and it is central midfielder Declan Rice who could benefit the most. After discovering his attacking qualities last season, if he’s able to tap back into his defensive ones he could be set for a very high scoring round.

Finally, we examine the forward’s key matchups. So who’s scoring the goals this week? We’ll target matchups against weaker defenses.

●     Liverpool v Bournemouth: we already mentioned Bournemouth’s key losses in defence and that’s likely to pave the way for opening day expert (most goals on opening day in the Premier League) Salah to strike or his partner in crime, left winger, Gakpo who has scored an impressive four goals this pre-season.

●     Tottenham v Burnley: after the loss of James Trafford, I’m predicting Burnley’s defensive strength to dissipate, which could open the door for Solanke or Richarlison to impact.

●     Sunderland v West Ham: a return to the Premier League for Sunderland has meant they’ve spent big this transfer window, however I’m doubtful it’ll be enough to stop the likes of Bowen and Fullkrug.

●     Wolves v Man City: in what is likely to be a game that City scores several times in, expect dominant displays from Haaland and Marmoush.

Now that we’ve found the key matchups and players to pick, let's rank the top 10 (top five for keepers) players, in no specific order, for each position this round, along with unique choices.

Goalkeepers:

●     Raya

●     Pickford

●     Alisson

●     Verbruggen

●     Sels

Uniques: Trafford and Kelleher

Defenders:

●     Ait-Nouri

●     Tarkowski

●     Van Dijk

●     Kerkez

●     Porro

●     Gvardiol

●     Wan Bissaka

●     Milenkovic

●     Murillo

●     Gabriel

Uniques: Kilman and Romero

Midfielders:

●     Wirtz

●     Palmer

●     Enzo

●     Rice

●     Fernandes

●     Guimaraes

●     Kudus

●     Anderson

●     Tielemans

●     Mitoma

Uniques: Caicedo and Gibbs-White

Forwards:

●     Haaland

●     Marmoush

●     Saka

●     Gakpo

●     Salah

●     Bowen

●     Joao Pedro

●     Watkins

●     Wood

●     Gyokeres

Uniques: Richarlison and Fullkrug

…And that’s a wrap. Happy team selection and good luck with the opening round of GDS Football!