Heisenberg: I’m not particularly worried about it. We should gain information leading up to deadline regarding those players who went deep at the World Cup.
The Premier League deliberately pushed the season back to 21 August, giving players more than a month between the World Cup final and the start of the campaign, which should provide enough of a break.
The big one is Haaland, who didn’t look great in Manchester City’s 3-0 thrashing by Arsenal in the Community Shield and only played 53 minutes. But even so, he surely starts City’s first game against Bournemouth.
Holly: I think the World Cup will have a huge impact on the early parts of the season, with a significant number of players from Manchester City, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Liverpool going deep into the competition. Those who made the semi-finals were only scheduled to join pre-season a week ago.
I’m actively trying to avoid picking players who were involved in the latter stages of the competition. The football calendar is becoming increasingly more congested, with a full pre-season crucial to avoiding fatigue.
Pras: It is hard to look it as a blanket rule – everything depends on how far each player went in the tournament. The key checkpoint is the final pre-season friendlies, which took place over the last weekend. Anyone who logged 50 minutes of more there should be fine for gameweek one.
Players from the semi-finalists (Spain, France, England, Argentina) who are only just returning to training carry more risk. Popular assets still look largely OK, but it remains a case-by-case decision rather than a blanket avoid.
Gianni: A lack of pre-season could really impact some of FPL’s big names and I’m curious to see how many players that got to the final rounds of the World Cup start gameweek one. With this in mind, I am being cautious picking players such Rayan Cherki (£7.5m) and considering those who have had an extra month to prepare, such as Phil Foden (£7m).
