Update (Friday 13 November, morning). Gvardiol played the full 90 minutes on Thursday as England beat Croatia 2-1. He was not substituted and match reports mention no new injury. The point we made in this article stands: selling him blind was premature. In the game he is still flagged at 75%, and 290,000 managers have now sold him (281,000 when we published). The flag will most likely only go once he is back at his club, and Enzo Maresca will have the final word in his press conference before the Fulham match. Our advice has not changed: if you own Gvardiol, do not sell him now.
From the same match: Morgan Rogers scored for England (24 minutes, set up by Jude Bellingham) and Harry Kane added a penalty in the 64th minute. Petar Sučić scored for Croatia in the 59th minute. Luka Vušković (Brighton, rated 86 by our model, 9.3% owned), Elliot Anderson (Manchester City), Lewis Hall (Newcastle, 18.2%) and Jordan Pickford (Everton) also played the whole match. Declan Rice came off in the 77th minute. Match reports mention no injury and he has no flag in the game.
What comes next in the break: on Friday at 19:45 UK time the Netherlands play Greece without van Dijk and Brobbey, and Slovenia play Switzerland without Manzambi. On Saturday at 17:00 Georgia play Hungary and Norway play Wales. That is when we will learn whether Szoboszlai plays and whether Haaland and Ødegaard are fully fit. On Sunday England play in Spain.
Managerial changes: according to ESPN (Friday morning), Mauricio Pochettino has agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Manchester United, with an official announcement expected on Friday. United will pay US Soccer the $10m (about £7.5m) release clause, and Pochettino is due at Carrington on Wednesday. More in our piece on Carrick’s sacking. An hour after Carrick, Crystal Palace also sacked Pierre Sage. The club are bottom of the table with seven points after four straight league defeats.
The international break is only a few days old and nine players owned by at least 1% of managers have already been flagged in FPL. Three popular picks have left their national squads: Marc Guéhi (England), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands) and, on Thursday, Johan Manzambi (Switzerland). The Gameweek 11 deadline is Saturday 21 November at 11:00 UK time, so there are still nine days to decide.
The key points
- Guéhi (Manchester City, 14.1% owned) has a hip problem and is out of the England squad. 137,000 managers have already sold him.
- Gvardiol (Manchester City, 22.7%) came off at half-time in the same match but stayed with Croatia and starts against England at Wembley tonight. Even so, 281,000 managers have sold him. Only João Pedro has been sold more since the last deadline.
- Van Dijk (Liverpool, 14.9%) will miss the Netherlands’ matches against Greece and Germany. The Dutch federation said he is not fully fit.
- Manzambi (Aston Villa, 8.6%) has returned to his club with a calf problem. 67,000 managers bought him this week, before the flag appeared.
- Haaland and Ødegaard missed one Norway training session but were back the next day. Neither is flagged.
- Manchester United sacked Michael Carrick on Thursday morning. According to Sky Sports, Mauricio Pochettino is set to take over.
Who has been flagged during the break
| Player | Club | Owned | Status in the game | Our rating | Gameweek 11 fixture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gvardiol | MCI | 22.7% | 75% chance of playing | 70, hold | Fulham (home) |
| Van Dijk | LIV | 14.9% | 75% chance of playing | 79, hold | Man Utd (home) |
| Guéhi | MCI | 14.1% | 75% chance of playing | 66, risky | Fulham (home) |
| Belloumi | HUL | 9.6% | 75%, hamstring | 78, hold | Brighton (home) |
| Manzambi | AVL | 8.6% | 75%, calf | 85, buy | Sunderland (home) |
| Igor Thiago | BRE | 8.1% | suspended until 5 December | 73, hold | will not play |
| Maguire | MUN | 5.1% | 75%, back | 70, hold | Liverpool (away) |
| Brobbey | SUN | 4.7% | 75%, muscle injury | 72, hold | Aston Villa (away) |
| Xhaka | SUN | 2.6% | 75%, calf | 75, hold | Aston Villa (away) |
Data from the official game and our rating engine on Thursday 12 November. A “75%” flag in the game is only a general signal. Below is what the federations and clubs have actually said about each case.
Manchester City: two defenders, two different situations
Guéhi and Gvardiol came off together at half-time of the 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest. Enzo Maresca said after the match that both had a fitness problem and both asked to be replaced. Since then their paths have split.
Guéhi has a hip problem that had reportedly been bothering him for several weeks. He has had a scan, but the result has not been made public. England withdrew him from the squad and called up Newcastle’s Dan Burn in his place. Guéhi has stayed at his club to prepare for the Fulham match. Our rating is now 66 (“risky”) and he is on the sell list on our Who to Buy page. If he does not make it, Khusanov is the likely partner for Rúben Dias.
Gvardiol was not withdrawn from the Croatia squad and, according to reports from the camp, the staff consider him fit to play. Croatia face England at Wembley tonight, Thursday, at 19:45 UK time, and Gvardiol is in the starting line-up announced an hour before kick-off. The sale of 281,000 copies looks premature. There is another side to it, though: City have lost three league matches in a row and our rating for Gvardiol is 70 (“hold”), so he is not a player to defend at any cost.
City open Gameweek 11 at home to Fulham on Saturday at 12:30, an hour and a half after the deadline. You will only see the line-up once transfers are closed.
Liverpool: van Dijk rests, Szoboszlai waits for a decision
The Dutch federation said on Monday that van Dijk and Brobbey are not fit enough to play against Greece (Friday) and Germany (Monday). No replacements were called up. Journalist James Pearce reports that the Liverpool captain has been playing with a minor problem for several weeks. He has not missed a minute in the league this season: 900 out of 900, including the full match at Crystal Palace (3-1). Two weeks without a game looks more like rest than a reason for alarm. Our rating: 79, “hold”.
Szoboszlai (13.4% owned) sprained his knee at Selhurst Park and came off in the 69th minute. The Hungarian federation said he has stayed with the squad and a decision on whether he plays will be made at the last minute. Hungary face Georgia on Saturday and Northern Ireland on Tuesday. He is not flagged in the game. It is worth remembering that a month ago he came back from international duty injured and missed several Liverpool matches.
Liverpool host Manchester United in Gameweek 11 on Sunday 22 November at 16:30.
Aston Villa: Manzambi is back at his club
The Swiss federation said on Thursday that Manzambi arrived at the camp on Monday with calf pain and has not improved enough to play against Slovenia (Friday) or Scotland (Monday). In agreement with Aston Villa he has returned to his club. Sports Mole’s assessment is that his place against Sunderland on 21 November is in doubt.
That is bad news for the 67,000 managers who bought him this week. Manzambi costs £6.2m and has 40 points from just 461 minutes. Our model still gives him 85 (“buy”), because a 75% flag only lowers the rating slightly. What the model does not know is what the Swiss medical staff found.
Our advice: do not buy him now. If you own him, wait for Unai Emery’s press conference before the match. We rate two fit players from the same club higher: McGinn (£5.4m, rated 90, only 3.6% owned) and Nicolas Jackson (£7.1m, rated 92).
Sunderland, Hull and Brentford in brief
- Brobbey (Sunderland). According to Dutch journalists he has a small muscle injury and faces a few weeks out. The game shows 75%, but this is another case this season where the flag is milder than the reports. Brobbey also came back injured from the September break, as we covered in our piece on the Semenyo and Brobbey injuries. If you own him, he is a good candidate to sell.
- Xhaka (Sunderland). He came off after a few minutes against Chelsea with a calf injury and is out of the Switzerland squad.
- Belloumi (Hull). He missed the Arsenal match with a hamstring problem. Hull host Brighton on Sunday 22 November, a fixture rated 4 on the five-point difficulty scale. 41,000 managers have already sold him.
- Igor Thiago (Brentford). After his red card against Brighton he is suspended until 5 December. There is nothing to wait for here.
Manchester United change manager
Manchester United sacked Michael Carrick on Thursday morning. The club are 18th, in the relegation zone, with 8 points and one win from 10 matches. According to Sky Sports, Mauricio Pochettino has verbally agreed to take over. He is due to lead the United States in two more matches against Haiti and start work in Manchester next Thursday. His first match would be the trip to Anfield on Sunday 22 November. Back in the summer, when there were seven managerial changes in the league, Carrick kept his job.
In FPL this mainly concerns Bruno Fernandes (20.4% owned) and Mbeumo (19.1%). We rate both at 85, but our model does not know about the change of manager. A new head coach means a new shape and a new pecking order, and the first fixture is a hard one. We would not buy anyone from United before the new manager’s first line-up. If you own them, there is no need to sell in a hurry. Maguire came off at half-time against Aston Villa with a back spasm and is at 75% in the game.
Norway: Haaland and Ødegaard
Haaland and Ødegaard sat out Norway’s training session on Tuesday with minor issues. Both were back in training in Oslo on Wednesday. Head coach Ståle Solbakken gave no details. Norway play Wales on Saturday and Denmark on Tuesday.
Haaland is owned by 78.9% of managers and has missed only 11 league minutes this season. He is number 1 in our captain picks for Gameweek 11 (risk 8, upside 100, Fulham at home). A month ago he also came off in a Norway match and it turned out to be nothing, as we wrote in our piece on Haaland in the Norway match. For now there is no reason to worry, but Saturday’s match is worth watching.
What to do now
- Do not make blind transfers. There are nine days until the deadline and players only return from international duty on Tuesday and Wednesday. The only cost of waiting is small price drops: Gvardiol has already fallen by £0.1m.
- Sell first: João Pedro (still in 31.8% of squads, see our piece João Pedro out for several weeks), Igor Thiago and Brobbey.
- Wait before deciding: Gvardiol, van Dijk, Manzambi and Szoboszlai. You will know more about each of them in the coming days.
- Guéhi: if you have a free transfer and no playing defender on your bench, he is the first defender to replace.
- Check your squad on Thursday or Friday, 19–20 November, after the managers’ press conferences. Current flags are in our Injury Centre.
Who to bring in for a City defender
| Player | Club | Price | Our rating | Owned | Gameweek 11 fixture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Van Hecke | TOT | £5.1m | 90, strong buy | 14.6% | Ipswich (home) |
| De Cuyper | BHA | £5.5m | 89, buy | 47.8% | Hull (away) |
| Vušković | BHA | £5.3m | 86, buy | 9.3% | Hull (away) |
| Robertson | TOT | £4.3m | 86, buy | 2.7% | Ipswich (home) |
| Konsa | ARS | £4.8m | 81, buy | 24.5% | Newcastle (away) |
All of them are fit and cheaper than Guéhi (£6.0m). Van Hecke and Vušković are among the most-bought players of the week, so here the crowd and our model agree.
Gameweek 11 fixtures (UK time)
| Day | Time | Match |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 21 Nov | 11:00 | Deadline |
| Saturday 21 Nov | 12:30 | Manchester City v Fulham |
| Saturday 21 Nov | 15:00 | Aston Villa v Sunderland, Bournemouth v Nottingham Forest, Chelsea v Leeds, Coventry v Crystal Palace, Tottenham v Ipswich |
| Saturday 21 Nov | 17:30 | Newcastle v Arsenal |
| Sunday 22 Nov | 14:00 | Hull v Brighton |
| Sunday 22 Nov | 16:30 | Liverpool v Manchester United |
| Monday 23 Nov | 20:00 | Brentford v Everton |
We will come back to this next week, once the players are back at their clubs. For the full story of the last round see our Gameweek 10 review, and for each club’s upcoming fixture difficulty see the Fixture Ticker.
Written with the help of AI, based on data from the official Fantasy Premier League game and our rating engine on 12 November 2026, federation statements and media reports (the Dutch and Swiss federations, Sky Sports, Sports Mole, RotoWire, beIN Sports, liverpool.com). Edited and checked by our editorial team.