Iraola on Culls + injury update

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There’s one more Gameweek 24 game of the weekend worth recapping in our Scout Notes: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Bournemouth.

TAVERNIER INJURY UPDATE

We start with Bournemouth’s injury update which actually came on Friday but is embargoed until Saturday.

This concerns, among other things, Marcus Tavernier (£5.4 million), who was on the FPL radar as a penalty-taking midfielder before injury struck.

Gameweek 27 is his likely return date, with David Brooks (£5.0 million) and Tyler Adams (£4.9m) is also close to returning.

“With Tav, the injury is smaller, but I think he still needs two, three weeks, more or less, two weeks.

“I think we will play Aston Villa, Everton. I don’t think he will arrive because we are talking about 10 days.

“I don’t think he’ll be ready for this. But from there, after that game, he might have a chance.”

“I think the next thing we have to recover is [David] Brooksy, and then Tyler [Adams]Tav, I think that’s the next one, I think.” – Andoni Iraola, via Bournemouth Echo

IRAOLA IN KROUPI AFTER BUDGET FORWARD SCORE

Eli Kroupi (£4.7m) has benefited from Bournemouth’s recent injury crisis, and especially his absences Justin Kluivert (£7.0 million).

He made his fourth consecutive start in the ’10’ role vacated by Kluivert on Saturday, bagging the Cherries’ first goal of the afternoon with a superb effort. Amazingly, despite limited playing time in the 2025/26 season, it was his eighth Premier League goal of the season.

Above: Kroupi leads in terms of minutes per goal in 2025/26

His finishing ability is beyond doubt.

Kroupi has the best shot-on-goal conversion rate of any FPL striker this season (38.1%). He is also the first to overachieve xG (+4.21).

Compare with Evanilson (£7.1 million):

It was this ‘other thing’ – the kind of corruption that endeared Evanilson to Iraola – that Kroupi had to continually prove to his manager.

“That’s something we know very clearly: if we can put him around the box, give him the chance to finish, he will produce results, he will score goals.

“With him, the important thing is how we can make it work, playing almost with two ‘nines’. We know that we will lose a little, maybe, [in] Our pressure, our intensity, our duels, were few, but he tried. He does a lot of work, so we can keep him on the field and he can get these opportunities.

“Yes [we are working hard with him on the ’10’ role]especially now that we have Justin [Kluivert] go out. We gave him a lot of minutes and started in the number 10 position because if he can give us some of the things that other players like Ryan Christie or Alex Toth or Justin give us, he’s an attacking player, giving us numbers.

“He started [the season] may play less but he has earned the right with his work to play more on the field and I encourage him to continue in the same way. I won’t judge him for his goals; I know he has this. I demand other aspects of his game and he is trying.” – Andoni Iroala on Eli Kroupi

Kroupi came off again before the 70th minute; it has happened in eight of his 10 league appearances this season.

DELAY FOR DEBUT

The new wonderkid from Brazil made his debut on Saturday.

RYAN (£5.5m), the versatile winger signed this January, came on in the 68th minute, replacing him Amen Adli (£5.4m) on the left wing.

However, it seems Iraola prefers him on the opposite wing.

“Maybe he plays more on the right wing, but they pressed a lot from that side, so we decided to save him a little defensively and put him on the left.” – Andoni Iraola about Rayan

Rayan almost bagged an assist when releasing new players and substitutes Alex Toth (£5.0m) at the break but then has done get the reward soon after, crossing over Alex Scott (£5.0 million) to ensure victory.

THE CLEAN SHEET WAS WAITING FOR CHERRI – BUT LUCKY

Bournemouth secured their first away clean sheet since Gameweek 3 at Molineux. This is the first time they have missed out on any venue in nine league games.

Budget purchases James Hill (£3.9m) start their sixth consecutive game together Mark Senesi (£4.8m) at centre-back. And, for the sixth straight game (he was improved to 10th, post-FPL-cut-off, in Gameweek 21!), Hill reached the DefCon threshold:

Above: Players meet the DefCon threshold at Molineux on Saturday

But this clean sheet was due more to luck than judgement.

Wolves had lots of chances. Three Arokodares (£5.4m) fired straight at Petrovic’s legs from eight yards and fired high after doing everything right to put himself in a shooting position. Jorgen Strand Larsen (£6.1m) missed a big chance wide. João Gomes (£5.3m) hit the post from a corner. Matoe from Manne (£4.6m), who registered four legal shots from outside the box, also saw a goal ruled out for offside.

If so, not entirely convincing from the Cherries.

“I think this match is more balanced than the score 2-0 [scoreline] he said.” – Andoni Iraola

MOSQUERA ON NINE BOOKINGS AHEAD OF POSSIBLE DOUBLE GAMEWEEK 26

For Wolves, all eyes are on the result of Tuesday’s EFL Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea.

The Gunners win and it’s Double Match Week 26 for Wolves.

Apart from Mane, there isn’t much in Rob Edwards’ squad that FPL managers are interested in, even with two games under their belt.

Yerson Mosque (£4.3m) may have attracted interest as a DefCon machine but he now has nine bookings for the season. One more before Wolves play 32 games and he will serve a two-match ban.