After surviving another season in the Premier League, surely now is the time for Brighton to kick on and aim for that top half finish.
Despite another Premier League campaign secured, progress has been minimal under Graham Potter despite the obvious improvement in the brand of football played. Signings will surely be needed to boost Brighton from a 15th placed finish. In fact, they only surpassed the magic 40 point barrier thanks to a (albeit impressive) final day victory away at Burnley.
From a fantasy perspective, Brighton are a bit of a nightmare, both in terms of assets and in terms of rotation. There’s definitely value in there but it’ll take skill and patience to find it.
Predicted Lineup
Graham Potter makes Pep Guardiola seem predictable at times so this lineup prediction is very a much guess work.
Experienced former Ajax captain Joel Veltman has already been brought in so could easily slot straight into that back line. Fantrax managers will hope that isn’t at the expense of the world’s tallest left back Dan Burn who is arguably Brighton’s best asset due to all of the defensive ghost points he wins. Adam Lallana has also signed on a free which could be interesting.
Leandro Trossard could be the star man going into the season. He looks to be finding his feet in the Premier League, especially if you take his performance against champions Liverpool into account. Aaron Mooy and Pascal Gross are also very useful fantasy assets but it seems 25 and 22 starts respectively isn’t good enough.
Last Season’s star players
- Dan Burn, 264 points, 7.76ppg
- Neal Maupay, 251 points, 6.78ppg
- Leandro Trossard, 240.5 points, 7.76ppg
- Lewis Dunk, 237.5 points, 6.6ppg
- Mat Ryan, 22 points, 5.79
Set piece takers
Free Kicks – Mooy, Gross, Trossard
Corners – Mooy Gross, Trossard
Penalties – Maupay, Gross
Ones to watch
It’ll be intriguing to see where Premier League winner Adam Lallana fits into the starting XI and also whether he proves to be a viable fantasy asset once again. The midfielder managed a very useful eight goals and seven assists in his most productive season at Liverpool in 2016/17 while nine goals and eight assists with Southampton before securing his big move shows he’s always had potential to be a useful fantasy player. It remains to be seen how he will be managed by Potter and what role he takes up in the Brighton XI but he’s definitely worth a late round punt.
Meanwhile, I’m expecting bigger things from Trossard this season. The Belgian was going around the 4th or 5th round last summer but his value will almost certainly drop ahead of this year’s drafts. I fully expect him to improve on last year’s output of five goals and three assists. He will be very disappointed if he doesn’t, as will his manager.
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