Brighton & Hove Albion FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Brighton: the value club nobody's arguing about

Brighton take penalties, free-kicks and corners through one man, and he costs £5.5m. That's the whole pitch, really. Pascal Groß is on everything dead-ball shaped, he's started every game, and our model has him as the pick of the entire Brighton squad over the next six — a genuinely good return for the price, owned by fewer than 2 in 10. In an app that exists to find value, this is what it looks like.

The wider case: our projections rate Brighton as one of the league's sharpest attacks and one of its meanest defences — top four at both ends — and the fixtures oblige. Coventry away, Sunderland away and Palace at home are the sort of games where both goals and clean sheets are live. The honest caveat sits at the end of the run: Liverpool and Manchester City away in weeks five and six. This is a buy-now-for-the-front-four proposition, not a set-and-forget.

So which end do you buy? Both, arguably, but the defence is where the pricing gets silly. De Cuyper at £4.7m is nailed, on corners, and projected to out-score plenty of defenders a pound dearer. Verbruggen at £4.5m is the most-owned Brighton asset for a reason — a keeper behind a top-four defence at bottom-shelf money. And if you want the deep cut, Boscagli at £4.5m starts every week, projects nearly as well as De Cuyper, and almost nobody owns him. Dry as it sounds: three starters at £4.7m or under, all playing, all behind a mean defence, is how you fund a Haaland.

The attack is where I'd be pickier. Diego Gomez at £5.0m is interesting — nailed, cheap, barely 1 in 20 own him — but Groß outranks him for a reason, and 50p is not a reason to take the second-best midfielder at the club. If you're buying one Brighton attacker, it's Groß. The man on the penalties usually is.

What changes the call? If Groß's minutes wobble or the team news turns, revisit. And plan an exit or a bench spot around the Liverpool and City trips.

The call: buy into Brighton now, through Groß first and one defender second — De Cuyper if you have the 20p, Boscagli if you don't. Start them through the first four, then reassess before Anfield.