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

Brighton: the value's at the back, and it's not close

Brighton run one of the meanest defences in the league — top four by our model — and the fixtures are about to be very kind to it. Coventry away, Sunderland away and Palace at home in the next four is the sort of run cheap defenders are bought for. The catch sits at the end of the window: Liverpool and City away in Gameweeks 5 and 6. So this is a buy-now proposition, not a buy-eventually one.

The tables tell you who costs what. What they don't tell you is where the value actually sits — and it's the defensive end, comfortably. The attack is decent (third-best in the league on our numbers) but the fixtures for it are only average, and Brighton spread their goals around too much for one forward to hog the points.

De Cuyper is the pick, and the reasons are boringly practical: he starts every week, he's on corners, and at £4.8m he's the cheapest route into that clean-sheet run with attacking involvement thrown in. About 2 in 10 managers already have him, so he's no secret — but he's not template yet either. Buy before Coventry, not after.

Groß is the one attacking Brighton asset I'd entertain, purely because he's on everything — penalties, free kicks, corners — and he never gets subbed off. Midfielders who take pens at £5.6m don't grow on trees. He tops our Brighton projections for the next six and only about 1.5 in 10 own him.

If you're truly scraping the budget, Boscagli at £4.5m starts every week and virtually nobody owns him — same clean sheets as the dearer names for less. I'd steer clear of Kadıoğlu for now: cheapest of the lot, but he's only started two of three, and a cheap defender who might not play is worth nothing. Verbruggen is a perfectly serviceable £4.5m keeper if the slot's open.

What changes the call? Nothing before Gameweek 5. After Palace at home, the Liverpool and City trips make the defenders benchable, so plan your move accordingly.

The call: buy De Cuyper now for the four-match clean-sheet run, Groß if you want the set-piece points on top. Get in before Coventry, and don't be shy about benching the defence when the big two come around.