Brighton FPL Gameweek 11: Solly March can silence the Saints
Having inspired Jurgen Klopp to turn his rantometer up to 11 following last Saturday’s 1-1 draw at the Amex, Brighton will be hoping to rile another bunch of high-fliers when Southampton visit the Amex for FPL gameweek 11 – and success could hinge on the severely underrated Solly March.
The Saints might be sitting snugly in sixth place at present, but they have produced a mixed bag of results on the road. No team has allowed more shots on target away from home (29), and the one and only clean sheet they’ve kept took place at Burnley way back in gameweek 3.
Middle March
That suggests goals could come for the Albion but with Neal Maupay (£6.3 million) a doubt, the question is who is going to score them? One Brighton player who might be overlooked in that regard is Solly March (£5.0 million) who certainly has some form coming into FPL gameweek 10.
He has been a consistent performer this campaign. Among Brighton players, only Maupay has scored more points (39) in Fantasy Premier League than March’s 37.
Some of that is down to the faith Graham Potter has shown in March – he has started all but one of Brighton’s league games this season and that match he missed was due to injury.
March has put all that pitch time to fairly good use, with solid stats across chances created (10), penalty area touches (27) and attempts (nine).
He was also voted as our WAB Brighton Player of the Month for October and topped the Power Rankings which rate every Albion player’s performance in the same month. Not bad going for a bloke who was a bit of a marmite player before this season.
Forward Thinking
Another player who may cause the Saints problems is Aaron Connolly (£5.3 million). There was plenty to like about the way he performed on his first start since October in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
The striker worked well with Danny Welbeck (£5.5 million) up top last time out and he was both an unlucky man and an unhappy man when subbed off for Adam Lallana 62 minutes into a livewire showing.
Connolly has found his game time limited to 350 minutes so far this season but he has still chipped in with a goal and an assist. He has the pace to trouble a Southampton defence that generally plays a high line and is pleasingly cheap, in FPL terms, for those on a budget.
For true speed, of course, look no further than the returning Tariq Lamptey (£4.8 million), although he will be operating down Southampton’s left flank – an area of the pitch where the Saints have allowed just 20 chances this season (the league’s fourth-best total) compared to the 35 they have conceded on the opposite side (the fifth-worst).
Another reason to think hard about including March.
Captaincy Corner
Manchester City’s match with Fulham will tempt many FPL managers to hand the armband to one of Pep Guardiola’s stars, but the red half of the town could offer you more.
Manchester United travel to West Ham United with an away record far in advance of their awful Old Trafford form. And in Bruno Fernandes (£10.9m) they have a man even happier to play away than John Terry in his prime.
Fernandes has delivered double-digit returns in all four games on the road this season, including a 12-pointer at the Amex in gameweek 3, and has produced either a goal or an assist in every away match in the league since joining United in January.
Whatever you decide, there is a little longer to think about it – the FPL gameweek 10 deadline has reverted to 11am on Saturday after Friday night’s fixture between Aston Villa and Newcastle United was called off because of a Covid outbreak amongst the Toon Army squad.
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