Brighton FPL Gameweek 15: Managers making Mitoma their man
Matches come thick and fast at this time of year – as traditional as turkeys, gifts and crackers. Kaoru Mitoma and Carlos Baleba have been in the goals for Brighton in the space of six days and whilst that is good news for their FPL managers, only one point was earned from games against Fulham and Southampton.
Mitoma (£6.5 million) headed the Albion into a first half lead at home to the Saints. A superb cushioned touch by Joao Pedro (£5.8 million) set up Baleba (£5.0 million) for long-range strike at Fulham but it proved a mere consolation.
Just three days after travelling to Craven Cottage, Brighton head to Leicester City to take on a Foxes side under the new management of Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Taking all this into account, here are a couple of interesting Gameweek 15 players for FPL managers to consider.
Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5 million)
Around 400,000 FPL managers have purchased Mitoma in the last week, triggered by consecutive goals as Brighton beat Bournemouth and then drew with Southampton.
Mitoma might have added an assist at Fulham for those FPL bosses who already owned him when his low cross from the Brighton left found Simon Adingra (£5.3 million). Unfortunately though, Adingra put a close range effort too close to Bernd Leno, who made the save.
Nobody at the Albion has played more minutes than Mitoma this season, partly explaining why he dominated the underlying attacking stats.
The Japaneses international is number one for setting up chances (18), creating big efforts (five) and touches inside the penalty area (78).
Mitoma is also joint-best for big chances (nine) and narrowly behind Danny Welbeck (£5.9 million) when it comes to shots on target (11).
As upcoming opponents Leicester rank inside the worst three for various defensive factors, Mitoma could be a very useful replacement for out-of-form Bryan Mbeumo (£7.7 million) sellers – especially as it offers an extra million to spend elsewhere.
Lewis Dunk (£4.4 million)
Thursday night against the Cottagers saw the return of Brighton captain Lewis Dunk (£4.4 million). The Albion have not bagged a clean sheet since Gameweek 8 against Newcastle United, the last match Dunk started before picking up a calf injury when warming up the following week against Wolves.
Dunk has subsequently seen his FPL price drop, so this run of appealing fixtures for Brighton makes him seem like something of a bargain.
The Albion will be hoping for improved defensive performances against Leicester, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Brentford – whilst Dunk was also one of the best defenders for attacking numbers in FPL last season.
He scored three times and ended 2023-24 as the third-best defender for headed chances (21) and joint-third for shots inside the box (27).
Captaincy
Staying on the subject of captains, it’s getting almost impossible for Fantasy managers to opt against Mohamed Salah (£13.3 million).
His midweek 18 points as Liverpool and Newcastle played out a 3-3 thriller at St James’ Park was a staggering fourth successive double-digit haul of the season.
It took Salaah onto 10 double-digit returns from the season’s 14 matches. That this is the Egyptian’s best-ever start to a campaign in FPL – and he is already arguably the finest player the game has seen – says an awful lot.
However, for those who don’t like using their armband in the dreaded lunchtime kick-off spot, other options include Bukayo Saka (£10.5 million) versus Fulham and possibly even Nicolas Jackson (£8.2 million).
Chelsea take on Spurs and Jackson will be hoping to repeat his hat-trick from the corresponding fixture last season when the Blues picked up a memorably bizarre 4-1 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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