Brighton FPL Gameweek 19: Welcoming Percy Tau to the party
It has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Brighton fans of late with league struggles, FA Cup progress and the excitement of Percy Tau arriving in England all mixed together as we head into FPL gameweek 19.
A win on penalties against Newport County in the FA Cup and an impressive comeback from 3-1 down at half time to draw 3-3 with Wolverhampton Wanderers in gameweek 16 have been sandwiched between defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City.
Since losing to the Gunners however, performances have been generally good – especially away at City. For the Albion to play so well with Danny Welbeck (£5.5 million), Adam Lallana (£6.2 million), Tariq Lamptey (£4.7 million), Aaron Connolly (£5.5 million), Steve Alzate (£4.3 million) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh (£5.4 million) all out through injury and Yves Bissouma (£4.5 million) missing through suspension augurs well going forward.
The Lion of Judah Percy Tau (£5.5 million) finally made his Premier League debut in FPL gameweek 18, more than 900 days since he originally signed for Brighton.
Tau looked lively in the match and at just £5.5 million he might be the answer to many Fantasy Premier League managers quest to find a striker who is undervalued by the game due to being an unknown quality.
Tau played 68 minutes of Manchester City 0-1 Brighton and managed 24 touches, averaging a touch every 2.4 minutes. That is impressive considering City had 65% of the possession.
While most FPL managers are focused on bringing in players with two games in what is a double gameweek, that can leave managers with the opportunity to sniff out a differential in teams who only have one match, such as Brighton.
Brighton play The Leeds United away, a side who have conceded 13 home goals in the Premier League this season, giving away 56 chances from both the left and right flanks. However, their weakness tends to come from the centre of the pitch with 78 chances created in this area.
Tau looks more suited to cutting in from wide positions based on what we have seen so far, which means that this central weakness could bode well for Neal Maupay (£6.1 million).
Maupay has made 16 starts for Brighton this season, registering six goals and one assist. With an expected goals rating (xG) of 8.4 and an expected goal involvement (xGI) of 9.17, his heat maps suggest he could find himself in the right positions to exploit the weaknesses of the Leeds defence.
Captain Fantastic
Double gameweek 19 throws up a wealth of opportunity for players who could wear the captain’s armband. With Manchester United facing games against Liverpool and Fulham, both away from home, Bruno Fernandes (£11.3 million) looks like a good option.
However, he picked up his fourth booking of the season in gameweek 18 and therefore should he be booked in his first match of gameweek 19, he would miss the second game against Fulham.
Both Mohamed Salah (£12.5 million) and Kevin De Bruyne (£11.8 million) have good fixtures for the double gameweek and look likely to provide FPL managers with solid points.
Those managers who are brave enough could also find gameweek 19 a good opportunity to deploy their Triple Captain chip, meaning any points their captain achieves will be tripled rather than the normal doubling.
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