Brighton FPL Gameweek 6: The re-emergence of Lamptey
The most impressive aspect of the Seagulls winning 3-1 away against Manchester United was that Roberto De Zerbi rested six players from the XI who had beaten Newcastle United last time out. Of those coming in, it was Tariq Lamptey who made the biggest impact to claim two assists for Brighton and put himself back into the minds of FPL managers.
This was the fourth consecutive Premier League match in which the Albion had beaten United. It lifted the free-scoring Seagulls into fifth spot in the table with 15 goals to their name so far from only five matches.
The challenge now for Roberto De Zerbi and his players is how they cope with the additional workload of Europa League football.
De Zerbi has said he will rotate and with Brighton having hosted AEK Athens on Thursday night followed by Bournemouth at the Amex three days later, FPL managers have more reason to look at players like Lamptey receiving greater opportunities.
Gross the differential
One player who appears immune to rotation thanks to his ridiculous fitness levels is Pascal Gross (£6.3 million). Der Kaiser returned from international duty with his first Germany caps and duly celebrated by netting once again past the Red Devils.
Gross now has seven goals from nine league starts against United with this one the best of the lot, featuring a glorious dummying of the ball to take out a defender before stroking past the Andre Onana.
As Brighton marched to their sixth place finish late last season, Kaoru Mitoma (£6.5 million) and Solly March (£6.6 milion) were more popular with FPL managers than Gross.
Der Kaiser though ended up as the Albion’s highest scoring FPL asset in 2022-23, an accolade nearly as impressive as being voted WAB Player of the Season.
So far in 2023-24, Gross ranks joint-second throughout the league for chances created (16). Yet he is still owned by just 2.8 percent of managers, making him a great differential pick.
The re-emergence of Lamptey
De Zerbi has a well-equipped squad and 21 players have already been used this season. Before Manchester United 1-3 Brighton, much of the rotation had focussed on forwards and goalkeepers.
The promise to give Jason Steele and Bart Verbruggen a 50-50 split of games has caused some headaches for FPL managers.
At Old Trafford, it was the turn of Pervis Estupinan (£5.3 million) to take a rest. What will concern his huge 62.3 percent ownership is that Lamptey (£3.9 million) stepped in and was fantastic at left back.
The 22-year-old became a bright FPL talent in the second half of the 2019-20 campaign. That form continued into 2020-21, with one goal and three assists from Lamptey’s first seven outings until a season-ending injury which ruled him out for a year.
Since returning, the past two years have seen Lamptey struggle at times for form and fitness. His game time has subsequently been carefully managed and he was even linked with a January move to Sporting Portugal.
His showing against United though has catapulted Lamptey into consideration for more minutes, giving De Zerbi greater scope to rest Estupinan. This could cause a dilemma for owners of the Ecuadorian.
Captain fantastic
Numerous managers strayed away from captaining Erling Haaland (£14.1 million) in Gameweek 5 to favour Son Heung-min (£9.0 million), only for the South Korean forward to blank at home to Sheffield United.
Haaland in contrast scored away against West Ham United. Manchester City host Nottingham Forest this Saturday, so do not expect the mistake of not giving Haaland the armband to be repeated by many.
Nevertheless, Mohamed Salah (£12.5 million) could become a popular captaincy choice as Liverpool face one of his favourite opponents, West Ham.
The midfielder has nine goals from 12 matches against the Hammers and has also delivered attacking returns in every match so far this season.
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