Brighton FPL Gameweek 9: What does De Zerbi mean for FPL?

It feels like an age has passed since the Albion were last in Premier League action, beating Leicester City 5-2 at the Amex. Graham Potter has left for Chelsea, meaning that Brighton fans and FPL managers have a new boss to try and figure out – Roberto De Zerbi.

When a managerial change takes place, a lot of FPL managers target that team for the possibility of benefiting from the new manager bounce.

Brighton however are a little difference. They have not sacked their boss in the hope of having a turnaround in form; instead, Potter walked.

De Zerbi takes over a side sitting fourth in the table. The foundations are there for him to build on that success, there is no need to reinvigorate players.

Many are wondering whether there will be that new manager bounce in this instance? Yet the arrival of De Zerbi still has the potential to shift the way that FPL managers invest in the Brighton team.

Under Potter, the Seagulls were a team that FPL managers looked to cover defensively. Whilst De Zerbi commented that he has a lot in common with the previous head coach in terms of mentality, he and Potter have very different styles of play.

De Zerbi is much more attacking than Potter. His sides take lots of shots from different areas and he employs a different approach to Potter and his 3-3-3-1 which so baffled the rest of the Premier League. This could result in Brighton attackers now being pursued.

A trip to Liverpool in FPL Gameweek 9 might seem like a strange time to invest in Albion forwards. But Brighton have actually won one and drawn two of their last four league meetings with Jurgen Klopp’s side, including taking four points from their previous two trips to Anfield.

FPL managers who are already invested in players such as Leandro Trossard (£6.5 million) and Pascal Gross (£6.0 million) may want to hold onto such assets.

In fact, Trossard has scored points in four of his six Premier League meetings against Liverpool at an average of five points per match.

The Belgian has never failed to return at Anfield – he scored when Brighton came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 last November – and has started this season well, collecting 32 points so far.

Teammate Gross has made an outstanding start to the campaign. He is the top scoring Brighton player in FPL with 42 points and is the second-best midfielder in the game, with only Kevin De Bruyne (£12.3 million) returning more points so far.

Across all positions, there are just six men with more points than Gross so far in 2022-23. How De Zerbi utilises the creativity of Der Kaiser will be fascinating.

Captain Fantastic
Even with a difficult fixture on paper, Erling Haaland (£12.0 million) remains a good captaincy option for Gameweek 9. Haaland faces Manchester United in the derby, on the back of returns in all eight of his matches so far.

Elsewhere, Tottenham’s Harry Kane (£11.4 million) has scored more goals in London derbies than any other player in the Premier League.

13 of these have arrived from 15 outings against Arsenal, also bagging 13 FPL points in his last North London Derby.

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