news-engine

As another Premier League season approaches, fantasy managers are putting the finishing touches on their teams for the 2026/27 campaign. Who out of the Brighton & Hove Albion squad might you want to start the year with? Albion Analytics has picked out four options who all, for various reasons, would be worthwhile picks. The luxury option: Kaoru Mitoma (£6m) Kaoru Mitoma is valued at £6m on Fantasy Premier League. Japan international Mitoma will set you back £6m, making him the joint-most expensive Albion player along with Jack Hinshelwood, Yankuba Minteh and summer arrival Promise David. Mitoma missed the end of last season and the World Cup in the summer with a hamstring injury. However, when fit, his output is excellent: ten goals and four assists in 2024/25, which made up the bulk of his 145 FPL points, the most by any Albion player. Successful dribbles and chances created are worth one point each, and Mitoma ranked in the top four among Brighton players for both metrics last term (28/74 dribbles completed, and 30 chances created). Positionally he is considered a midfielder in FPL, so including him is not done at the expense of a forward spot. The must-have: Pascal Gross (£5.5m) Pascal Gross has made 48 Premier League assists in his career so far. 📸by BHAFC. Currently the most selected outfield Albion player, in 12.8% of teams, Gross is sure to offer reliable numbers. The German international, now 35, was an FPL favourite during his seven seasons on the south coast between 2017-2024, and returned to the club after a year-and-a-half at Borussia Dortmund. Gross started every Brighton game from matchday 20 onwards last season, joining in the winter window from Dortmund. He averaged 4.1 points-per-game, the joint-most of any Albion player along with centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke. Meanwhile striker Danny Welbeck (18) was the only one to better Gross’ 10 bonus points. The creative midfielder scored once and set up three goals in the back-half of 2025/26, and in his final two seasons before departing he returned a combined 13 goals and 18 assists — he earned FPL managers 153 points three years ago, a return which ranked him 13th among midfielders. Hurzeler rebuilt his midfield around Gross and he’s the main set-piece taker in the side, meaning a good guarantee of performances and points at a justifiable £5.5m. The value option: Bart Verbruggen (£4.5m) Bart Verbruggen has kept 25 cleansheets in 105 Albion appearances. 📸 by Paul Hazlewood. Almost one in five FPL managers have selected first-choice Albion goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen. At £4.5m he is among the cheaper options, an incredible price for a developing No 1 who last year put up the fourth-best shotstopping numbers in the division based on post-shot expected goals — his saves kept out more than five goals better than an average goalkeeper would be expected to stop. He tied with Crystal Palace’s Dean Henderson for the fifth-most saves total (106) — each one of those is worth two points — and kept ten clean sheets in 2025/26. Verbruggen was the first Albion goalkeeper to return double digit shutouts in a term since Robert Sanchez four years prior, and that the Dutchman went beyond a century of Premier League appearances offered a timely reminder of his upward trajectory. Brighton registered their best defensive numbers for five seasons last year, with Verbruggen playing all 38 matches as part of a defence that only conceded 46 goals — only Manchester City (35) and Arsenal (27) allowed fewer, with each of those taking four points off a goalkeeper’s match score. One to watch: Luka Vuskovic (£5m) Luka Vuskovic joined Albion from Tottenham Hotspur. 📸 by BHAFC. Exactly how Fabian Hurzeler sets up his side remains to be seen, as does the configuration of his back-line. The club has sufficient centre-back depth to play three, while last season’s success was built on a 4-2-3-1 system. Regardless, summer signing Luka Vuskovic, only 19, should be on people’s radar. At £5m, the towering centre-back should hoover up the defensive bonus points this season. Defenders are rewarded one point for every three recoveries, and another point per three clearances/blocked shots/interceptions. Vuskovic, on loan at Hamburg last year, ranked third in the Bundesliga for clearances (251) and th for shots blocked (26). An extra two points are awarded for a defender making ten-plus defensive actions in a match — last season Vuskovic would have picked those bonus points up in 15 games.