Spotlight: Adam Lallana

Adam Lallana has recently signed a 3 year deal with Brighton, after being out of contract at Liverpool. He leaves on a high, after winning his (and Liverpool’s) first Premier League title. Lallana spent 6 years at the Merseyside club; however, his last couple of seasons were blighted by injuries and he never really found his way back into the side.

After a fair amount of speculation, many were surprised he didn’t sign for Leicester, teaming up with his old boss, Brendan Rogers. Instead he returns to the south coast near where he came up through the Bournemouth and Southampton youth systems before playing for Southampton 2006-14 and entering the EPL with the Saints’ 2012 promotion.

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The Key Stats

Last season, Lallana was a bit-part player, starting only three EPL matches and otherwise being used in cameo appearances. He played only 382 minutes in the league, registering a goal and an assist. This does mean he has a respectable goal+assist return per 90 (0.47). He played in four EFL & FA Cup matches, registering 1 assist.

Lallana hasn’t really had much game time to show off his ability since the 2016-17 EPL season, when he had strong attacking returns (8 goals, 7 assists), giving him a decent goal+assist return per 90 (0.54). He didn’t get any attacking returns in the 2 EPL seasons that followed, where his game-time was heavily reduced.

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How will he fit in at Brighton?

A move from the best team in the country to one that finds itself uncomfortably close to the bottom three should present Lallana with much more game-time opportunity to feature on a regular basis for the Seagulls, especially as he’s versatile. The Gulls lack goals, having scored only 39 all last season, so they’ve brought in Lallana hoping he can help them improve in that area and offer some needed creativity. In the Offical FPL game, Lallana becomes their most expensive midfielder (£6.5Mil) and joint most expensive player, alongside Neal Maupay.

Brighton will look to Lallana as a player who can give them that creative edge. It’ll be interesting to see exactly where he’ll feature in the Brighton setup. They’re prone to change, but he’ll most likely be in a central midfield / play-maker type role behind the forward/s.

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Verdict

For those looking at potentially bringing in Lallana into their sides, approach with caution due to the fact that he hasn’t featured much for Liverpool over the last few seasons, not helped by his on-going injury problems.

He is currently priced at £6.5Mil in the Official FPL game (with an ownership currently @ 2%), which with all things considered seems slightly on the expensive side considering his recent history. In Fantrax, he is modestly priced at $4.00 and offers up good value as an enabler who can also provide attacking returns. Brighton doesn’t have particularly attractive early fixtures, facing Chelsea and Manchester United in the first 3 game-weeks.

We of course remember that he his a great player on his day, incredibly creative and expected to get up and running in this Brighton team in a short space of time. This could well be the step for Lallana that rejuvenates his career.

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How do you think Lallana will fit in at Brighton? Will he kick-start his career? Are you interested? Or are there others at the same price that are better value? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Statistics used are from fbref.com and premierleague.com

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