Is it time to bring back Mbeumo and Wissa?
After a second-half burst gave Brentford a 5-0 win over Southampton, managers with either Bryan Mbeumo (£7.8m) or Yoane Wissa (£6.2m) can give themselves a huge pat on the back.
The former’s 19-point haul puts him as Fantasy Premier League’s (FPL) third-highest scorer for 2024/25. His team-mate would likely be inside the top five forwards, had it not been for a brief early-season injury.
Since Gameweek 13, Mbeumo’s ownership has dropped by over one million. We use the brilliant statistics of Fantasy Football Scout to determine if now is a good time to buy one of the Bees’ main assets.
TEAM STATS
The appeal with Brentford’s attackers mostly revolves around home matches, where 46 goals have occurred during just 10 occasions. Overall, they’ve scored the fifth-most (38) despite having the fifth-fewest shots (214), leading to their 17.8% conversion rate being the league’s highest.
With this in mind, seeing them be a huge overachiever is unsurprising. Only Wolves have exceeded their expected goals (xG) by more than +5.78.
FIXTURES
Both Mbeumo and Wissa seem fairly fixture-proof. The Cameroon international has recently scored past Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle, while the DR Congo forward netted against both the Magpies and Man City.
That’s before the champions went on a staggering run of one win in 13, removing their intimidation factor even though the rot has been stopped with two successive victories. So FPL managers shouldn’t rule the duo out because of this encounter and, after that, even Liverpool are conceding – one clean sheet in six, leaking 11 goals in that time.
Then it looks like a decent – albeit not excellent – run until Gameweek 29.
MBEUMO OR WISSA?
So which one should it be? Both are brilliant at home, as nine of Mbeumo’s 13 and seven of Wissa’s nine have come at the Gtech Community Stadium. But the reverse of this is that away form is less impressive.
Mbeumo had a quiet spell between Gameweeks 10 and 14, making his overall 71 box touches, 35 shots and 12 big chances way off the leading names. No player is outdoing their xG by more (+6.75) and nobody that’s taken over five shots has a bigger goal conversion rate (37.1%).
| SEASON | SHOTS | ON TARGET | BIG CHANCES | CHANCES CREATED | BIG CHANCES CREATED | xG | xGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBEUMO | 35 | 20 | 12 | 37 | 9 | 6.25 | 10.89 |
| WISSA | 37 | 19 | 17 | 11 | 1 | 8.30 | 8.93 |
Above: Comparing season-long data for the duo
Furthermore, buying someone straight after their huge score often backfires. But it should be considered that he takes penalties and has good creativity numbers, possessing the fourth-best expected assists (xA, 4.64) tally.
As for Wissa, he’s currently £1.6m cheaper and more accurately reflecting his underlying data. He outdoes Mbeumo for shots, xG and big chances, though the four blanks that preceded Southampton mean he’s doing worse over the last six outings.
| LAST 6 | SHOTS | ON TARGET | BIG CHANCES | CHANCES CREATED | BIG CHANCES CREATED | xG | xGI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBEUMO | 13 | 8 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 2.37 | 3.88 |
| WISSA | 17 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2.19 | 2.42 |
Above: Comparing data between Gameweeks 15 and 20
One other point of interest is that Wissa’s 17 big chances over the whole campaign sit impressively in joint fifth place. The money saved could help elsewhere but not taking penalties or set pieces restricts his routes to points, unlike Mbeumo.
ALTERNATIVES
In fact, should we be comparing them to each other or just other players in their positions?
As discovered when managers needed to replace Bukayo Saka (£10.3m), very few midfielders look appealing right now. Between £5.9m and £8.3m, there’s only really Mbeumo, Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) and Eberechi Eze (£6.6m). Possibly Luis Diaz (£7.6m). But Jarrod Bowen (£7.4m) is injured and James Maddison (£7.6m) keeps being benched.
Meanwhile, up front, Nicolas Jackson‘s (£8.1m) poor form and Matheus Cunha‘s (£7.0m) post-suspension fixtures just leave Alexander Isak (£9.3m), Chris Wood (£6.8m), Dominic Solanke (£7.5m), Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.2m), Joao Pedro (£5.7m) and Raul Jimenez (£5.6m) as credible options.
So buying either Mbeumo or Wissa feels viable, even though statistics show various forms of overachievement. Perhaps this can be spun as just being brilliantly clinical. But the decision ultimately comes down to a manager’s preferred team structure.
