Only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah have more points than Joao Pedro among Dream Team forwards this season

JOAO PEDRO’S (£3.6m) success has undoubtedly been one of the stories of the current Dream Team season.

At the time of writing, only Erling Haaland (£7.9m) and Mohamed Salah (£6.7m) have more points than the 22-year-old among Dream Team strikers.

Pedro took his place on the podium on Saturday courtesy of a 15-point haul away to Stoke amid Brighton’s 4-2 win in the FA Cup.

The ex-Watford forward bagged a brace to take his goal tally for the season to 15 in all competitions.

Again, Haaland and Salah are the only players above him in this metric.

His goal tally is helped by no fewer than EIGHT penalties but, if anything, that should only spur on Dream Team managers.

Roberto De Zerbi admitted he hadn’t heard of Pedro prior to his appointment at the Amex but the pair are ultra familiar now and with Kaoru Mitoma (£3.4m), Simon Adingra (£3.2m) and Ansu Fati (£3.5m) currently unavailable for a variety of reasons, the Brazilian will have to bear much of the responsibility in attack in the coming weeks.

What makes Pedro’s success particularly impressive is that he started the season as a rotational player.

In fact, he was on the pitch for just over half of the available minutes between Gameweeks 1 and 7.

Even now after a sustained spell as a regular starter, he averages 62.6 minutes of playing time per Brighton fixture in 2023/24.

Initially, Pedro was something of a Europa League specialist.

He banked 54 points across Brighton’s six group stage fixtures via six goals – no Dream Team player has scored more points in Europe so far this season.

But Pedro’s brilliance has since extended to the domestic game.

He’s amassed a whopping 38 points in his last three outings, including a mighty 20-point haul at Tottenham’s expense in Gameweek 17.

Less than half of his goals have come in the Premier League but Dream Team gaffers should know by now not to underestimate the additional competitions.

Despite his mountainous points tally of 169, Pedro is still relatively affordable at £3.6m.

In fact, he’s the cheapest asset among Dream Team’s top 20 performers (based on total points) at this stage.

Dream Team bosses should also be encouraged by Brighton’s schedule.

De Zerbi’s side face Wolves, Luton, Crystal Palace, Tottenham, Sheffield United, Everton, Fulham and Nottingham Forest in their next eight league games.

They’re also in the hat for the FA Cup fourth round and will resume their Europa League campaign in February.

The Seagulls’ No9 currently features in 9.6% of teams but his ownership will surely increase in the wake of his fifth double-digit return of the season.

In terms of value-for-money, he’s arguably Dream Team’s MVP right now!

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk