Left-back De Cuyper can be a cult Fantasy hero

Goals, assists, corner-taking duties: new Brighton and Hove Albion left-back Maxim De Cuyper offered it all at former employers Club Brugge.

The big question: can he replicate that at Premier League level?

The Belgium international has joined the Seagulls for a reported £17.5m and follows centre-halves Diego Coppola and Olivier Boscagli in arriving at the south-coast club.

Amid the defensive revolution going on at the Amex, we look at whether De Cuyper could become something of a cult Fantasy hero.

THE QUOTES

“Maxim is a creative left-back who has great experience at Champions League level as well as in the domestic league.

“He has a great reputation for creativity and has shown his ability across different positions, although we primarily see him challenging for a left-back spot with us.”

THE HISTORY + STATS

SEASON	CLUB	DIVISION	STARTS (SUB)	GOALS	ASSISTS
2024/25	Club Brugge	Belgian Pro League	34 (3)	3	6
2023/24	Club Brugge	Belgian Pro League	30 (7)	3	10
2022/23	Westerlo	Belgian Pro League	39	9	7
2021/22	Westerlo	Belgian First Division B	24 (1)	6	5
2020/21	Club NXT	Belgian First Division B	18 (2)	5	3

The kind of numbers to make you sit up and take notice.

De Cuyper has been on the books of Club Brugge since he was a youth, eventually making his senior debut, at the age of 19, in February 2020.

But it wasn’t until 2023/24 that he would really make the grade at his boyhood club.

In between, he had a year with the Club Brugge reserves, Club NXT, and two campaigns on loan at Westerlo.

Returning to Bruges, he’s racked up six goals and 16 assists across the last two league campaigns.

There was just one goal (and no assists) in 12 UEFA Champions League outings in 2024/25, however, which perhaps puts those Belgian Pro League figures into some context.

Capped by Belgium for the first time in June 2024, he’s scored three goals in 10 appearances for the Red Devils – and delivered attacking returns in each of his last three appearances.

THE UNDERLYING NUMBERS

De Cuyper has racked up the shots and chances created for several seasons now but he arrives at Brighton off the back of his best campaign for both.

	De Cuyper’s total in 2024/25	Rank v other Pro League defenders
Chances created	90	1st
Shots	40	2nd

That total of 90 chances created was not just comfortably the best among all Pro League defenders but also the second-highest among players in all positions in the Belgian top flight.

Fbref had his expected assists (xA) total at 9.1 for just the 28-game league phase alone in 2024/25 (not the subsequent 10-match play-offs), so his actual assist count ought to have been much higher.

The same site’s ‘Scout Report’ sums De Cuyper up in one graphic: eye-catching attacking numbers, question marks over defending.

*Men’s Next 14 Competitions are the next-best world leagues after the ‘big five’

Even in the more elite Champions League, where he delivered just one return in 12 outings, he laid on 17 chances for others (without reward) and had a respectable 11 shots.

This is how he shaped up compared to other full-backs/wing-backs (via StatsBomb):

WHERE DOES DE CUYPER FIT IN AT BRIGHTON?

While De Cuyper has played plenty for both club and country in a back four, his defensive deficiencies and the acquisition of Coppola and Boscagli (to presumably play alongside Jan Paul van Hecke) have left some Brighton fans questioning: is Hurzeler about to switch to a wing-back system?

It’s a formation he indeed employed at St Pauli before his arrival.

Just yesterday, in fact, Hurzeler spoke to Brighton’s in-house media about a possible change in tactical approach in 2025/26:

“I think we changed it also last season, so we always want to have this flexibility. And I think we have players in the squad that give us this flexibility.

“We bring now, for example, Boscagli, he’s a left-footed player. We didn’t have this before, so this will be interesting to see how this team develops, how this team fits together, and we also need to use the pre-season to get the right formation, to get the right people on the pitch.”

Could we see something like this, then, come Gameweek 1?

There is, of course, one Ecuadorian sticking point: Pervis Estupinan. Does De Cuyper’s arrival hint at Estupinan wanting to move on? Or is the Belgian being brought in as depth, despite the Seagulls not being in Europe?

The coming days and weeks will hopefully give us an answer to those questions.

IS DE CUYPER WORTH BUYING IN FPL?

The Estupinan question is the first one that needs answering.

After that, it’ll be worth monitoring in pre-season if De Cuyper gets set-piece responsibilities. Over a third of his chances created for Club Brugge in 2024/25 came from free-kicks and corners. No dead-ball duties wouldn’t kill his appeal, but a role at set plays would provide that extra incentive.

Incidentally, De Cuyper took and scored two penalties for the Belgian giants last season, having previously been on spot-kicks at Westerlo. With Joao Pedro gone, there’s a bit of a void to be filled from 12 yards.

The next consideration is fixtures. Albion don’t really have a stand-out run per se; Gameweeks 10-17 was about the best we could pick out, but even that isn’t ideal.

This mixed bag is how the Seagulls start 2025/26:

There’ll be justifiable reservations about an import from the Belgian league, and the stats he brings with him.

But those underlying Champions League figures, in which he hit double figures for both shots and chances created in 12 starts, show that he can at least maintain decent attacking numbers even at the top rung of European football.

If Brighton can provide cover behind him (ie a back three and Carlos Baleba) to compensate for his defensive shortcomings, this could be one of the more intriguing bits of business we’ve seen done this summer so far.