A look at how Graham Potter’s Brighton fared on matchday one
After months of waiting, Brighton fans finally got to see Graham Potter in the dugout as his side traveled to Watford.
Potter experimented with many formations at Swansea. This didn’t occur in his first pre-season with Brighton, as he used a 3-4-3 formation in almost all of the friendlies. It was unsurprising to see that he went with the formation again as it was the one that brought the most familiarity and fit the personnel the best.
The slight surprise came in the personnel choices. Dan Burn played at the back despite having limited Premier League experience and not really having a great reputation. Leandro Trossard started on the bench, and Pascal Gross started off of Glenn Murray along with Jurgen Locadia. Solly March played as a wing-back, which looks set to be his new position as it is somewhat similar to the wide midfield role he played under Chris Hughton. The excellent Dale Stephens played as a deep-lying midfielder, and Davy Propper roamed towards the right-hand side in a less cagey role than he played under Hughton.
The beginning periods of the game were pretty tame. Given the drastic style change, Potter is trying to implement the building from the back before anything else. When trying to implement possession football, the first phase is the most important. Getting that under wraps is the key first step. Brighton were not just passing round the back though. Many teams who try to play possession football really struggle to move the ball from the center backs onwards. They get the possession nailed down but they don’t actually do much with it or have a clear plan going forward, which has led to the ‘tippy tappy’ criticisms for many managers.
Brighton’s leading passers in the opening 25 minutes were Lewis Dunk, Shane Duffy and Dan Burn. Matt Ryan completed more passes than both Jurgen Locadia and Glenn Murray, and eight of these were short passes. This would not have happened last season.
One of the elements of possession football that goes under the radar is the importance of width. Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa both like to have someone hugging the touchline. This creates space in the central areas for more creative players to thrive, but the threat of a switch of play also pins a defence back. Martin Montoya and Solly March both played high and wide in this game, as you can see from their touch maps below – courtesy of WhoScored.
At times, Brighton overloaded a flank and would look to switch the play to Martin Montoya. This only happened sporadically but as the front players get sharper and more used to Potter’s system, you should expect to see these switches become more common because the opposition will have to play closer and respect the increasing cohesion and creativity that will come from this unit playing together.
The most important positions in a 3-4-3 are the two players playing behind the striker. If you play two wide players, you have tremendous width and the ability to have runners coming behind. If you play with two playmakers, you have a set up that can maximise good attacking wing-backs and a pacey striker. Brighton’s choices for the early portion of this game were Pascal Gross and Jurgen Locadia, which appeared to be a nice balance on paper.
Pascal Gross touched the ball the most of the front three by far. He had more touches than Murray and Locadia combined in the 63 minutes they played together. Gross linked towards the right-hand side well, and he combined with Davy Propper on many occasions. The German’s influence meant that Martin Montoya could push higher up than Solly March could on the left-hand side. Gross is a technically brilliant player and although he lacks pace, he is still able to influence the game for Brighton in this system provided he has the right personnel around him.
The rest of Brighton’s attacking set up lacked consistency and a presence in the game. Jurgen Locadia didn’t play particularly badly but the rest of the team did not link to him at all. He touched the ball just 23 times and very few of these touches were in dangerous areas. Potter-ball is all about building up patiently and moving down the flanks with quick interchanges to try and create overloads and disrupt defensive structure. Locadia struggled to link with other players, which meant that the left-side was a bit of a black hole.
Glenn Murray has been a terrific servant for Brighton, but I question whether he and Pascal Gross can play together in this system. I’m aware they played together and were a formidable assist-goalscorer duo in Hughton’s 4-4-1-1 set up, but this is an entirely different style and set up. Gross isn’t blessed with pace, his game is about floating between the lines and using his terrific balance and vision to fashion out opportunities for others. His go-to move with Murray under Hughton was the back-post cross. In a system like the 3-4-3 though, Brighton need two pacier players or more technical players alongside Gross if he plays in the front three. This is to unlock his passing ability. At times, the German was receiving the ball and the only real option ahead of him was Glenn Murray, who isn’t going to do much running in behind. Gross didn’t actually complete a single pass to Glenn Murray, which is quite startling.
Locadia and Murray were replaced on the 63-minute mark by Neal Maupay and Florin Andone. Brighton immediately got a goal when both of the substitutes made active runs into the box to get on the end of a Davy Propper cross. Murray had constantly been coming short and Locadia was isolated on the left, so having two more willing runners ahead of the midfield paid dividends almost immediately.
With Andone and Maupay upfront, Brighton looked smoother transitioning to attack. Having a slower target man who plays with his back to goal does not really fit alongside a team that is looking to build slowly with the hope of drawing in a press and hitting a long pass to a pacey runner in order to break the lines. Maupay, in particular, was active in behind, and his debut goal was perhaps the illustration of what Graham Potter wants.
Brighton built up slowly from the back between the centre backs and Dale Stephens. As Watford pressed to win the ball back, Maupay made a run in behind and Lewis Dunk found him. The composure from Maupay was elite, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he got the nod against West Ham on Saturday.
Any team playing possession football needs to stretch teams at the top end of the pitch, even in the build-up phase. The reason for this is they need to actually have space to operate, or teams will just press them due to there being no real consequence for doing so.
Davy Propper is the man who should benefit the most from Chris Hughton’s departure. His role in the previous system was to sit deep and spray passes to the wide midfielders. He was basically a role player as he had very little creative freedom and this meant that it looked as if he wasn’t using all of his talent. The reality was, this was more the system than anything he was doing right or wrong.
He had a terrific game as the right-sided central midfield player. He linked up well with the players on the right-hand-side and his excellent assist to Florin Andone capped off his performance. He played with the discipline that Chris Hughton installed into him last year as he got six interceptions. His assist came from him overlapping and creating that overload on the flank. He’s a terrific fit for the 3-4-3 system and though Brighton did have the odd struggles building up and playing quickly, they will get better in time. The Dutchman should be the main beneficiary of this as he has a good all-round game.
Dale Stephens is also very underrated and will be the more pivotal piece to the build-up play. He will likely be the man finding the switch passes when Brighton create problems on the flanks and want to switch the play. Propper is likely going to be more involved in combination plays. and there were real signs here on Saturday.
We all knew how Potter wanted his side to play in an attacking sense. Something that might have gone under the radar is how Potter wants his team to defend. Swansea last year defended deeper than the majority of the teams in the Championship. Potter had Brighton sit in a compact 5-4-1 formation in the defensive phase. The lines were close together in order to nullify Javi Gracia’s narrow 4-4-2 formation which relies on creative players combining between the lines.
Brighton are unlikely to be a team who press high up the pitch under Potter as his Swansea side didn’t do this. This does not mean that they are passive though. Within their own area, they press well. In Wyscout’s ‘challenge intensity’ metric, which is a measure of duels, tackles, and interceptions per minute of your opponents’ possession, Brighton ranked sixth out of the 20 Premier League teams last weekend. Most of this was done in their own half, as you can see in the graphic of Brighton’s tackles below.
Ultimately though, Potter teams will sit back in a structure to provide a rest period for the attacking players. This is not a team that will adopt aggressive pressing schemes in the way that teams like Everton and Southampton will. They will play in their own area and try and unsettle teams with a fluid approach where everyone contributes towards the defensive phase.
Overall, Brighton’s opening day display was as expected. It was the first real test of their new philosophy of building from the back and having the defenders and keeper play. Rather predictably, they spent a lot of time doing this during the game and the signs were mostly positive.
They did struggle to move through the gears at times. This was because of a lack of chemistry and familiarity with the style which is more based on creating and interpreting space as opposed to firing it wide and crossing to a big man. Potter will have to decide whether Glenn Murray can be the lone striker with Pascal Gross in one of the two forward roles. This duo lacked cohesion in a system that desperately needs the threat of a runner in behind to reach its full ceiling. Murray can work, but he would need two wingers who make runs in behind him to maximise him.
It is not the worst problem for the new manager to have though because as the substitutions prove, Brighton have depth and options in the 2019/20 season.