The WAB Brighton Player Power Rankings: February 2021
February 2021 was a strange month for Brighton & Hove Albion, beginning with the best result of the season away at Liverpool in which every player involved was excellent and ending with back-to-back defeats against Crystal Palace and West Brom.
At one point, the Seagulls were 10 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with eyes looking firmly up the table. By the time March arrived, that gap was down to two and most Albion fans are now expecting resurgent Fulham to overtake in the not-too-distant future.
Where has it all gone wrong? Injuries have not helped. Graham Potter was robbed of both Solly March and Adam Webster in the opening two games of February 2021 and results have gone from bad to worse ever since.
After winning 1-0 against Liverpool, Brighton failed to beat any of Burnley, Leicester City in the FA Cup, Aston Villa, Palace or West Brom.
No player in the starting XI at Anfield scored below a nine; against Palace and the Baggies, only five were rated five or above. Such wild fluctuations make for a pretty interesting set of WAB Power Rankings for February 2021.
1) Lewis Dunk (71.42 points)
After sitting at number one in January’s Brighton Power Rankings, Lewis Dunk claimed top spot as the Albion’s best player for the second month running in February 2021. Led the defence to a clean sheet at Anfield, scored at Burnley and would have had another against West Brom had Lee Mason not disallowed, allowed and then disallowed again his cleverly taken quick free kick.
2) Ben White (64.61)
Like most of his teammates, White’s best performance came in the 1-0 win over Liverpool. He was also excellent rampaging forward against Villa, although the less said about the Palace game the better as he found himself nutmegged for Jean-Phillipe Mateta’s opener before gifting the Eagles possession for their 93rd minute winner.
3) Pascal Gross (64.26)
Covered every blade of grass at Anfield and claimed yet another assist with a wonderful out-swinging corner for Dunk to head home against Burnley. There were shocking scenes against Palace when for the first time in three-and-a-half years, a Gross Turn did not come off. Even more shocking was the sight of a German missing a penalty, his effort cannoning against the crossbar at West Brom.
4) Yves Bissouma (63.47)
Having been arguably the best Brighton player alongside March in the first half of the season, his performance levels tailed off in February 2021. Some supporters believe his head has been turned after reports in January saying he was prepared to move to Arsenal this summer, but it could just be that he is having a dip after a year of consistently excellent performances. And he was still Brighton’s fourth best player, even when below par.
5) Dan Burn (62.12)
The sight of this man’s name in fifth spot in the WAB Power Rankings will go down like a lead balloon with the ever more vocal Dan Burn Hate Club. His lofty position is down to outrageous performances against Liverpool and Villa which were good enough to ensure questionable showings against Palace and West Brom were not too detrimental to his overall score.
6) Adam Lallana (60.03)
Continued to work his way back to full fitness in February 2021 with five Premier League substitute appearances. He pulled the strings in one of those, creating more opportunities than any other player in the Villa game despite only being on the pitch for 28 minutes. That followed him running the show in the FA Cup tie with Leicester.
7) Joel Veltman (57.36)
The Flying Dutchman was a landslide winner of our WAB February 2021 Player of the Month Award, polling 83% of the vote – the best result of anyone in quite some time. He has to settle for seventh spot in the Power Rankings though having missed the Liverpool game through injury and been rested for the trip to Leicester.
8) Robert Sanchez (57.03)
It was a pretty quiet month for the Albion’s new number one, who barely had a save to make in recording clean sheets against Liverpool and Villa. Palace scored with their only two shots on target and West Brom did not exert him either. Burnley forced him to show his full repertoire of talents as he dealt comfortably with an aerial bombardment and made three or four top drawer saves to help Brighton claim a point from Turf Moor.
9) Leandro Trossard (55.03)
The only consistency you get with Leandro Trossard is inconsistency. Livewire performances saw him score in the nines at Liverpool and the eights against Villa; followed that up by being utterly anonymous when recording ratings of 4.95 and 4.62 in the Palace and West Brom matches respectively.
10) Alexis Mac Allister (50.07)
Winning at Liverpool was made all the more impressive as it was done without the services of the Argentinian playmaker. Missing that game through injury disrupted the momentum he had built through an excellent January – his best month as an Albion player as shown by him winning our WAB Player of the Month Award – and other than Brighton v Villa, he struggled to make much of an impact in February 2021.
11) Neal Maupay (47.38)
Oh Neal! Failed to score in February 2021 despite having his fair share of chances. His approach play remained good and he was still a menace for opposition defenders, but with each passing week it seems to become clearer that he would be better suited to playing as a second striker with a clinical partner.
12) Steve Alzate (45.24)
Scored his first Premier League goal when hitting the winner at Anfield. Once March was ruled out, found himself being asked to do a job at left wing back but he looked very much like a square-peg-in-round-hole solution with Potter abandoning his 3-5-2 system in favour of reverting to a flat back four by the end of the month.
13) Danny Welbeck (33.36)
Like Lallana, he racked up the minutes from the bench in February. Took only the second penalty of his senior career at West Brom which did not go too well.
14) Aaron Connolly (29.56)
Suffered yet another injury setback after Burnley away. Returned to the starting XI three weeks later at West Brom to produce one of the misses of the season – and that is saying something – when turning a rebound over the bar from six yards out with Baggies goalkeeper Sam Johnstone lying on the ground.
15) Adam Webster (27.67)
Rated as the best Brighton player at Liverpool with a score of 9.71 before limping off with 15 minutes still to play of the second game of February 2021 at Burnley. The Albion have not won since he has been ruled out, which tells you everything.
16) Jakub Moder (18.31)
Enjoyed an encouraging debut at Leicester and showed some nice touches coming off the bench at West Brom. Some fans would like to have seen more of him, but Brighton seem determined to take the slowly-slowly approach which worked so well with Mac Allister.
17) Solly March (15.18)
His injury at Anfield required surgery and he is unlikely to play again this season – a massive blow for a man who has been so good this season as to be linked with an England call up. Without him, Potter has ditched his wing back system.
18) Andi Zeqiri (11.52)
Earned comparisons to Glenn Murray for his showing in the FA Cup against Leicester, a game in which he was rated as Brighton’s best player with a score of 6.91. Played on the shoulder of the last defender, looked good in the air and was offside on at least 27 occasions.
19) Michal Karbownik (11.06)
Only seen at Leicester where he was just behind Zeqiri in the player ratings. Started at right wing back at the King Power, a sign perhaps of which side Potter intends to use him on going forward. Many Albion fans meanwhile are calling for him to start on the left in the spot left vacant by March’s injury.
20) Christian Walton (10.61)
One appearance for the goalkeeper who dealt reasonably well with the little he needed to do against Leicester. Brighton’s elimination from the FA Cup means that we probably will not see him again this season unless Sanchez’s form disappears at an alarming and unexpected rate.
21) Percy Tau (9.55)
In the name of Percy Tau, amen! The Lion of Judah was given only one chance to impress when starting at Leicester but he was outshone by his strike partner Zeqiri. His lack of game time has caused a national crisis in South Africa.
22) Alireza Jahanbakhsh (4.82)
Came on against Palace, apparently.
The WAB Power Rankings are formulated through our matchday player scores. To play your part, make sure to follow us on Twitter and leave your post game player ratings in the relevant thread.
