Potter cannot be blamed for Brighton not being clinical

Five points from eight games and failing to beat West Bromwich Albion and Burnley at home is hardly the start to the 2020-21 season many Brighton fans had envisaged.

As a result, a small yet increasingly vocal minority are beginning to question whether Graham Potter is the right man for the job. This is hardly surprising; most managers would be in danger of collecting their P45 after overseeing a run of four wins in 26 and just two home victories in over a year.

The difference with Brighton’s wretched form is that most people can see that the problem – for the moment at least – does not lie solely with the manager.

Sure, Potter makes a lot of mystifying decisions. Last season’s catalogue of weirdness included Davy Propper and Dale Stephens having stints at right back; throwing on Leandro Trossard and Solly March to deliver crosses away at Plucky Little Bournemouth whilst Glenn Murray sat on the bench; and that disastrous Aston Villa game where Brighton were leading 1-0 when Potter instigated a game of tactical musical chairs, hauling Steve Alzate and shifting three players positionally which allowed Jack Grealish to steal a point for Villa.

This season, we have seen Robert Sanchez promoted from third choice to first choice goalkeeper and then six days later demoted back to third. Leandro Trossard has played as a lone striker and Pascal Gross became the latest midfielder to have a go at right back.

What is hurting Brighton though has little to do with the selections or whacky ideas of Potter – it is the players’ inability to put the ball in the back of the net through not being clinical enough.

Brighton have taken 105 shots in their eight Premier League games so far in 2020-21. Only Liverpool (127) and Tottenham Hotspur have managed more (111).

From those 105 efforts, the Albion have netted only 11 times for a conversion rate of 11.55% – which is why there is only one win on the board so far.

As someone on Twitter rather brilliantly put it in the aftermath of the 0-0 draw with Burnley, if you were JFK you would love to see the Albion shooting at you.

Brighton’s approach play has been sublime at times. In Adam Lallana, the Albion have landed one of the most creative players in the top flight and around him, Potter has built a young side playing football which consistently draws praise from around the Premier League.

That the players on the pitch cannot put chances to bed is hardly the fault of the manager – unless we are expecting Potter to run onto the pitch, barge Neal Maupay out the way and take a shot on goal himself.

Seeing as Potter was a left back in his playing days, we wouldn’t hold out much hope of him making Brighton more clinical by playing up front.

The problem Potter has is that there does not seem to be any obvious way of improving his side’s conversion rate. Maupay has 14 in 44 top flight games but some of the chances he has missed in his 15 months as a Premier League player have been so simple that he could easily be on double that.

His return of four goals so far in 2020-21 taken in isolation is a decent return. Watch his missed header against Chelsea, those two chances against Crystal Palace and the West Bromwich Albion game in which he could not hit a cow’s arse with a banjo though and you realise that he is currently nowhere near clinical enough for a £20 million striker.

Potter’s hopes of Brighton turning more chances into goals and pulling away from the relegation zone rest on something clicking for Maupay or Danny Welbeck finding the form and fitness that made him an England regular several years ago.

Welbeck gave a decent account of himself in his full debut against Burnley. He did miss two glorious opportunities, but those could be attributed more to the goalkeeping of Nick Pope rather than wastefulness.

Once Welbeck gets minutes under his belt and a sharpness back to his game, those are the sort of chances you would expect a player of his ilk to score.

Welbeck’s efforts were two of the 19 shots that Brighton took against Burnley. 12 of them came in the opening 45 minutes, the most an Albion side have ever managed in the first half of a Premier League game.

As Potter watched all those opportunities come and go, we wonder if it crossed his mind how different things might be if Brighton had signed the clinical striker that fans spent most of the summer crying out for but which manager and club were so blasé about

Potter called a new centre forward a “silver bullet”, as if it were some mythical figure that did not exist. He said that instead of spending many millions, his aim was to improve the output of the current attacking options within his squad. The statistics so far in 2020-21 suggest this is not working out well.

Brighton’s transfer policy was geared towards hoovering up some of the best young talents in Europe with one eye to the future rather than the here and now.

Around £20 million was spent on the likes of Jakub Molder, Michal Karbownik, Andi Zeqiri, Reda Khadra, Jan Paul van Hecke and Lars Dendoncker. Zeqiri was on the bench for the 2-1 defeat at Spurs; it seems unlikely we will see the other five in the senior squad in 2020-21.

Whilst the Albion were busy stocking their Under 23 squad, Newcastle United spent that same amount of £20 million on England international striker Callum Wilson.

Newcastle have managed just 64 shots in the Premier League this season – and yet Wilson has scored six times. A player with his conversion rate would thrive in a side like Brighton who create so many opportunities, which makes you wonder why on earth the Albion did not make a move for him?

This inactivity in the transfer market is where you could lay some blame for Brighton’s poor start to the season at the feet of Potter and the recrutiment team.

Had the club made more of an effort in pursuing a Wilson-type centre forward, more goals may have been scored and the 2020-21 season could have a very different look to it.

Nothing can be done about that now until January at least. Whether the club will do anything about it then is also doubtful. Tony Bloom has never liked spending money mid-season and good players who would make worthwhile signings are rarely available.

If the Albion are stuck in the bottom three, then perhaps Bloom’s hand will be forced. Potter may well have lost support among fans by then too if the prospect of Tuesday nights in Luton and Rotherham is looming closer and Brighton’s form has not picked up.

As Christmas approaches, good performances alone will only get you so far – especially with games against Aston Villa, Southampton, Fulham and Sheffield United to come before Christmas.

Right now though, anyone blaming the manager is barking up the wrong tree. Blame the Brighton players for not being clinical enough rather than Potter. Let us hope they can put that right after the international break.