The Swansea view on Graham Potter

With just one season as a manager in English football under his belt, new Brighton and Hove Albion boss Graham Potter is a relative unknown.

We’ve all read about his feats in taking Ostersunds from the fourth tier of Swedish football into the Europa League and on the face of it, he has done a hugely impressive job at Swansea City by leading them to 10th place in the Championship despite having severe constraints placed on him as the Swans tightened their purse strings following relegation from the Premier League.

But what is he really like as a manager? What can we expect tactically? Will his substitutions be more exciting than Chris Hughton’s and could he even have the ability to make the likes of Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh look something like £14m and £17m players respectively?

To find out, we spoke to Steve Carroll from Swansea fanzine Swansea Oh Swansea

Graham Potter arrives at the Amex as something of an unknown quality. Can you tell us a little bit about the job he did at Swansea in terms of steadying the shop after your relegation from the Premier League?
Since we were relegated sixteen players have left and only five have arrived so it’s been very challenging. Potter’s remit was to keep us competitive in spite of this, bring through our promising youngsters to replace those sold and bring back the style of play that made us successful in the first place. To be fair he achieved all of this and definitely over achieved after being dealt a bad hand by the owners.

Given the cutbacks and the budget you had last season, would you rank 2018-19 under Potter as a success for Swansea?
Definitely, I predicted 13th before a ball was kicked but if I’d known four players would leave on deadline day I would have had us even lower. Without having him we have been towards the bottom.

A lot of Swansea’s success under Potter seems to have been built upon young players. Brighton’s Under 23s came third in Premier League 2 this season but Chris Hughton was very reluctant to use anyone from our academy. Will Potter be more willing to give youth a chance?
I think Potter would be open to it but it’s harder to blood youngsters in the Premier League because it’s so money driven. Our promising youngsters were given more or less no opportunity the year we went down. But last year they were, although a lot of that is down to there being a lack of options and we were fortunate a lot of them were up to scratch.

How did Potter work with the more senior players in the squad? We have a lot of players acquired for big money such as Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh who haven’t really delivered and some Albion supporters believe that a change of manager might help them finally justify those fees.
Quite well in general, I think he realised that you can’t solely rely on youngsters and some of the more experienced players were key members of the side. Although it’s been revealed that Wayne Routledge had to remove a contract extension clause in order for him to play regularly, which shows how Potter’s hands were tied down here.

What sort of tactical set up and style of play does Potter favour? There are some hugely impressive team passing goals on the Swansea highlight reel from last season.
In general it’s 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, but he can be flexible. He has played three at the back on occasions and I believe he regularly did that in Sweden. Basically, he tends to find a formation which fits what he has. One thing I will say is the onus is on attacking play and passing football, with the goalkeeper expected to be part of that. Of our goalkeeping options this season, he has favoured the one who is better with his feet, even though he can barely catch a cross or save a shot!

One of the biggest criticisms of Hughton was that he could never affect a game with his substitutions, always making like-for-like changes. How does Potter compare in that regard?
This is a weakness, I didn’t always understand some of the decisions he made. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt because when so many players leave your options become very limited. At Brighton he will have a stronger squad to call upon.

Do you think he has the ability to be a success in the Premier League and what will it take for him to do so?
Yes I think so, his philosophy will suit the league and I’ve been impressed with how a lot of our players have flourished this season. In my view the Premier League is not that strong either if you discount the top few sides, so if he can improve your current players and add a few you should do better next term.

What are Potter’s weaknesses?
The transfer market wasn’t a roaring success with Bersant Celina being the only player who he brought in who really shone. The others are young and may improve with time, but so far they haven’t made a big impact. But again, when you’ve not got much to spend it is harder to find the right players. He should find that easier at the Amex.

Finally, where do you think Swansea go from here? We can think of a very talented Championship manager whose recently become available who could probably do an excellent job at the Liberty Stadium. Goes by the name of Chris…
Well, there’s no chance it’ll be Hughton! He’s a good manager but he’ll be too expensive for us. I hope we go for someone unproven who believes in our style of play and can tap into the overseas markets. A bit like Daniel Farke has at Norwich. I’m not hopeful though, Potter is a big loss and we will struggle with our him.

Thanks to Steve from Swansea Oh Swansea for taking the time to speak us. He’s written an in-depth piece about what Potter’s departure from the Libery Stadium means to Swansea which you can read here.