Anthony Knockaert voted WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for September 2018
It was quite the September for Anthony Knockaert. Firstly he was brave enough to go public with his battle with depression, and then his form was so good that he was voted WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for September.
Knockaert’s struggles in Brighton’s first Premier League season were put into perspective with the moving interview he gave when opening up about his personal problems. He’s looked like a completely different player this time around and that’s evidenced by the fact he secured over 40% of the vote for our second poll of the season.
The Frenchman was in sparkling form as he helped inspire the comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against Fulham. He was at it again away at Southampton and then notched his first goal of the season in the 2-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur and on another day when not trying to beat a world record for number of cutbacks, could even have hit an equaliser against Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
The statistics tell the story of his improvement this season. In just two months of the current campaign, he has already got more assists than in the whole of 2017-18. That form has been enough to keep the Albion’s record buy Alireza Jahanbakhsh on the bench since his £17m move from Az Alkmaar.
It was a tight battle for second spot between Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy with Murray just about managing to see off the challenge of August’s Player of the Month.
Murray found the back of the net three times in September, scoring twice against Fulham and then keeping a cool, bald head to fire home the last minute penalty away at Southampton. The #Murray4England campaign is back on with the veteran now just two goals away from a century for the Albion.
Duffy meanwhile had to settle for third spot with just 2% less of the vote than Murray. The Irish centre back popped up with another vital goal in the draw at St Mary’s and with Lewis Dunk not looking his normal assured self, Duffy has really had to step up to the plate with a string of solid showings.
Anthony Knockaert – 42.68%
Glenn Murray – 19.92%
Shane Duffy – 17.07%
Maty Ryan – 14.23%
Martin Montoya – 6.1%
