Cast your votes in the WAB Brighton Awards 2020-21

It is that time of year again where you can have your say on Brighton & Hove Albion’s 2020-21 Premier League campaign with voting open in the 12th annual WAB Season Awards.

There are 10 categories for Seagulls supporters to vote in. The coveted WeAreBrighton.com Brighton Player of the Season 2020-21 is the pick of the awards and for the first time in several seasons, there is no clear and obvious favourite to take the crown.

Previous winners such as Inigo Calderon, Andrew Crofts, Glenn Murray, Liam Bridcutt, Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk have all been pretty predictable. This time around, reigning champion Dunk has genuine competition for the title from five other players who would all be worthy winners.

All your favourite accolades are up for grabs again alongside Player of the Season, including Comedy Moment of the Season, Look-a-like of the Season and Sexiest Player of the Season.

The popular Graham Potter’s Strangest Tactical Decision of the Year is back for a second year whilst there is one new award, Miss of the Season having been introduced to recognise the Albion’s astonishing ability to put the ball nowhere near the goal from a matter of yards away.

Voting closes on Sunday 13th June at 8pm. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on a strange season which has frustrated and delighted in equal measures.

 

WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Season 2020-21

Yves Bissouma
Not sure much needs to be said here. We always knew Yves Bissouma was talented. In 2020-21, he has added consistency to his game to become one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and who is on the wish lists of some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Lewis Dunk
The reigning WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Season has every chance of becoming the first player since Liam Bridcutt to retain the award. Part of the seventh best defence in the Premier League and weighed in with five goals at the other end to be the top flight’s highest scoring centre back.

Pascal Gross
Brighton won only two of their first 18 league games of the season, during which time Pascal Gross struggled to get himself selected by Potter. After only seven starts in that time, the German playmaker played all 19 matches in the second half of the campaign, ending the year with three goals and 10 assists.

Solly March
Back in the summer, there were Brighton fans offering to drive Solly March to Newcastle or West Ham when he was linked with a departure. His reinvention as a left wing back has been extraordinary. Before injury cruelly curtailed his campaign prematurely in February, he was probably on course to be the eventual winner of Brighton Player of the Year 2020-21 at the end of season awards.

Robert Sanchez
Like Gross, another whose elevation to first team regular helped turn the season around. 10 clean sheets in 27 matches has seen Robert Sanchez go from fighting a League One relegation battle at Rochdale a year ago to heading to Euro 2020 (in 2021) as Spain’s third choice goalkeeper.

Joel Veltman
Reminder: Joel Veltman cost Brighton only £900,000. Easily the most consistent Albion player in 2020-21, he may not standout like some of his teammates but he never puts a foot wrong, be it at right wing back or as part of the back three.

 

WeAreBrighton.com Goal of the Season 2020-21

Yves Bissouma v Everton (A)
Bissouma only scores blockbusters. The winner of Brighton Goal of the Season 2019-20 has two chances to retain his crown at the 2020-21 awards, the first of which comes with his volley from 25 yards in the 4-2 defeat away at Everton.

Danny Welbeck v Aston Villa (A)
Danny Welbeck added a touch of class to the Albion front line in 2020-21 and like Bissouma, he has two nominations for Goal of the Season. His first Brighton goal came at Aston Villa and saw him break through the home defence, running from inside his half to bear down on Emiliano Martínez’s goal before producing a cool-as-you-like dink over the Villa goalkeeper.

Neal Maupay v The Leeds United (A)
The only goal of the game at Elland Road came via Potterball at its very best. A flowing move involving Gross, Ben White, Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard ended with Neal Maupay applying the finishing touch via a tap in as 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United were carved open with ease.

Yves Bissouma v Blackpool (H)
Bissouma again. The opening 30 minutes of Brighton v Blackpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup had been a mind numbingly boring affair until the Malian midfielder decided to inject some excitement with another of his trademark rockets into the top corner from a full 30 yards.

Leandro Trossard v Newcastle United (H)
Potter debuted his split striker formation when Newcastle came to the Amex and it did not take long for the new tactics to bear fruit. Veltman hit a long ball out of defence which Trossard collected after bursting into space through the middle, turning his marker and unleashing a vicious effort from outside the box to give the Albion the lead.

Danny Welbeck v The Leeds United (H)
No other Brighton player could have produced the finish which Dat Guy did against The Leeds United. There seemed little danger when a ball dropped out of the sky inside the Peacocks penalty area until Welbeck performed an outrageous Cruyff Gross Turn to escape the attentions of two defenders and drill a left footed shot into the far corner.

 

Memorable Moment of the Season 2020-21

Percy Tau makes his Brighton debut
In the name of Percy Tau, amen! 30 months after Brighton paid £2.5 million to Mamelodi Sundowns for his services, the Lion of Judah finally made his Albion debut away at Newport County in the FA Cup, leading to mass celebrations across the whole of South Africa which lasted six weeks.

Jason Steele saves four penalties
For a man who only played four games all season, Jason Steele has done bloody well to get himself nominations in a couple of categories. Saving four penalties against Newport in the FA Cup represented an unreal piece of goalkeeping, made even more memorable by the fact he resembled a man playing at Waterhall on a Sunday morning still high on the effects of the previous night’s MDMA for much of the preceding 120 minutes.

Ending the club-record run of 14 home games without a win
Three league wins all season and a 0-0 home draw with Fulham did not augur well ahead of the visit of Jose Mourinho and Tottenham. Brighton being Brighton, they of course went and beat Spurs to end a club-record run of 14 home games without a victory.

Beating the old champions
Liverpool were in a right old rut in February, but that still shouldn’t detract from the achievement of the Albion at Anfield. Whereas Burnley ended the Reds 68 game unbeaten home run with a back-to-the-walls performance a couple of weeks earlier, Brighton went toe-to-toe against the reigning champions and won 1-0.

Beating the new champions
Alexa, show me the perfect evening of football? 8,000 fans back in the Amex sounded more like 80,000 as Brighton came from 2-0 behind to defeat newly crowned Premier League champions Manchester City 3-2, sparking a marvellous meltdown from Pep Guardiola.

Ben White gets called up by England
Yes, we know White was not even Brighton’s best English defender in the 2020-21 season. Still, to get called up by England for the provisional squad for Euro 2020 (in 2021) is some achievement, leading to the possibility that he will become only the second Albion player to go to a major tournament with the Three Lions after Steve Foster.

 

Flair Moment of the Season 2020-21

Hitting the woodwork five times v Man United
Some people believe that the sound of the ball smacking against the frame of the goal is better than an actual goal. They would have loved Brighton 2-3 Manchester United then as the Albion set a Premier League record by rattling the woodwork five times in 90 minutes.

Neal Maupay concedes a penalty after the final whistle
Oh, Neal! Nothing says flair quite like conceding a penalty in the 97th minute which only gets awarded after the final whistle has blown. For fans of flair, that United game was an absolute spectacle.

Defending from a corner v Leicester
After 95 minutes of hard work, Brighton were seconds away from taking eventual FA Cup winners Leicester to extra time in the fifth round of the competition. All the Albion had to do was defend one final corner, from which they had 10 players back against only three Foxes attackers. You do not need telling what happened next.

Gross Turn v Chelsea
The Gross Turn should be reclassified from a football move to a piece of art given how beautiful it is. Numerous opponents have been bamboozled by it this season but our favourite is when it took out not one, not two, but three Chelsea players during April’s 0-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Lewis Dunk’s chest back v The Leeds United
Brighton were leading 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United by a single goal at the Amex when a dangerous cross came into the box. It could have sparked panic in the Albion defence but Dunk was cool as you like, confidently chesting the ball back straight into the arms of Sanchez. A brilliant piece of defending from a man playing at the top of his game.

Neal Maupay is sent off after the final whistle
Oh, Neal! Monsieur Maupay developed a liking for doing flair things after the final whistle in 2020-21. That gives him a second bite of the cherry in this most prestigious of awards category after he managed to get himself sent off, banned for three games and hit with a £25,000 fine for calling Jonathan Moss a “f**king joke” when Brighton lost 2-1 at Wolves.

 

Comedy Moment of the Season 2020-21

Adam Lallana’s 30 seconds v Liverpool
Brighton knew they were signing somebody with a questionable injury record when Adam Lallana arrived in the summer. Nobody could have predicted though that there would be one occasion when he would run on the pitch as a substitute, turn straight back around and disappear down the tunnel having taken himself back off, as happened in November’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s face in Brighton 1-1 Liverpool
Sticking with that Liverpool game, one of the stand out moments of the season came as the BT Sport cameras zoomed in on Jurgen Klopp’s face at the Amex. He wore a look of complete and utter bafflement, as if Stephen Hawking had popped back from the dead to personally explain the history of the universe. Come on Jurgen, your champions were only struggling against the Albion, it was not that surprising.

Dan Burn v Wolves
Big Dan Burn came so close to achieving the dream triple crown when he scored an own goal and gave away a penalty in the opening 45 minutes against Wolves at the Amex. Unfortunately, Potter hauled him before he could pick up a red card to complete what would have been one of the best individual Albion player performances since the days of Colin Hawkins.

Jason Steele v Newport County
It is Steele again! His second nomination in the WAB Brighton Awards 2020-21 again comes from his performance against Newport in the FA Cup against. There was the moment when he found himself trying to hopelessly head a ball outside the box after cocking up a back pass, followed by completely missing a punch to gift the League Two side a last second equaliser minutes after March thought he had won it. To round off a quite ridiculous two hours work, he then saved four penalties in the resulting shoot out.

Fan up a tree away at Newport
Can you tell we rather liked that Newport FA Cup game? In a dire first half, the highlight was a man who on a Sunday night on the coldest day of the year decided to climb a tree outside of Rodney Parade to watch the match wearing an Albion shirt with no coat or jumper. Depending on your point of view on dedication, he deserved either a medal or to be sectioned.

Missing two penalties in an hour v West Brom
If you did not laugh, then you would have had to cry. Brighton’s wastefulness in front of goal hit new depths when they managed to miss two penalties in less than an hour on the way to a 1-0 defeat against relegated West Brom.

 

Villain of the Season 2020-21

Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate was nominated in this category in our 2019-20 End of Season Awards for his continued overlooking of Brighton captain Dunk and the England manager is back for another crack at the crown in 2020-21. Dunk has been even better this year and still cannot get a look in at international level.

Premier League PPV
We saw the true colours of greedy football clubs throughout 2020-21, beginning in October when the Premier League (bar Leicester) tried to charge supporters £15 per game to watch their teams on PPV. Paul Barber justified the decision by saying in an email to one Albion fan “Unfortunately, fans will always want everything for free” before the league embarked into an embarrassing climb down after less than a month when supporters shunned watching and instead gave their £15 to local food banks.

Lee Mason
Yes Lewis, you can take a quick free kick. No Lewis, you can’t take a quick free kick. No Lewis, the goal doesn’t stand. Yes Lewis, the goal stands. No Lewis, the goal doesn’t stand. An absolutely farcical five minutes of decision making from a Premier League referee in the defeat at West Brom.

European Super League
Six ‘elite’ English clubs including Spurs (seventh in the Premier League) and Arsenal (eighth in the Premier League) tried to form a breakaway competition. Their reasons? To make more money and to avoid the embarrassment of finishing below the likes of Leicester and West Ham in the table. Just like with PPV, fan power won the day though and within 48 hours, the European Super League was dead.

Pep Guardiola
In January, Manchester City had beaten Potter’s Brighton three times out of three scoring 10 goals along the way with Guardiola calling the Albion boss the best English manager around. When the Seagulls then shocked the champions 3-2 at the Amex, the City boss threw a hissy fit and refused to shake Potter’s hand. Not so gracious in defeat, are you baldilocks?

Expected Goals
Did you know that Brighton underperformed their xG by two million? Or that they would have finished fifth in the table if they could finish their chances? If they gave out awards for expected goals in 2020-21, Brighton would have been clear winners – which is why most Albion fans were sick to the back teeth of xG by the end of the season.

 

Miss of the Season 2020-21

Neal Maupay v Liverpool (H)
Oh, Neal! Maupay produced one of the worst penalty misses you will ever see when he casually passed the ball several feet wide of the post in the home game against Liverpool. To make the situation even better, he substituted himself off one minute later after snapping his enthusiasm.

Aaron Connolly v Sheffield United (H)
The Irish striker found himself front and centre of the Sheffield United goal, no more than three yards out. All he had to do was direct his header into the 24 feet of open space directly in front of him. Remarkably, he somehow managed to put the ball both high and wide in a miss that defied all the known laws of physics.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh v Sheffield United (H)
That Sheffield United home game was a treasure trove of astonishing misses. Less than two minutes after Connolly’s, Prince Ali too found himself with a free header which again was no more than three yards out. He could only hit the bar.

Aaron Connolly v West Brom (A)
Connolly again. It takes something special to have the worst miss on an afternoon when your team fail to convert two penalties, so fair play to young Aaron for managing that impressive feat when firing over the bar with an open goal to aim at from six yards after West Brom goalkeeper Sam Johnstone had made an incredible save from Maupay.

Leandro Trossard v The Leeds United (H)
Trossard’s miss against 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United was a rarity in that it did not prove costly as Brighton still managed to win the game 2-0. Do not let that detract from how bad the effort of our favourite Belgian vampire was though as he blasted over in near-identical circumstances to Connolly at West Brom after being presented with an open goal by a lovely pass from Welbeck.

Aaron Connolly v Arsenal (A)
We really should have named this awards category the Aaron Connolly Award for Brighton Miss of the Season 2020-21. A wonderfully timed run and a great first touch had seen Connolly spring the Arsenal offside trap to go one-on-one with Bernd Leno… only for his shot to go out for a throw.

 

Graham Potter’s Strangest Tactical Decision of the Season 2020-21

Starting five defenders v West Brom (H)
West Brom came to the Amex without a point away from home all season. Brighton should have been targeting three points and yet Potter named five defenders in his starting XI, including White in midfield. It finished 1-1 with the Albion grateful to a comical own goal from Jake Livermore for giving them a first half lead.

Leandro Trossard lone striker v Spurs (A)
Trossard does his best work as a number 10. He is capable out wide. He can just about play as a second striker if the player leading the line has a target-man type skillset. What the Belgian cannot do is play as a lone striker, and yet that is what he found himself being asked to do in an ineffective performance in November’s 2-1 defeat at Spurs.

Pascal Gross holding midfield v Leicester (A)
We have already noted how it took Gross until January to nail down a first team place. The German though had been given a run of five games in the autumn as a number 10 in which he shone, scoring two goals and registering two assists to finish third in our WAB November Player of the Month poll. Potter rewarded him for this form by using him as a holding midfielder at Leicester, Gross unsurprisingly struggled and was subsequently dropped for the remainder of December.

Alexis Mac Allister and Alireza Jahanbakhsh as a front two v Arsenal (H)
Arsenal came to the Amex in December below Brighton in the table and in a pretty bad run of form. Three points looked very much there for the taking. So what did Our Graham do? Play midfielder Mac Allister and winger Jahanbakhsh as a front two. It was a baffling selection in a winnable fixture.

Bernardo playing as a central midfielder v Arsenal (H)
The Potter Selection Roulette Wheel undertook a particularly hard shift in that Arsenal game, giving the visit of the Gunners two nominations in the awards category for Strangest Brighton Tactical Decision of the 2020-21 season. Maupay was eventually introduced to give Brighton an actual striker on the pitch at the same time as Potter decided to blunt his sides creativity by shoving Bernardo into a central midfield role.

Leaving Dan Burn expose v Adama Traore v Wolves (H)
Burn and March had been coping pretty well with the threat of Adama Traore for the first 30 minutes of Brighton v Wolves in December. Then Potter decided to switch March and Trossard over, suddenly leaving Burn with no defensive cover from the winger in front of him. Within the next 15 minutes, Burn scored an own goal and gave away a penalty.

 

Look-a-like of the Season 2020-21

Dan Burn – Princess Diana
Lockdown hair caused all kinds of wonderful look-a-likes that it is doubtful we would have seen had life continued as normal and footballers had full access to barbers and stylists. Not that we want to lead the jury or anything when it comes to the Brighton Look-a-Like of 2020-21 category in these awards, but the best of the lot has to be when one Albion fan pointed out that the longer hair of The People’s Left Back Big Dan Burn made him a ringer for Princess Diana.

Aaron Connolly – Phillip Schofield
Connolly blocked WAB on Twitter for suggesting that when he coloured his hair silver, he looked like Phillip Schofield. For a 21-year-old to be desperate to look like the 59-year-old presenter of Dancing on Ice is a bold fashion statement.

Lewis Dunk – Neil from The Inbetweeners
A serial winner of this category every year at the WAB Awards, Brighton captain Dunk looking like Neil from The Inbetweeners is chasing a record-breaking third success in 2020-21.

Alexis Mac Allister – Lionel Messi
Okay, so his footballing ability is not quite on a par with Lionel Messi. But in terms of look-a-likes, Mac Allister shares an uncanny resemblance to a slightly more famous Argentinian number 10.

Robert Sanchez – Duke of Hastings from Bridgerton
Sanchez had a busy December. Not only did he establish himself as the Albion’s number one goalkeeper, but he also starred in one of Netflix’s best series so far as the Duke of Hastings in Bridgerton alongside the lovely Phoebe Dynevor. Is there anything Big Bob cannot do?

Leandro Trossard – Count Dracula
Trossard was another whose lockdown hair did him no favours as he began to resemble Sir Christopher Lee playing Count Dracula. What made this look-a-like even better was that the Belgian was so white at points this season that it looked like he had not seen any sunlight for several years.

 

Sexiest Player of the Season 2020-21

Solly March
Having been nominated for Sexiest Brighton Player at every WAB Awards for the past half-decade, will 2020-21 be the year when March finally claims the crown?

Neal Maupay
Oh, Neal! He may be a bit of a bastard on the pitch, but Maupay is a popular figure with the ladies. The fact he is French ratchets up his appeal by several notches.

Handsome Davy Propper
One of the biggest travesties of the 2020-21 season is that Davy Propper has barely featured. A player of his quality is far too good to be sat on the bench at Brighton and so it seems likely that he will depart this summer, significantly reducing the handsomeness of the Albion squad.

Maty Ryan
It will be interesting to see whether Maty Ryan becoming public enemy number one among some Brighton supporters impacts on the defence of his Sexiest Player of the Season crown. Should he seal a permanent move to Arsenal, then it will be another very good looking man departing the Amex.

Robert Sanchez
The Duke of Hastings from Bridgerton has become something of a heart throb. That gives Sanchez a real chance of taking Ryan’s Sexiest Player of the Season award six months after he ousted the Aussie as Potter’s number one goalkeeper.

Ben White
There is a certain boyish good look quality about White, especially when he sports his dangly earrings as if he is a member of a 90s pop band. A victory for him in this category would provide justification for the amount of money he has spent on fake tan over the course of the season.

Polls close at 8pm on Sunday 13th June. Thanks for voting in our End of Season Awards 2020-21 and keep your eye on WeAreBrighton.com for the results