Playing Jurgen Locadia wins Brighton Strangest Tactical Decision 2021-22

July 2, 2022July 2, 2022 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

Unfortunately for the Strangest Tactical Decision of the Season category, Graham Potter did less madcap things than normal in 2021-22. He did though play Jurgen Locadia for 32 minutes against The Leeds United which baffled 37 percent of Brighton fans enough to vote it the winner ahead of throwing away a point at Aston Villa and Pascal Gross at left back.

Brighton racked up 20 shots against the 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up without scoring. It probably did not help when Potter withdrew his top scorer with an excellent career record against The Leeds United on 32 minutes in favour of a bloke fresh from a disastrous year on loan with the might of MLS bottom club FC Cincinnati.

68 minutes had elapsed when Neal Maupay was hauled in favour of Locadia. DJ Jurgen had found the time in between posting photos to Instagram of himself looking pensively into a fridge, being a fashionista and making music to step onto a football pitch for the job Brighton had been paying Locadia £45,000 per week since January 2018 to do.

Needless to say, Locadia was unable to break the deadlock. He was greeted by an incredible reception from the Amex crowd, although a cynic may suggest these were sarcastic cheers rather than a glorious homecoming.

Locadia’s one chance came shortly after his introduction. A loose ball fell invitingly to him on the edge of the The Leeds United area. DJ Jurgen steadied himself, prepared… and then fell over his own leg when attempting a shot.

The full time whistle of Brighton 0-0 The Leeds United was met with a smattering of boos. The reaction made headline news as Albion fans were seemingly unhappy with a team sitting in the top 10 of the Premier League.

In response, Potter made his ill-advised “history lesson” comments, which did not take long to come around and bite him on the arse when he became the first ever Brighton manager to oversee an 11 game winless streak in the top flight.

But here is a thought as we hail Locadia as being the Strangest Brighton Tactical Decision Potter of 2021-22 – what if the boos were actually for Potter losing his mind and replacing Maupay for DJ Jurgen?

Locadia did not play for the Albion again and Brighton were not booed by the Amex crowd again (if you ignore being beaten 3-0 at home by bottom of the table Burnley). Coincidence? We will let you be the judge of that.

It would appear that November 2021 was the month when Potter hit the old cooking sherry to cloud his decision making as a week before Locadia’s 32 minutes came his brain freeze against Villa.

Brighton seemed to be heading for a valuable point at Villa Park with a performance which had silenced the home crowd in Steven Gerrard’s first game in charge.

Villa only looked a threat down the flanks and even then Tariq Lamptey and Marc Cucurella had done a decent containment job, at the same time as being the Albion’s best two players going forward.

Naturally, this led Potter to take off Cucurella on 64 minutes and Lamptey on 79. Nine minutes after Lamptey had departed and Aston Villa 0-0 Brighton had become Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton.

A decent draw in a tricky looking fixture transformed into the only positive from the day being a trip to the Birmingham Christmas market. Potter at least learnt his lesson; Cucurella has never been substituted since.

Third place in Strangest Tactical Decision of 2021-22 comes from the opening day trip to Burnley. When the Albion lined up at Turf Moor, it looked like we were going to be in for a fantastic year of bonkers as Potter named Adam Webster at right back and Gross at left back.

Gross. Left. Back. Not only did it stifle the Albion’s most creative player by putting him in an area of the pitch where he could do little damage, but it also asked him to play in a defence likely to suffer an aerial bombardment. Yikes.

Needless to say, Brighton were woeful in the first half and fell behind with the campaign less than 180 seconds old.

Potter duly sorted himself and his team out at half time, turning a disasterclass into a masterclass. Substitutes Alexis Mac Allister and Jakub Moder were heavily involved in two Albion goals late on as the Seagulls got their record-breaking campaign up and running with a win.