Tariq Lamptey voted WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for July 2020
What a player Brighton have on their hands in 19-year-old right back Tariq Lamptey. He was only played nine games of Premier League football in his life, but already Lamptey has made such an impression that he has won his first WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month award.
Every time the former Chelsea youngster steps on the pitch, he seems to be Man-of-the-Match. Even when Brighton shipped eight goals in two home games against champions Liverpool and runners up Manchester City, he still managed to come out of both matches with his reputation enhanced.
In fact, it was in the 3-1 defeat to the Reds that Lamptey gave arguable his best performance. Jurgen Klopp gave a full debut to highly-rated teenage left back Neco Williams but it was short-lived one – Lamptey gave Williams such a testing time in the first half that Williams had to be withdrawn at the break because Klopp feared he was a second yellow card waiting to happen.
That he was the best English right back on the pitch at the Amex that evening and Liverpool included Trent Alexander-Arnold in their line up tells you everything you need to know.
Aside from impressing against the title winners to the point where Liverpool fans were begging Klopp to sign Lamptey, he was superb in helping the Albion to clean sheets in the 1-0 win away at Norwich City and the 0-0 draw at home to Newcastle United.
We also saw another side to Lamptey at Burnley where he played as a right wing back in a 3-4-1-2 formation. That allowed him to forage forward with even more regularity and if Potter decides three at the back is the way to go in the 2020-21 season to fit Ben White into his starting XI, then Lamptey looks well equipped to fill a slightly more advanced role.
One thing is for certain – this will not be the last time we see Lamptey winning a Player of the Month award. Whoever negotiated the deal to sign him from Chelsea for £4 million should hand themselves in to Sussex Police on account of having committed daylight robbery.
In second place some 37% behind Lamptey came the June winner of Player of the Month, Yves Bissouma. The Malian midfielder has been excellent post-lockdown, finally nailing down a regular starting spot as a defensive midfielder having developed new-found maturity and discipline under Graham Potter to his undoubted talent.
Potter had one criticism of Bissouma coming into July and that was his lack of goals. Bissouma answered that one at the 50th time of asking, rounding off a fine month with his first Premier League strike at Burnley where he racked up a half century of games in Brighton blue.
It was a superb finish from 25 yards, one which generated an extraordinary amount of power given that it was placed into the top corner of Nick Pope’s goal with his side foot.
If Bissouma can start contributing more regularly on the scoring front in 2020-21, then the Albion could have one of the stars of the top flight on their hands.
Adam Webster pipped his defensive partner Lewis Dunk to third spot by a little over 1% of the vote. Webster has struggled at times in his debut Premier League season, especially as autumn turned to winter and he resembled a dog chasing a balloon whenever the ball was in the air.
Just like Bissouma, he looked like a new player once the 2019-20 season restarted. Webster’s best performance of July came away at Southampton where he was Bobby Moore-esque in the way that he read the game and snuffed out any signs of trouble.
Should Dunk finally secure the move to a top six club that he deserves, then the Albion look well stocked to replace him with White set to return and most importantly, Webster. You won’t find much higher praise than that.
Tariq Lamptey – 56.07%
Yves Bissouma – 17.14%
Adam Webster – 8.93%
Lewis Dunk – 7.86%
Leandro Trossard – 5.36%
Neal Maupay – 5.64%
