The best and worst moments of the Graham Potter Era at Brighton
The end of the Graham Potter Era at Brighton has brought with it a lot of retrospective analysis of the past three-and-a-half years at the Albion.
Some want to focus on only the good. The record-breaking ninth place finish. First ever wins away against Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Aston Villa and Preston North End.
Hitting the top of the Premier League for four minutes. The scintillating football played at times. The transformation of the Albion into one of the youngest, most exciting teams in English football.
Recording the Albion’s best ever start to a top flight season. Recording the Albion’s longest undefeated streak as a top flight club.
Others want to focus on only the bad. The club-record 14 home games without a victory. One solitary win at the Amex in the calendar year of 2020.
Three months without a win between September 2021 and Boxing Day. Three months without scoring at the Amex between January and April 2022.
Six defeats in a row for the first time since Mark McGhee was at the wheel with a pint of whiskey. Recording the Albion’s worst ever start to a top flight season.
The Potter Era was not all champagne and caviar. Neither was it all whatever the opposite of champagne and caviar is – a 99p pint of Ruddles and a jacket potato with beans in Wetherspoons?
We have picked out some of the best – and some of the worst – moments experienced during Potter’s time as Albion head coach.
Best match: Brighton 4-0 Manchester United, Saturday 7th May 2022
Graham Potter delivered some seriously good results and memories as Brighton manager. Wins away at Liverpool, Arsenal (twice), Spurs and Manchester United. The come-from-behind 3-2 Amex victory over Manchester City which caused Pep Guardiola to have a total meltdown.
Potter’s pièce de résistance though was the 4-0 dismantling of the not-so-mighty Manchester United back in May. Most pundits chose to focus on United being dreadful. And they were. But that was largely because the Albion made them look that way.
Moises Caicedo got the party started with a first half strike from 25 yards. What followed in the second half beggared belief as the Seagulls scored three goals in the space of 15 minutes.
Marc Cucurella, Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard had the Albion 4-0 ahead before an hour had been played. At which point United interim boss Ralf Rangnick (you may not have heard this, but he once played for Southwick in the County League) was forced into introducing England defender Harry Maguire.
Manchester United were bringing on defensive reinforcements when losing by four goals to Brighton & Hove Albion to try and prevent the score getting any worse.
For the generation of Seagulls fans who grew up surrounded by United glory hunters at school through the 80s, 90s and 00s, this was the sweetest of victories. Never has an horrific Sunday hangover been more worth it.
Worst match: Plucky Little Bournemouth 3-1 Brighton, Wednesday 22nd January 2020
Most Albion fans would reach straight for Brighton 0-3 Burnley as the worst match of the Graham Potter era. And they would have a very good point.
The Clarets arrived bottom of the table having won just once all season and with no victory on their travels in nearly a year.
90 minutes later and there were 20,000 empty seats in the Amex as Sean Dyche and his players left having comprehensively outclassed the Seagulls. It was so bad by the end that those brave Brighton fans who did not abandon ship early were simply left laughing.
But no, there was one worse experience under Potter. The Wednesday night trip to Plucky Little Bournemouth in January 2020.
The Cherries had taken just four points from 36. They were winless at the Vitality Stadium in four months. They had scored once in their past six matches. You know exactly where this is going.
A 3-1 defeat was bad enough but what made this a particularly impressive shit show was Potter’s tactics. This was the evening where Dale Stephens had a stint at right back.
That was not even the most ludicrous decision Potter took. Chasing the game, he introduced natural width from the bench in Trossard and Solly March.
They began pumping crosses into the box for the hobbit-sized strike force of Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly to try and win in the air. Whilst Glenn Murray sat on the bench as an unused substitute. Utterly baffling.
Best goal: Enock Mwepu v Arsenal, Saturday 9th April 2022
Given that one of the biggest criticism of Brighton under Graham Potter was that the Albion did not score enough, the best goal of the past three-and-a-bit seasons was particularly difficult to pick.
There have been some spectacular individual strikes. Alireza Jahanbakhsh and THAT New Year’s Day overhead kick against Chelsea. Neal Maupay scoring an equally impressive bicycle at Southampton. Enock Mwepu from 30 yards against Liverpool.
The last goal of the Potter Era was not bad either, Alexis Mac Allister completing the 5-2 rout of Leicester City with a stunning free kick from 25 yards.
We have decided though to go for a team goal which personified Potterball and the ethos of passing football carving opponents apart.
Trossard’s equaliser in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool saw the Albion sweep from Robert Sanchez at one end to the Vampire of Genk beating Allison Becker at the other via 30 seconds of one-touch football.
Eclipsing that was the move which Mwepu finished off when scoring the second in the 2-1 win at Arsenal in April. Cucurella found Caicedo. Caicedo played a one-two with Trossard involving a back heel from the Belgian which set Caicedo into space on the by-line.
One perfectly dinked ball back to the edge of the box later and Mwepu was on hand to guide a volley past Aaron Ramsdale without so much as breaking stride. It was good enough to make the shortlist of the April 2022 Premier League Goal of the Month award.
Worst miss: Aaron Connolly v Sheffield United, Sunday 20th December 2020
For every great goal Brighton scored under Graham Potter, there was an equally glorious miss. The 2020-21 season proved very fruitful for those of us who enjoy a bewildering squandered open goal or someone putting the ball wide from five yards.
Naturally, it is from that campaign where the worst miss of the Potter Era comes. It could have been Neal Maupay putting a penalty 70 feet wide of the post in the Amex draw with Liverpool in November 2020.
It could have been either of the two penalties missed in the space of an hour away at West Brom in February 2021. It could have been Aaron Connolly in the same game putting the ball over the bar from six yards out with Baggies goalkeeper Sam Johnstone lying in the ground.
Remarkably, Connolly had managed to produce an even more impressive miss two months earlier against Sheffield United at the Amex, winning our WAB 2020-21 Miss of the Season Award.
Shooshh‘s number one customer defied all the known laws of physics by putting a free header high and wide from no more than three yards away with 24 feet of open goal directly in front of him to aim at.
What made this particular miss so good was the context. The Blades were bottom of the Premier League with one point from 13 matches to set the worst ever start to a top flight season in English footballing history.
They then had to play for over an hour with 10 men after John Lundstram was sent off. Brighton predictably found a way to go 1-0 down on the hour mark and were still behind when Connolly produced his miss.
At the time, it looked like it might give 10-man United their first win of the campaign. Danny Welbeck unfortunately ruined the fun with an 87th minute equaliser.
Best tactical decision: Finding a winning formula at Arsenal
That Arsenal away game in April was the day it all came together for Potter. Eyebrows were raised when he crammed five central midfielders into one starting line up, but the fluid 3-3-3-1 formation he went with at the Emirates completely threw the Gunners.
Welbeck led the line alone. Trossard was used at left wing back for the first time in his Brighton career, having enjoyed great success there with Belgium.
Solly March was switched to right wing back. Caicedo made his Premier League debut. Mac Allister was given more freedom to dictate play from a slightly deeper role.
And the Albion began playing longer passes than before, taking more risks instead of going backwards or sideways to maintain an obsession and possession.
From that day onwards, only Fulham and champions Manchester City were able to overcome Graham Potter and Brighton. Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United (twice), West Ham United (twice), Wolves, Leicester City, The Leeds United… none could find an answer to stop the Albion.
Potter was reinventing football – and the potential for genius which led Tony Bloom to appoint him in the first place was there for all to see.
Bloom sticking by Potter through those barren runs which had frequented the previous 26 months of football when other owners would have handed their manager his P45 was vindicated in glorious fashion.
You could even go so far as to argue that Potter’s tactical switch is what earned him his move to Chelsea and a cool weekly wage of £250,000.
Would the Blues have touched him with a bargepole when Brighton had lost six in a row and just drawn 0-0 with Norwich City, prior to the brilliant run of form which has stemmed from Arsenal away?
If Chelsea have based their decision to appoint Potter on three months of results he has delivered using a formation and tactics that it may be difficult to replicate due to the different type of players available at Stamford Bridge, then it could be rather interesting.
Worst tactical decision: Pascal Gross playing left back at Burnley
Another reason for Brighton’s flying form since the start of April was Potter ditching his famous selection roulette wheel.
The Brighton boss loved nothing more than making strange tactical decisions of the sort you rarely see outside a university student playing Football Manager at 3am after a heavy session on magic mushrooms.
That Bournemouth away debacle with Stephens at right back has been discussed already. Handsome Davy Propper also had a stint at full back.
Bernardo in central midfield. Moder as a lone striker. Ben White at right wing back. All classics of the genre.
Aston Villa at home in January 2020 deserves a mention. The Albion led 1-0 with 20 minutes to go. Steve Alzate at right back had done a brilliant job in helping shackle Jack Grealish.
So what did Potter do? He took off Connolly. Moved Aaron Mooy up front. Moved Alzate into midfield. Brought on Martin Montoya at right back.
Total and unnecessary disruption through the entire team. Within seven minutes of Montoya’s introduction, it was Brighton 1-1 Aston Villa.
Grealish got the goal when he was picked out with time and space in – you have guessed it – the Albion’s right back position.
Even more strange than positional musical chairs when defending a 1-0 home lead late in a game was what Potter dreamt up for the opening day of the 2021-22 season at Burnley.
Brighton had spent all pre-season playing a back three. That went out the window at Turf Moor. In came a back four with Adam Webster at right back and Gross at left back. Pascal Gross. Left back.
The result was a an abysmal first half performance. Burnley scored after less than two minutes and should have been out of sight by half time.
Brighton somehow made it into the interval trailing by only one. Potter to his credit changed things around and the second half introductions of Moder and Mac Allister in the bench saw the Albion come from behind to win 2-1.
It was an afternoon that encapsulated Potter in a nutshell. The utterly bizarre mixed in with managerial magic. A disasterclass to a masterclass in the space of 90 minutes.
Best signing: Joel Veltman, £900,000
How much say over good and bad signings Graham Potter had whilst Brighton manager is up for debate. These days, it is the recruitment team who are largely responsible for incoming players.
Not like a decade ago when you could praise Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named for signing Liam Bridcutt at the same time as wondering if he had his head screwed on for embarking on a six month pursuit of Billy Paynter.
The Albion’s recruitment since Potter took over in 2019 has been outstanding. Trossard. Caicedo. Cucurella. Welbeck. Tariq Lamptey. Webster. Moder. The list goes on.
One though stands out in particular – Joel Veltman. In three seasons at the Amex, he is yet to have a bad game. He has played right wing back, right back, centre back in a three and centre back in a two.
Veltman oozes class and Brighton picked him up for £900,000. He is one of the best bargains in the club’s 121 year history. Hands off in January, Graham…
Worst signing: Matt Clarke, £3.5 million
In another sign of how good Brighton recruitment has been under Graham Potter, picking a worst signing is more difficult than selecting a best.
There are no obvious duds like Jahanbakhsh, Jurgen Locadia or Florin Andone to go for. Michal Karbownik arrived in January 2021 for £5 million from Legia Warsaw as one of the most highly rated young players in Europe.
His Albion career so far consists of a stop-start loan at Olympiacos last season and a season long switch to Bundesliga 2 side Fortuna Düsseldorf for the current campaign.
Karbownik though might yet come good under whoever Potter’s replacement as Brighton manager is – if he is given a chance to show the talent that made him a full Poland international at 19.
We have therefore opted as the first signing of the Potter Era as the worst – Matt Clarke. Signed for £3.5 million from Portsmouth in 2019, he did not play a single minute of competitive football for the Albion and was sold for £3.5 million to Middlesbrough in 2022.
No contribution to Brighton and no profit. Worst is probably the wrong term to use. Clarke was just a bit… pointless?
Worst press conference moment: Boogate after Brighton 0-0 The Leeds United
Having just seen Brighton extend their winless run to approaching three months with no goals scored from open play in that time despite having had 175 shots against Leeds, around 100 Albion fans booed at the full time whistle.
A minor footnote not worth getting worked up about. And nobody would have cared had Potter not taken a swipe at those supporters in his post-match interview when asked about the booing.
“Fans pay their money, they are entitled to their opinion” was the sort of bland answer that would have defused the situation, making it all go away.
Instead, Potter made his ill-advised “history lesson” comments to send the booing mainstream. That it has been brought up as a possible reason for him jumping ship to Chelsea by poorly informed pundits is because Potter made a mountain out of a molehill and the media have run with it ever since.
Some Brighton fans are perplexed as to why booing at other clubs does not receive the same coverage as that one Leeds game. The answer is because no other manager criticises their own supporters, fuelling the fire.
If Potter did not like a handful of supporters booing in the midst of what would be an 11 game winless streak, he will need to develop a thicker skin to survive 40,000 at Stamford Bridge and millions around the world criticising him when Chelsea draw with Bournemouth.
Otherwise, it won’t end well when he is telling the Chelsea faithful who demand wins and trophies how they should support their team.
Best press conference moment: Brighton 2022 Fans’ Forum
We have saved the best Graham Potter moment as manager for last – and it had nothing to do with what happened on the pitch.
Okay, so the Brighton 2022 Fans’ Forum was not technically a press conference. It was though a glorious evening when Albion season ticket holder Dave stole the show.
An older fan, Dave took to the microphone around 45 minutes into the event to read out a five minute long poem he had written lambasting the Albion for introducing a £2.50 fee for printing matchday tickets at home.
Fans’ Forum host Johnny Cantor tried to cut Dave off mid-flow. Neither man nor beast could stop Dave. Once he eventually reached the end of his poem, the audience clapped and cheered.
So too did Potter. In fact, Potter looked as happy as he did at any other time in his three-and-a-bit seasons at the Albion. He laughed his head off, cheered and applauded more ferociously than anyone else in the room.
This was in stark contrast to Paul Barber, who was trying to smile but not-so-subtly seething inside that somebody had gone to the time and effort to write a clever poem criticising the club.
Potter loved it. Barber did not. Maybe that is why Brighton gave Potter permission to talk to Chelsea? They were happy to see the back of him after siding with that wannabe-Shakespeare troublemaker Dave? Now it all makes sense…
