Yves Bissouma voted WAB April 2021 Brighton Player of the Month

May 4, 2021June 1, 2021 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

As the summer transfer window rapidly approaches, Brighton midfielder Yves Bissouma continued to add millions to his price tag with a set of performances in April 2021 that saw him voted as our WAB Player of the Month.

Bissouma is going to be in-demand come the end of the season. Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid and now Tottenham Hotspur have all been linked since the autumn and most Albion fans seem to accept the fact that he deserves a bigger and better stage to showcase his talents on.

All that attention appeared to have turned his head a little at the turn of the year and as a result, Bissouma’s performances in January and February dropped off a little from the high standards he had set in the first half of the season.

April though represented a return to form for Yves Bissouma as he was one of the few bright spots for Brighton in a month where the Albion failed to win a Premier League game.

He was the best midfielder on the pitch in the 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford and the 0-0 draw at Chelsea; no mean feat given the talents those two European Super League elite clubs possess in their squads.

Bissouma ran the show to top the WAB Player Ratings for the 0-0 draw against Everton. Aside from second half substitutes Jose Izquierdo and Alireza Jahanbakhsh, he was the only player to come out of the 1-0 Sheffield United defeat shambles with any credit.

The question now does not seem to be if Bissouma will be sold this summer, but how much for. There have been laughable suggestions on Twitter that Arsenal will get their man for £30 million. Realistically, Brighton should be selling him for double that.

Watching Bissouma develop from the inconsistent and sometimes frustrating player that he was when Chris Hughton first brought him to England in the summer of 2018 into one of the best midfielders in the Premier League has been a joy.

Wherever he goes, it will be with the blessings of everyone at the Amex. If May’s five matches represent his final appearances in a Brighton shirt, then be sure to make the most of him people as players as talented as Bissouma came along very rarely in a Brighton shirt.

Second place in the April Player of the Month poll went to a man who has been desperately unlucky not to secure his own move to a bigger club – Lewis Dunk.

The Brighton captain has been in his best form of the season since the turn of the year, including topping the WAB Power Rankings in both January and February, offering a timely reminder to Gareth Southgate about what he could offer England going into Euro 2020 (in 2021) this summer. Unfortunately, Southgate seems determined to ignore his claims.

Dunk led the Albion to back-to-back clean sheets against an Everton outfit who arrived at the Amex with the best away record in the top flight followed by a Chelsea side with £200 million worth of attacking players in April, excelling in both outings.

Brighton had never left Stamford Bridge with so much as a point before the 0-0 draw there. Aside from the protests outside the ground which held up kick off, it was a night that will be remembered for Dunk shutting out the team he supported as a boy.

The Albion’s excellent defensive record in April saw another member of the back line voted into third with Joel Veltman just behind Dunk in the poll.

Veltman has been an unflappable figure throughout his debut campaign with Brighton since his £900,000 capture from Ajax in the summer.

He showed his versatility throughout April, playing as a left sided centre back in Graham Potter’s back three during Adam Webster’s absence through injury.

Veltman then reverted to the right wing back role where he was so impressed over the course of the season before filling in for the suspended Ben White as right sided centre back away at Sheffield United.