Burnley 1-2 Brighton: Potter disaster-class turns into Potter masterclass

Graham Potter. Sometimes, he makes decisions and produces results that live up to the hype generated when people like Pep Guardiola describe him as the best English manager in the world. Other times, he has players so woefully out of position that his team looks like it has been selected by Phil Mitchell on crack. In Burnley 1-2 Brighton, he showed both sides of his managerial personality over the course of 90 fascinating minutes.

For the first 45, we bore witness to a Potter disaster-class. 4-1-4-1 with Adam Webster at right back, Pascal Gross at left back, Steve Alzate holding in midfield and Neal Maupay up top on his own was utterly baffling. Needless to say, the Albion were woeful and could consider themselves lucky to be only one behind at the break.

What followed after half time was a Potter masterclass. The very least he had to do was correct the mistakes he had made in his initial selection.

He duly did that, Adam Lallana replacing Enock Mwepu and a switch to a tried and tested 3-4-1-2. Webster at centre back, Gross right wing back, Solly March on the left and Leandro Trossard joining Maupay in attack.

What ultimately ensured it finished Burnley 1-2 Brighton though was Potter’s perfect use of substitutions. Jakub Moder set up the first goal and the second was scored by fellow replacement Alexis Mac Allister. It was the bench what won it for the Albion.

Players out of position is of course something that characterised Brighton in the first half of last season, when they won only two games out of 18.

At times, it looked like Potter was selecting his team via a roulette wheel. From mid-January onwards, he finally settled on his strongest line up and that consistency in selection led to a much improved final 18 games with Premier League survival eventually secured relatively comfortably.

Why Potter therefore decided to dust off the roulette wheel for Burnley away when he knows what works for his Brighton squad is a bit of a mystery.

The whole players out of position thing is not the only lesson which Potter and the Albion have failed to learn from last season either, as we found out when Burnley took the lead from a corner with less than 180 seconds of 2021-22 played.

What made this even more inexcusable is that you know playing Burnley means having to withstand a set piece barrage. Brighton though were woefully underprepared and so over came a Ashley Westwood delivery to be headed home by James Tarkowski.

You wait 520 days to go to an away game and then you find yourself 1-0 down to a completely preventable goal. This was peak Albion, even if there were very strong claims that it should have been disallowed for Tarkowski bundling Maupay over to get on the end of the ball into the box.

Burnley should have added to their lead over the course of the remaining 42 minutes of the first half. Gross was having a torrid time of it at left back, hardly a surprise as asking him to do a job there is the equivalent of sticking Jenny from Gogglebox in charge of a NASA project to land a manned spacecraft on Mars.

Webster was not faring much better over on the right, seemingly caught in two minds as to whether he should be trying to play as a third centre back or an orthodox right back. Going forward, the Albion were a complete non-entity bar Shane Duffy hitting the bar with a header.

Ah yes, Duffy. With Dan Burn injured, Joel Veltman isolating because of a close contact and every half decent young centre back on the Albion’s books sent to spend a year living in Stoke-on-Trent or West Bromwich, Duffy was returned to the Albion’s starting line up when most assumed his Brighton career to be over.

He has never been a Potter player, which is why he barely featured in Potter’s first season in charge. He then secured a dream move last season to Celtic, which quickly turned into a nightmare as he looked utterly bewildered by life in a Scottish Premier League which is equivalent in standard to Sussex Sunday League Division Six.

And yet here Duffy was, giving the best performance of any player in blue and white in Burnley 1-2 Brighton. Him and Lewis Dunk blocking stuff, heading stuff, smiling at each other and then trying to work out where they would go once back in Brighton now that Molly Malone’s is shut due to licencing issues was the greatest reunion since Take That got back together in 2006.

And what does Duffy’s performance tell us about Dunk? Duffy was ghastly in the SPL last season, back alongside Dunk he is Premier League class.

Ben White made it into the England squad for Euro 2020 (in 2021) after a season playing with Dunk. Without Dunk, White was lost at a sea in an Arsenal side who lost to Brentford on Friday night.

We always knew Dunk was good, but the real measure of the man is the improvement he instigates in those around him. Right now, you could drop Alison Hammond in there alongside Dunk and she would look like Bobby Moore.

Duffy’s most pivotal moment came when he cleared off the line after a Ben Mee header from another Westwood corner rattled the crossbar. That chance came about because of a flap from Robert Sanchez, his attempted punch succeeding only in sending the ball straight onto the head of Mee. Tarkowski volleyed the rebound over when he should have at least hit the target.

Sanchez had presented Burnley with an earlier opportunity to double their advantage in what was a ropey first half performance from the young goalkeeper.

A poor goal kick did not even clear the halfway line, falling to the feet of Johann Gudmundsson who advanced to rattle the Albion post with a fine effort from 30 yards.

There were first half bookings for Gudmundsson, Tarkowski and Maupay, all fully deserved in a fiery opening 45 minutes. The Turf Moor crowd were at their partisan best, making the Albion’s comeback even more pleasing as this was the sort of game that they would have wilted in a year ago.

Bruno and Potter were in deep conversation as the sides came off at half time with El Capitan presumably asking Potter what that first half formation and selection was all about.

Potter duly changed – and he deserves credit for that as a more stubborn manager desperate to prove they are right would not have done so – and Brighton were miles better after the break, the revelation of individuals playing well when they are used in their actual positions coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody at Turf Moor other than Potter himself.

Maupay drew a decent save from Nick Pope and Trossard curled wide after good work from Alzate, who was released down the right by a precision Gross pass.

It took the introduction of Moder to create a clear cut opportunity to haul Brighton level. The Poland international had been on the pitch barely 60 seconds when he raced onto a Bissouma pass down the right before crossing into the box for Maupay to slide home, marking his 25th birthday with a goal. Bon anniversaire, Monsieur Maupay.

Seven minutes after the equaliser and Potter introduced Mac Allister, who himself needed only 60 seconds or so to make an impact as Burnley 1-0 Brighton became Burnley 1-2 Brighton in the space of eight minutes.

Webster advanced on one of his charges forward with the ball at his feet to slip Gross into the penalty area. One beautiful, sweeping low pass into the box was delivered perfectly for Mac Allister to sweep home without breaking stride.

Another assist for Gross which you would not have got when Potter thought it was a good idea to use Brighton’s most creative player at left back.

Remember that next week please Graham, stick to what we know works over the next 37 games and watch the Albion fly up the Premier League.