Sanchez and Gross: The Brighton players who turned 2020-21 around

Cast your mind back to January 2021. Brighton had won just two Premier League matches from a possible 18, officially their worst ever start to a top flight season leaving the relegation zone perilously close when Graham Potter decided to introduce Robert Sanchez and Pascal Gross to his starting XI.

Over the course of the next five months, the Albion won seven games out of 20. A joint-record haul of 41 Premier League points were collected and the gap to the bottom three was eventually 13, meaning that Brighton had in effect guaranteed their safety when winning 2-1 away at Southampton in the middle of March. That is quite the turnaround.

There were several factors that you could pin the resurgence on. Potter finally agreed upon a settled team, sending his famous Selection Roulette Wheel into retirement.

The Albion manager also learnt from the experience of the 2019-20 season. After 18 matches without a victory before the Premier League was suspended, the Seagulls picked up 12 points from the final nine games. They came back post-lockdown in June playing in a more pragmatic way, less obsessed with possession and more about what they did with it.

Having begun 2020-21 again trying to have more of the ball every week but failing to win matches, Potter again shifted style and again it paid dividends.

There is definitely a lesson to be had there in terms of not trying to revert back to possession football for a third time at the start of 2021-22, making a terrible start to the season and then changing tact halfway through. As the great Albert Einstein once said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

We are not here to talk about either of those reasons being behind the Albion’s much improved second half of the campaign though. Instead, let us shower praise on Sanchez and Gross, whose elevations to Brighton first team regulars made a significant contribution to the turnaround.

Much has been written about the remarkable rise of Sanchez and the difference he made once replacing Maty Ryan in mid-December. After three seasons of being one of the Albion’s better players, Ryan’s form completely deserted him in the opening three months of 2020-21 to leave Brighton leaking goals at an alarming rate.

Not scoring anywhere near enough of the chances you create at the same time as conceding two or more goals per game on average is a more dangerous combination than sending your teenage kids to a party at Prince Andrew’s castle.

Whilst most Albion supporters felt the answer had to lie with improving the front line, Potter instead focussed on tightening up the defence through changing his goalkeeper.

It was a brave decision. Sanchez had spent the previous two seasons not exactly tearing up trees with Forest Green Rovers in League Two and Rochdale in League One.

He had reported back to the Amex in the summer as fifth choice goalkeeper behind Ryan, David Button, Jason Steele and Christian Walton. Had Walton not suffered an unlucky injury in pre-season, then Sanchez probably would have been farmed out to a Championship side for another loan spell.

Strange how these things work out, isn’t it? Potter took a gamble on Sanchez, chucking a 23-year-old rookie goalkeeper into a relegation battle in place of an experienced full international with over 100 Premier League appearances under his belt.

You do not need telling what happened next. 10 clean sheets from 27 matches has seen Sanchez receive a shock call up to Spain’s Euro 2020 (in 2021) squad ahead of Chelsea’s £72 million man Kepa Arrizabalaga.

With David De Gea seemingly out of form, there are even rumours circulating amongst the Spanish press that Luis Enrique is set to make Sanchez his number one for the tournament. Not even Disney would script such a ridiculous fairy tale.

Sanchez’s impact has been so big because he has not only improved the Albion’s goalkeeping department but the entire defence. Whereas before Brighton resembled a circus act whenever an aerial ball was lofted into the box – see the shocking number of goals conceded from set pieces in that first half of the season – now the back line have confidence in their goalkeeper to come and relieve the pressure.

That confidence then flows into other areas of the defence’s game. Even Lewis Dunk was below his impervious best between September and December with Ryan behind him; since Sanchez came into the team the Brighton captain has been the most in-form English centre back in the country.

The impact Gross has had on Brighton in the second half of the season has been less noted than that of Sanchez, despite it being just as big.

Gross did not start a Premier League game until the 2-1 defeat away at Spurs in November when, predictably, he got an assist. Potter afforded him a run of six starts after that, yielding a total of two goals and two assists.

For the 3-0 defeat at Leicester, Gross fell victim to the Potter Roulette Wheel as his number landed upon a holding midfield role. Gross struggled playing out-of-position against the Foxes and so Potter had the perfect excuse to drop him, leading to another five games on the bench only punctuated by a start when the Albion played a second-string side at home to Arsenal.

Gross returned for the 1-0 victory at 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United, since when he has not looked back. Just a quick reminder for you again that, prior to the trip to Elland Road, Brighton had won two games out of 18.

After Leeds away, Gross started every single top flight game. In that time, he scored once more and set up another eight, ending the 2020-21 campaign with three goals and 10 assists. Mesut Özil is now the only German with more Premier League assists than Gross.

Gross has shown his adaptability, playing as a central midfielder, a right wing back and at right back. Such has been his resurgence that Potter even made him Der Kapitan when Lewis Dunk was ruled out of the West Ham and Manchester City matches through suspension.

Nobody dares deride Gross as being a mere sEt pIEcE mErcHaNt anymore, as if being able to take a pinpoint corner or free kick was a bad thing anyway.

He has become a central part of this Brighton team as he was under Chris Hughton. It is just a shame that it took Potter such a long time to realise what Gross could bring to the party in 2020-21… who knows how different that disappointing opening half of the season might look had Gross been pulling the strings in midfield from the start.

It says much about the impact that Sanchez and Gross have had on Brighton that both have a genuine chance of being voted as our Player of the Year in the WAB 2020-21 Awards despite only being involved for around 50 percent of the season.

The Streets won’t forget their roles in delivering a record-breaking fifth successive campaign of top flight football. Here’s to you, Señor Sanchez and Herr Gross.