Mel Phillips – the coach transforming Brighton WSL prospects

A 3-0 defeat for Mel Phillips and her Brighton Women side to Arsenal may not feel like a step forward for the Albion. And whilst the Gunners were superior, two late goals gave the result a more comfortable impression than the visitors’ dominance warranted.

After all, with the game 1-0 until the 80th minute, Brighton had to that point threatened to equalise on a number of occasions.

Albion’s transformation under Phillips began from the moment she was appointed. Her first game was the FA Cup semi final against Manchester United back in April when the team produced one of their best performances of the WSL era – one Phillips described afterwards as “brilliant” and “resilient”.

After leading 1-0 at half time, it was heartache as an 89th minute winner saw United secure a scarcely deserved 3-2 win 3-2 to progress to the final at Wembley.

That day, the Albion went back to basics after a season to forget up to that point. They set up with two lines of four, looking to be hard to break down and attack on the counter.

This was an approach that was quite the opposite to the high-pressing, possession-oriented coach that Mel Phillips professed to be in her first pre-match press conference in charge of Brighton – but as she also stated that day, needs must.

When Phillips arrived, Albion were in an absolute mess. A genuine threat of relegation to the Championship hung over the Seagulls and they had only scrambled their way to the FA Cup semis thanks to a kind draw against lower league opposition and some wasteful finishing from Birmingham City in the previous round.

That progression towards a high pressing, possession-based style has since begun to materialise. And whilst Albion’s ball retention is still in need of work, they have adapted their style to be far more front-footed and aggressive without the ball. An approach that was probably best demonstrated in their 2-2 draw at home to United on Bonfire Night.

This was a game in which Albion were second best in terms of possession, but brave and bold without the ball, using a high press from the off.

An approach that saw them take the lead on the half hour, after they won the ball high up the pitch, well-inside the United half.

And it took less than eight seconds for the ball to work its way into the back of the net via a typically cool and calm Elisabeth Terland finish.

That day also ended with a late United goal leading to more Albion heartbreak. But the draw was still a good result for Phillips’ side, and one they then backed up with their first win over Manchester City in WSL the weekend after.

The evolution is both in terms of style and system. After beginning her time with Albion using a rigid 4-4-2, the team started this season with a more offensive minded and fluid 3-4-3.

At times, this shapes adapts to a defensive 5-4-1, most notably away from home against a very dominant Chelsea. But one that has also at times adapted to a 4-3-3.

Albion’s front three of Pauline Bremer, Katie Robinson and Terland has been consistent for most of the season and is an attack which will trouble any defence.

New signings Maria Thorisdottir at the back and Sophie Baggaley in goal are also beginning to cement their places too as essential parts of the Brighton starting XI.

But any team who is making such a significant change in formation, style and personnel will have to expect a period of adjustment.

Nonetheless given where Brighton were when Mel Phillips arrived, I feel it’s hard to argue this is too much change too soon, but instead change that was simply necessary to put the team back on track.

The defeat to Arsenal demonstrates that. Admittedly second best to superior opposition, Albion still defended well for long periods whilst offering a threat going forwards, but it was a few moments of error or a lack of conviction that cost them dear.

Whilst the 15 goals conceded in the current campaign show Albion’s defensive worries from last season haven’t been eradicated under Phillips just yet, the recent clean sheet against City alongside the early season heroics from Baggaley give hope that this will continue to improve.

Nonetheless, there is still work to do. Phillips’ pre-season statement that the team wants to be “competitive in every single league match” has probably been met so far.

Although some poor second half performances – most notably in the 3-1 defeat to Spurs and the 4-2 defeat to Chelsea, along with conceding a number of late goals – show doing that for the full 90 minutes remains a challenge.

This may not sound like a particularly ambitious aim either, but a quick look back on some of the performance levels Brighton showed from last season would demonstrate how low of a base Mel Phillips was starting with when she first arrived.

Despite her statements that she wants the team to be more possession based, there is still work to do in that area.

Many of their passing and possession stats are trending upwards, particularly in the opposition third, but you’d hope so after last season.

Whilst their completed passes per game averages at 295 so far this season, up from 262 per game last season, average possession remains low at 42 percent (43 percent last season). In fact, in both measurements Albion have fallen this season from fourth lowest in the WSL to third lowest.

If Albion want to improve their defensive record, then greater ball retention would be a good place to start. It would enable them to take some of the pressure off the defence and Baggaley in goal, who has been left with far too much to do in recent matches.

Couple that with the increased physical exertion from the high pressing style implemented this season, and you can start to see why so many of Albion’s goals conceded this season have come late in the game.

But this is a reality of where Brighton are in the Mel Phillips transformation, early days. That a lot of the players Phillips has brought in this season have referred to a ‘project’ is telling.

No doubt a project that Phillips will have been crucial in selling to high-profile signings like Vicky Losada, Jorelyn Carabali and Bremer this summer.

Among whom there is a reassuring level of realism of the task at hand, with Bremer saying of the improvements required in pre-season: “Of course, we want as many points as possible. It will not be made overnight.”

Whereas previous transfer windows from Albion’s Women have left fans scratching their heads, this summer’s business shows that there is now a clear strategy in place.

Of which, adding experience is a key part as Phillips outlined ahead of the current season, when she said: “We’ve gone after high-level experience, players who are very ambitious and players that share values with the club and the project that we are building here.”

And at Brighton, Mel Phillips is leading a club who have huge ambitions for the women’s team. With the financial backing of a generous owner along with the financial stability of a men’s team now in its seventh consecutive Premier League season, the club are in a position to be ambitious.

Those ambitions are best demonstrated by the club’s £8.5 million investment in a bespoke training complex for its Women and Girls teams that was opened in September 2021. An investment it would have been harder to make without the men’s prolonged Premier League status.

Mel Phillips told the Daily Mirror at the time of joining Brighton: “There is so much support, from Paul Barber our CEO, Michelle (Walder) our women’s chair, (owner) Tony Bloom as well, I’ve had loads of interactions with him.”

“That senior leadership is so invested in our team. They know it will be a longer project to get us in the top four, which is where we want to be competing as a club.”

Some of last season’s results like the 8-0 home defeat to Spurs or the 6-2 defeat away to Villa make the recent 1-0 win away to Man City all the more impressive.

Albeit that it was very much a ‘smash and grab’ type result. A characteristic demonstrated by City’s 65 percent possession and 23 shots. The Albion managed just four shots in return.

Ahead of the win over City, Phillips pointed to the team’s recent improvement by referring back to the those defeats to West Ham and Spurs.

“We’ve taken those lessons and really built on them in the last few games, and therefore we are happy with the progression and are starting to get rewarded for that,” she said.

And if you’d offered Albion fans the set of results achieved in the subsequent four games against the WSL’s Big Four of Chelsea, City, United and Arsenal, I suspect most would have snapped your hand off. Four points from four games is not to be sniffed at.

There is a rather big elephant in the room in terms of the women’s team right now however, which is that they still currently playing home matches 21 miles up the road from the Amex at Crawley’s Broadfield Stadium.

And with Brighton Under 21s playing at the Amex this month, the men’s development squad will have played as many games there as the women’s senior team so far this season.

Ground sharing at Crawley is the one area that slightly contradicts the club’s already outlined commitment to the women’s team and the statement that they are given equal status to the men.

The club have of course recently announced plans to build a new women’s team specific stadium in Brighton & Hove, one that the City Council have publicly offered their support for in principle.

Council leader Bella Sankey has publicly backed the plans, but the council’s backing was not unanimous. Conservative councillor Samer Bagaeen stated his belief that the women’s team should play at the Amex rather than have a purpose-built stadium, a view I sympathise with.

For me, these plans at the moment leave more questions than answers. In particular, the club are yet to announce any specific details, such as an anticipated timeline or a preferred site, so this project appears to be in its very early stages.

And given how long it took to get from the early stages of planning to build a new stadium at Falmer (1999) to actually playing games at the Amex (2011), it’s probably best to be cautious of the plans for a women’s stadium just yet, and assume it will still be trips to Crawley for the short-to-medium-term.

Nonetheless, the recent announcement is a prospect that encourages Phillips, who said: “There is a lot of excitement for everyone about those plans.”

“If you look at the growth of the women’s games over the past few years, Brighton have been at the forefront of that, and we have an unbelievable training centre that we use every day.”

And to remain at the forefront of the women’s game, the club want Phillips to take that potential the Albion has and lead it to the top.

Bloom’s stated aim is for Brighton to become a top four club, a huge ambition and one that looked far-fetched throughout most of last season.

But along with their own notable recent results, some early season eye-catching results from last season’s fellow relegation candidates Leicester City, hint at what’s possible. With good management and solid recruitment, strugglers can turn things around in WSL.

Of course, we have seen standout results like this before from Albion and others in the WSL. As Phillips has pointed to, doing so consistently every week is the next step.

An admittedly large one, as Arsenal’s consecutive convincing victories over first Leicester and then Brighton in the last two weekends show.

But, as is widely recognised by the coach and the team, the club’s ambitions are more realistically longer-term. In the short-term, Phillips has said she wants to aim for a best ever finish.

Even matching the sixth place the team achieved in 2020-21 would be a huge achievement given where Brighton were when Mel Phillips arrived earlier this year.

The Phillips project is one that won’t be derailed by the odd bad result or performance. Whilst the club have stated their structures are not build around the team’s head coach, managers are ultimately the ones who drive the team forward, pull everyone together and create that successful team culture.

Roberto De Zerbi has demonstrated this so successfully with the men’s team, as in contrast did the failure of Phillip’s predecessor Jen Scheuer.

It is early days, but the Phillips transformation is underway and the upturn in fortunes since she has come in is clearly notable.

Albion’s men have had a habit of regularly exceeding reasonable expectations in recent times, something the women’s team have struggled to replicate.

But with Phillips in charge, I think they’ve got every chance of continuing to surprise people this season – we just have to give them some time to get there.

Phil