Potter team selection roulette is sabotaging Brighton players’ form

At first, the idea of Graham Potter making his Brighton team selection using a roulette wheel seemed like a harmless joke. So what if the Albion boss liked to use players in unusual positions, at least it was more interesting than Chris Hughton’s predictable line ups every week.

Now though it is moving beyond satire. Potter’s constant chopping and changing is directly contributing to Brighton’s trials and tribulations so far in the 2020-21 season which have seen the Albion pick up just two wins from 16 Premier League matches.

Changing personnel is damaging enough in terms of preventing individuals from building up form. A player will not play at his best if he is in the side one week, out of it the next.

The real problem with Potter team selection roulette however is the number of players he has played out-of-position this season. Half the time, there is no rhyme nor reason for him to make the decisions he does, which ultimately have sabotaged the good form of several of Brighton’s stars.

Ben White
Ben White has been one of the players most impacted by the Potter Brighton team selection roulette wheel. At various points in the past year, White has been coveted by Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.

Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho and Mikel Arteta all want to sign White for his abilities as a centre back. So what does Potter do? Use him as a central midfielder or a right wing back.

When White plays as part of the Albion’s back three, he has looked like a future England international. Whenever Potter uses him in midfield, he looks bang average.

On the one occasion he was used at right wing back, he was the lowest scoring Brighton player in our player ratings for the 2-2 draw at West Ham United.

Brighton have one of the best young defenders in England on their books. Why does Potter not use him there, rather than constantly swapping his position?

Pascal Gross
It took a long time for Pascal Gross to convince Potter to give him a spot in his Brighton team selection. The German playmaker had to wait until the start of November for his first Premier League start of the season which came in the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Gross was used in his strongest number 10 position. Over the next five matches, he recorded two goals and two assists from said role, being voted into third spot in our WeAreBrighton.com November 2020 Player of the Month poll behind Solly March and Yves Bissouma. Not bad company to be in.

How did Potter reward this excellent run of form? By moving Gross from number 10 to play in an unfamiliar holding midfield role in the 3-0 defeat at Leicester City.

Unsurprisingly, Gross struggled at the King Power Stadium that day. Potter subsequently dropped him for the next three matches because of his performance against the Foxes – despite the fact that Gross’ poor showing could be attributed to the change in position instigated by the Brighton manager.

Why would you take one of your most in-form players out of the role they are excelling in and give them another job that their skillset is less equipped to revel in? It was almost like Potter wanted to set Gross up to fail.

Leandro Trossard
Post-lockdown, Leandro Trossard was one of Brighton’s best players. He continued that form into the early months of the 2020-21 season, most notably against Manchester United when he could have had a hat-trick were it not for the frame of the goal.

There are several possible reasons as to why Trossard’s form has deserted him since November. He could the Belgian Paul Brooker, a player who is brilliant in the warmer months but hibernates once winter arrives. A couple of untimely injuries have also disrupted Trossard’s flow.

Then there is what happened at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Potter spun his Brighton team selection roulette wheel and it landed on playing Trossard as a lone striker. A 5’5, Bilbo Baggins sized lone striker.

Needless to say, Trossard had a hard time of it against Spurs and he has looked a shadow of his summer self since. He has the talent to be one of the Albion’s most exciting players if used correctly – either as a winger or a number 10 – two positions in which Potter has barely given him a chance this season. Bizarre.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh
Prince Ali, fabulous he, Ali Jahanbakhsh. Except things have not been so fabulous for the Iranian during his two-and-a-half seasons at the Amex.

Jahanbakhsh’s best position is on the right, either as a winger or as part of a front three. It was from the right that he scored 22 times and assisted another 14 during the 2017-18 season with AZ Alkmaar, which convinced the Albion to break their transfer record by paying £17 million for his services.

Chris Hughton used him on the right throughout the 2018-19 campaign, when a return of zero goals and zero assists suggested he was not cut out for English football. He would not be the first big money signing from the Eredivisie to flop in the Premier League.

Last season though we saw glimpses of talent. There was that emotional first goal against Plucky Little Bournemouth and the overhead kick which stunned Chelsea, both of which again came when he was playing on the right.

So far this season, Potter has used him through the middle. That has mainly been as a number 10, which led to him being all over the place like a headless chicken in the second half of the 1-1 draw with 10 man Sheffield United.

The pinnacle of Potter selection roulette came when Jahanbakhsh was named as the focal point of the Brighton attack in the team that lost 1-0 to Arsenal. To be fair to Jahanbakhsh, he did alright in that role and might have even scored were it not for an excellent save from Bernd Leno.

There is no doubting though where Jahanbakhsh is most effective, and that is not through the middle. Whilst there may be no obvious role for Jahanbakhsh to play in Potter’s 3-4-1-2, when the manager makes one of his mid-game formation changes or opts for something different to his favoured shape, then why not give the Iranian a chance on the right?

Dan Burn
We know Dan Burn is versatile, as shown by the job he did as a square-peg-in-round-hole solution to Brighton’s left back problems last season.

What he is not is versatile enough to play as a left wing back, a position that Potter has used him in with worrying frequency. Whenever Burn plays there, he looks more dazed than a lost giraffe separated from its herd and cops plenty of criticism from Brighton supporters as a result.

Burn’s best matches in 2020-21 have come as a left sided centre back in the Albion’s three man defence. To ask him to play anywhere else is pretty weird.

Joel Veltman
Less of a burning issue (pun not intended) than Burn’s use as a left wing back but still somewhat of a problem is Joel Veltman deputising for Tariq Lamptey at right wing back.

Veltman is a product of one of the finest footballing academies in the world at Ajax. He has been part of a side who reached the Champions League semi finals and is a regular for the Netherlands national team.

Never in his career has he been played as a right wing back before. All his success has come as either a centre back or orthodox right back.

Attack minded wing backs are so vital to Brighton’s 3-4-1-2 that you cannot expect to be anywhere near as effective going forward when the outstanding Lamptey and March are replaced on the flanks by centre backs like Veltman and Burn.

Adam Webster
Adam Webster is a player whose misuse by Potter has slipped under the radar a little bit. Without fail, every one of Webster’s best performances so far this season have been when he has played on the right side of Brighton’s back three. He is right footed, after all.

Yet throughout October, November and the early part of December, Potter kept playing Webster as a left sided centre back. Webster looked horrible there and that ultimately led to him being dropped for the first time in his Brighton career for the trip to Leicester.

Without Webster in the starting line up, the Albion gave their poorest defensive performance of the campaign. Proof that Potter should be playing him in his best position – just like six other players we have named here who have been dicked around this season.