Will Brighton’s forgotten men get a chance under Potter?

Ezequiel Schelotto. Markus Suttner. Tomer Hemed. Three senior professionals who Chris Hughton deemed surplus to requirements in the 2018-19 season and whose Brighton and Hove Albion careers looked to be over as a result.

But with Hughton gone, is the door now open on another chance for them? In an interview with The Argus, new Albion boss Graham Potter said that every player has a clean slate.

“I don’t think it’s fair to come in with a pre-conceived idea and judgement on anybody. That is one of the benefits of somebody coming in with a new set of eyes.”

That will be music to some Albion fans’ ears. Brighton supporters have this strange tendency to build up any player who spends time out of the side into some sort of returning hero who can make a huge difference, despite their usually being a very good reason they were dropped.

It happened with Beram Kayal, who turned from fourth choice midfielder into Eden Hazard and N’Golo Kante combined after he was dropped for large periods between November and April.

When Kayal was duly restored to the starting line up, he gave the ball away at Tottenham Hotspur for Christian Eriksen’s late winner.

The same happened with Jurgen Locadia. Every time he has spell out of the team, he becomes the next Lionel Messi in some supporters’ eyes – when all the evidence we’ve seen so far suggests we’d be better off with Lionel Richie.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh turned into a world beater while he was away at the Asian Cup and there were even sections of supporters who thought David Button should be starting ahead of Maty Ryan towards the end of the season.

Now, we can expect to see the same thing with the forgotten three. But what chance do Schelotto, Suttner and Hemed realistically have of resurrecting their Albion careers under Potter?

Ezequiel Schelotto
Schelotto was the very definition of inconsistent. One month he could look like a Sunday League player (Spurs away at Wembley), the next a world beater (Chelsea at home).

Hughton seemed to lose all faith in him after he was given a complete runaround by Wilfried Zaha in the Albion’s 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace.

The Greyhound’s confidence certainly seemed to take a knock and it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear he that suffered post traumatic stress disorder as a result of that afternoon at Selhurst Park.

Had Bruno not retired, then Schelotto would almost certainly be third choice right back and surplus to requirements. Now however he finds himself promoted to default number two behind Martin Montoya.

Whether Schelotto can thrive under Potter will probably be determined by what formation the new man is going to use.

Schelotto’s best performance by a country mile came at right wing back in that Chelsea defeat. If Potter decides that 3-5-2 is the way forward, then the Greyhound could yet be the best man to play on the right side of such a system.

His chances are also complicated by injury. Schelotto did his cruciate knee ligament just four games into a loan spell at Chievo in the second half of last season so until he recovers from that, Potter won’t have the opportunity to make a judgement either way.

Markus Suttner
Austrian defender Suttner appears to be in a similar boat to Schelotto in that Potter’s choice of tactics will probably determine whether he can make a positive impact for the Albion in 2019-20.

Suttner’s best attribute is his crossing ability. In fact, you could argue he is the best deliverer of a ball that the Albion have in their squad, which is why Hughton spent most of last pre-season experimenting with him as a traditional left winger rather than a left back.

With Hughton valuing defence over anything else, Suttner was always likely to be third choice behind £9m arrival Bernardo and Gaetan Bong as they are both superior defenders.

If Potter is the attacking coach a lot of people seem to think he is, then he may yet want his full backs to get forward more. That would certainly play into Suttner’s hands, as would any change to a 3-5-2.

It seems unlikely that Suttner could usurp Bernardo as first choice, but he could certainly give Bong a run for his money for second in the pecking order.

From what we can gather, Suttner had a hugely positive impact on Fortuna Dusseldorf’s climb from the Bundesliga relegation battle to the relative safety of 10th in the table during his loan spell in the land of Altbier.

He scored one goal and assisted another for Dusseldorf, with this article from RP Online explaining how head coach Friedhelm Funkel believed him to be “a class footballer and a great person.”

If Suttner can bring his Dusseldorf form back to Sussex and suitably impress Potter over pre-season, he may yet find himself getting another chance for the Albion.

Tomer Hemed
Out of the three of Albion’s loan rangers, Hemed is the one whose reputation seems to have burgeoned despite the fact that he managed just seven goals in 29 games on loan at Queens Park Rangers last season.

Hemed is clearly a likeable player who would run through a brick wall if you asked him to. But he was originally replaced by Glenn Murray because he wasn’t a 20-goal striker in the Championship.

Now, people are suggesting that are second choice centre forward from three seasons ago is good enough to be a starting centre forward a division higher – since when he has moved into his 30s, which is when most strikers start to wane. Unless their name is Murray, ironically.

It came as something of a surprise when Hemed signed a new one-year deal last month and that maybe why some fans think he is going to feature under Potter.

That contract appears to be more of a numbers game than anything else. We all know how that the Albion are painfully short on strikers – especially with Florin Andone’s injury problems – and we all know how difficult it is to sign centre forwards.

By keeping Hemed, it at least gives Potter four options – something which could be important if he plays two up top.

If we manage to buy the right player in the mean time, Hemed goes back out on loan. If we don’t, then at least there is a little bit of depth should Murray need a rest, Andone be crocked again and Locadia continue to make no impact.

It seems unlikely he’ll be anything other than a bit-part player though, unless Potter is actually a superhuman who can turn him into a Premier League goal machine. In which case we’ve got one hell of a manager on our hands.