Graham Potter is the best English manager, according to Pep Guardiola. He has “all you need” to become an elite manager, said Jurgen Klopp, tipping him for a top job. They are historic compliments, but it is safe to say Potter’s fan club retains some very distinguished members.
And yet it is tempting to say he has everything required except wins and a defining achievement.
Rewind a few weeks and the standout statistic of Brighton’s season was that only the top three teams had suffered fewer defeats. Now they have been beaten in six successive games and if Saturday’s meeting with Norwich offers the chance to end their longest run of top-flight losses in their history, subsequent fixtures away at Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City could leave Albion with nine defeats in 10.
Go back a few weeks and it looked as though Brighton would roll in ninth, the position they have occupied for much of the season. Now they are 13th and could conceivably be 15th by the time they face Southampton on 24 April. Which, as they have finished 15th and 16th in two previous campaigns under Potter, scarcely screams progress.
There are several factors worth considering. Losing a mere four in 24 felt artificially good; perhaps it was inevitable some setbacks would follow. Brighton’s last six games have included Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham and they were the better team for at least an hour at Old Trafford. Set against that, however, are wretched displays against Burnley, in particular, and Aston Villa, the chance they could have been thrashed by Liverpool had the officials deemed Robert Sanchez’s early assault on Luis Diaz a red card and that they have not scored in four home games.
There are times when it seems that a manager as defiantly different as Potter can neglect the basics. Home wins are one of them: Brighton have 12 in 53 league games under him. Scoring goals is another: they can be better at the build-up than applying the finishing touch. Yet a valid criticism is that familiar flaws go uncorrected: Brighton are ninth for shots and 18th for goals and few may be surprised by that statistic.
Potter has overseen a transformation into passers and it is remarkable that Brighton have had the fourth-highest share of possession this season. They have been reinvented as a tactically flexible team who can be stuffed full of potential No. 10s, the purists who are an antidote to Chris Hughton’s pragmatism. But points don’t stem directly from passes.
Potter’s prowess is apparent in other respects. He improves players. Brighton banked £50 million for Ben White in part due to his coaching. Without it, perhaps Dan Burn would not have been priced at £13 million. There may be future windfalls for Tariq Lamptey, Yves Bissouma and potentially others. He has become a byword for progressive management.
But he is far better at drawing games than winning them. Potter could secure a rare hat-trick by sharing the points the most times in three successive seasons but his Premier League win percentage stands at just 23.5. He did a fine job at Swansea in difficult circumstances in most respects, but a 10th-place finish seemed underwhelming, and his less popular successor Steve Cooper twice steered them into the play-offs.
There is a case for arguing that results are an inevitable consequence of the process and much Potter does is evidently admirable. And yet, almost three years into the Potterlution, victories remain elusive. Since he left Ostersunds, it is hard to identify one feat, one season-long accomplishment, that stands out. Sean Dyche took Burnley to seventh and if there are reasons he has never been granted one of the top jobs, that is an achievement that will stand the test of time.
Sam Allardyce, with Bolton, and Roy Hodgson, at Fulham, have their top-eight finishes with two of the division’s smaller clubs: several in Allardyce’s case, while Hodgson topped that by reaching a European final. Michael Laudrup and Roberto Martinez won trophies. And if it is still harder to end up in the top eight or claim silverware now, the sense may remain that Potter needs some kind of definitive success to qualify him for more prestigious posts.
Because the praise from Guardiola and Klopp can reflect how good Brighton look on the pitch. On paper, however, some of their numbers do not stack up.
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