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The query nearly each soccer fan will get from non-soccer followers, which is wholesome, is, “So which group ought to I assist?” You by no means thoughts listening to it, as a result of it means your good friend/acquaintance/bookie desires to turn out to be a fan, however it’s additionally an not possible query to reply. Your soccer membership often finds you rather than the opposite means round. However given the slanting of TV protection, for those who advise them to simply see what membership speaks to them, you’re most likely going to finish up with yet one more Metropolis, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, or Spurs fan (let’s be trustworthy, nobody’s watched Manchester United the previous few years and thought, “That’s for me!). It’s arduous to persuade somebody to pay for Peacock in the event that they aren’t prepared to look at groups they’ve by no means heard of, although these goofuses are on the market (a really shut good friend determined to assist Everton a number of years in the past as a result of he thought it might piss me off. You’ll be able to go to him now on Saturday morning earlier than 11 however please don’t point out the skin world on the facility).
However for those who press me, and demand which group it’s best to assist that’s outdoors the highest six, Brighton is the one I typically select. They had been the league’s largest movers final season, going from sixteenth within the pandemic season to ninth, their highest-ever place of their historical past. They usually didn’t do it by taking Saudi or one other sort of blood/oligarch cash (which is identical factor). They’re structurally one of many soundest groups round, as they weren’t fortunate to complete ninth, as their metrics have the equal with United in sixth. A nudge right here or there and Brighton might be knocking on European soccer, at the least that’s the hope.
They’re managed by an under-the-radar genius in Graham Potter, an precise English coach within the Premier League, and one who minimize his enamel taking a Swedish group from the fourth division in that nation to the highest degree, everybody’s Soccer Supervisor dream in actual life. Potter performs a fairly up-tempo system, particularly for a group that’s seemingly outgunned on the subject of expertise. They’re often in a 3-4-3, which doesn’t hold Potter from doing issues like taking a traditional ahead like Leandro Trossard and enjoying him at wingback or a traditional wingback like Marc Cucurella and enjoying him as one of many centerbacks or changing a former No. 10 right into a defensive midfielder and having all of it work (he’s achieved this a few occasions and we’ll get to that).
However whereas Brighton can play some splendidly suave soccer, it’s really their protection that shot them up the desk final season. They solely gave up 44 targets final season, good for sixth-best within the Premier League, and their anticipated targets towards states that that was no fluke. And Brighton did that whereas promoting two of its defenders both earlier than the season or throughout it— Ben White and Dan Burn.
After all, that is the push-and-pull of supporting a group like Brighton, as their greatest gamers can be scavenged by greater golf equipment each season, and the hope is that they will take that cash and hold discovering extra gamers to finally be hawked off to the glitterati within the following seasons. This season, it’s
Yves Bissouma has gone to Tottenham, and he was the defensive protect that stored issues secure from even coming into the Brighton field final season. Potter, after all, has an answer for this, which seems to be the identical as it was with Bissouma as soon as upon a time, and that’s changing a former attacking midfielder right into a No. 6, this time being Alexis Mac Allister. That’s the place the latter has lined up most in preseason, and his vary of passing is larger than Bissouma’s, who most well-liked to hold the ball after profitable it to get assaults going. Mac Allister is extra within the bomb throwi…er, kicking position, firing off passes after profitable the ball of various lengths to kickstart the group up the sector. Nineteen-year-old Moisés Caicedo may be part of him in central midfield, and he’s extra metal than Mac Allister and has much better defensive instincts, and has an actual “Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight!” vibe in his exercise and sense of destruction.
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Brighton’s problem below Potter’s watch has all the time been ending, as Neil Maupay was their joint-leading scorer final 12 months with simply eight league targets. Maupay’s drawback is that he can’t hit a bull within the ass with a banjo although, as he solely bought lower than 25 % of his photographs on track final season. Potter seems to be attempting to section him out, trying to lean on Danny Welbeck for the seven minutes per 30 days he’s upright and Belgian league hero Deniz Undav this season. The latter put up 25 targets within the Belgian league final 12 months, however attempting to determine what meaning to the Premier League is on the identical degree as studying Sanskrit.
Does all of that imply that Brighton can push on from ninth? Going by the metrics, it’s not like they maxed out and bought some ending sizzling streak or had a keeper channel Anubis and hold an inordinate quantity of photographs out. Their anticipated purpose distinction was +0.4. They scored 4 fewer targets than their anticipated numbers say they need to have, they usually conceded one much less purpose. ninth may need even been slightly low. Even once they completed sixteenth in 2020-2021, they’d a +13.9 anticipated targets distinction, which was a Champions League place degree. You would make the argument they really regressed final 12 months whereas ending ninth.
It’s fairly nicely established that Potter will type a protection with no matter he has readily available. Bissouma’s departure is a large gap, however patching holes is what well-run golf equipment like Brighton do. We all know what Welbeck is at this level, and relying on him for greater than only a purpose right here and there may be folly. Undav is a large query mark as a result of he’s already 26 and has solely ever scored in Belgium. They’ve a few teenage lottery tickets in Julio Enciso and Kaoru Mitoma, with the previous actually getting hairs standing up together with his performances in preseason. They’ll want one to gentle it up and from leap avenue.
Nonetheless, the place West Ham seems to be extra set to drop than rise, and questions on what Leicester or Aston Villa or Wolves are, and Newcastle not fairly splashing their countless money but, a small rise from ninth remains to be there. So get on the Brighton bandwagon if you wish to be a bit hipster about it. You’ll definitely be distinctive, and anybody else you discover within the bar in Brighton gear might be going to turn out to be a lifelong good friend.
