Promising.
Since arriving in Brighton in 2019, Graham Potter has brought a breath of fresh air to the Premier League.
Eager to play enticing football, he is the archetype of the young coach driven by the desire to bring down the cadors.
This Saturday against Manchester City, Graham Potter faces Pep Guardiola, one of his greatest inspirations.
Mutual respect between the master and one of his most talented disciples.
To discover
Premier League fixtures and results
Premier League standings
An atypical course
After a professional career in the lower divisions, like several renowned Portuguese coaches such as José Mourinho or André Villas-Boas, Graham Potter went through the studies. One thing led to another, the budding coach, who had a master's degree in social sciences, managed to land his first post in Ostersund in Sweden, a modest fourth division team. There, the native of Solihull made a name for himself. In the space of a few years, he transformed the club on many levels and propelled it into the first division.
In this line, Ostersund offers the scalp of Arsenal to the Emirates (1-2) in the round of 16 of the Europa League in 2018. A feat that marks the spirits. Winner of the title of best coach of Sweden in 2017, Potter arouses some envy and rallies Swansea in 2018, in the Championship. In Wales, he breathes his paw on the game of the Swans. Potter's proteges have mastered their subject on the field: 2nd team with the most ball possession, first team in terms of passing precision and number of short passes per game.
Despite sawtooth results (10th), the coach is acclaimed for his style of play, like a high-flying match against Manchester City lost 2-3 in the FA Cup quarter-finals.
In 2019, he takes over from Chris Hughton at Brighton, the coach who brought the Seagulls up to the Premier League after 34 years of famine.
A predecessor who enjoys great esteem among supporters.
But Graham Potter arrives with the goal of putting play at the center of the project.
As soon as he arrived, the former York City player laid the foundations: “
We want our team to be able to give pleasure to the supporters, they represent an important part of the football industry, we often forget that.
"
The game at the service of results
For Graham Potter, football is a clever mix between the notion of result, the pleasure of developing the game, and the interest of the supporters.
Quickly, Brighton strongly denotes the style advocated by Chris Hughton in previous years.
Holder of a master's degree in emotional intelligence, the former coach of Ostersund attaches great importance to the well-being of his troops.
“
People think that coaching means winning matches, yes of course, but throughout my career I have also sought to help people become better, whether they are more successful on or off. ground."
For his first two seasons at the club, Graham Potter collected 41 points, which is a record for the club in the Premier League.
In 2020-2021, the team is doing well on the green rectangle, but its content is not rewarded in the results.
With the youngest workforce in the championship, Potter deals with an attack that is too naive in the last gesture.
The double confrontation against Crystal Palace is the perfect illustration of this.
45 shots at 4 in the two matches, but the Seagulls only take one point out of six.
In the
Expected Points (
statistical data that determines the number of points obtained in relation to the
Expected Goals
and
Expected Goals Against)
, ranks fifth, the perfect symbol of a team that lacks success.
Although the balance sheet - irregular - is a fundamental given in Potter's mind, there is no need to depart from its principles, because it is precisely its identity as a game that must allow it to obtain results. .
“
I saw in Ostersund how a gaming identity can give you a significant advantage over a period of time.
It's the Premier League, you can talk as much as you want about styles, if you don't win you're in trouble because people don't believe it.
Fortunately, there are enough people here internally who understand that performance can lead to good results
. ”
A philosophy that is bearing fruit this season.
The feeling of the championship
Fourth in the Premier League alongside the behemoths of English football, Brighton is playing the spoiler.
With 15 points taken, Brighton has had the best start to the season in its history.
With only five goals conceded in eight days, the Seagulls have the third defense in the Premier League.
High performance, with a workforce built to play maintenance.
On a series of six games without defeat, Graham Potter's men can boast of being ahead of Manchester United, Tottenham or Arsenal.
Against the Gunners, the Seagulls dominated the game in all compartments.
But the teammates of Neal Maupay, author of 4 achievements, once again narrowly missed in the last meters.
Praised by his peers, the English coach was notably praised by Marcelo Bielsa last year: “
They have a lot of tactical diversity. They handle the ball very well and they are a team that has a good balance because they have a good balance between attack and defense.
"
This Saturday, the Seagulls therefore face Manchester City of Pep Guardiola.
A tactician who is not stingy in complimenting the English coach: “
It's a very good team, I like watching them play.
We're going to have a really tough game, guys know that I'm a huge Graham Potter fan, we can't wait.
He confided last year before facing Brighton.
It doesn't matter if you are a high level team or if you have the quality of players that we have, when you face Graham Potter's Brighton it will always be difficult, we know.
"
During their last confrontation, Brighton had the better of City (3-2) last May.
Great favorite against the Seagulls, Pep Guardiola will not take this meeting lightly.