Brighton 23/24 season preview
|
Name |
Goals |
|
Mac Allister |
10 |
|
GroB |
9 |
|
March |
7 |
|
Mitoma |
7 |
|
Trossard |
7 |
|
Name |
Assists |
|
GroB |
8 |
|
March |
7 |
|
Estupinan |
5 |
|
Mitoma |
5 |
|
Welbeck |
3 |
Alexis Mac Allister was Brighton’s leading scorer in the
22/23 premier league season scoring 10 goals. Pascal GroB managed to score 9
and 3 other players managed to score 7 goals each - March, Mitoma and Trossard.
Mac Allister had his best season in front of goal in is career to date, scoring
10 times for Albion last season. He averaged 2.5 shots per game which was the highest
of the squad. He was also the most fouled player per 90 for Brighton, drawing
1.6 fouls.
Pascal GroB was Brighton’s most productive player producing
8 assists as well as scoring 7 times in his 37 appearances (playing 3246 minutes,
highest of the squad). This was GroB’ most productive season since the 2017/18
season where he registered 7 goals and 8 assists. He also played more minutes
last season than in any previous season and played several positions. He has
played in 4/5 different roles for Brighton including central midfield, defensive
midfield, right back and centre forward at times. He has played 16 times at
defensive midfielder making this his most played position this season.
Brighton have not relied on one striker to score all of
their goals and is one of the factors in their success last season, managing to
get into the European spots and finish 6th, the club’s highest ever
league finish in the Premier league. Brighton were only outscored by Manchester
City and Arsenal during open play, so creating and scoring goals was not a
problem for Brighton last season.
Solly March had an impressive season again for Brighton contributing
7 goals and 7 assists. March was 8th highest ranked player in the
league (whoscored.com) scoring a 7.38 rating.
Formations
4-2-3-1 was used 25 times
Brighton do not tend to make too many changes to the
structure of the team and the way they play in games, they played the same
against most teams. Often Brighton played with a 4-2-3-1 formation allowing
enough defensive cover and stability for the forward players to go forward and
make things happen in the opposition half. Brighton played 4-2-3-1 in 25 of the
games in the premier league season. They had 13 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses
using this formation.
Brighton dominate the ball at the back and try to draw the
press from opposition players. Once the team goes to press, they are very
comfortable on the ball and often pick the correct ball and the correct player
who has moved into space to receive the ball between lines or recycle back to Dunk,
Webster or Colwill. The defenders will usually split off the keeper to start
with and create a 7-man defensive structure with the 2 midfielders and full backs
dropping in, this invites the press from opponents, but many opponents won’t
commit more than 3 / 4 outfield players to a press meaning Brighton often play
through the press easily due to the outnumbering of players. If teams do press
them with 5/6 players, then Brighton have the ability from deep to play a long
ball to the wide players and leave them 3 v 3 which is what Brighton want to
happen to allow the wide players the time and space to attack 1 v 1.
They will usually make a square shape using the central midfielders, Mac Allister, Caicedo or GroB. These players will then receive the ball and play out wide to March or Mitoma and allow them to try and beat the man 1 v 1, something at which March and Mitoma are both very good at. They both registered an average of 1.8 dribbles per game which landed them both in the top 10 dribblers in the league.
Going forward
Brighton had the 3rd highest average possession
in the league (60.5%) behind only Manchester City (65.2%) and Liverpool (60.6%).
Brighton’s possession-based approach relies on the players being comfortable on
the ball and having good options to pass to. Lewis dunk completed more passes
than any other player in the league last season completing 3208. He averaged
89.1 successful passes per game (highest in the league) and had the highest pass
success rate of the Brighton squad with 90.4%.
As a team, Brighton had an 85.9% pass success rate – 2nd
highest in league behind Manchester city (89.2%). Having 60.5% possession in
games it makes Brighton a very difficult team to defend against and win the
ball back off of. Towards the final few games of the season, Jason Steele was
the main goalkeeper, and this may have been due to his distribution and
qualities on the ball as much as his goalkeeping qualities.
Often Brighton will keep their passing short and accurate. Brighton
recorded the 3rd highest number of short passes per game (518) only behind
Man City (616) and Liverpool (536). Contrary to their impressive short ball numbers,
they only recorded 46 long balls per 90 minutes, the 3rd lowest number
of long balls in the league. Brighton like to keep control of the ball and are
very patient in the build up phase if playing against a compact team.
Brighton recorded a league high 16.1 shots per 90 minutes
and 6.1 shots on target, also a league high. This number of shots led to Brighton
being the 4th highest scorers in the premier league last season,
scoring 72 goals. They scored the 3rd most goals from open play (53)
only behind City and Arsenal who both totalled 62 goals from open play.
37% of Brighton’s attacking play came down the left-hand side,
30% came from the middle of the pitch and 33% on the right-hand side. This is
quite an even split and shows Brighton’s ability to have different variations
in their attacks to be less predictable. 30% down the middle was the highest %
of any team in the league.
Pascal GroB and Solly March were Brighton’s 2 most progressive
passers of the ball and were both in the top 10 players in the league for key
passes per 90 - Gross 5th on 2.2 March 7th with 2.
With 60% possession in games, it is easy to assume that Brighton are a slow build up team however they tend to flood a lot of players forward very quickly and break through the lines of teams quickly and directly where possible. The pace of Mitoma, March, Mac Allister, Enciso, GroB and other players allows them to turn defence into attack quickly and not hold the ball to long when attacking. A lot of their possession tends to come when building up from the centre backs and the midfield pair however once it is past the midfield they often spring into life and try to create good opportunities quickly.
Defensive shape
For 28 of the games last season Brighton fielded a back 4,
25 times with 4231 formation and 3 times with a 442 formation. Lewis Dunk
played 36 out of 38 possible games last season only being outplayed by Pascal
GroB who played in 37 games. Dunk is an important part of the Brighton defence,
not only is he a threat aerially if needed, but he is also has very good feet
and positional awareness. He was Brighton’s most accurate passer last season completing
more passes than any other premier league player with 3206 successful passes. Often playing on the left of a 2 of the centre
of 3 at the back Dunk is comfortable with either type of formation. He has been
partnered alongside Adam Webster for the majority of games and also by Levi Colwill
towards the end of the season. Colwill on average, won more aerial duels than
any other Brighton player with an average of 2.6 aerials won per game. Webster was
second on 2.2 average aerials won (having played 10 more games than Colwill)
and Dunk 3rd with 1.9 won per game. As a team however, Brighton won
the 2nd least number of headers in the Premier league last season. Only
Manchester city won fewer aerial battles than Brighton on average with 11.6
compared to Brighton’s 11.7 aerials won per 90.
Moises Caicedo made the 2nd most tackles in the
league (100) only behind Fulham’s Joao Palhinha (147). He averaged 2.7 tackles
per game which was the 7th highest average in the league, and he was
the best tackler of the Brighton squad with the second-best being Alexis Mac Allister
with 2 per game. He also had the highest number of interceptions of the Brighton
squad averaging 1.5 interceptions per game. Caicedo does a good job of sitting
in front of the back 4 and breaking up play before it gets to a place of danger.
As with their attacking, Brighton commit numbers when defending.
They press well as a team and try to encourage teams to play slow build up
through pressing the ball at certain points in order to control the tempo even without
the ball. The defensive line is usually quite deep with the 2 sat in front of
them and the other midfielders dropping as well to make 442 / 451 when
defending. The midfield 2 of Caicedo and Mac Allister or GroB will often come
back into the box when the ball is wide to allow Dunk and Webster to mark their
man. Often if there is not enough players in the Brighton box the defenders
will both mark the centre forward allowing him little time or space in the box
and dominating the headed clearances.
Predictions for next season
Brighton have one of the most exciting bunch of young
players in the country. Some of the young talents Brighton have at the club are
players such as Enciso, Gilmour, Adingra, Buonanotte, Pedro, Connolly, Ferguson,
Moder and Lamptey. Add these exciting players to the experience of GroB, March,
Dunk, Lallana, Milner, Veltman and Welbeck Brighton have a brilliant mix of
youngsters and experienced players for the season ahead.
Brighton’s youngsters
|
Name / Age |
Signed from |
Transfer fee (euros) |
|
Mitoma (24) |
Kawasaki frontale |
3 m |
|
Gilmour (21) |
Chelsea |
8.33 m |
|
Adingra (20) |
Nordsjaelland |
8 m |
|
Enciso (18) |
Libertad |
11.6 m |
|
Buonanotte (18) |
Rosario central |
6 m |
|
Sima (20) |
Slavia Prague |
8 m |
|
Mazilu (18) |
FCV Farul |
3 m |
|
Pedro (21) |
Watford |
34.2 m |
(values taken from transfrmarkt)
Their philosophy as a club is to scout really well and to
buy players at low values to sell them on for significant profit after a season
or 2 of them performing well for the club. Mac Allister is a perfect example of
this having moved to Brighton in 18/19 season from Argetinos Juniors for 8
million euros (£6 million), having recently been a key player for Brighton he
completed a move to Liverpool last month for 42 million euros (£35m). This
means Brighton have made upwards of £28 million on Mac Allister in 4 seasons
after singing him at 20 years old. They are also in negotiations with Chelsea for
the transfer of Caicedo in a deal potentially upwards of £80 million. Having
bought Caicedo for 5 million euros from Independiente in 2021, this would be a
huge profit for someone who is only 21 and only played 45 premier league games
for the club.
Having qualified for the Europa league last season, De Zerbi
is going to need to use all of these players and needs his whole squad to
perform to the levels of last season in order for success. Brighton have a good
squad and a good manager so should be looking to go deep into the European competitions
as well as competing in the premier league top 10 again this season.
Predictions
Premier league
7th
Cup competitions
Quarter finals of one cup competition
Out early in other one (R3/4)
European
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