Graham Potter

Newcastle series continues... looking at today's "news" regarding Brendan Rodgers, I thought it would be interesting to look at another potential candidate for the Toon job. Potter is at a lesser club in Brighton, at least compared to Leicester, and that's not up for debate. I know the current table says the opposite, but it's been 7 games and Brighton will inevitably end up midtable. So, let's look at Brighton and Newcastle

Set up (facilities, upper management):

Easy win for Brighton at this point. They have things in order, Newcastle do not. That said, I'd expect Newcastle to get things sorted, but it is a process that may take a few years, all told. For example, owners are free to build infrastructural things like training grounds for as much money as they want, but still, it's not like that would be built in a week, or even a year. They could get in a sporting director and fix the academy relatively soon, but let's wait until that happens before declaring them ahead in this regard.

Keepers: personally, I'd take Sanchez and Brighton over everyone at Newcastle (close though). Others may not agree. Just my opinion. I'm not sure if it's a case of people seeing a few decent saves against big clubs and just assuming Newcastle have good keepers, but for me Sanchez is easily the best keeper out of the two clubs. I'd probably give Newcastle the edge with backups, as Scherpen didn't impress me in the bits I saw of him at Ajax, though he is quite young.

CB's: another win for Brighton. Schaer is the best CB at Newcastle, imo, and the others are quite poor, hence why Steve Bruce plays such negative football. Brighton, on the other hand, have Dunk and Webster, both of whom I rate. So yeah, pretty simple. Maybe depth wise just due to numbers Newcastle are a bit higher, since Brighton loaned guys out that would've given them depth.

Fullbacks: Here I guess is where we'll have a tie. Personally, I like Veltman as a CB way more than a fullback, especially if it's a back three, which Potter seems to favor. Outside of that, the only actual fullbacks at Brighton are Cucurella and Lamptey, and the latter has fitness issues. March for me is a winger playing out wide, and Gross is never a wingback. Simply due to depth issues I give Newcastle the tie, even though I think most of their guys are average at best (Lewis, Ritchie, Krafth, Manquillo).

CM's: I'd go Brighton here, but with Bissouma arrested and Caicedo loaned out, they have no depth. I do like Moder, but he hasn't been given enough game time, and Mwepu just came in. I don't really rate Hayden, but he can win the ball back. I like Shelvey's range of passing and Willock for his ability to get goals. Then you have the Longstaff bros and Hendrick; they're decent enough, I guess. I'm not sure if you count Lallana as a CM or a number 10. If he's a CM, I give it a tie. If a #10, advantage Newcastle. I'll count him as a 10 for this.

Wingers/#10's: Counting Lallana as a 10, I have to give it a tie again. ASM is the best in this position from either club, but and Almiron is decent, but outside of that Newcastle have little to nothing (Murphy and Fraser, I guess). Lallana and Trossard make the case for Brighton, and I count March as more of a winger, but again there's not much depth. So yeah, if I were to pick only one, it would be Newcastle.

Strikers: Maupay and Welbeck vs Wilson and Joelinton. Not counting Connolly, Gayle, Locadia as I don't see them as fit for this level of football. I'd pick Wilson as the best, but again, he has fitness issues. I know there's a player there with Joelinton, but only certain managers will play a style fit for him, so he looks dumb in an anti-football system like the one currently at Newcastle. Speaking of fitness issues, that's Welbeck described as well. He's a "donkey", similar to Origi at Liverpool, and again, only certain situations will he play well. I think Tammy Abraham is a better version of what Welbeck was supposed to be, if that makes sense. Maupay has finishing problems, and I wonder how much of his stock came from playing under Smith/Frank at Brentford in an attacking system in the Championship. He has 3 non-pen goals from an xG of 1.8, but it's a really small sample size. Maybe he's turned a corner, maybe not. He's definitely the best "prospect" out of all of them, in terms of actual center forward play, despite being 25 now. Speaking of Joelinton, he's actually born on the same day as Maupay, which is pretty funny to me. His highest goal tally ever was 8 goals in 33 games in Austria, and then 7 in 28 for Hoffenheim in his one season there. It's not even like his underlying numbers stood out; he had 9 xG and 4 xA (7 and 5 actual), and that was under Nagelsmann. Despite having a Rondon physique, he's actually a Firmino. That was a tangent, but I'd say the strikers are quite similar in level and I'd give it a tie.

Verdict:

Nothing groundbreaking, but I'd give the current state to Brighton, and long term prospect to Newcastle. There's a limit to a club like Brighton, in that they have a 30k seater stadium and relatively small fanbase. Newcastle, in contrast, have a 50k stadium and a large, loyal following. Add to that the wealth difference now with the new owners, and it would be daft to think Newcastle won't dwarf Brighton pretty soon. Potter replaced Hughton, a coach with a Steve Bruce brand of football, after some horrible performances in the league that nearly led to relegation. I know they'd come up just before that, but let's be real, that was worse than Newcastle ever were under Bruce. This is to say, also given he was in Sweden for a while and a sinking Swansea, Graham Potter is not "too good" for this, like other managers might like to think they are. It's just a matter of is he comfortable at Brighton, despite the "glass ceiling", and if he'd like to go to a bigger club (like Spurs when they get rid of Nuno).