Apart from Man City and Chelsea, no one's ball progression is better than Brighton's

Last season Brighton started their campaign with 6 points from 8 games, with their manifest xG difference —they won 6 of those 8 games on xG. Graham’s side's build-up and progression with the ball have been quite remarkable since last season.

This season Brighton got the same 6 points six games earlier, while putting in consideration that Burnley and Watford presumably are not one of the top tough teams in the league.

Trossard, Mac Allister, and Webster roles in progression and Watford’s horrendous pressure

Brighton starts with the default formation 3-4-2-1, featuring Trossard and Mac Allister behind Maupay, with Bissouma and Lallana in midfield, Groß and March on the flanks, while Webster, Duffy, and Dunk are in the back line.

When Brighton has the ball Webster stays a little bit wide, giving freedom for Groß to stay forward, and one of the midfielders gets closer to participate in a simple pattern for circulating the ball looking for the right moment to break Watford’s pressure lines.

Webster is really good under pressure, same applies on Groß, Bissouma, and Lallana. Whenever Watford tries to press high, they were making Brighton a favour. Aside from players’ ability to pass under pressure, Watford applied the pressure disastrously; they were pressing with 5-6 players leaving one player alone in midfield to cover this huge space left behind, plus their defensive line was not compensating enough —the gap was conspicuous between their lines. Mac Allister and Trossard exploited this gap between the lines.

What was really horrendous that these spaces were found between Watford’s lines even when they are in mid/deep block. Here are more examples.

Trossard is really smart, obviously that’s why he is the one that is allowed to roam freely the most. He can take good positions in half spaces, and also can drift wide switching with Groß. He reads the play too well, so it’s easy to find him free asking for the ball. And whenever he receives it, he has the ability to turn and go towards the opponent’s goal. Here is a graph showing how good he is with the ball.

As you can see in last graph, Webster is slightly there too; he joins the attack after he progresses and passes the ball —staying close to Groß offering an extra passing option in midfield and taking good position for any possible ball loss. What makes Webster the most crucial player from the back line in build-up is that he can do both, grounded short/medium passes and high long passes.

Graham Potter loves to really take his time with the ball —Brighton is the third team in open play passing sequences that exceeded 10 passes. And in the second graph it makes it more clear that they tend to play progressive passes in most of these sequences.

Brighton’s pressing scheme and Bissouma’s remarkable performance

Brighton without the ball adopts a 4-4-2 structure. Trossard tucks in with two main objectives. First objective is associated with Maupay to try together to close central corridors to direct the play to one of the flanks. Once the ball reaches one of the outside corridors, Trossard follows/marks Watford’s DM Etebo, and that is the second objective. While Maupay cuts the back passing lane, and Mac Allister or Groß —depending on which side we are— presses the ball possessor.

Basically, Brighton is not a team that is known for its high pressing. However when they have to press they do it really well. And this takes us to Bissouma, who was really outshining this game. As you can see Bissouma’s successful pressure percentage is quite high. He hasn’t been pressing too much in the first two games, yet when he does he applies it smartly.

According to Jonny Whitmore from TheAnalyst.com, Bissouma ranks 9th for high turnovers that ended in a shot (this ranking includes last season and current one). In attacking transitions he was a key player against Watford, whenever he regained possession you should expect a progressive pass or carry. The problem here is that sometimes his best attribute becomes the worst; sometimes the ball needs to be moved faster, but he excessively chooses to pass a more unpredicted pass or carry it for a little bit more seconds. Aside from this, he is a real engine, with the ball he is like a junior Pogba, while without the ball he is more like a junior Kante. He gives advantage for his side in defending transition, due to his pace and energy in getting back quickly and his cleverness in pressing at the right time.

Brighton without the ball had some problems when they are in deep-block, specially in the second half. Ismaila Sarr and Ken Sema make inside runs trying to drag Lallana or Dunk of their positions. This created space between Dunk and Duffy or on the edge of the box, and it led to two danger attacks for Watford.

Corner Kicks: Maupay and the three centre-backs role

Brighton adopted mainly two structures in corner kicks, 2-3 and 3-2. In the 2-3 structure, Maupay was asked to always block zone player Etebo, while Mac Allister runs to the near post to drag his marker with him. Then the 3 centre backs distribute themselves horizontally around the penalty spot waiting for the ball to hit.

While in the 3-2 structure, the 3 were asked to block zone players.

Brighton faces Everton on Saturday, expecting different attacking threat, and then Brentford, with their brilliant pressing system. So it will be exciting to see how Potter is going to deal with those challenges.