(Article posted on October 16 - Premier League)
Prior to the 8th round of fixtures, data for the 21/22 season includes only the Premier League
(The first 7 rounds of the tournament.)
England Premier Soccer League
Brighton in the first 7 rounds
With a record of 4 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, they sit in 6th place with 14 points. By way of comparison, at the same time last season they were in 16th place with only 5 points; with 14 points the season was already in its 17th round. What kind of tactical changes has manager Graham Potter made, or which player's explosive play has made the biggest difference? The truth is, they've hardly changed much, but rather, they've implemented the original system even more thoroughly. And this boring answer seems to confirm that Brighton
-The Seagulls- have long been an interesting team. The following will attempt to compare Brighton using the team's match statistics
Premier League
The difference between the rest of the middle and lower teams.
Although Brighton
Last season ended up in 16th place, but many commentators don't seem to think much of them as being deep in the relegation mix, and the reason for such a big gap between the impression in the eyes of the fans and the actual ranking is most likely due to the fact that Brighton
The style of play itself isn't quite the dominant tactic for the underdogs that everyone traditionally thinks of.
Sean Dyche's Burnley used a solid 4-4-2, underpinned by a solid backline in Tarkowski-Mee, and a tall winger in Wood who could threaten the opposition with high crosses, while Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace used a large number of experienced players, focusing on the defensive side of the pitch and patiently waiting for the opposition to make a mistake, and then utilizing the attacking side of the pitch, led by Zaha Zaha's offense will try to create maximum chaos in the few chances they have.
The above two teams' systems, which are predicated on solid defense, have indeed helped them stay in the relegation hunt year after year
In the Premier League
Hit the ground running for years. And Brighton, who is featured today
, despite the fact that most pre-seasons were dominated by relegation
for passing standards, but their style of play seems to be very different from the two teams mentioned above.
From the percentage of possession, we can compare the time the team spends in possession of the ball, from the number of touches in the backfield, we can observe whether the team is used to using the backfield as the beginning of the organization (or dares to use the backfield to avoid the opponents' pressure), and from the number of short passes, we can assess whether the team tends to choose the penetration of the short passes or the long passes to attack quickly. These three data can be used to understand the general direction of the team's offense.
The color scale in the chart above was created using the Premier League
Comparing the results from the 20 teams, it can be seen that Burnley and Crystal Palace are skewed towards the red color closest to the bottom in all three stats, while Brighton
(and Southampton, I'll come back to Southampton later) are yellow, yellow-green, and in the upper middle of the pack. If you're fighting relegation every year
In terms of the caliber of lower mid-table teams as a starting point, Brighton
It was indeed one of the better teams in several key stats in the backfield passing game.
And Brighton can be seen more clearly this year
Patient backcourt passing has resulted in more impressive numbers. 56.3% possession rate to 5th place, surpassing the current leader Chelsea.
of 53.6%; 262.1 Premier League touches from the back of the net
(This statistic is slightly less relevant to the slaughtering power of the teams - after all, the teams that do slaughter are also less likely to stay in the back of the field. The top three are all Premier League
Teams that are average or below, but emphasize passing at the back: Brighton
(Norwich, Leeds United); 170.0 short passes ranked 5th, just below the four favorites for the title - Manchester City
Manchester United
Chelsea
Liverpool
Brighton. While it's a bit dangerous to draw conclusions from data presented after just seven rounds of matches, Brighton
There's also a high likelihood that it will slowly move towards last year's average in future matches, but at least Brighton can be seen in these improved numbers
The emphasis on passing in the backfield has increased rather than decreased.
In order to pursue the rhythm of the game, modern soccer has gradually derived two of the most popular indicators - pass-and-control soccer and high-pressure pressing. Manchester City
is an absolute expert on the former, Liverpool
The perfect spokesperson for the latter, Chelsea.
Fusion of backfield passing and quick attacking and defensive transitions to dominate the Champions League
Manchester United
They also use the attacking and defensive transitions that come with high pressure pressing to tear apart opponents' defenses. To put it more dramatically, these two indicators are essential for a team to show dominance, and Graham Potter's Brighton
The standard of this indicator should not be overlooked.
In terms of the number of uptempo tackles from the forecourt, and uptempo success rate (fbref defines success as getting possession within 5 seconds of the uptempo tackle), Brighton
Both are at the top of the league (with similar Southampton not far behind), and Burnley are average; the statistic of attempted steals in front of goal is more varied, and also gives a rough indication of the Brighton
Most of the pressure in front of goal has been with simple harassment attempts to force turnovers (the first two stats), rather than using very aggressive tackles to create offense and defense. With Crystal Palace at the bottom of the league in all three categories, it's no wonder their style of play was always teased as old man's ball before this year's managerial change.
