The Brighton business model: Selling a £50 million centre-back and making your defence better in the process

Ben White’s £50 million move from Brighton and Hove Albion to Arsenal last summer is starting to look like a rare sort of transfer, in that it appears to have worked out for all parties involved.

To the benefit of the buying club, the 24-year-old defender has helped to stabilise the Gunners’ backline as they continue to recover from a slow start to the season to genuinely challenge for a place in next year’s Champions League.

White himself has also earned plenty of plaudits, playing in 18 of Arsenal’s first 20 Premier League games of the season and transferring the form that earned him the move from the Amex to the Emirates somewhat seamlessly in the process.

Playing for such a high-profile club has surely done his chances of adding to his two England caps little harm as well, something that could be particularly significant given there is a World Cup at the end of this year.

When a transfer works out so well for both the player involved and the club that has acquired his services, it would make sense for the selling club to be the ones that are suffering.

Rather than using a club record fee received for a player to replace White directly with another central defender, Brighton’s innovative recruitment department instead identified Zambian midfielder Enock Mwepu and Spanish left-back Marc Cucurella as the most effective additions to help improve Graham Potter’s squad.

Cucurella has had a transformative effect on the left side of the Seagulls’ defence, quickly establishing himself as one of the most effective full-backs in the Premier League, and although Mwepu’s flashes of promise have been disrupted by injury problems, it would be fair to say that White’s departure has done little to de-rail the progress Brighton have been making under Potter’s stewardship.

In the 2020/21 Premier League season, White’s only campaign as a Seagulls’ regular, Brighton were conceding an average of 1.21 goals per 90. This season they are conceding just under 1.05 per 90.

Whilst this indicates Brighton may actually be defending even better without the Poole-born defender, it is a somewhat crude comparison, and it may well not hold up come the end of the current campaign.

It is the underlying numbers, both on an individual level and as a collective, that are most impressive.

So far in the 2021/22 Premier League campaign, only Manchester City and Chelsea have allowed opponents a lower expected non-penalty goals per 90 than Brighton’s 0.95

Improvements in their pressing game have made the Seagulls one of the most effective out-of-possession teams in the top flight.

They averaged just under 8.45 high turnovers (possession won back 40 metres or less from the opponent’s goal) last season, this season they are up to 9.3 per game. In the last campaign, they allowed opponents an average of 11.5 passes per defensive action, the seventh-lowest total in the Premier League, this term, it is just 10.2, the second-lowest total in the Premier League.

Whilst these improvements act as yet another indication of how Potter is developing Brighton as a collective, the 1-1 draw with Chelsea at the Amex on Tuesday night provided an opportunity for White’s former centre-back partners to shine.

With club captain and defensive stalwart Lewis Dunk still absent as he makes his way back from a knee injury, Adam Webster and Dan Burn started in a defensive pairing that was often accompanied by Joel Veltman moving across from right-back when Chelsea had possession in the Brighton half, as Potter once again took the opportunity to express his tactical capabilities against one of Europe’s strongest teams.

Whilst Dunk was already one of the Seagulls’ outstanding performers when Potter arrived at the club in May 2019, and since signing in 2020, Veltman has shown both as a full-back and in central defence a level of consistency that explains his 28 caps for the Netherlands, the progress that both Webster and Burn have made was on full display against Thomas Tuchel’s side.

Webster was the hero on the night as his thumping 60th-minute header levelled the game and earned Brighton a 1-1 draw as a reward for yet another eye-catching performance against one of the Premier League’s leading lights, but both he and Burn excelled in other areas as well.

Wearing the captain’s armband with Dunk unavailable, former Portsmouth and Bristol City man Webster was imperious both with and without the ball.

Although Brighton’s pressing further up the field meant he was only required to act sporadically, Webster still made two successful tackles, two interceptions, completed six clearances and won all five of his duels both on the ground and in the air.

However, it was his driving runs with the ball at his feet that captured the imagination.

Last season, Webster averaged 5.63 progressive carries per 90 (carries that move the ball at least five yards towards the opponent’s goal), putting him in the same bracket as centre-backs as highly-rated as Thiago Silva and Ruben Dias in terms of his ability to drive with the ball.

This campaign, Webster is averaging more dribbles per game than any other central defender in the Premier League, and this was exemplified by one particularly surging run in the 72nd minute of the draw with the European Champions as he left half of the Chelsea team in his wake before seeing a low cross gathered by Kepa Arrizabalaga.

“He has to play in the Premier League regularly but, in terms of his attributes, I don’t see anybody else at the same level of attributes that Adam Webster has.

“If you want to build from the back, if you want to carry the ball, if you want to progress the ball from those areas, he’s fantastic, that’s his quality.

“Now it’s just a case of him enjoying his football with us and keep on the pitch, keep playing, be injury-free, then anything is possible with him.”

– Graham Potter, Brighton and Hove Albion head coach

Webster was signed in the summer of 2019 for a reported £20 million to immediately improve Brighton’s backline. The fact he has featured in all but 10 of the Premier League games he has been fit and available for since highlights his importance to the team, something that was underscored by the brand new five-year contract he was given in the weeks after White’s departure.

Burn, on the other hand, is perhaps a less obvious success story.

Signed from Wigan Athletic ahead of Chris Hughton’s final season in charge at the Amex for little more than £3 million, the defender only established himself as a Seagulls’ regular when Potter arrived at the club the following year.

At six feet and seven inches tall with a gangly frame to match, he may not initially seem the archetypal ball-playing defender, but thanks both to his own willingness to adapt and his manager’s ability to improve players, he has consistently found a role for himself in the squad over the past two-and-a-half years.

A deceptively sweet left foot and an even more deceptive range of mobility meant that Burn was often used as a left-back or at left wing-back before the arrival of Cucurella last summer, and even though a knee ligament injury limited his playing time at the start of the current campaign, he has significantly softened the blow of losing Dunk given how well he has slotted in at centre-back in the skipper’s absence.

Against Chelsea, he managed to keep Romelu Lukaku quiet to the extent that the Belgian forward was substituted by Tuchel with 10 minutes to play with both sides chasing for a winning goal. No player on the field made more blocks or interceptions than the Darlington academy product.

Even though Webster missed the 1-1 draw in the corresponding fixture at Stamford Bridge over the festive period, there can be little doubt that both he and Burn played a vital role in helping to end Brighton’s 11-match run without a win as well as starting and maintaining the current streak of six games without a defeat.

They had made only nine Premier League appearances between them before Potter arrived on the South Coast, but now look set to play an important role as the Seagulls target their highest ever top-flight finishing position.

With Dunk and Shane Duffy – another shining example of Potter’s ability to extract the best out of individuals who may not initially seem to fit his footballing ideals – due to return from injury in the not too distant future, there will be a remarkably healthy level of competition for places in defence to try and help achieve it.

As well as Ben White is doing at one of English football’s most historic clubs, his former teammates and their adaptable head coach are showing that he was a part of an excellent defensive unit last season rather than an outstanding individual carrying lesser teammates along with him.

Even if a Webster or a Burn were to follow him in leaving the club in transfer windows to come, it would be no real surprise to see Brighton’s backline continue to go from strength to strength regardless.

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