Graham Potter’s Brighton side never had a prolific goalscorer. Potter is a firm believer that goals should be shared around the team and that his side’s both attack and defend
Graham Potter said “You get stuff like people saying you need someone who scores 20 goals in the Premier League. But how many people scored 20 goals in the Premier League last season and can you name them? It’s just two. [Mohammed] Salah and [Harry] Kane. But the amount of times I’ve been asked about signing a 20-goal striker at Brighton is crazy. It’s unbelievable. But I’ve faced that for 18 months to two years. There’s not even that many people who scored 15 goals in the Premier League last year! But there’s a narrative out there that you have to have this goalscorer, who is a proven goalscorer.”
It became something of a running joke during the 2020/21 season that the Seagulls would almost always underperform their expected goals figure every week, despite creating a number of high quality chances. During Potter’s three seasons in Sussex, his top scorer was Neal Maupay in the 2019/20 campaign, who scored 10 goals – the only time a Brighton player reached double figures under the 47-year-old. He was constantly met with calls to sign a proven goalscorer, but they are hard to come by at the top level.
Therefore, it seems that new Chelsea boss Potter will not be putting pressure on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling to score 20 goals this season, and he will be putting an emphasis on goals being scored from all areas of the team. Aubameyang, who signed from Barcelona on deadline day, has scored 20+ goals in two of his three full seasons in the Premier League. As for Sterling, despite not being an out-and-out striker, he scored 20 league goals in 2019/20, 18 in 2017/18 and 17 in the 2018/19 campaign. Both players are capable of scoring over 20 goals for the Blues this season, but Potter believes a prolific goal scorer isn’t a necessity to a successful team.
