Jurgen Klopp has expressed his admiration for Brighton boss Graham Potter after Liverpool’s Merseyside rivals Everton missed out on one of the Premier League’s most exciting tacticians, speaking to the Echo.
Klopp is not the first elite-level manager to doff his cap to Brighton’s bearded, bright-eyed boss. Pep Guardiola famously called Potter the best English manager in the game today after all.
And while Guardiola is no stranger to hyperbole – Matheus Nunes, for all his talent, is not yet ‘one of the best in the world’ – a man who dragged Ostersund from the fourth-tier of Swedish football to a Europa League knockout-stage victory away from home at Arsenal is certainly deserving of such praise.
If Brighton had a Callum Wilson, a Danny Ings, or a Patrick Bamford last season, the Seagulls would probably have been a top-half team in 2020/21.
Tariq Lamptey, Yves Bissouma and Ben White are just three of the players who have come on leaps and bounds under a coach who, when the time comes to leave the Amex, will surely have more suitors than a supermodel with a Tinder Gold subscription.
Where will Graham Potter go after Brighton?
“They are a really good football team,” Klopp said ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League trip to Brighton on Saturday lunchtime.
“Graham Potter is an outstanding coach. I really like what he is doing. If you have a look at the players they bring in and how they play, it’s really exciting to watch.”
Everton have also shown an interest on numerous occasions. According to Sky Sports, however, the former Swansea City coach had no interest in taking over at Goodison Park following the sacking of Rafa Benitez in January.
If reports are to be believed, Potter was Marcel Brands’ first choice to succeed Carlo Ancelotti last year too.
Everton turned instead to another up-and-coming, homegrown tactician in Frank Lampard.
If Monday’s 5-0 dismantling at Tottenham Hotspur is anything to go by, however, Lampard may have bitten off more than he can chew.
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