Albion Analytics: Billy Gilmour

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A detailed look at our newest recruit.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2022-09-08T05:00:00Z

Billy Gilmour joined Albion from Chelsea on deadline day.

Brighton confirmed the signing of Billy Gilmour on deadline day from Chelsea.

2001-born Gilmour becomes the seventh-youngest player to feature for Brighton under Graham Potter in the Premier League, having made his debut as an injury-time substitute in the 5-2 win against Leicester (aged 21 years and 85 days).

Despite his age, Gilmour is far from inexperienced. Domestically, he has appeared 35 times in the Premier League and twice in the Champions League, and will add further young potential and international pedigree to a central midfield containing Argentinian international Alexis Mac Allister (aged 23) and Ecuadorian international Moises Caicedo (aged 20).

Gilmour has 15 caps for Scotland and played two-thirds of potential minutes in World Cup qualifying. He has the most caps of any Scot before their 21st birthday.

Often he operated on the left of a midfield double pivot as Scotland shaped up in a 3-box-3 system that is similar to Brighton. Graham Potter has described him as a player that can “play a few areas in midfield”.

The central midfielder has made a habit of starting strongly regardless of the competition; Gilmour was player of the match on each of his Premier League (vs Everton), FA Cup (vs Liverpool), Champions League (vs Krasnodar) and Scotland (vs England) full debuts.

In fact, Gilmour topped the pass charts in his first two Premier League starts (71/79 completed vs Everton and 61/67 completed vs Crystal Palace), becoming the youngest player to achieve this since Denilson for Arsenal in 2007.

Gilmour played the full ninety minutes when Norwich drew 0-0 at the Amex in April. That afternoon, among Norwich players, he ranked top for passes made under pressure (9) as well as pressures applied to Brighton players (28). Furthermore, Gilmour sat second among teammates for total touches (59), passes completed/attempted (29/43), ball recoveries (9) and tackles plus interceptions (7).

Notably, FBref’s data can be used to profile similar players in terms of statistical output, and no Brighton players feature in the ten closest matches to Gilmour last season. Of course, team style will influence player actions, though this may also indicate that Gilmour may offer a different type of midfield profile to Brighton’s current crop.

In his first interview with the club, Gilmour said that Brighton have a “style I like to play, nice passing”. This certainly aligns statistically; Gilmour ranked tenth in the entire Premier League last season for switches of play – passes which travel more than 40 yards width of the pitch – and recorded more of these (99) than any Brighton player (Pascal Gross had the most with 92, ranking 12th). As a team, Brighton recorded the fourth most switches of any Premier League side last season.

When evaluating his own game, the midfielder described himself as “a very technical player, I like to get the ball down, play nice football, try and get forward quickly with the ball." Last season, despite playing for a relegated Norwich side, Gilmour ranked inside the top 10% of Premier League central midfielders for long passes attempted and completed, and set-piece shot-creating actions.

He ranked inside the top third for total passes attempted, progressive passes, dribbles into the final third and midfield third tackles.