Potter: Mistakes happen when you try to improve

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The head coach accepted the fault was his for the individual mistakes against Liverpool.

Charlie Hanson

2020-07-10T06:00:00Z

Albion boss Graham Potter.

Graham Potter said he could understand comments by Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness after the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, but on the whole was very pleased with his team’s performance.

The former Liverpool manager called Albion ‘naïve’ in their play, but Potter felt the bigger picture showed how well the Seagulls did against the champions.

He said, “I can understand Graeme’s point – it’s not the first time I have heard that. The challenge is for us to be better at recognising situations.

"I think you have to look at the overall performance which was really good. We created chances against Liverpool, and showed personality over the course of the game.

“If you look at the opposition we are playing against, however you play against them they have got a solution – the evidence of that is the points they have got this year and last year.

"Maybe you can kick it long for 40 or 50 minutes and then start to play, but there is no solution there either because I am sure other teams have tried that as well.

“We want to try and improve that aspect of our performance and sometimes when you do that you make mistakes when testing yourself against the very best and that’s what we did, we clearly have to improve as well.”

The gaffer what he thought had been the difference between this season’s Premier League champions and the team they beat the title to – Manchester City – and Potter believes that Pep Guardiola’s side have been a bit unfortunate to finish so far behind the Reds.

“I think the relentless way that Liverpool have won points is incredible,” he added.

“Man City, if you look at their performances, they are still at a really high level in terms of shots, in terms of chances conceded, but the points tally is key and that’s the margins of the Premier League that go against you. They lost 1-0 to Southampton, but on another day they win that game quite a few times. That’s the beauty of football.

“The way Man City are, they put their disappointments to bed pretty quickly, they bounced back with a really good victory against Newcastle. They’ll be ready, with their top team and we’re expecting a very tough game.

“It’s a challenge taking them on of course, but it’s the Premier League – you get stages of the season where you face the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City back-to-back like this. We just have to recover and prepare as well as we can, use the squad and do the best with the resources we have.”

With 36 points now in the bag – the same tally as at the end of last season – Potter doesn’t want to compare his reign at The Amex with his predecessor Chris Hughton, who he feels did a terrific job on the south coast.

“In the world we try and compare something with something else, but the reality of it is Chris Hughton did a fantastic job here – he got the team promoted and stabilised them in the Premier League for two years.

“My job is to try and build on that success, I just want to try and do better everyday and improve myself.”