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Potter’s plaudits for Pascal

Graham Potter has applauded Pascal Gross's qualities and intelligence ahead of today’s game with Norwich City , with only four players in the Premier League having created more chances than the German so far this season.

By Alex Stedman • 02 November 2019

By Paul Hazlewood
Albion head coach Graham Potter.

Gross, who opened the scoring in last weekend’s 3-2 victory over Everton with a spectacular free-kick, has made 25 opportunities in Albion’s opening ten matches, and the head coach spoke about the midfielder's attributes before today’s game with the Canaries.

He said, “Pascal has very evident qualities that everyone can see. I was aware of what he was before I arrived, but it’s only when you start to work with players yourself that you begin to get a real understanding of what they can do.

“He’s a really intelligent player and person, as both a footballer and as a man. He understands what we’re trying to do and wants to take on the responsibility to influence a game.

“He wants to have that role within the side. He’s taken advice on board and responded to what we’ve asked of him in a really good way. He creates chances and also does his work for the team in a defensive sense too, so he’s been a joy to work with.

“He sees the pass that others sometimes can't, and he's always created goals and chances for others throughout his career. He has the ability to get in the right position to create opportunities, and our job is to coordinate the team so that we can get the best out of that.”

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Potter's Norwich press conference

The boss will have Aaron Mooy back and available for selection for the contest with Daniel Farke’s men this afternoon following his red card at Aston Villa a fortnight ago, and Potter reflected on the competition for places within the side, as well as the emergence of Aaron Connolly and Steven Alzate.

“We have attacking options; before the season we made decisions to let players go out on loan and so forth, and they’re made because you feel that it’s right for the player, the group and the team,” he continued.

“We said at the time that we were confident we had enough attacking players to help us play in the way which we want to, and we spoke last weekend about people like Alireza [Jahanbakhsh] not being in the group. He’s someone that can help us going forward as well - we have strong competition and players who would like to play more.

“At the start of the season, people like Aaron Connolly and Steven Alzate hadn’t made their debuts either, so I can understand why some people had that thought process.

“Both of those two have come a long way in a short space of time. You never know how it’ll pan out for them in the first team because it’s a big step, but we could see their quality and it was about making sure they could transfer it to the Premier League.”