Graham Potter's tinker tactics deserve criticism after Wolves not Dan Burn

By the time Burn was hauled with 21 minutes to play, he had endured a worse evening than Mel B, and she suffered the ignominy of being a professional singer voted out of a singing contest whilst dressed as a giant seahorse, writes Scott McCarthy from www.wearebrighton.comBurn copped a lot of flank from Brighton supporters for his efforts against Wolves. He needlessly gave away a corner which he then scored an unfortunate own goal from before conceding a penalty.

In doing so, Burn became the first player since Eliaquim Mangala for Manchester City against Hull in 2014 to achieve the double in a single game.

The abuse that Burn received afterwards was unnecessary. Sometimes, a player has a nightmare and you can justify fans giving him both barrels. It is acceptable when, as well as not being very good, a player quite clearly does not care either.

We are talking the likes of Leon Best, who strutted around as if he owned the Championship when in reality, he failed to score a single goal in 14 Brighton appearances.

Jurgen Locadia too, who rather than work on delivering something for the £14 million the Albion paid for him, seemed more dedicated during his time in Sussex to making music instead of scoring or learning to head a ball.

Burn might not be good enough to start week in, week out at Premier League level, but nobody can fault his professionalism or work rate.

No matter what role Graham Potter asks him to fulfil – and we will get to Potter’s part in the problem shortly – he does it without complaint and to the best of his ability.

You can tell Burn cares; he looked devastated when Adama Traore won Wolves’ penalty and cut a pretty distraught figure as the players wandered off at half time.

Instead of berating Burn’s ability, attention should be diverted towards the man who keeps picking him.

Potter is under no obligation to select Burn; Burn is not blackmailing him to play every game and it is not like the Albion are short of centre backs and having to start him out of necessity.

In fact, that is the one position in which Brighton are best stocked. Burn playing is the manager’s choice and like quite a lot this season, it is something which Potter is getting consistently wrong.

Burn has been one of the major victims of Potter playing The Tinkerman with players’ positions. Burn is an adequate 6’7 centre back. He is not a left back, despite being used there for most of last season.

He is certainly not a left wing back, which is where he has been deployed with pretty disastrous consequences when Solly March has been unavailable in the current campaign.

The penalty which Burn conceded against Wolves was largely down to Potter’s tinkering. Minutes earlier, the Brighton manager had decided to embark on a round of musical chairs, as he so often likes to do.

He moved from 3-4-1-2 to a flat back four. Burn was used out-of-position at left back, March switched to the right flank and Lenadro Trossard was moved to the left.

This now left Burn one-v-one with Traore, perhaps the best player at running at opponents in the Premier League. Burn was also without the additional cover provided by March’s defensive abilities.

Anyone watching could see that leaving Burn so exposed against Traore was a recipe for catastrophe except the one man who mattered. It was crazy management on the part of Potter.

Incredibly, Potter then came out in one of his post-match interviews and said: “Traore is one of the hardest players in world football to defend against. A couple of years ago he (Burn) was in League One at Wigan. Rather than be critical, we should be proud of him. He's a fantastic professional.”

If Potter realises that Traore is so hard to play against, why then leave Burn up against him with only Trossard to help?

Burn is not the only player to have been negatively impacted by some of Potter’s decision making. Whilst Burn was struggling at the back against Wolves, Brighton were using Ben White out-of-position in central midfield.

The same White who has been coveted at various points over the past year by Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur for his ability as a centre back.

Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, Jose Mourinho, Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta all view White as a central defender worth tens of millions of pounds.

And yet Potter has started White in the middle of the park and as a right wing back in his past two matches. White as part of the back three with an actual midfielder in midfield is clearly a better option than Burn at centre back.

It is where some of the best managers in the Premier League would use White, so why not Potter?

Joel Veltman is a regular in the Netherlands national side as a central defender. Potter uses him as a right wing back. Pascal Gross had two goals and two assists in five matches as a number 10.

Potter rewards him for that form by dropping him in as a holding midfielder for Leicester City away, before jettisoning Gross from the starting line up because he struggled at the King Power Stadium.

Adam Webster looks like Paolo Maldini when he plays as a right sided defender. Potter decides to use him on the left throughout October and November.

If Potter played individuals in their actual positions rather than tinkering every week, then performances like Burn’s against Wolves would not happen.

Do not place the blame solely at the player’s door, especially one as dedicated as Burn. The manager who is putting them in these positions and setting them up to fail deserves the brunt of the criticism.

www.wearebrighton.com