Brighton and Hove Albion’s Premier League dream was almost shattered as they only finished one place above the relegation zone last season.
The lack of good results made the board move to secure the services of promising manager Graham Potter for this campaign.
Despite their constant struggle as a mid-table club, the new manager has helped the Seagulls improve their performance.
However, Potter was not the only new guy who arrived at the Amex Stadium last summer.
One of those men includes Neal Maupay, who was transferred from the Championship side Brentford.
The 23-year-old forward somehow has been a revelation because of his good display for the club.
Without further ado, this tactical analysis will inform you of his role and impact for Brighton.
Neal Maupay Player Profile
Maupay is a pure centre-forward.
Looking at the statistics, he played all his games at Brentford in that position.
Maupay collected 28 goals and nine assists in 49 matches last season.
Such a feat pulled Brighton’s attention, thus allowing him to enjoy top-flight football again.
The Frenchman is Brighton’s main option in the centre-forward position.
This is partly because the former talisman Glenn Murray is getting older, yet the former trialist Aaron Connolly is still too raw to be trusted every week.
If we look at the stats, Maupay has only scored eight goals and made two assists for his new club.
Some may say the feat is not special, more like a mediocre performance rather than a brilliant display.
However, we need to see the bigger picture before we jump to such a conclusion.
This season, Brighton have only scored 32 goals in the Premier League.
It means that Maupay has contributed to 10 (31.25%) of their league goals.
Furthermore, despite fewer matches played, the Seagulls already scored more league goals than last season.
This is why Maupay is important for Brighton & Hove Albion’s tactics.
Neal Maupay Attacking Roles
In this part of the analysis, we will look at the Frenchman’s main attacking roles.
Maupay is mainly instructed to stay central in Brighton’s attacks.
This means the Frenchman would pin the opponents’ backline for most of the time rather than dropping freely alongside the midfielders.
The objective is to allow the wingers to tuck inside and play between the lines.
However, Neal Maupay also dropped a bit on some occasions, mainly when Potter set his attacking line with two strikers.
While his attacking partner pins the backline, Maupay drops into space between the lines.
This would allow him to combine with the midfielders or send the ball to his teammate on the flank.
Maupay’s dropping movement also has another purpose.
In the process, he would pull the nearby centre-back’s attention when dropping in between the lines.
As a result, this could open a gap in the opponents’ defensive block.
The gap then would be attacked by his attacking comrade with a quick sprint in behind.
One of the deeper players (mainly Dale Stephens) will then serve the running forward with an aerial through-ball, as seen below against Arsenal.
Neal Maupay Main Weapon
The pace is Maupay’s main tool in his armoury.
Nevertheless, it’s never about the tool itself.
Instead, it’s how he makes it functional.
To utilise this trait, Maupay would usually attack from the nearby centre-back’s blind spot.
By moving to that particular area, Maupay could make himself rather undetectable for the defender.
This is because the centre-back also needs to focus on the ball simultaneously.
It doesn’t stop there.
Maupay would usually position himself between the opponents’ defenders, mainly the full-back (or wing-back) and the centre-back.
However, he would be somewhat closer to the centre-back rather than the far-side defender.
The Frenchman is too far from the full-back/wing-back, making him unreachable for the defender.
At the same time, being at the centre-back’s blind spot would allow him to be undetectable.
His explosive pace could then be unleashed to attack from behind.
The trait and tendency make Maupay very dangerous against a high defensive line.
His quickness enables him to win most of the footraces into space behind.
Not to mention his early advantage by being in the defender’s blind spot.
In the process, the Frenchman would be served with a lofted ball from a deeper teammate.
Neal Maupay Skills
Maupay is not just about pace; he has more tools in his bag.
One of the special traits he has is his calmness in tight spaces.
He also has a quite good close-ball control to enhance that trait.
Those two help him keep the ball against multiple opponents to continue Brighton’s attacks, either for his teammate(s) orhimself.
Speaking about creating chances for himself, Maupay can also do that quite well.
His tendency to make shots from outside the penalty area is the reason behind that.
The statistics show that Maupay averages 0.9 long-range shots per 90 minutes in the league.
That’s equal to 26.47% of all his goal-scoring attempts.
Even better, the Frenchman can shoot with both of his feet.
The stats show that, with his stronger right foot, he attempted 1.8 shots (52.94%) per 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, his left foot has registered 1.1 shots (32.35%) at the same rate.
Some of those weak-footed shots even came from outside the 16-yard box.
Neal Maupay Defensive Roles
Potter likes to set his team up in various shapes, ranging from 4–4–2, 4–3–1–2 (or 4–4–2 diamond), to 4–3–3.
However, one principle stays the same with those formations: the opponents’ defensive midfielder(s) must be prevented from receiving the ball.
To do that, this tactic would mostly be executed in a mid-high pressing system.
Either the forward pairing or the attacking midfielder would be tasked with closing down the central area and forcing the opponents to play wide.
Brighton is not the most aggressive team in terms of pressing.
Mostly they would allow their opponents to have the ball in their early possession phase.
However, if the on-ball centre-back holds the ball for too long, then the nearest Brighton forward would step up to press him.
This pressure is targeted for the centre-back to send the ball wide or even better, kick it long against Brighton’s towering defenders.
When the ball is played wide, the Seagulls flock to the wide area and try to win it back.
In the process, the ball-side forward would leave his nearby centre-back and come close, to join the ball-side press.
This helped Brighton to have a numerical advantage in the flank, thus increasing their probability of regaining possession.
Neal Maupay Potential Issues
This final part of Neal Maupay´s scouting report will examine the potential issues in his game.
As mentioned before, Maupay is a target-man who likes to attack the defender’s blind-spot in the final third.
Indeed it’s a good weapon, especially for a relatively small centre-forward like him.
However, he seems to have a minimum variation in his off-ball movements.
Quite often, he would focus too much on attacking the blind spot.
Even worse, this also means he could neglect a bigger space inside the opponents’ backline.
Another issue is that Neal Maupay's style of play is similar to that of his 20-year-old teammate, Aaron Connolly.
Both forwards seem to have rather similar explosiveness and a tendency to make runs in behind in the final third.
On some occasions, they would occupy the same area or make the same movement, thus making them easily predicted by the defenders.
Despite being deployed as a centre-forward most of the time, Maupay plays on the flank in some matches.
Unfortunately, the numbers prove that the French attacker is not a special dribbler by any means.
So far, Maupay has attempted 2.3 dribbles per 90 league minutes, the sixth-highest in Brighton & Hove Albion.
Yet, he only managed to get 0.8 (34.78%) successful dribbles from those attempts.
Conclusion
Maupay is a good addition for the Seagulls.
His explosiveness and tendency to attack from the blind spot make him a problem for any Premier League team.
The Frenchman has even cemented his place on Brighton’s formation despite his lack of top-flight experience.
Despite all that, the 23-year-old proves he has some weaknesses he needs to work on.
He has a brilliant coach, Graham Potter, at his disposal to help him develop his game.
If he can improve and get double-digit goals next season, he could be the potential target for any big clubs in 2021.
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