Potter reaches new heights as stagnant Wolves hit the wall
Brighton & Hove Albion might have
been tempted to reward themselves
for a fine victory with a trip to the
beach when they returned to the
south coast. Chances are, they would
have found the Wolverhampton
Wanderers players already there.
Bruno Lage’s side look to be in an
end-of-season comfort zone. Three
straight losses without scoring, and
seven defeats in ten, tells the story of
a team who, having started so well,
are now marooned in eighth place —
in no danger of relegation but looking
unlikely to qualify for Europe.By contrast Graham Potter, the
Brighton head coach, is presiding over
an upward trajectory after collecting
11 points from their past six games.
This win took Brighton into the top
half and closed the gap to Wolves
directly above them to five points.
Their points tally of 44 is already
their highest in the Premier League,
with three games still to play.
“At the end of last season we sold
Ben White for £50 million [to
Arsenal] and we’ve managed to
improve,” Potter said. “That’s the
challenge for teams like us. You look
at Wolves — they’ve sold players and
carried on trying to develop. It’s
impossible to think you can keep holdof everybody because the finances of
the league dictate that. But we don’t
have to sell anybody. We can sell at the
right time at the right price, then carry
on trying to improve.”
At Molineux, Brighton’s youthful
side belied their tender years by
dominating Wolves. Marc Cucurella,
23, got forward time and time again
from his left-sided centre-back
position to fashion several crosses.
Another 23-year-old, Alexis Mac
Allister, scored a penalty after missing
one and, after Leandro Trossard made
it 2-0, Yves Bissouma rounded off the
scoring to inflict Wolves’ heaviest
defeat under Lage.
Potter added: “There are youngplayers — Rob Sánchez, Tariq
Lamptey, Alexis, Marc Cucurella and
Moisés Caicedo — who are making
their first steps in the Premier League
in terms of playing in front of a
crowd. They will only get better for
that. It’s exciting.”
Wolves will play a key role in the
title race, as they host Manchester City
on May 11 and then go to Anfield to
face Liverpool on the final day. They
will have to play much better than this
to cause either side a problem.
Lage said he wanted to “feel” a
response from his players, adding: “Not
with words but with good training,
good games. The players need to
understand the way I want to play.”Wolves 0
RATINGS
Wolves (3-5-2): J Sá 7 — W Boly 4, C Coady 4,
R Saïss 4 — N Semedo 5 (Jonny 53 min, 6),
L Dendoncker 5, R Neves 5 (P Neto 46, 5),
J Moutinho 5, R Aït-Nouri 4 — F Silva 5
(R Jiménez 46, 5), Hwang Hee-chan 4. Booked
Coady, Hwang Hee-Chan.
Brighton (3-4-3): R Sánchez 7 — J Veltman 7,
L Dunk 7, M Cucurella 8 — S March 7 (T Lamptey
87), Y Bissouma 7, M Caicedo 7, L Trossard 8
(P Gross 88) — E Mwepu 7 (A Webster 63, 6),
D Welbeck 7, A Mac Allister 7. Booked Cucurella.
Referee S Hooper.
Attendance 31,243.Brighton
Mac Allister 42 (pen), Trossard 70, Bissouma 86^3TIM NASH8 1GG Monday May 2 2022 | the times
thegame
Klopp’s pursuit of
excellence keeps
Milner in bloom
LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
Manchester City and Liverpool are well ahead of their rivals in terms of points
and goal difference Goal
differenceMan
CityMM20 40 60 80500-50PointsArsenalChelseaWolvesBrighton
Newcastle
SouthamptonCrystal Palace
Aston Villa
BrentfordBurnleyLeedsEvertonWatford
NorwichLeicesterTottenhamLiverpoolMan Utd
West HamNewcastle United 0
RATINGS
Newcastle (4-3-3): M Dubravka 8 — E Krafth 6
(J Murphy 85min), F Schär 5 (J Lascelles 61, 6),
D Burn 6, M Targett 7 — B Guimarães 6,
J Shelvey 5, J Willock 5 (C Wood 67, 4) —
M Almirón 5, A Saint-Maximin 6, Joelinton 5.
Booked Joelinton.
Liverpool (4-3-3): Alisson 7 — J Gomez 7,
J Matip 7, V van Dijk 7, A Robertson 8 —
N Keïta 8, J Henderson 7 (Fabinho 69, 6),
J Milner 8 (Thiago 78) — L Díaz 7, D Jota 7,
S Mané 6 (M Salah 69, 7).
Booked Gomez, Jota, Mané.Referee A Marriner.
Attendance 52,281.Liverpool
Keïta 19^1“We’ve been lucky enough to win
one trophy this year [the Carabao Cup]
but if you don’t win anything else it’s
an average season,” Milner said.
It is getting on for 18 years since
Milner made his home debut in a
Newcastle shirt at this stadium. They
were defeated 1-0 that day too, by
Tottenham Hotspur, but the team
contained Alan Shearer, Craig
Bellamy and Laurent Robert. Beside
Milner in midfield were Nicky Butt
and Jermaine Jenas. Eddie Howe’s
side still have a way to go to reach
those standards.
Most of all, they lack firepower,
which made for an easy afternoon for
Joël Matip and Virgil van Dijk and
justified Klopp’s decision to leave out
Mohamed Salah.
Typically, Milner was central to the
game’s most important moment, in
the 19th minute, when he won the
ball off Fabian Schär with a crunching
tackle and began a move that ended
with Naby Keïta playing a one-two
with Diogo Jota, before cutting inside,
shimmying one way and the other,
and firing home the winning goal.
Jamaal Lascelles, the Newcastle
central defender who came on as a
second-half substitute, was asked if
Liverpool are the best team they have
faced this season. “I’d say so, yes,” he
replied. “In the sense they can have
the possession and then spin you in
behind as well.” And their
weaknesses? “There isn’t one.”and the relentless pursuit of
perfection that drives his team-mates.
“You see the mindset, the
relentlessness every day, preparing for
games, the boys who aren’t playing,
the level they train at the day after a
game,” he said. “It’s every three days
now, we recover, we prepare, we go
again for the next game. The attitude
in the dressing room is absolutely
unreal. It starts from the manager.”
There will be more of this now that
Klopp has signed a two-year
extension, last week committing
himself to Liverpool until 2026.
“Yeah, we’re happy. He’s not a bad
manager, is he?” Milner said. “It’s
outstanding, the job he’s done. To be
here from the start when he first
came in and see that process, bit by
bit... the counterpress coming on and
then the quality with the ball. It’s
been one big process.
“The longer he’s here, the better for
the club. The intensity has always
been there but we maintain it now.
You wouldn’t be able to talk about the
competitions we’re still in at this stage
of the season if we hadn’t got a squad
full of strong players.”
Terry McDermott, a member of the
great Liverpool teams of the 1970s,
once said that “last week is f*** all” in
explaining the desire to keep winning
trophies at the club. It is an attitude
that is also built into this team, who
are chasing an unprecedented
Quadruple.In the 78th minute, the number seven
of James Milner was held up by Andy
Madley, the fourth official at St
James’ Park. As Milner made his way
towards the Liverpool dug-out, there
was a bellow to his replacement,
Thiago Alcântara, plus Jürgen Klopp
and anyone else within earshot.
“Come on, let’s see this out!” he
yelled, while high-fiving his manager.
Milner’s team-mates followed the
lead of their remarkable 36-year-old
midfielder, retaining control of a
game in which they were never
threatened, and, in seeing it out,
moved ahead of Manchester City —
albeit briefly — in a race for the title
that now seems about the margins of
excellence as much as anything else.
Shirtless when speaking to the
media after the game, physically it
was easy to see why a man with a
20-year career is still such a key
member of the squad assembled by
Klopp, which some observers rate as
one of the best in English history.
Milner was a teetotal practice-
junkie when he was a Newcastle
player back in the mid-2000s, staying
for hours after training. His longevity
and fitness suggest emphatically that
he has chosen the right path. He
spoke of the process under Klopp to
where Liverpool are now, perhaps one
of the two best teams in the world,
MARTIN HARDY
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James Milner’s 586 Premier
League appearances are the
most by a current player, with
the next most experienced 174
behind (Aaron Lennon, 412)JAMES MILNER